Storage area networks have been - and still - are big thing in business. Over
the past few years organizations have had to find ways to add more and more storage
to their IT environments as new applications come on-line and as new data sources
such as Web storefronts have added massive amounts of potentially valuable data
to be analyzed. As a results, organizations have invested in more and more storage
capability-from larger servers to storage area networks that can connect different
types of storage into a unified data network for use by a wide variety of corporate
applications or users. Because of the continuing need for greater, faster, more
efficient and manageable storage options, business storage solutions are going
to continue to be a big area of investment for organizations over the next five
years.
But it's important to recognize that we're not just going to see this type of
focus and growth in the business sector. We're also going to see it in our homes
and personal lives. Over the next few years, the variety and types of significant
storage devices we use in our personal lives will increase dramatically-from multiple,
different portable storage devices, to ones for use in our cars, to ones connected
to our TV and digital media centers, most households will have a variety of new
storage devices with new features.
And, okay, so we may not exactly see the same thing-storage area homes-happening
in the home that we've seen happen in business-storage area networks-but we
will see a similar growth in the use of different data storage options to serve
and ever-widening array of personal (and home-office) storage needs.
In fact, storage in the home and small office is a incredibly fast-growing
area. Some research estimates say that there's now as much storage in the home
as there is in business. Since 2003 the growth in home storage has actually
outpaced the growth in business storage. Those are two very interesting statistics
that show potential of the role of home storage and digital content management
as consumers dramatically increase their storage capacities. First, they indicate
a massive opportunity for hardware vendors to design, build and market a variety
of personal and small business storage devices for more individual or family
use. Secondly, just like google and other consumer-oriented technologies that
have changed business user expectations, I believe that this upcoming massive
shift in consumer storage devices will also alter business user expectations
on storage.
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Competitive advantage in business depends on the ability to excel in key business processes. Business Process Management (BPM) is typically delivered...
