No. 1 -- Lines blur between SAN and NAS; competition,
partnerships intensifyNo less than the two most fundamental categories in storage,
storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) have
come together in 2006. Network Appliance Inc. (NetApp) gave the
trend a boost when it announced its FAS6000 series in May, and sure
enough, bitter rivals EMC Corp.and NetApp were duking it out in the
midrange SAN market as well by November.
Big vendors, including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Microsoft and Dell
Inc., targeted small and midsized business (SMB) users with
combination SAN/NAS systems, touted for their all-in-one
management. And where competition didn't heat up, "coopetition" got
a boost as block-based giants, most notably Hitachi Data Systems
(HDS), hooked up with NAS vendors to bundle file-system access into
their storage offerings.
SAN, NAS converge with new NetApp
releasesEMC and NetApp duke it out in the
midrangeHP low-end appliance starts at $5KDell, Microsoft tout joint NAS productHDS wins enterprise NASHDS shakes up field sales, looks to acquire
BlueArcIBM, NetApp get cozier with NAS
gatewayHitachi, BlueArc announce OEM partnershipNo. 2 -- ISCSI works its way into critical systems
The year began with a battleground between Fibre Channel (FC)
and iSCSI, as users began to contemplate deploying IP storage. As
the weeks went on, more and more case studies of iSCSI in high
places -- disaster recovery plans, production systems and tiered
storage architecture -- began to surface. By the fall, thanks to
boosts from InfiniBand connections and high-powered servers, iSCSI
even popped up where all the experts said it would never be: as the
primary storage for production databases in some surprisingly large
environments.
ISCSI competition heats up
Battle brews between iSCSI and FC
Financial group ditches FC SAN for
iSCSI
UMich says IP SAN not just about cost
Commerce Bank rolls out iSCSI DR SAN
School upgrades with iSCSI SAN
MIT demos 1 PB IP SAN
ISCSI gets a boost from InfiniBand
ISCSI gains strength from servers
Production databases find a home on IP
SANs
No. 3 -- Users conquer tiered storage
It took quite a while for tiered storage to go from vendor hype
to reality, and even longer for users to apply tiered storage in
the real world once "Information Lifecycle Managaement" (ILM) went
from buzzword to so 2005. Though there were some bumps in
the road, users who had struggled mightily with tiered storage and
data migration finally found new and creative ways to implement it,
and most importantly, finally began to extract value from the
storage management method. Helping this trend was the advent of
automated tiering within boxes from Compellent Technologies Inc.,
Pillar Data Systems Inc. and others in the midrange market.
Users come to grips with tiered
storage
Users get mixed results tiering
storage
Media firm consolidates EMC and NetApp into
Pillar box
Tiered storage shifts focus away from
disk
Compellent users try tiered storage
automation
Tiered storage becoming tried and true
Turner Broadcast chases audience with tiered
storage
No. 4 -- Disk-to-disk backup becomes mainstream; dedupe all
the rage
It doesn't get much hotter than the virtual tape library (VTL)
was last year. In 2006, however, disk as disk grew in appeal as
backup software vendors adjusted their interfaces, and users
encountered downsides to some VTLs, including inefficient use of
space and difficulty managing writes to tape.
Concurrently, disk-to-disk backup got a boost from deduplication
technology, which could prove one of the hottest technologies of
2007 and beyond as users see the benefit of disk-based backup and
archiving but begin to worry about storage growth, power and
cooling.
Law firm ditches tape as primary
backup
NYC sanitation dept. taps Microsoft for cleaner
backup
VTLs are on the way out, experts say
Data Domain launches dedupe array
EMC drops $165M on dedupe firm Avamar
Users add disk to backup at low cost
Symantec fires a shot across the bow of
VTLs
Pharmaceutical firm puts Pillar's QoS to the
test
Data Domain pushes on with
deduplication
Defense agency hooks up 384 TB of disk
backup
No. 5 -- Remote/branch offices become a concern
As storage grows everywhere, companies soon had to deal with the
data explosion at previously modest remote sites and branch
offices. The trend in 2006 was toward consolidation of data from
far-flung satellite locations into the main enterprise data center
for better management, compliance with regulations, security and
overall consolidation. In order to achieve this, but still serve
applications effectively to workers outside company headquarters,
WAFS and WAN optimization technologies became the hottest
technologies of the year.
