Guest Column: 2009 Demands Shifts In Storage Behavior And Adoption Of Next Generation Technologies

By Jered Floyd, CTO of Permabit

With a grim economic outlook for 2009, IT managers must continue to pay special attention to budget. Any opportunity to cut back on expenses while still deploying the necessary technology to meet the growing demands of data management will be welcome relief for IT managers struggling to keep fledgling departments afloat. Data storage needs certainly have not been exempt from this, and in fact, may be at the center of the IT storm. We took a closer look at what we expect to see from the storage industry in 2009 and, based on our research, have identified five predictions that outline the fundamental shifts in industry behavior we expect to see over the next nine to 12 months.

Now more than ever, it's important for companies to take a closer look at their data storage expenses and evaluate new technologies that can save them money today, but that still meet and, for future expansion, exceed their data storage needs. These new technologies not only provide the cost savings needed to get companies through the rough patches of today's economy, but they are a safe investment for tomorrow. In order to change the way companies store data on next generation disk drives, the industry can no longer rely on RAID as an effective data protection mechanism. Enterprises must deploy next generation protection technologies in order to provide the level of reliability and accessibility that will be needed for long-term storage of information.