Enterprise Users Asked to Participate in First Content Addressed Storage (CAS) Survey.

One Participant Will Win a $200 Best Buy Gift Certificate

LOS ANGELES -- In the first known study of its kind, IT managers are being asked to participate in a long-term survey on Content Addressed Storage (CAS). Proctored by independent technology analyst and consultant Mark C. Ferelli, the study aims to profile the use of CAS in the enterprise. Managers with CAS solutions are encouraged to join the study by visiting http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=481102868886.

One participant will be randomly selected for a Best Buy $200 gift certificate on December 11th.

With the advent of CAS in mid-2002, when EMC announced the first commercially available CAS solutions, enterprise storage managers began to find relief from the difficulty of online storage of fixed content. EMC Centera set the bar for CAS solutions, with others following, and more and more enterprises have committed more and more data to CAS systems.

Early estimates suggested that storage capacity needs for fixed-content reference information - data objects that are unchanging and long-lasting such as digital x-rays, check images, email and voice messages, or broadcast content - would increase by 50 percent each year.

Ferelli's study will identify practices and trends in the use of CAS, including capacity usage, based on the responses of managers working with current CAS systems.

"While many new and promising technologies fail to see the light of day despite the best efforts of vendors and solution providers, CAS was a near-instant hit thanks to Centera, yet the user and the use of CAS remain a surprisingly gray area in technology analysis," said Ferelli. "This study is intended to supply this missing information, and my hope is that responders will allow me to contact them again over time to see how their usage tendencies may be changing in the future."

Mark Ferelli is a research analyst, a journalist, and was formerly vice president of West World Productions, Inc., and was editor in chief of their magazine group, including Computer Technology Review, Storage Inc., and Storage Management Solutions. He specializes in covering mass storage technologies and since 1988 has written hundreds of articles on the subject. He has been quoted outside his own magazine group in international media such as the London Financial Times and domestic newspapers such as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Ferelli has consulted on storage topics for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Datapro Research. He has served on the board of directors of THIC, and was a member of the Computer Press Association. He is currently a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was awarded the 2000 Press Access PRESStige Award for journalistic influence in the computer industry, the only technology journalist so honored that year.

Ferelli is a well-known speaker and moderator who has worked on storage intensive seminars and panels, and has been a featured speaker at special events for Fujifilm, IBM, the International Recording Media Association and many other major firms in the computer storage field.

For questions or additional information, contact Mark Ferelli at [e-mail].