In the remaining few months of 2007, EMC sales people will aggressively push users to buy new GB on old and new product lines, including the Symmetrix DMX-4. However, at the same time, first-tier storage suppliers HDS and IBM[1] will begin marketing (and in the case of HDS delivering, we believe) engines for thin provisioning captive and third-party storage capacity. IBM will not likely announce until mid-2008, however this sets up a very interesting dynamic for users: Buy a strategic solution for thin provisioning (which quickly can increase utilization of installed capacity by as much as 40-50%, with minimal performance implications) and get your 2007 allotment of EMC storage for free (if capacity growth requirements are less than 30-40%).

Action Item: Users should ask HDS and IBM if they can play storage Santa this holiday season and deliver a huge gift of EMC storage capacity with soon-to-be-delivered thin provisioning products.

Footnotes: [1] In January 2008, EMC announced thin provisioning for the DMX-4, beating IBM to the punch. It is still expected that IBM will announce thin provisioning for the SAN Volume Controller by mid-2008].