Growing in tiers
Respondents indicate they're buying an average of 30TB of disk this year, which is 100% more than 24 months ago. With data volumes doubling every 12 to 24 months, this would suggest that growth is outpacing efforts to make more efficient use of storage.

Instead, storage managers are being selective as to which storage they buy. Their largest chunk of capacity buying overall is in the midrange (42%), with high-end storage now accounting for only 23% of purchases. Even in large companies (with more than $1 billion in annual revenue), midrange had a similar 41% of capacity, with high-end storage at 37% (see "Midsized storage is top choice of many shops," this page).

The use of different storage technologies at various but connected levels within the enterprise has taken root and is reflected in a number of significant trends:

• Data protection has moved into a multitier mode, with disk moving increasingly into the short-term backup/restore function and tape assuming the longer term archive and comprehensive disaster recovery functions.



• Networks are becoming multiprotocol, with iSCSI taking on backup and non-critical app traffic.



• File storage increasingly involves the notion of a NAS head or other intelligent device, such as a shared file-system server, that addresses SAN storage.

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