CDP. Some startup companies are still trying to gain traction, but the technology is being incorporated into mainstream products, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Data Protection Manager (DPM) for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Storage Server 2003. We may have been a bit ahead of the adoption curve on our prediction that CDP would be hot in 2005.
Intelligent Switches. Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and McData Corp. now offer switches capable of running sophisticated virtualization software or incorporating blades dedicated to virtualization and data migration.
NAS Accelerators. Boasting 17% growth last year, according to research firm IDC, and more than doubling the growth rate of storage systems, NAS was hot. We expect this trend to continue.
Storage Encryption. Last year we said encryption would be hot, although we felt it might be a hard sell. But high-profile security slip-ups have propelled encryption to the top of everyone's must-have list.
Virtualization. Every major storage vendor enhanced or introduced storage virtualization products in 2005, making it the year when virtualization hype turned into real, deployable products. But because virtualization technologies have the potential to lock users into specific vendors' products, users are implementing virtualization slowly and cautiously. | 
