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| Bishop and Associates has just released comprehensive eleven-chapter report analyzing connectors for the data storage market. This study focuses on the types of storage systems and the strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities of each, while identifying the applications for which each is most appropriate. The connectors for the various storage systems are reviewed and the market for each evaluated with a detailed analysis of trends. A forecast for each connector is provided to support the market situation. The Market The Storage Market continues to heat up in terms of activity. IBM just announced a major new initiative that seeks to establish them as the number 1 supplier of external storage resources. IBM is now third with the number one position currently held by EMC with HP in the number two slot. IBM's latest products cut the price of storage by as much as half. IBM is also driving down the size of the units as well. In many respects, the storage industry is following the path of the server industry. Once, mainframes and expensive servers dominated servers with proprietary operating systems from IBM, Sun, HP and others. Today, entry-level servers running Windows or Linux make up the bulk of the volume and PC OEMs like Dell, Gateway, and HP play a major role. In today's low cost server, the cost of the host bus adapter (HBA) to interface the server to the storage area network (SAN) is often as expensive as the server. That is changing with Dell and other PC OEMs providing low cost storage devices using Windows or Linux. The trend is identical to servers, with low cost storage systems poised to take the bulk of the business. Storage Needs Grow The market for storage continues to expand in the enterprise because so much of the mission critical data is stored electronically; backups are essential to organizations of any size. Not only is there a requirement to back up information onto corporate servers; but also onto a remote, off site location in case of fire or other disaster. Laptops are a source of concern and another area of need for back up, as they are subject to loss or theft. Massive amounts of data on laptops are not backed up. One would assume start-ups and small businesses would be most at risk but large companies have experienced similar disruptions. New Technologies Offer Alternatives Fibre Channel based SANs (Storage Area Networks) were once projected to permeate the storage landscapes of all businesses; but, because of cost, have remained a technology mostly relegated to large companies. The emergence of iSCSI, a SAN technology using low cost Ethernet components, holds the possibility of delivering on the promise of SANs for small and midsize companies in the future. The ramification of the shift to iSCSI is that the unique I/O connectors for FC will give way to the commodity Ethernet connectors. Many analysts and observers are saying that most large companies now have SANs in place and that the market for growth in SANs is with the SMB. The large storage OEMs like EMC and HP are each fielding low cost storage platforms to address the SMB market, spurred along by Dell's entry into that space. The emergence of Serial ATA (the I/O connecting technology for low cost PC drives) promises to have impact on the enterprise in the coming years, with most analysts showing all growth going to that technology. Of course, for the storage on the PC, SATA has already begun to capture that market and will have done so by 2007. Connector Industry Realities The storage market expansion will result in increased hardware unit numbers, but not in direct proportion to the increase in "number of bytes" of storage. Disk drives and most low cost systems will be made in Asia Pacific. The move to SATA and SAS as well as the emergence of iSCSI will concentrate much of the storage connector opportunity in the low end, commodity arena. Standards will continue to play a major role in the storage industry connector market. The transition from ATA to SATA and from SCSI to SAS will occur quickly, requiring the companies providing those connectors to the market to move to the new serial offerings or exit the business. Opportunities to sell backplane connectors into the storage market will expand as blade servers become dominant in the enterprise market. |
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