5 June 2002 -- At the first date in IDC's European Storage Roadshow, held in Milan last week, IDC revealed its expectation that the worldwide storage market will reach a value of USD71bn by 2004. Software and services sectors will account for USD9bn and USD24bn, respectively, representing the fastest growing areas of the storage market.
At the two-day event, which attracted more than 300 attendees, IDC analysts and the principal Italian operators of this segment stressed that storage and information management solutions represent not only a technological "must," but also a competitive variable of paramount importance for all kinds of business.
The conference asked the question: "As Fiber Channel begins to make its way into storage environments and iSCSI (small computer systems interface protocol over IP) and infiniband become the hot topics for future interconnects, how do businesses choose between them?"
Zarah Damji, senior research analyst, European Storage Systems, commented, "For the moment we see iSCSI playing a role in small and medium-sized businesses that prefer to stick to known brands. This will push Fiber Channel into the higher end, where performance is more of an issue. Infiniband, on the other hand, will probably remain a server-to-server interconnect, or will be used in clustering environments and direct attached storage."
Storage solutions have a deep impact not only on the corporate IT environment but also on clients' corporate functions of information assets: marketing, sales, administration, and management. Storage will also play a central role in the total cost of ownership in corporate technological infrastructures.
With new developments in storage hardware, software, and networking technologies, it is vital that end users keep abreast of trends. In his presentation Claus Egge, program director, European Storage Expertise Center, IDC, covered the concepts of virtualisation, storage resource management, and networking.
"Storage has become more strategic within end-user organizations," said Egge. "As IT managers become more directly involved in storage issues, it is of vital importance that they know where the different pieces of the storage puzzle fit together and interact."
Further Dates on IDC's Storage Roadshow
- Nordic, June 12, 2002, Radisson SAS Falconer Hotel, Copenhagen
- Germany, June 13, 2002, Hotel Hilton, Frankfurt
- UK, June 18, 2002, London
- France, 25 June,2002, Hotel Lutetia, Paris
- Spain, June 27, 2002, Hotel Ritz, Madrid
For further information:
http://emea.idc.com/getdoc.jhtml?containerId=IDC_P5116