The enterprise storage market is fast evolving from just being an inactive repository of application data to helping enterprises run more efficiently in real time.
The rising deployment of business intelligence, online transaction processing, straight-through processing and other transaction-intensive applications such as decision support systems and Microsoft server exchange is putting a premium on rapid information transfer, access and retrieval.
The storage industry players are increasingly addressing challenges faced by end users and realising that server storage consolidation as well as reducing data centre space are priorities at the enterprise level.
Gartner in its recent report stated that space and power are increasingly regarded as corporate assets that must be managed and preserved, and "more and more users are demanding that servers and storage systems take up less physical space and consume less power."
Recognising these requirements, the enterprise storage industry has been working together toward shifting from the standard 3.5-inch disc drive platform to a new 2.5-inch standard.
Seagate, which, according to IDC, controls around 60 per cent market share of the storage market globally, has announced its foray into this segment through the Savvio - a 2.5 inch enterprise-class disc drive.
According to Seagate, these new drives enable a new category of high density storage solutions designed to provide space-constrained data centres with higher performance in small form and the highest levels of reliability.
Said Sharad Shrivastava, Country Manager for Seagate in India: "This new drive provides design flexibility in creating higher-density, smaller form factor servers and modular storage arrays that are gaining ground in the enterprise segment. Customers are continually demanding higher levels of density and performance. The trend is more visible outside India, though we are seeing the beginning of the demand cycle in India."
Hitachi Data Systems, on the other hand, is more focused on building an ecosystem for storage area management. P P Subramanian, country manager - India, Hitachi Data Systems, said: "Companies are investing for profitable growth. They want storage solutions that will simultaneously support future expansion and lower operational cost. There is also a need to solve specific business issues, such as transparent corporate governance. Management of heterogeneous storage environments, compliance with new and emerging data retention legislation and management of corporate e-mail and business continuity to avoid downtime and ensure recovery from disasters are some of the issues we are focusing on," Subramaniam said.
Transactional applications typically utilise less capacity than data warehousing applications. Talking about Seagate's new offering, Shrivastava said: "Savvio 2.5 inch, 10,000 rpm disc drives offer a number of advantages over 10,000 rmp 3.5-inch drives including - 70 per cent small size, weighs 1.12 lbs less, importantly consumes 40 per cent less power, is 15 per cent faster in drive seek time, has more interface option and is more reliable which translates into system level benefits. These drives will be available in providing 36GB and 73 GB capacities, which are industry's required capacities that meet the majority of enterprise capacity requirements."
Subramanian added: "Our storage area management suite demonstrates consistent quality of service and inventory features for multi-vendor storage area networks. These features address the challenges faced by many organisations in managing a patchwork of multi-vendor point solutions. The ability to maintain and manage the entire storage area network from a single and consistent application delivers significant operational savings, in terms of both capital and labour."
