Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 18:25 GMT
Michael Dell is right, there will be a fight to value in the storage space, but it won't be driven only by cheap hardware, it will be enabled by open storage software including ZFS and other open storage software, http://www.sun.com/storage/openstorage/
Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 20:18 GMT
I'm sorry, are El Reg allowing blatent plugging now?
http://www.apple.com
Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 20:18 GMT
But storage IS cheap now. Of course, there could be a squeeze on pricing but...
Purchase of storage is generally driven by real need. The requirements for storage are often underestimated. Adding storage at a later date doesn't carry the same penalties as, say, underestimating the grunt needed to deliver reasonable transactional throughput. Just because there is a downturn doesn't make that need go away.
The alternatives to acquiring new storage are too gruesome to contemplate.
I think that the downturn will be seen in other areas first. For example, many organisations run rolling programs of desktop/laptop replacement. These will be slowed or halted. Those will do (phased) big bang replacement of desktops/laptops will defer.
Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 20:18 GMT
The world will need somewhere to put all its information about stock market collapses, bankruptcies and other economic disasters, at least in the short term. And by the time that demand starts tailing off the next boom will be on us.
Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 20:18 GMT
Ordered a T300 server on the 13th, it arrived on the 20th. Guess their production lines are quiet at the moment.
Shame it contains no driver / management install CD's so can't install the OS yet. More cut backs.
Posted Tuesday 21st October 2008 20:18 GMT
Storage vendors are almost certainly salivating over the prospect of archiving all that wonderful security camera footage, and will most certainly add their voices to the chorus of vendors jostling for more taxpayer money to further cage the taxpaying class.
One wonders whether the gubmint even needs to stage any more false flag psyops when IT sales departments will be happy to put them on in return for juicy contracts.
I can see it now: "Unrecognized terrorists bomb the Mitchell Corn Palace" brought to you by purveyors of face-recognition software. And how about "Iranian gunboats sink destroyer, faulty fire control patch management blamed" from an antivirus company?
Frankly, anybody involved in keeping the rest of us in line will probably weather the storm in fine shape even after the cost of such "sales events" is factored in.
Hold the phone, I think I've discovered a new growth industry!
Posted Wednesday 22nd October 2008 11:12 GMT
The amount of stuff I store is increasing linearly, and I am pretty much storing all the stuff I want to store. At work it has taken us about five years to fill an 18Gb document server and I really can't see us filling the 135Gb replacement in another five years. We don't store video and seem highly unlikely to do so in the future.
Yes there are new applications but surely a limit on the storage market is simply a lack of things to store on it.
Posted Wednesday 22nd October 2008 11:12 GMT
...so people *might* buy less X. Or maybe not. I'm not sure we want to commit to an opinion here".
Posted Wednesday 22nd October 2008 11:12 GMT
Putting all your eggs in one basket, or all your Basques in one exit, was never a wise course of action.
1Tb storage may well have commercial benefit -- but for a home user, what's the point?
Our old Crossfire external drive (60Mb: yeah) recently showed signs of wobbling so we looked around for a replacement. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be flogging 1Tb drives at pretty low prices.
We instead purchased two Seagate external drives of 250Mb each for £40 each (we live in the UK).
Our cost-per-Mb might be higher than having a new 1Tb external drive but better that than buying a drive which might go belly up and take all our data with it.
Posted Wednesday 22nd October 2008 15:07 GMT
OS's will get quicker, products will be slimmed down, open source will find more adopters, companies that deliver real value will succeed, companies that are flogging the next big thing (social networking startups, I'm looking at you) will fail. About damn time too, who wouldn't like to see smaller faster OS's, and programs that forgo the jazz and just do what you want?
Posted Wednesday 22nd October 2008 20:34 GMT
If commercial sources of terabytes dry up then blackmarket suppliers of low-quality terabytes will quickly turn up to fill the need of those who can't go cold turkey.
I saw this crisis coming and so stocked my shelter with plenty of terabytes to last my family for one year. I've also accumulated a large surplus of top-shelf terabytes that I will barter for megahertz, gigahertz, kilodynes, megajoules, kilowatts or possibly 400 aam. (archaic)
You will find me if you google terabytesforbarter.
Stay strong and stock up on the bytes.
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