From something considered as boring and unimportant in the past,
storage has emerged from the shadows and jumped into the industry
limelight
The history of the last two decades of storage is not just a tale
of increasing capacity and a move towards open storage but provides
a classic example of how a once neglected part of the industry can
step out of the shadows and take the limelight. Once ridiculed as
being the boring bit that nobody wanted to talk about, the
percentage share storage now takes of the IT budget has increased
to levels that make the subject certainly an interesting one for
financial directors.
At the same time, MP3s and digital cameras have provided a strong
home market for storage that has emerged in the last few years in
the form of flash memory devices and a plethora of CD burners.
Storage experts have put away their lab coats, dusted off their
suits and found themselves much in demand, and while there have
been more than a few sea changes in this industry, this has to be
one of the most dramatic.
Other changes include the obvious advances in capacity from bytes
to mega to tera and beyond. The last few years have involved
numerous discussions about network storage as storage area networks
and network attached storage became the products to sell.
One of the more interesting developments, that can be dated back to
CeBit last year, is the emergence of low-end network storage
products that are being sold by dealers. For a long time, the
channel for storage was selected only after extremely tough
accreditations had been met.
But as the market has become more commoditised and the interest and
appeal of selling storage extended, more dealers have been given a
chance to get involved.
For a vast majority of dealers, what is becoming increasingly
interesting is not hardware but software, as virtualisation and
storage management become the buzzwords. With budgets still tight,
customers are turning to the channel to help them get the most out
of the storage they have already bought.
Various analyst surveys have estimated that nearly all firms are
under utilising a third of their storage and the current challenge
is to get the most out of those wasted resources.
The days of firms chucking more storage at a problem might well
have disappeared, but those selling hardware expect the current
round of belt tightening to ease off next year.
Chris Atkins, storage sales specialist for computer systems at Sun,
claims that the next eight months are going to be very hard work as
the enterprise market gears itself up for a return to increasing IT
budgets.
Looking back over the last two decades is about watching the
choices widen. In the 80s, the choices were limited to disk drives
or tape. Optical storage and CDs came near the end of the decade
and were joined in the 90s by hard disks. The noughties added the
choices of network storage.
A personal summary of the last two decades is provided by Mike
Sousa, regional sales director for Central Europe at tape library
specialist Spectra Logic.
"My entrance into this market was about 1982, just about the time
of the first 5.25in disk drive. The 5.25in form factor was a major
step in storage that helped enable both desktop and open systems
computing," he recalls.
"In the mid-80s, the SCSI interface became the dominant
connectivity choice and open systems computing was emerging. The
3.5in form factor emerged once again downsizing the space and power
requirements required for storage. This allowed storage to be
disaggregated from the computing system itself and an emerging set
of companies that could provide storage peripherals for open
systems, freeing the users of these systems to pick and choose best
of breed storage solutions that were not tied to the systems
vendor," he adds.
He believes the late 80s and 90s could be characterised as a period
when storage software specialists emerged to support data
management, backup and archival.
As in other areas of the IT world, the Internet had a serious
impact on the storage market and delivered a great deal of revenue
for anyone lucky enough to get business from the dot com companies
before they imploded.
"This trend continues today and has brought forth the reality that
the user is spending, in some cases, twice as much for their
storage resources as they do for computing resources. This has
driven the growth of companies like EMC, Network Appliance, Hitachi
and Spectra Logic and attracted many of the systems suppliers back
to a focus on storage," adds Sousa.
1981 highlights include Symbios Logic, which later became part of
LSI Logic, co-writing the SCSI industry specifications. A year
later in 1982 it develops the first SCSI protocol chip. Also that
year, Sony introduces the 3.5in (88.9mm) micro floppy. The single
sided version is able to contain 360Kb. Celebrating our own
anniversary, the Maxtor Corporation is founded. For those dealers
with contacts in the broadcasting world, the launch of BSkyB means
there is suddenly more demand for storage. Storage networking
specialist McData is formed and celebrates its 20th anniversary in
style this year making 1 August 'McData Day' in Colorado.
The year 1983 is an interesting one with the launch of the first
disk drive to use the 3.5in form factor from Rodime. It goes on to
become an industry standard. A year later, 1984, and IBM releases
its first thin-film 18-track head in a tape drive and its first
half-inch cartridge, the 3480, which offers one million bits per
square inch with a transfer rate of three million bytes per second.
The move towards the CD-ROM starts with Sony coming up with the
first one. Imation introduces the 3in diskette.
Things are never quiet for long in the storage world and in 1985
Quantum releases Hardcard, a 10.5Mb hard disk mounted on an ISA
expansion card for PCs built without a hard disk. In the same year,
the Compact Disk Read Only memory appears. EMC also started
shipping memory upgrades using 1Mb of RAM. Imation demonstrates its
rewritable optical disk.
