With the rise of Flash memory and cloud computing, there have never been more options for managing data storage effectively. Obviously, that’s a very good thing, given the amount of data that needs to be managed.
A new survey of 477 IT professionals conducted by DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization software, finds that the move to embrace new approaches to storage is growing at a slow but steady pace.
Datacore CEO George Teixeira says that despite some of the inherent performance benefits of Flash and the promise of reduced storage costs in the cloud, issues such as the cost of Flash memory and the fact that applications are not optimized for Flash mean that the broad transition to Flash memory has thus far been hampered. As for the cloud, Teixeira says IT organizations are still struggling with any number of compliance and performance issues.
Add the fact that most IT organizations seem predisposed to build their own private cloud and it becomes clear that a large number of cultural and process issues still have to be worked out.
As Flash memory continues to get less expensive, it will change the way primary storage is managed, and the cloud will increasingly be relied on for backup and archiving. What’s not as clear is to what degree storage administrators will lead this charge versus having it forced upon them by developers and senior IT managers.
In either case, for now it looks like these changes will take place at an evolutionary rather revolutionary pace.
