Storage Special: Storage Software

Storage management software market surges ahead

Far from being just a peripheral activity, storage management today stands as a top-notch priority in an IT manager’s agenda. Companies are increasingly moving towards data consolidation through storage management software. Chitra Padmanabhan reports on why storage software today is seen as a strategic element in IT infrastructure

Effective information lifecycle management has enabled organisations to have a better understanding of data and its value to the organisation, says S sabyasachi

Intelligent use of data is the nerve-centre of any consumer-centric business activity. This is especially true in an environment where customer satisfaction is seen as the only route to growth. Today, with increasing deployment of data-intensive applications like SCM, CRM, business intelligence, etc, it becomes all the more important for organisations to cater to the storage and retrieval of data-repositories. "Enterprise applications have increased the storage management requirements of organisations, wherein businesses are undergoing a paradigm shift from focusing on time-to-back-up to time-to-recovery," says S Sabyasachi, head of software and services research at IDC India. Moreover, storage is moving from the box-only concept to centralised storage, wherein heterogeneous storage devices are tied-up to facilitate a seamless flow of data between them.

The market reality

Market figures also seem to support the claim that explosive growth of data has in recent times given a fresh impetus to the storage management software market. According to market research firm IDC, the market for storage software solutions in India during 2002 was pegged at $13 million and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 34.4 percent in the five years between 2002 to 2007. The overall storage market is expected to generate revenues of $19 million by the year 2003. IDC India’s report on the storage market in 2002 says that there has been a 74 percent increase in the storage management software market in the country, from $8.5 million in 2000 to $14.8 million in 2001. Further, according to industry analysts, by the end of 2003, 35 percent of IT budgets are estimated to be storage-related. Moreover, if we estimate a five-year TCO (total cost of ownership), associated with management of these devices, it will amount to several times the purchase price.

Centralised management vastly improves efficiency by reducing the storage management headcount, says T Srinivasan

Verticals adopting storage management software

Market figures give storage software players enough reason to cheer as more and more companies are relying on enterprise applications for their day-to-day functioning. These applications can be put to optimum use only when supported by a robust storage infrastructure. Currently, the market for storage management software is largely driven by companies, which operate in a data-intensive environment. For instance the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and telecom segments are considered to be the highest spenders in technology and consequently are also the key drivers for the storage market. In technologically savvy banks, data is stored in a central repository, to be retrieved through various delivery channels like ATMs (automated teller machines), phone banking and Internet banking in real-time. This is possible only by virtue of advanced storage management tools and networked storage. The financial services sector is seen as the key adopter of this technology. "Verticals where maximum potential exists and capital is being invested on a large scale for storage consolidation include banking, telecom, FMCG, petrochemicals and the pharmaceutical sector," says T Srinivasan, country manager-India, EMC.

Key trends

There is a trend towards proactive (future requirements-based) approach to storage issues rather than the reactive (fire fighting) approach, says Agendra Kumar

The move towards storage consolidation and networked storage is driving the demand for storage management tools. For instance, managing different hardware technologies, devices like tape devices, tape libraries, NAS and SAN boxes from different vendors is extremely simple with storage management software. Traditionally, storage software has been made available as a proprietary solution from the vendor who also offered storage hardware. While this was convenient, things turned out to be unmanageable when firms added storage devices from different vendors. That’s where the need for storage management software arose. Organisations find it convenient to manage multi-vendor storage infrastructure from one single point of control. Agrees Arun Rao, national manager-storage business at Computer Associates, "Data storage has evolved from simply backing-up data to a tape, to pulling data from multiple sources across the enterprise in real-time and managing these functions from a central vantage point." Moreover, businesses, which were treating storage as a separate entity from the IT infrastructure of organisations are now realising the merits of networked storage.

Secondly, the benefits provided by storage management software cannot be sidelined. An unified view of all the relevant storage hardware and software tools help organisations cope with unpredictable and fluctuating value of information. To control burgeoning data, organisations are keenly looking at effective information lifecycle management, which means that organisations are drawing an optimal mix of storage resource availability, placement, protection and management of data from the time it was first created until it is no longer needed for business. "Effective information lifecycle management has enabled organisations to bring about policy-driven automation, and which means that companies have a clear understanding of different data types and their value to the organisation at any given point of time," says Sabyasachi of IDC India.

