STORAGE ARCHITECTURE/ MASTER: The Adoption of Intelligence in the Fabric

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STORAGE ARCHITECTURE/MASTERThe Adoption of
Intelligence in the Fabric

• End Users Speak Out
• Nancy Hurley
• Senior Analyst
• Enterprise Strategy Group

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Research objectives

• Are end users interested in the prospect of
  network-based storage intelligence?
• Which specific storage services will move to the
  network? When? In what order?
• On what platforms do users want intelligent
  storage network solutions delivered?
• From whom will users buy intelligent storage
  network solutions?

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Research methodology

• Quantitative research
• Online survey conducted in late April/early May
  2004
• Storage professionals and IT managers at US and
  Canadian private and public sector organizations
• To qualify, respondents had to make or influence
  storage networking purchasing decisions
• Two sets of questions One for organizations with
  an intelligent storage network solution, another
  for those without
• 422 total responses
• Final sample 210 qualified surveys (45 with
  intelligent storage network, 165 without)
• Secondary survey 100 qualified surveys (34 with
  intelligent storage network)

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• Qualitative research
• In-depth telephone interviews with storage
  professionals from enterprise and SMB
  organizations
• Mix of users with and without intelligent storage
  network solutions

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Overall findings

• Early adopters see significant benefits
• Cost reductions
• Ease management burden
• Early Adopters intend to move more services into
  the fabric
• General market shows significant interest in
  adoption -- question is, when?

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Profile of early adopters

• Compared to the general market, early adopters
  have
• Higher annual revenue
• Bigger storage budgets
• Higher storage capacities
• More SANs
• More data on the SAN
• Higher SAN port count
• More multi-site SANs

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End user quotes

• The primary reason we went with an intelligent
  storage network solution was that we didnt want
  to be dependent on any one hardware vendor. I
  want the flexibility and economic benefits of a
  heterogeneous infrastructure.

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End user quotes (2)

• To me, intelligence in the fabric revolves
  around virtualizing our storage environment so
  that we can automate everyday storage tasks like
  provisioning. I know that were not getting any
  more headcount so we need to move towards true
  policy-based storage management.

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• Of users that have already implemented an
  intelligent storage network
• 79 have reduced annual storage hardware
  spending (28 of users by 20 or more)
• 72 have reduced annual storage software
  spending (25 of users by 20 or more)
• 72 have reduced annual storage administration
  costs (30 of users by 20 or more)

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• Respondents who have not yet deployed an
  intelligent storage network solution are more
  skeptical
• 48 of those respondents believe their
  organization wouldnt reduce storage hardware
  spending at all.

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Disparity Non-adopters expectations vs. early
adopters results
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Early adopters satisfaction survey
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Early adopter satisfaction

• I think weve saved a tremendous amount of money
  by deploying an intelligent network solution. I
  mean, I could argue that weve reduced our
  storage hardware budget by a factor of 5 or even
  10! Now, I can also deploy Fibre Channel or ATA
  drives that are 5-10 times cheaper, and mix and
  match them throughout our environment depending
  on the class of storage required.

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Moving more into the fabric -- Current planned
network-based storage services Early adopters
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Moving more into the fabric -- Current planned
network-based storage services Early adopters (2)
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General market interest
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When will we see widespread adoption?

• 42 who have not deployed an intelligent storage
  network solution say they are either very
  interested or interested in doing so.
• 6 say they will deploy a solution in the next 12
  months, and another 15 within 24 months. All
  told, 27 already believe they will deploy at
  some point.
• Only 7 of users who dont currently have an
  intelligent storage network solution say they
  wouldnt consider one. 40 would consider one
  even though they have no plans to deploy at this
  time and 26 simply dont know at this time.
• Significant educational opportunity/marketing
  challenge for vendors

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Interest in intelligence in fabric tracks with
early adopter findings
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From whom will users buy?
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Intelligent fabric platform preferences
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End user purchase criteria
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End user platform preferences

• Early Adopters more apt to want services at every
  port
• Non-adopters still need education 39 did not
  have preference vs. 13 early adopters
• Expect users will employ a mix of appliances and
  switches
• Users are open to adopting from startups

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Percent of users familiar with vendors
intelligent solutions

• Cisco (57)
• HP (52)
• IBM (52)
• VERITAS (51)
• EMC (44)
• Brocade (28)

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Conclusions

• Vendors need to educate users on benefits
• Cost savings message NOT coming across
• Still confusion about what intelligence really
  means
• Anybodys market, but switch vendors seem to have
  greater mindshare
• Believe intelligence in the fabric will see
  large-scale adoption in 18-24 months