Originating Author: Dave Vellante
When 3PAR did a major raise of capital, just before 9/11/2001, it wasn't at all clear to most observers that thin provisioning had game-changing potential. Indeed, many thought prospects would dwindle along with CIO buying patterns of late 2001 through 2003. With the announcement of the Hitachi USPV, however, it is becoming more obvious that thin provisioning is here to stay.
While smaller vendors and specialized products have pioneered thin provisioning for several years now, often in file-based environments, it is clear that thin provisioning as applied to block-based storage holds great promise for users. In this regard, Hitachi Data Systems has a lead over other large enterprise storage companies that most likely ranges from 9-12 months.
Simply put, vendors must respond to this announcement or they will be left out of a major storage wave over the next 3-5 years. HDS is not sitting still as evidenced on a Wikibon.org research call where the company indicated that external thin provisioning can technically be done today on the USPV (with Universal Volume Manager) and will be generally available later in 2007. Both EMC and IBM will have to offer competitive responses in the next twelve months; other smaller less established players must be more aggressive or they'll be left behind.
Action Item: Vendors of high end storage subsystems should continue to aggressively invest in thin provisioning. Hitachi has enhanced its thin provisioning functionality (providing support for external devices) and EMC has introduced support for thin provisioning on DMX. Key to adoption will be helping customers understand where the technology fits, where it doesn't and ISV support of thin provisioning, an area that needs more attention by established players.
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