Storage players focus on reducing complexity

BANGALORE: The third edition of the Storage Networking Summit got off to a start in Bangalore with TCS chief, S Ramadorai exhorting the storage industry to help reduce complexity and offer simple and affordable solutions. "I hope companies listen to the voice of the customer who need interoperability of systems since multiple vendor products are necessary," he said.

Ramadorai added that the adoption of web services that is reaching the state of ubiquity could prove to be the tipping point for the industry. "There is a need to push complexity to the backend and make the front-end simple like what is happening with phones, digital cameras and cars," he opined.

Ramadorai expects that as the storage sector evolves, the industry would witness futuristic technologies like holographic storage and even DNA storage with exhaustive capacities.

Speaking on the topic of drivers in the storage market, chairman and CEO OF Benhamou Global Ventures, Eric Benhamou said that factors like compliance mandates for corporate, increased focus on IT security and the rise of outsourcing in India and China have been responsible for the growth of the industry. Predicting future trends he said, "We are evolving from fast data movement and IP SANs, towards utility and intelligent grid computing".

Benhamou also cited other growth drivers like the adoption of the tiered storage model, emergence of iSCSI and IP SANs, which can apply to the entire range of storage requirements, and the boom in voice, data and video content are also contributing to the boom in this $50 billion industry.

Prominent industry delegates in the storage industry such as Kumar Malavalli, EMC software executive VP, Mark Lewis, Veritas integrated product division VP, Jose Iglesias, Network Appliance storage protocols and solutions VP, Kenneth Hibbard and Intransa founder Peter Wang showcased the latest trends and products in storage technology.