Catch the next storage wave of change: jump in and get ready to profit!

The First Wave: Centralized Computing (1952-1980)

The storage industry, as we know it today, actually began in 1952 with the introduction of the first successful tape drive--the IBM 726 Tape Unit for the IBM 701 Defense Unit Calculator. The first successful disk drive followed in 1956 with IBM's introduction of the Ramac 350. These devices (coupled with the first computers) marked the beginning of the first wave of the IT industry. Generally referred to as the wave of centralized or mainframe computing systems, storage demand steadily increased as the evolution from batch to online and then to databases. Storage and data preservation were viewed as non-critical issues in most businesses early in this wave. Later, many businesses had replaced many manual, people-intensive operations with IT applications and the growing importance of IT could no longer be denied. Internal systems operation skills--as well as application development skills--were in demand.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Second Wave: Distributed Computing (1980-1995)

As the 1980s began, large centralized computing was being successfully challenged by smaller, less-expensive, and easier to implement servers. These smaller machines were usually distributed throughout an organization--thus creating numerous, dissimilar, and disconnected islands of computing. PCs also became popular and widespread, driving up storage demand and creating new challenges outside of the traditional data center. The Internet arrived later, in the second wave, and notably accelerated storage demand as e-mail positioned itself to become the biggest killer application. The value of data also increased in this wave and large businesses began to rely on IT operations to run their companies. Successful IT workers shifted their skills to new operating systems, applications and a new storage environment often less sophisticated than they were used to on mainframe systems.

The Third Wave: Network Computing (1995-2005)

As businesses and individuals quickly realized that the islands of computing needed to communicate, share resources, and in some cases provide a variety of services for each other, the rush to connect server and storage resources began the networking wave. This wave was led by concepts including SAN, NAS, IP Storage, switches and virtualization all assisting networking computers and storage to become a reality. This wave enabled information to be shared and accessed from virtually anywhere, setting the stage for the wave of information-centric computing where the value of data becoming the most critical factor. Successful IT workers again had to expand their knowledge base and add networking and connectivity skills to their repertoire.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

The concept of data had become the primary strategic concern at the heart of a company's survival, as the storage industry experienced a dramatic change in direction in the middle of 2000. The major economic correction often called the Infinite Disruption that began in mid-2000 has significantly impacted all links in the IT value chain. Reshaped by the collapse of the dot-coms and the deep ramifications of September 11th, the hardware-based storage industry of the past began to give way to a new value system increasingly based on software, services and the true value of the data to a business. All data is not created equal and the value of data often varies considerably during its lifetime. Legal issues and the near-global spread of compliance requirements made data preservation a lifetime storage management discipline. Overall, the increasing value of digital data to the survival of most businesses, hospitals, transportation agencies and governments is becoming the dominant IT issue in the twenty-first century. As networking IT operations, PCs and nearly 700 million individuals by the Internet became firmly entrenched, the wave of information has arrived.

The Fourth Wave: Information-Centric Computing (2005 ...)

The storage industry will experience further changes as needs will increasingly drive spending decisions, not wants. These new economic forces push businesses to focus on only those areas that are critical, signaling that long-term survival is the key mandate. Most storage consumers today still look at the hardware purchase price as their primary purchase criteria. This has become increasingly unfortunate and reflects the now old and out-of-date viewpoint that the value of the IT infrastructure exists in hardware. With storage hardware prices presently falling at 30%-40% per gigabyte purchased annually, the value of the storage industry shifts to what we do with the data, not where we store it. Again, critical IT skills are shifting. Newer skills such as application development, Java, security, networking and E-commerce/Internet skills are rising to the forefront as the information wave begins.

Conclusion

New technologies, and therefore new skill sets, have always dominated the IT industry's waves of change. The next era for the storage and networking industry will be an increasingly mature, value-based industry that will become more firmly grounded financially. We are now entering the information-centric wave and the time to understand the real value of data has arrived. Like the three prior waves in the past, IT workers will again be forced to acquire new skills that will deal with creating value from the exabytes of digital data that has been accumulated. As jobs are eliminated and still others move off shore, it has become increasingly vital for the IT worker to look ahead and prepare for the next wave. Preparing for these waves involves making changes personally and professionally. As the IT industry has repeatedly shown us, the same skills that got us to where we are will not likely be the ones that get us to where we will need to be going. The only difference in the IT industry is that the waves are rolling in faster than before.

And, regarding the next wave, are you interested in seats on the fifty-yard line or did you come to play?