Although storage continues to be one of those stubborn areas that is resistant to cost cutting because of low utilization rates and ever-increasing demand for space, enterprise customers might want to start looking toward some of the folks running large-scale Web operations for strategies that can help keep a lid on storage costs.
Thin provisioning refers to a type of approach to storage that creates virtual pools of storage that can be applied to specific application demands on an as-needed basis. This is a step further than just creating a virtual pool of storage with a particular array and companies such as MySpace, Savvis, Verizon Business and USi that have large storage requirements have turned to companies such as 3PAR for storage products that make use of thin provisioning. In fact, the whole thin provisioning approach may jump-start the entire managed storage services space once traditional resellers that are morphing into becoming managed service providers discover the concept. In fact, the whole concept of storage as a utility service is likely to be popularized by Amazon.com.
Of course, that's not the only thing that 3PAR relies on to reduce costs because it also has an approach to database storage that significantly eliminates all the null storage that a database application usually inflicts on a storage array.
At the end of the day, the problem with storage as we know it today is that we're using a lot more of it to inefficiently store data that is generally useless. IT organizations are painfully aware of this issue at a time when their senior managers are pounding them to reduce hardware costs so they can fund additional application development projects without increasing the overall IT budget.
Odds are good that we'll see EMC, IBM and every other enterprise storage company follow suit after NetApp to take thin provisioning mainstream this year, if for no other reason than to fend off the likes of 3PAR from moving into enterprise accounts. But unless IT managers start demanding more efficient approaches to storage, the vendors aren't going to see the need to embrace fundamental change any sooner than they absolutely have to.