Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Storage

    Storage Spending Upsurge Hurts IT Budgets

    Written by

    Chris Preimesberger
    Published December 22, 2006
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      Its not news that the amount of digital content in the world is increasing much faster than ITs ability to store it and make it readily accessible. It is news, however, when two separate surveys report that storage spending is so out of control that it is having a serious impact on overall IT budgets.

      According to a survey conducted the week of Dec. 18 by MonoSphere, which makes storage capacity planning software, 83 percent of the 140 storage professionals surveyed face an increase in capital expenditures on storage, with 41 percent of the total saying storage spending is increasing faster than their overall IT budgets.

      As a result, nearly two-thirds of respondents said increased storage spending is causing a financial problem for their organizations—often at the expense of other IT projects that could be helping the business become more competitive.

      “This survey illustrates that capital expenditures on storage are rapidly escalating and are causing companies to delay other important IT initiatives,” said Frank Kettenstock, MonoSpheres vice president of marketing, in Redwood City, Calif.

      The surveyed organizations storage size varied from less than 99TB to 1 petabyte or greater. While 62 percent of the respondents in the survey said increased storage spending had caused financial problems for the IT budget, the number escalated to 87 percent when the data set was narrowed to only executives titled at the director level and above who manage more than 100 terabytes of stored data. Of that smaller group, 36 percent said they had had to delay other IT projects due to the increase in storage expenditures.

      In general, Kettenstock said, companies have enough capacity to store their data but are constantly struggling to access and protect it in a reasonable fashion.

      “The data explosion is causing the need to store to explode, but the key thing is knowing how to store data efficiently,” Kettenstock told eWEEK.

      Most IT shops are advised by storage hardware vendors to utilize 85 percent of their capacities, but MonoSphere has found through its research that only about 36 percent of that capacity is actually “written to disk,” Kettenstock said. “So companies, in general, have plenty of capacity. Its just learning how to manage that capacity thats the trick. Its expensive to manage all that capacity youre not using,” he said.

      IT departments should use a “systematic approach to storage capacity planning, which can improve companies storage utilization and significantly reduce capital expense spending,” Kettenstock said.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifIBM and FujiFilm team to create the first 700GB tape cartridge. Click here to read more.

      A second survey by TheInfoPro in New York City revealed that nearly half of Fortune 1000 companies said they would spend more in all areas—and particularly storage—citing progressive implementation of BC/DR/RRDM (business continuity/data recovery/data mirroring) initiatives, regulatory influences, and increasing numbers of applications and amounts of data as the primary drivers.

      In most cases, organizations also reported they are including not just regional but also potential national and global disasters in their business continuity plans and initiatives.

      “Four years ago, when we started surveying Fortune 1000 companies every six months, the average overall data capacity involved a Fibre Channel network and was about 44 terabytes of storage,” Rob Stevenson, managing director of TheInfoPros Storage Sector, told eWEEK.

      “Now its up to 698 terabytes [on average] and climbing—in only four years time. Weve seen NAS [network-attached storage] capacities move from an average of 5TB to 198TB at the same time.”

      The findings for the study by TheInfoPro, conducted during the last few months, were derived from hour-long interviews with 91 members of the consultancys network of prescreened IT professionals from Fortune 1000 and midsize enterprises.

      “Business continuity planning has again taken center stage in the list of priorities with the Fortune 1000 and MSEs [midsize enterprises]. Of those we interviewed, 75 percent have a formal BC/DR program in place, at varying stages of use and expansion,” said Myron Kerstetter, a managing director at the TheInfoPro. “Organizations have placed RPO [recovery point objective] and RTO [recovery time objective] times, together with application tiering, as the key aspects of BC/DR planning and monitoring.”

      The findings in MonoSpheres survey are consistent with TheInfoPro study, which indicates that storage capacity planning is one of the top storage issues organizations face today, Stevenson said.

      “Companies need to be innovative, and they need to take the necessary steps to proactively manage storage growth by developing effective storage-capacity plans and maximizing utilization of existing storage assets,” Stevenson said.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software.

      Chris Preimesberger
      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.
      Linkedin Twitter

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×