Spectra Logics 10 Storage Predictions for 2011 and Beyond

by Chris Preimesberger

SAS disks will replace SATA for archive/backup storage by the end of fiscal year 2011.

At its peak level of deployment over the next year, “cloud storage” will contain no more than 10 percent of the total U.S. stored data volume.

Tape will be the preferred medium for 80 percent of all data in electronic archives.

Hardware-based data verification will be considered a requirement in all archive storage platforms.

SSDs will arrive in commoditized arrays, dropping cost per GB, moving into a position as being the preferred medium for performance disk.

Dedicated deduplication appliances will fall out of favor. Deduplication will preferably occur in file systems and backup software applications.

Data centers will implement active archives to tape as a means of offloading primary disk storage.

Lower-cost disk storage solutions based on??íx86 architectures will put extreme stress on traditional high-end storage providers by 2013.

Enterprise tape drives will continue to give way to LTO (Linear Tape-Open) architectures.

Traditional backup practices will begin to shift. Data centers will begin to move to online, file-based archives for their long-term data retention instead of utilizing offline backups in proprietary formats.