Storage virtualisation promises to be the next IT boom, liberating
users from complex data management and taking storage into a new
dimension. huge opportunities here for those who succeed in
capturing this new market
Like all previous generations of information technology, the latest
breakthrough has been undermined by the very people who are
supposed to be selling it. Storage virtualisation has a simple aim
and one that most IT buyers would enthusiastically endorse. It aims
to reduce complexity, represented to end-users by separating the
physical media on which data is stored from the server operating
system. In other words, users don't need to know which device their
information is stored on - the operating system worries about that
- so they can spend less time getting their information and more
time doing their jobs.
This is a simple objective, and one that most people would
understand and applaud, although it doesn't help when the concept
is given a silly name like 'storage virtualisation'. But despite
the confusion that its name will cause, storage virtualisation will
be the next boom area of IT, and IDC predict that the market will
be worth $53 billion by 2004.
An evolutionary process
There are already a number of
key players in this market. First there's the traditional storage
giants like Compaq, Dell, EMC, Hitachi, Network Appliance, Sun and
IBM. Then there's the newer, more specialised players, such as
Veritas, Auspex, Brocade, CacheFlow and Storage Networks.
Since there are several stages of evolution to be addressed in this
market, there are any number of aggressive newcomers that might be
worth considering in the next few years.
Companies will target areas such as multi-protocol switches, SAN
software, iSCSI products, Internet Acceleration and caching and
massively scalable storage systems with their own innovations.
So in the coming years, the storage virtualisation market should
offer plenty of opportunities for picking new vendors, identifying
new markets, creating new services and, most importantly, making
lots of money.
All the major players and the new upstarts, then, are anxiously
trying to devise strategies for this important new market. It will
be imperative that they send out clear, unambiguous messages about
their plans for helping users to improve their IT storage
management systems by many degrees. Let's hope they do this more
effectively than whoever it was that came up with the name for this
new concept.
Which direction?
Some degree of respectability will be
established when the first referenced customers of storage
virtualisation begin to emerge at the end of 2002. Even then, there
will continue to be doubts over the future direction of this
technology.
As ever, there seems to be two schools of thought over the
direction of storage virtualisation. Some insist that software
companies will be well placed if they can promote the concept of
interoperability with, and independent from, third party hardware.
They will be regarded as translators, providing the openness and
flexibility that affords users choice over their hardware
suppliers.
On the other hand, there are those who insist that, being purely
practical, storage virtualisation will only ever be accomplished by
using a single vendor, and that ultimately the company that will
win in this market will be the one that offers the complete range
of hardware and software. The resellers that will profit the most
will be those that back the vendor most likely to triumph.
In other words, openness is something all vendors will pay lip
service to (just as the networking vendors did) but the vendors
that triumph (as Cisco did) will be those that can assimilate the
most complete spectrum of products, so buyers only have to go to
one source.
Before then, there are the usual standards hurdles to be cleared.
So obviously there are a lot of challenges that have to be met
before resellers can start issuing their huge corporate clients
with invoices for services rendered around storage virtualisation -
it could be years before the market takes off.
Help for resellers
It's too early to say how the
storage evolution market will evolve, but it's illuminating to
examine which types of resellers the major players are looking to
attract.
Bob Iacono, marketing vice president at Auspex Systems, admits
there's not too much evidence of a market at the moment. "All the
evidence is anecdotal to date," he says. "Lots of hype, lots of
different definitions. Most users don't understand what it will do
for them. The pioneers in the space, FalconStor and DataCore, don't
have much revenue as of yet, although they are attracting early
partnerships."
In the meantime, Auspex is planning to expand its market by
recruiting resellers. Iacono anticipates that the large Unix/SAN
resellers will be the ones that are most immediately appealing.
This is because they have the ability to integrate with existing
solutions and to install to a customer's benefit, he argues.
But why should resellers commit to selling a technology that's
clearly not mature? There are too many conflicting ideas about
standards, and many of the different vendors have different
definitions of what storage virtualisation is. So what is Auspex
doing to ease them into this market?