Electronic Arts slashes costs with WAN
optimization
Cisco sheds light on WAFS plans
Drug company fights fire with WAFS
Symantec rethinks remote office backup
3PAR adds midrange array for secondary
sites
Users mull over Brocade's WAFS options
Riverbed update offers users more bandwidth,
better reporting
Revamped Cisco WAFS worth the wait, users
say
Compellent adds WAN optimization to array
software
Ricoh tests Riverbed to repair remote office
backup
No. 6 -- Archiving, e-discovery and compliance are top of
mind
The U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) had the healthcare sector scrambling to catch up to its
peers in other industries when it came to IT in general and storage
in particular. Vendors splurged on expanding product lines to
include records retention and archiving, and the news of new
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which included an intriguing new
provision for e-discovery, sent an unprecedented frenzy of
marketing and legalese flying around the storage industry.
Healthcare users struggle with HIPAA
Symantec buys IM archiver, IMLogic
Morgan Stanley feels email archiving
pain
Email storage outsourcing gets mixed
reaction
Medical imaging firm picks Plasmon over
EMC
Healthcare plays catch-up
CA buys MDY for records retention
management
Symantec taps Dell to fix email archiving
support
Updated record retention laws cause
groans
Hedge funds snub SEC email archiving
rule
Xiotech resurfaces with compliance
focus
Users wary of Rule 37(f) data retention
'loophole'
EMC introduces data classification for
files
Zantaz buys data classification partner
Singlecast
No. 7-- Clustered systems make a play for mainstream
NAS
Between its convergence with SAN and the many innovations that
2006 saw hit the mainstream, NAS underwent the biggest shift in the
market this year -- as a concept as well as a product. As storage
grows and performance demands remain high, clustered NAS systems
have made their way from the labs of major research universities
and NASA to the mainstream enterprise -- a trend analysts say will
only continue.
Get ready for universal grid storage
Clustering newcomer shakes up scene
MySpace branches out with Isilon
Clustered storage wins mainstream fans
Clustered storage will win
Isilon adds snapshots, makes play for mainstream
NAS
High-end clustering users contemplate
snapshots
No. 8 -- File virtualization heats up
Another answer to NAS challenges is to add a virtualization
layer on top of separate file-system boxes to simplify management
as well as migration. It's another new face of NAS that heated up
in the second half of 2006. This could be an even bigger story by
this time next year.
Brocade spreads its wings, acquires
NuView
Brocade sheds light on NuView plans
Select Comfort fixes manual data migration
woes
File virtualization tops hot technology
index
EMC updates Rainfinity file
virtualization
No. 9 -- A flurry of storage IPOs
As recently as last year, when industry consolidation began
reshaping the competitive landscape among storage vendors, the
chief "exit strategy" for storage startups was to be bought by
another company. But 2006 saw a sea change in that phenomenon,
which was twofold: First, startups began to shake up the status
quo, challenging big vendors in some big accounts; and second,
building on that strength, the most successful of the bunch,
including Isilon Systems Inc., Double-Take Software Inc., CommVault
Systems Inc. and Riverbed Technology Inc., filed for initial public
offerings (IPO). Since going public, Riverbed stock has done
especially well, zooming from an initial price of $9.75 in
September to hover around $35 per share by the end of the year.
McData OEMs Riverbed, propels it toward
IPO
Storage Clips: CommVault files for IPO
Storage startups gain users' trust
Little guys with big chops
Storage IPOs bode well for competition
Riverbed strikes it rich in first day of
trading
No. 10 -- M&A activity at a fever pitch
For the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) stories of 2006,
see our
Top 10 storage acquisitions of 2006
roundup.