IT Pros Rethink Storage

NEW YORK, December 19, 2005 – Data volumes are growing by double digits yearly. Storage infrastructures now comprise multiple sites, technologies, and file formats interconnected by large SANs. Yet in many organizations, what's actually stored in a company's archives remains a mystery – one that must be solved for an organization to function successfully.

"There is little intelligence about the precise information that server hard disks or tape libraries actually contain. There's also little to indicate whether it is worth keeping. And locating information that fits specific parameters can be difficult and time-consuming," says Martin Courtney, author of the latest report from the subscription research service Byte and Switch Insider (www.byteandswitch.com/insider), Mapping the Labyrinth: Classification, Search, and Management of Stored Data.

Many storage managers today are essentially required to search for needles in the data haystack. Just ask the IT manager in a financial services firm who must respond quickly to the corporate lawyers with evidence in email messages – or the hospital records manager who needs to prove compliance with HIPAA. In cases like this, it's clear that what's needed is a structure for stored data that is not only better defined, but also more manageable than ever before.

Designing this structure requires a well-considered strategy, one that can only be formulated by those who thoroughly understand the inner workings of a particular business. Still, new products can help get data organized so that better decisions about it can be made.

This report profiles a small but robust group of startups that have emerged with tools to help storage managers get a handle on their data. These new suppliers are particularly concerned with unstructured data – in the form of email, Microsoft Office documents, presentations, and other corporate flotsam found in servers, desktops, and laptops.

Established storage vendors are also starting to sit up and take notice of the data management crisis. Many of them already offer some form of help in products designed for archiving and backup, which are cited in the report. Eventually, some major players may start to scope out startups as possible partners or acquisitions. In fact, this trend has already begun with an OEM partnership between Kazeon and Network Appliance.

Private companies covered in this report include Abrevity Inc., Arkivio Inc., Copernic Technologies Inc., Index Engines Inc., Kazeon Inc., KOM Networks Inc., Njini Inc., Scentric Inc., Seven Ten Storage Software Inc., and StoredIQ Corp.

Public companies covered in this report include Autonomy Corp. plc (Pink Sheets: AUTNF; London: AU), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Fast Search & Transfer ASA (Oslo: FAST), Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), and Verity Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTY).

Mapping the Labyrinth: Classification, Search, and Management of Stored Data is available as part of an annual subscription (12 monthly issues) to Byte and Switch Insider, priced at $1,350. Individual reports are available for $900.

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.byteandswitch.com/insider.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

Jeff Claudino
Sales Manager
Insider Research Services
619-229-9940
[email protected]

For review copies, members of the media may contact:

Gabriel Brown
Chief Analyst
Insider Research Services
44-20-7701-9330
[email protected]

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