Hitachi keeps margin for competitive error thin
From Wikibon
Originating Author: David Vellante
In May 2007, Wikibon analyzed Hitachi's thin provisioning announcement and suggested the race is on for competitive responses in high-end block-based storage. Since that time, EMC and IBM announced their intention to announce thin provisioning on block-based storage and 3PAR has made enhancements to its increasingly popular InServ product line.
[Editor's Note: In January 2008, EMC announced Virtual Provisioning for the DMX-4. As of late February 2008, it is unclear what IBM's intentions are in this regard at the high end of the storage market. IBM has announced the intent to support thin provisioning on the SAN Volume Controller by mid-2008].
Of the competitors, 3PAR seems to be moving ahead to try and distance itself from the pack, while IBM and EMC are targeting early-to-mid next year to catch up in the thin provisioning game. 3PAR's announcement of Virtual Domains, a software capability that allows the logical partitioning of a 3PAR InServ array of up to 2,000 domains, is noteworthy. 3PAR seems to be the one company executing on delivery of a storage services/utility storage model by providing security, access control, monitoring and virtualization capabilities that can safely subdivide storage resources based on policies and enable chargeback to users. This is a powerful vision.
Nonetheless, 3PAR is small, limited in scope and extremely focused on its growth trajectory at the moment. The storage industry is looking for clear direction, vision and leadership in the increasingly active space for storage virtualization, thin provisioning and heterogeneous tiered storage management. Much is unclear for customers right now, and Hitachi's consistent execution, while vital, underscores the need for a more compelling 3-5 year vision.
Action Item: Product-oriented messages, while necessary and important, will not suffice in helping users chart a course for the near-to-mid term. Vendors are staring at a major opportunity to articulate what the future of storage will look like and lay out a multi-year plan for customers to follow. Virtualized data centers, more efficient technology utilization , tiered storage and heterogeneous storage management are key underpinnings of this vision as is the accommodation for information asset and liability management.
Footnotes:
