Getting a Grip on IP Storage Costs

If you’ve watched your storage line-item climb in recent years, you’re not alone. According to a recent white paper by Boston-based Aberdeen Group (“IP-Based Storage: The Buzz on the Wire”), the total cost of ownership of storage area networks (SAN) has been flying high, thanks to expensive, sometimes proprietary hardware and the highly trained personnel it takes to keep the systems running.

Help may be on the way, however, in the form of IP-based storage networks that use standard Ethernet networks for their connections instead of today’s fibre-channel options. According to the paper, the ascension of IP storage is a given, though potential users must decide between various flavors of the technology, as well as address potential security concerns. IP storage will also face some challenges from Infiniband technology (the 500Mbps to 6Gbps connection technology developed by Dell, IBM, Intel and others, that has just begun finding its way into products), though Aberdeen feels that ultimately the need for Infiniband is unclear beyond use in Intel-based, direct-attached storage situations.

The report also notes that fiber-channel vendors will not necessarily disappear, as those companies have SAN expertise, which should allow them to transition to the new technology.

A free copy of the white paper is available at www.aberdeen.com.