Data storage has evolved to pulling data from multiple sources across the enterprise in real-time and managing them from a central vantage point, says Arun Rao

Additionally, lack of skilled manpower is another factor that is driving this market. The gap between the demand for storage and the professionals who can manage it has been constantly increasing. Market analysts say that a typical storage administrator will have to manage at least 10 times more data than he manages today, in another three years. With storage professionals clearly not available in the same ratio, the gap has only widened. Moreover, a storage management software results in dramatic cost savings as fewer people are needed to manage the company’s escalating information flow.

Companies are leveraging storage management tools in order to reduce costs through enhanced operational efficiency. A single view of all information resources fosters revenue creation and inspires operational efficiency, in turn driving the business forward. Significant efficiencies are gained through greater integration of hardware and software. "Centralised management is the key. Several companies have said that they manage multiple sites, some of them around the world, from one or two central locations," says P K Gupta, director-strategic development of intercontinental operations at Legato Systems India. Agrees Srinivasan of EMC, who says that companies experience nearly 9:1 efficiency gain in storage management headcount requirements.

The trend suggests that investing in enterprise storage management tools is not just a tactical tool but a strategic component of any IT environment. There are many storage management solutions in the market from vendors like Veritas, Legato, EMC, HP, Computer Associates and host of other players. Most often, the IT manager looks for a solution which works well with his existing hardware infrastructure. "However, what is important to note is the trend of companies adopting a proactive approach while implementing storage solutions, rather than being reactive," says Agendra Kumar, country manager-India, Veritas Software.

Indian challenges

Centralised management helps companies manage multiple sites around the world from one or two central locations, says P K Gupta

Though India has come a long way since the days when storage was not in the realm of the annual IT budget, a lot of vital issues still need to be tackled. In the past, the IT infrastructure of organisations evolved in phases, with gradual addition of platforms, servers and subsequent building of SAN and NAS, etc. To manage this growth, companies had begun to use different flavours of storage management tools from different vendors and ended up with dozens of software products which were not integrated. This resulted in dual functionality and increased the workload of the infrastructure staff. Today, there is no measure to judge network functionality. There is even a lack of ability to detect if a data-intensive application is even asking for the data it requires. In such a scenario only adequate awareness can help organisations to avail the benefits of storage management software tools.

In India, capacity utilisation is typically poor, leaving a large percentage of storage resources unused. If effectively used, storage management tools help organisations keep track of capacity utilisation and enable organisations to take relevant decisions on future acquisitions of storage requirements.

Though adequate standards to ensure interoperability and management of heterogeneous software and hardware devices are yet to be developed, significant initiatives have been taken through the common information model (CIM) and Bluefin initiatives. Common information model (CIM) is an object-oriented information model, which provides a conceptual framework for describing management data. In the absence of standards, many top organisations are operating through multiple storage management packages.

Though storage management is emerging as a hot area for storage software vendors, from a revenue perspective it continues to be challenged by economic conditions. In many cases, customers are planning on larger storage management software implementations in 2003 but are still preserving earlier applications for investigative and evaluation phases.

Key segments of storage management software

Best practices index

Deploy enterprise-wide data protection / storage management, rather than departmental storage management. Implement storage management software in a highly available environment, providing increased accessibility of data. Implement storage management software to leverage existing IT infrastructure, which should be capable of seamlessly integrating into storage technologies like SAN and NAS. Reduce the cost of ownership by implementing storage management with a ‘lights-out’ and ‘hands-off’ approach to contain operational costs. It should have an intuitive interface like a Web browser, manageable from anywhere. Should have efficient disaster recovery capabilities. The storage management software should support multiple operating systems, applications and databases. Implement a storage management solution for high performance, including streaming of multiple streams of data to backup devices. Source: Legato Systems India

Advantages of storage management software

Basic information protection to data/application high availability to meet business needs. Big help in disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Improved operational efficiency and cost effectiveness. Ability to provide committed service level agreements. Be globally competitive. Manage massive data growth. Automation has helped in reducing the dependency of people. Saving on downtime costs. Centralised management of distributed resources.