MAID technology was first introduced to the storage market in 2003 by Copan Systems. Since then, other versions of MAID have appeared. The original concept aimed primarily at the backup/recovery market as a tape replacement with the added values of energy savings, longer SATA drive life by spinning the disks less than 100% of the time, and price points that would bring disk prices much closer to tape. MAID represents a sound use of inexpensive SATA drives, and the technology and design points are solid. Five years later, MAID has made some progress but is well below the initial expectations for market penetration. So what's keeping MAID solutions from really taking off?
First of all, many user's still don't understand MAID, can't describe just where it fits, and have trouble identifying applications that are best suited for MAID. Just ask them. Also, overall market visibility for MAID remains relatively low compared to the far reaching and aggressive marketing avalanche we've seen the past few years for de-duplication and virtual tape solutions. The general lack of solutions kits, references, case studies, user's groups, media coverage, and data classification tools helps keep awareness levels too low.
The incumbent to the MAID market has been and still is tape, and tape vendor marketing efforts have been decreasing in the past two years. Are they about ready to wake up? MAID vendors need to market MAID much more effectively and take advantage of the extended tape marketing siesta by providing webcasts, white papers, road shows, analysts briefings, references, testimonials, customer events, etc.
Action Item: The MAID market has been intact for five years, and market penetration remains below expectations. With the tape vendors steadily reducing marketing activities, MAID vendors should seize the opportunity to aggressively attack the storage market as the de-duplication and virtual tape providers have done before it's too late. For MAID, success is no longer about developing an effective solution, its about selling an effective solution.
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