Digital Lifescapes

The exponential growth of data within the typical enterprise presents a huge challenge for CIOs that must seek new ways to fund and deploy comprehensive storage solutions. Enterprise IT organizations are embracing a range of Flash-optimized architectures as they continue to transform their storage infrastructures, according to the latest market study by 451 Research. Overall, almost 90 percent of these organizations now have some form of Flash-based storage installed in their data centers, while "all Flash" approaches are becoming increasingly standard to support transactional applications. Meanwhile, more enterprise IT leaders are assessing the merits of creating an optimal hybrid storage solution, where object storage platforms are deployed for warm or cold data in active archive applications. These lower-cost solutions can free-up IT budget that was otherwise allocated for legacy SAN and NAS upgrades. Quest for Unified Storage Transformation "Organizations of ...

The market for computer server disk storage systems has had its ups and downs. The current downward trend is partly due to the effective use of virtualization software and the adoption of public cloud computing services -- whereby, the resulting IT operational efficiency has the effect of reducing hardware demand. Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell -5.2% year over year to $5.6 billion during the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14), according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated $7.3 billion in revenue, representing a decrease of -6.9 percent from the prior year's first quarter and a sequential decline of -17 percent compared to the seasonally stronger 4Q13. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped was 9.9 exabytes, growing just 19.9 percent year over year. "The poor results of the first quarter were driven by several fac...

Today there are many ways to create and share digital multimedia content. Beyond the usual digital camera or camcorder format, visual content can easily be authored and edited on notebook PCs, on media tablets and even on smartphones. Using the latest software or mobile apps, the users of these devices that are equipped with visual capture capabilities are producing HD images and video content that must be stored or archived somewhere. From a historical context, when the number of web-enabled devices in the home was minimal, consumer networked-attached storage (NAS) offered very little value. Free or low-cost online media storage has become the preferred solution for many. However, as the number of portable consumer electronics (CE) and computing devices in the home explodes over the next few years, the need and use for in-home network-attached centralized storage will become more practical for one reason: multimedia content access. According to the latest market study by I...

The number of portable consumer electronics (CE) and computing devices in the home has grown over the last couple of years, with each new device creating more digital media content that ultimately must be stored and archived someplace. Given this backdrop, the need and use for centralized Network Attached Storage (NAS) will become more practical for one reason -- content access. In a digital home network with multiple computing devices, sharing common storage, content access and media sharing becomes a key component of driving consumer value. In-Stat says that, based upon the findings of their latest market study, they believe that this will push worldwide consumer NAS unit shipments past 11 million in 2015. "The concept of centralized storage was originally developed for businesses where access to corporate information through a network connected to multiple devices provided a number of competitive advantages," says Norm Bogen, VP Research at In-Stat. This context, ...

Infonetics Research released its latest quarterly home networking devices market forecast -- which tracks, ranks, and analyzes vendors that make residential gateways, broadband routers, powerline adapters, coax-Ethernet adapters, and home network attached storage (NAS). Sales of home networking devices grew 11 percent in 2010, to $5.15 billion, on the heels of a 46 percent jump the previous year, with all segments of the market posting increases. "We're expecting a challenging year for residential gateways this year, as operators have a lot of inventory on hand. They're also having trouble adding new DSL and cable subscribers, said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access at Infonetics Research . This overall trend will keep the market flat in 2011 -- despite strong sales of Homeplug Powerline adapters, MoCA coax-Ethernet adapters, and some home NAS devices. The Infonetics market study highlights include: - Quarter-over-quarter, the home network device...