Data storage management guide for the midmarket

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Trends that will change how you buy storage

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[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]

The dwindling cost of data storage hardware is driving vendors to radically change the way they design, sell and deliver storage devices and services. These efforts to recoup what reports cite as a 30% drop in storage prices are driving five major trends that will affect how midmarket organizations purchase and use storage in 2008, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

1. Vendors will offer more high-value services.

Adam Couture, an analyst at the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm, said storage vendors will begin to focus on consulting, project management and managed services, leaving the basic services of fixing broken hardware to channel partners and third-party providers.

   Learn what other trends to expect in "Gartner: Five trends that will change how you buy storage." Also:

• Hardware upgrades fuel 2007 spending (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
  Midmarket firms put a good chunk of their budgets toward new hardware -- mostly network and storage. Next year? Experts predict it'll be blades and virtualization taking up the charge.
• Storage: SMBs need more than cheap hardware (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
  If you're going to buy enterprise-class storage hardware, make sure you've got the resources to manage it.

Gartner warns of misguided strategies

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[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]

LAS VEGAS -- Too many midmarket CIOs look at server virtualization as a means of reducing space, power and cooling demands in the data center. As a result, they could be shortchanging their businesses.

Realizing savings from consolidation is largely a onetime event, said Gartner Inc. vice president Tom Bittman, who spoke Tuesday at the Gartner Data Center Conference.

In fact, if organizations are getting into virtualization just to address power and cooling issues, they might be making a mistake.

   Find out more in "Gartner warns of misguided virtualization strategies." Also:

• Virtualization strategies for SMBs (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
  Virtualization offers numerous advantages for SMBs. Find out what they are with SearchSMB.com's top five virtualization tips.
• Storage virtualization, server virtualization shake hands (SearchStorage.com)
  More data centers are virtualizing storage after implementing VMware for server virtualization.

Big vendors duke it out over SMB storage

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[Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer]

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the behemoths are at your gates, data storage management products in hand. Once a scarce commodity for SMBs, sophisticated storage systems from the industry's brand-name companies are popping up all over. It doesn't matter whether you're a small SMB or a big SMB (what's $1 billion in revenue and 950 employees among family?), Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NetApp and now Dell have good buys for you.

On Monday, Dell Inc. unveiled the MD3000i storage array for SMBs at events in London and San Francisco. Last month, IBM took the wraps off its System Storage DS3300 product for SMBs. Network Appliance Inc. has weighed in with its FAS2020 and FAS2050, storage arrays aimed at midsized companies with $50 million to $500 million in annual revenue and up to 1,000 employees. That makes Hewlett Packard Co.'s StorageWorks All-in-One (AiO) Storage Systems, released last year, practically old news.

What do they have in common? The SMB systems come with storage area network (SAN) arrays that use iSCSI interfaces, so SMBs can connect these systems to their existing local area networks. The new products are touted as cheap alternatives to Fibre Channel, the gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. In fact, easy to use, economical and even -- as in "even SMBs with no IT staff" -- litter the marketing materials.

   Learn more in "Big vendors duke it out over storage for SMBs." Also:

• Report: Midmarket storage pros favor single-vendor strategy (Storage magazine)
  Fueled by capacity expansion and the need for improved data protection, medium-sized companies are predicted to increase their 2008 storage budgets by 10%, according to Forrester Research Inc.
• EMC's Tucci vows to keep up with new features (SearchStorage.com)
  EMC's CEO says storage giant is widening its technology net to match innovations of smaller competitors.

IBM's midrange tape drive a carrot for SMBs

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[Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer]

IBM's campaign to increase storage sales in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) arena inched forward Tuesday, with the announcement of a new midrange tape storage system for SMBs and enhancements to the company's entry-level DS3000 as well as DS4000 disk series.

"IBM is feeling that it could be doing much better in storage for small and medium business, so this is among a number of things that IBM will try to do to really build its presence in this space," said John Webster, principal IT advisor at Illuminata Inc. in Nashua, N.H.

The products announced Tuesday are designed to provide SMBs with flexible storage options at prices that won't break the bank, touts IBM in its release.

   Find out more in "IBM's new midrange tape drive another carrot for SMBs." Also:

• IBM launches drive-based tape encryption for SMBs (eWEEK)
  IBM launches what it claims is the world's first tape library with enterprise-class encryption for SMBs and remote corporate offices.
• Data deduplication technology of growing interest to SMBs (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
  A growing number of space- and cash-strapped SMBs are looking at data deduplication technology as a way of lowering storage costs and increasing server performance.

More resources

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• Resource center: Data storage for the midmarket (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
• Resource center: Enterprise data storage management (SearchCIO.com)
• Website: SearchStorage.com