Reflections: Steve Fitz, EMC
By Staff, ZDNet Asia
Thursday, January 05 2006 06:35 PM

Q. List some of the hottest storage trends or technologies that we can expect to see in 2006.
One, virtualization technologies will be seen in just about every part of IT infrastructure in 2006. Where there is hardware, there is likely to be virtualization.

Steve Fitz, president of EMC Asia-Pacific and Japan, says data management offerings will become more "application-aware", while applications likewise are becoming more "storage-aware".

For example, you could possibility see virtualization and systems management software coming together to enable voice over IP (VoIP) on standard enterprise networks. Expect to see more technologies that enable virtualization within the network which further aggregates pools of storage across several storage arrays, enabling a number of features including reduction of planned downtime for data movement across arrays, volume allocation to meet service level agreements in a tiered storage environment, and data movement in support of an ILM (information lifecycle management) strategy. Virtualization in the network should be out-of-band to enable scalability of the environment without constraint of the IO path.

Two, we expect security measures to be pervasive across the information infrastructure. Security should be approached holistically, including people, facilities, servers, networks, and storage. All possible data threats need to be understood and planned for. Today, most security plans are centered on the host and application, with access rights to the data. ILM and business continuity strategies should encompass security, to ensure that any situation where data is compromised, the data is restorable. We expect to see new technologies addressing this in the upcoming year.

Three, with storage environments becoming increasingly larger and tiered storage being deployed in support of ILM strategies, storage management solutions will feature more intelligence for decision support, automation, and leverage standards such as the Storage Networking Industry Association's Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S). Not only will the tools address physical storage such as capacity, topology, and health, but will encompass data management, policies, and service level objectives. Data management solutions will become more application-aware, while applications likewise are becoming more storage-aware. ILM, compliance, and service level agreements are drivers for having this intelligence and awareness through the computing stack. These tools enable IT departments to serve their business departments and meet business objectives.

Four, directly related to ILM is enterprise content management or ECM. Aside from structured data in databases, there is unstructured data and/or repositories in support of products or projects which include digital text documents, engineering drawings, XML, still images, audio and video files, and others.

ILM will manage:

• All content items--from your desktop to enterprise applications such as customer relationship management, supply chain management, and enterprise portals.
• Workflow and content lifecycle--spanning review, revision and approval processes for any piece of content according to user-defined business rules.
• Multi-channel publishing--allows simultaneous publishing of a single content item via a Web site, e-mail, fax, print, and a handheld wireless device.

We see the rapid increase in the amount of information corporations and individuals need to store continuing for the next several years. Advanced ECM technologies enable information to be tagged, and intelligently move the information to the right storage tier for the right application usage at the right service level. Users will have full control to set the appropriate timing and length of storage, compression, archival and final disposal of their information. Expect 2006 to usher in more intelligent management applications that will include search functions and information policies.

Which emerging technology has the best potential to enter the mainstream in 2006?
I'll have to say iSCSI or IP storage. Why? Because IP Storage encompasses several parts of the storage industry including NAS, iSCSI over IP, and long haul interconnects such as FCIP. On the horizon, both FibreChannel and Ethernet have their roadmaps for speed and bandwidth. In 2006, you are likely to see a greater availability of mainstream iSCSI platforms. IP storage enables IT managers to move from internal or direct-attached storage to a networked environment. Companies who want to consolidate and take advantage of the networked storage platforms and software now have a more cost-effective way to get started. iSCSI is definitely finally ready for prime time.

For years, small and medium-sized businesses have implemented server-based storage solutions--either because these solutions came with the server or because they seemed to be the most cost-effective way to implement storage. Over time, this storage approach created a large, decentralized infrastructure made up of dozens (or sometimes hundreds) of servers and applications spread across an organization. Today, these legacy environments are not only costly to manage and maintain, but also complicated to protect. Although SAN technology would seem an ideal solution for storage needs, in many cases it proves to be too expensive due to the connection cost and learning curve traditionally associated with Fibre Channel networks. However, with the emergence of iSCSI, small and medium businesses now have a cost effective alternative to internal or direct-attached storage--one that builds on the skill sets you have in place today to deliver the benefits of storage consolidation.