"The resellers want some market pull and the ability to make a
profit," says Iacono. "At the moment neither are there. From there
they will require system administration tools for ease of
configuration and management. They will look for standards to
install across a variety of platforms. We do offer co-op moneys.
We're planning on doing a couple of major storage focused shows in
Q1 and Q2, with the major theme being SAN/NAS cohabitation and
interoperability."
Adapting to virtualisation
While Auspex might represent
the views of the recent entrants to the storage business, it is
worth considering the traditionalists. Tandberg Data, for example,
has a legacy of helping businesses manage their information. Sales
manager Steve Smith says that as tape drive applications become
more complex and automated, resellers in this space will be able to
gear up to offer storage virtualisation.
"We're addressing the market by looking for resellers who
understand the tape storage market and the various new applications
for on-line, near-line and off-line tape storage," says Smith. "The
tape storage market is evolving into a new era. It's no longer
about backup."
He adds that the most important consideration in this market at the
moment is not so much the vendor's background (it's too early to
judge which standards will come out on top) but the level of
assistance that the vendor offers. "The highest priority at the
moment is sales and technical training, closely followed by sales
leads and co-op marketing," he explains. "We can provide all of
those and can demonstrate the potential to add incremental business
and a basic knowledge of the tape market."
Explaining the concept
Glenn Hintze, storage business
development manager at IBM, also argues that the companies that
have been around in the storage market for longest are best adapted
to meet the needs of virtualisation. "The idea of virtualising
resources in computer system design is an old one; we have had
virtual memory, virtual systems and virtual devices of all kinds
for years," says Hintze.
"In fact, we have had several types of virtual storage for some
time. To understand what is new in this area, we need to explain
the basic concept of virtual storage, how storage networking
systems use storage and the opportunities to improve these systems
with virtual storage."
The basic concept of virtualisation is a simple one, he says.
Hardware and software interfaces are defined to allow various
components to be assembled into a working system. Once interfaces
to a component have become set, designers are strongly motivated to
preserve them as they improve the component.
Often designers will produce a new version of the component that
preserves the external interfaces but is totally different in
implementation. This new version, that closely mimics the interface
behaviour, presents a view of an idealised component, a virtual
component, that isn't really there.
"Sometimes the advantage of the virtual device is so compelling
that the virtual device becomes the standard for system design,"
says Hintze. "Virtual storage is collections of disk images or file
systems that are presented to applications or middleware, but are
re-mapped in some significant way before data reaches physical
storage."
In the meantime, there's plenty of scope for resellers to make
money - as long as they don't make the mistake of giving their
consultancy away free in lieu of making margins on sales.
Mel Taylor, marketing director at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, says
there's plenty of areas to make money. "The revenue at the moment
comes from technical integration," he says.
"Get the virtual storage system into your own portfolio and
business proposition. Then you should offer professional services,
like design and implementation." The most important consideration
is that storage virtualisation is mainly based on SANs, so these
skills should be acquired as a foundation, concludes Taylor.
Not so simple
The first virtualisation products are
gradually coming on the market now. Despite all the aggressive
newcomers in this market, a lot of analysts seem to think the
established players have the easier task in capturing this market.
After all, it's a lot easier to adapt an established product
portfolio for existing customers than to go out and establish a new
customer base.
Compaq is aggressively pursuing a SAN Systems Integrator programme
to attract more resellers into its fold, and feedback from
resellers is generally favourable.
"It's an uncertain market, so we'd much rather go with an
established player than some new unknown prospect," says one
reseller. "In the current economic climate, it's a good bet they'll
go under or get bought."
Not an argument that Geoff Barrall, founder and CTO of BlueArc, one
of the new storage specialists, would agree with. "Virtualisation
means something different to everyone," he says. "Broadly, it can
be defined as any technology that makes something look simpler than
it actually is."
If only there was a way of simplifying the challenge for some of
the start-ups. The stance on the storage virtualisation market is
that established players will see off the challenge from newcomers.
And these are probably the vendors resellers should be getting into
bed with.