The document discusses the current challenges and trends in data storage and virtualization, emphasizing the need for businesses to manage growing data volumes effectively while reducing costs and improving agility. Organizations face issues with managing both useful and superfluous information, and many are adopting virtualization, although the drivers and benefits are not universally understood. The necessity for effective information management and access, combined with changing infrastructure needs, highlights the importance of flexible and tiered service approaches to storage solutions.

1. Tony Lock Freeform Dynamics Ltd [email_address] July 2008 www.freeformdynamics.com The Joy Of Bits The Storage Landscape Today and Tomorrow

2. Challenges in Storage IT Trends Virtualisation Management The Future Summary and Questions

3. Today, business want to… Reduce costs Reduce time to market / Leverage existing investments Rationalise infrastructure / Reduce power consumption Increase agility information on demand / Streamlining communications Support business initiatives quickly & effectively Proactive versus reactive Manage risk Legal & regulatory / Security and privacy Information & IT / Continuity / resilience / Protect brand Be good corporate citizens Governance / External obligations / Internal improvement

4. Storage Trends Rapidly increasing volumes of data being generated Applications Data Base / Structured Material E-Mail / Unstructured Data Social Site Usage growing rapidly Facebook / MySpace / Schoolbank Digital Images Proactive versus reactive Managing storage growth is a major challenge Data held for long time periods Archive / Destroyed at EOL Heterogeneous Platforms Search / Retrieval

6. Social Networking

8. To what degree are the following used in your data centres and how is this changing?

10. Challenges in Storage IT Trends Today Virtualisation Management The Future of Storage Summary and Questions

11. In your own mind, how clear is the rationale for adopting Virtualization? (250-4999 employees) The arguments for Storage and Desktop virtualization are less well developed or understood

12. How much has your organisation adopted Virtualization in the following areas? (<250 employees)

13. Which of the following do you regard as significant drivers for implementing Virtualization - For Virtualized storage? (>5000 employees) Direct “cost reduction“ is not seen to be the most significant driver, unlike in most other areas of IT. Again this is true across all sizes of organization

14. Has virtualization had an effect on your hardware acquisition strategy? Virtualization is changing spending plans

15. Challenges in Storage IT Trends Today Virtualisation Management The Future of Storage Summary and Questions

16. Storage Management Challenges Managing growth Over half of organisations with >50 employees say managing the growth of “genuinely useful” and “superfluous” information is a burden Where to store it? / What protection does it need? How long should it be kept on line or archived? How to find information rapidly when required? Storage Management tools are hard to use Around half of organisations use more than one tool Skills are difficult to obtain / maintain Functionality is incomplete Managing storage in virtualised environments is even harder

17. Would you say that your organisation places the right level of importance on the 'management of IT'? ANALYST COMMENTS The biggest problem is obviously finding time to work on improvement initiatives. Even though we know that investment in tools and/or training will free up time, this is one of those classic chicken-and-egg situations. But in the question of investment, finding additional budget is always a challenge.

18. Level of burden associated with managing the growth / storage of genuinely useful corporate information ANALYST COMMENTS Over half of organisations over 50 employees have issues here.

19. How much impact on management and support processes do you see from the move to the use of virtualized storage systems?

20. How well do you think vendors support heterogeneous virtualized storage?

21. Challenges in Storage IT Trends Today Virtualisation Management The Future of Storage Summary and Questions

22. Virtualised Computing ILM and Power Costs visible as never before Media Servers Information Access – At All Times, and Fast with little / no IT intervention Information Access – At All Times, and Fast with little / no IT intervention Presentation Layer Processing Layer Data Management Layer Web Servers Portal Server Msging Servers Security Server Dir. Servers ID Server Proxy Server App Servers Integr’n Servers Trans’n Servers File Servers Database Servers Access Devices Access Devices Access Devices Security & Access Management Application & System Management Data Management Web Servers Portal Server Msging Servers Security Server Dir. Servers ID Server Proxy Server App Servers Integr’n Servers Trans’n Servers File Servers Database Servers Access Devices Access Devices Access Devices Security & Access Management Application & System Management Data Management

23. Virtualisation = Flexibility Networks, Storage, Servers Applications – Web Services / OOA Users – Access Infrastructure / Thin Clients / Browsers / Portals All costs will become highly visible Power, People, Media, Access Service Management / Charge Back Effective Management is Essential Tiered Service / Tiered Storage will become the norm Access to information at all times, from all locations, from the entire history of the organisation Future Infrastructure

24. iSCSI usage is growing Slow start Initial “lack of understanding” Now being deployed, frequently under the covers Good fit for mid-market and SMB organisations Price Functionality Understanding of IP networking Workloads match capabilities Will spread into Enterprise Branch office Edge of network Service Providers IP Storage?

25. Challenges in Storage IT Trends Today Virtualisation Management The Future of Storage Summary and Questions

26. Virtualisation = Reality From ‘data storage’ to ‘information management’ Service Management / Charge Back Effective Management is Essential Need for more capable classification & discovery processes Tiered Service is happening – ILM to manage data in relation to its “business value” not just its age Archive and Backup are both required Access to information at all times, from all locations, from the entire history of the organisation Again, costs are becoming more visible Power, People, Media, Access Archive functionality will grow in importance, rapidly Summary