Sony is the first to get its name linked with the emerging CD-ROM
technology, making a 650Mb disc available in 1986. The first Voice
Coil Actuator 3.5in Drive also appears thanks to Conner
Peripherals, which launches the CP340.
Connor is busy producing the low-profile 3.5in disk drive, which
uses the standard 1in height. 1998 is also a major year in terms of
storage networking. The channel networking technology begins, which
later becomes known as Fibre Channel. EMC opens a European
manufacturing facility in Ireland. Sony gets all magnetic with the
introduction of its Magnetic Optical technology. One of the major
names in storage software sets up shop as Legato is founded.
After having helped increase the power of HP and IBM machines, EMC
unveils its Orion mainframe storage system in 1989. Sony launches
its Digial Audio Tape (DAT), which it has co-developed with HP.
Another huge name in the storage software world emerges as Veritas
starts trading.
1990 sees LSI Logic deliver its first RAID storage system and the
first drive to use magnetoresistive heads and PRML data decoding
appears. IBM delivers the Redwing, a 857Mb drive. In the world of
the floppy disc, the 20Mb 5.25in discs go on sale in limited
quantities. IBM launches its RAID 1 systems.
There is more RAID to come in 1991 with LSI Logic launching a
multi-node RAID controller and system and assist chip set. The
vendor also finds time to launch a SCSI interface. IBM keeps busy
launching its Pacifica mainframe drive, which uses thin film media
on the platter surface instead of oxide media. Another name from
the past, Integral Peripherals is also making headlines launching
its 1820 hard disk drive with 1.8in platters, which later become
popular in PC-Card disk drives. Toshiba does its bit, increasing
the capacity of the humble 3.5in floppy to 2.88Mb. Dealers selling
5.25in disks find they have become obsolete as a result of the
move. Other developments in this year include the emergence of hard
disk drives with a diameter of 1.8in and a capacity of 20MN and
40MN. They are primarily designated for use in handhelds.
One of the first examples of a 20Mb hard disk comes from HP in 1992
when it releases its 'Kittyhawk'. Imation teams up with IBM to
develop the 3490E cartridge. Meanwhile, Seagate introduces the
7,200rpm disk drive and develops shock-sensing technology for 2.5in
disk drives.
The following year is busy as 1993 includes activity on the RAID
front, with LSI Logic introducing a dual active controller. In the
fibre channel world, Escon, offering switched access to storage
devices, is announced by IBM.
First Fibre Channel disk drive
The delivery by Seagate of the first Fibre Channel disk drive gives
a huge boost in 1994 to the network storage world. Elsewhere, EMC
continues to think big and launches the Symmetrix 5500, a system
offering a terabyte of storage.
The headlines are grabbed by the deal of the year in 1995 as
Seagate buys Connor in a takeover worth $1bn. EMC launches the
Symmetrix 3000, a system that is platform independent.
Anyone hanging around IBM's labs in 1996 is privileged to witness
the vendor set a new world record in magnetic recording, getting
three billion bits, 3Gbit, per square inch.
Big Blue keeps the innovations coming and in 1997 launches a
magnetic hard disk drive with load/unload technology, the
Travelstar. Elsewhere, OpenVision's bank manager gets a happy shock
when Veritas merges with the company to expand its backup and
hierarchical storage management offerings. Also getting some
attention is Sun, which introduces its A5000 system, a
second-generation fibre channel disk array.
Fibre channel, the backbone of a SAN, comes to Europe with the
Fibre Channel Association being set up in 1998. Amacom Technologies
delivers something for users on the move with its Flipback portable
storage device. EMC enjoys reaping more than $1bn worth of revenue
from Europe.
Veritas is busy again in 1999 extending its operations through the
acquisition of the network and storage management group of Seagate
Software. EMC chooses the year of corporate belt tightening to
introduce its Clariion PC4500 systems. Meanwhile, the topic of the
year 2000 elsewhere is all about network storage and the need for a
move to open standards so everything works with everything else.
That debate still continues.
Evidence of further consolidation and the need for hardware vendors
to beef up their software operations is demonstrated in 2001 with
Sun's acquisition of HighGround. The purchase gives Sun a suite of
Web-based management systems that can support a wide range of
storage technologies and applications.
Leading UK distributors
Hammer - Formed in 1991 Hammer specialises in data storage
solutions
CMS Peripherals - Started in 1988, represents 40
vendors
Ideal Hardware - Established in 1987, Ideal was acquired by
Bell Microproducts in 2000
C2000 - Started life in the UK in 1983 as First Software
then changed its name to Frontline Distribution in 1988 before
becoming Computer 2000, owned by Tech Data
Intechnology - Since 1983 it has sold specialist storage
products and services through the channel