Enterprise Strategy Group’s Mark Peters and I sat down in Minneapolis today and talked shop. Besides having a cool Oxford-trained English accent, his views on the storage landscape rang true to me:
- The storage system market is out of balance right now, with several “big boys” (IBM, EMC et al) and dozens of “little guys” playing in the same sandbox.
- This is not sustainable, and causing the industry mainstays to make unusually bold moves (witness EMC’s SSD and Mozy forays and IBM’s Diligent and XIV acquisitions)
- Xiotech and Atrato are exciting because they are promising clear, core benefits. “Do you want maintenance-free storage, or storage that requires service visits/costs/risks?”
- Xiotech and Compellent are both based in Minnesota with common management roots, but seem to have staked out two distinct storage solution spaces. More on this in another post.
- “Green” is overhyped. Mostly storage companies mean “energy efficient”, and would do well to be clearer on this.
Keep your eyes peeled for a new blog from Mark. Not too surprising given ESG’s success with Steve’s IT Rants blog. I hope Mark dives in. His unique perspective would benefit many.
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