Posted by : trraju on Oct 25, 2003 - 01:06 AM General

THE ever-increasing levels of data within enterprise-level companies is beginning to invoke a new need for fresh solutions in storage management, says Graham Penn, director of storage research at International Data Corp (IDC).
Penn believes that the future of storage management relies on companies moving towards a flexible information technology infrastructure that links disparate islands of point applications within a flexible IT infrastructure that is geared towards an integration of business processes.

The challenge of maintaining the integrity of data while maintaining business continuity and security levels is a daunting task in this competitive modern-day commercial environment.

Penn indicates that most large companies locally are experiencing complications that relate to back-up efficiency, reliability and anti- disaster measures. He cites the unpredictable nature of storage demand such as cost reductions and staff shortages as major hindrances towards realising truly efficient storage management.

According to an IDC survey, the ever-rising deluge of e-mail within large local corporations is also cited as a major driver of data growth in storage management.

Penn says the storage management market will experience a compound annual growth rate of 51.5 per cent from 2002 to 2007. Other compelling market drivers include filing, data mining, networking and Web applications - factors that are making the lives of chief information officers (CIOs) a little more complicated.

Penn's advice to these troubled CIOs is to purchase storage space incrementally, and deploy more modular storage solutions. He says this approach will contribute towards a "pooling" of storage resources.

Ultimately, the automation of onerous management tasks will contribute towards a sharing of information and focus on building revenue generation strategies, he explains.