Virtualization
If you've been holding your breath waiting for storage virtualization to take off, get a grip and keep holding. We do see some year-over-year increases, with 26% of respondents virtualizing some or all of their block storage vs. 21% a year ago. But 67% say they have no plans to purchase storage virtualization products in 2008, which is approximately the same figure we've seen for the last year and a half.

"Right now it's not something that's a big item for us," says Clemons, whose hands are full with a number of other projects.

Among those taking the virtualization plunge, no method has emerged as the favorite; roughly 12% say they'll opt for array-based virtualization and approximately the same number will go the appliance route.

On the file storage virtualization front, there's a slight increase in interest, with 11% expecting to go in that direction. It's still a relatively modest number, but about twice that of two years ago.

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Click here for a listing of
top 5 companies (PDF).

On the horizon
As noted, dedupe is still the leading interest-getter among newer technologies; data encryption ranked second with 62% saying they'll implement or evaluate it this year. More than half of our respondents still don't use any form of tape encryption, but apparently a good number of them expect to remedy that situation.

At the other end of the spectrum, a few technologies appear to have worn out their welcomes or not lived up to expectations. A whopping 70% say they'll pass on automated provisioning products, with only slightly fewer eschewing storage chargeback systems.

A tough economy coupled with growing capacity needs can put a crimp in users' plans to evaluate or implement new technologies. We'll have to see how the economic and capacity issues play out over the rest of this year and into 2009 when we survey next spring.

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