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Focusing on the future
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that 2009 is going to
be a tough year for our industry. It is a time of paradox,
opportunity and above all change.
By Jon Tate, SNIA Europe UK Committee Chair, IBM.
E UK COMMIT
OP
EUR
To some, change is threatening because they will worry that How will this translate itself into products and/or initiatives for
things can only get worse.To some, change is encouraging 2009? These are some of the hot topics that are likely for 2009:
because they will feel things may get better.To organizations circle6 Cloud Computing
SNIA
that have confidence in themselves and their employees, change circle6Virtualization
is a stimulus because they believe that they can make a circle6 Software as a Service (SaaS)
difference and influence what goes on around them. No matter circle6 Green IT and energy saving
what position you hold, there are exciting possibilities ahead circle6 Solid State Devices
both at a company level and a personal level. circle6 Encryption
circle6 Higher bandwidth requirements
2009 holds the promise of the introduction of exciting new circle6 Data de-duplication, thin provisioning, and archiving
products, technologies, and initiatives, alongside the technologies
and products that we are familiar with today. In 2009 we can All of these will help to fuel the current estimates that storage
expect to see the realization of the “blue sky” thinking. Many capacity is increasing at the rate of 60% per year and there is
companies marketing machines are steaming full ahead with no sign that this can or will slow down. If we were to take
their initiatives that will not only bring success to their Cloud Computing as an example, in its simplest form it consists
respective companies, but that also take into account the of shared computer resources that are virtualized and accessed
environment and the economy. Already within the industry we as a service. Applications would be “deployed in the clouds” to
are starting to see the demand for economically compelling the user. Physically the resources could be in the same location,
solutions that truly deliver on their promises of efficiency, different locations, provided by the company, or provided by an
“green”, but that still afford the same levels of security, resiliency, outside service provider, maybe as pay-on-demand. However, all
availability, and compliance. this would be immaterial to the end user. Of course, this has to
be in line with the normal business demands that are not going
So what might 2009 hold for us in the storage networking to go away.What this will mean is an investment in resources
industry? Well, many of the business drivers such as news across the entire infrastructure.This investment will include
streaming, social networking, and so on, across a range of start- products, training, certifications, management and probably a lot
ups, SMB, and enterprises need to be balanced with the more besides.
increased likelihood of spending freezes, switching to lower cost
alternatives and using fewer suppliers, to name a few. Finding But what does this mean at an individual and professional level?
the correct balance for many companies, while staying at the Now, probably more so than in recent times, it is important for
forefront of technology is going to be tough, that we know.The the individual to maintain social, professional, and technical
arguments for the adoption of a new technology have always networking skills. In this current climate with travel freezes the
had to be persuasive, and in this climate, they have to be even norm, it is often difficult to enjoy the traditional approach of
more so.To use an analogy, the days of going to the face-to-face education. But educational requirements do not go
supermarket and filling the shopping basket with everything and away and as professionals we understand the need to stay
anything are behind us now. Customers are much more current and at the same time maintain our professional
selective and will only take what they need, when they need it. networks.
MAR/APR 09 WWW.SNS-UK.CO.UK
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