TechNavio’s research team has been observing The Global Storage Area Network Market with a keen eye, and we’ve noted some very positive trends. In the past few years revenues have been increasing at an unprecedented rate, prompting us to forecast a leap in the market’s current net worth of US$ 15.58 billion, to US$ 21.53 billion by 2016.
The main reason for this growth is the rapid increase in enterprise data and need for improved security that follows. With more and more companies growing bigger and going global, there is an immense scalable data storage solution. Storage Area Network, a network formed by connecting storage devices like disks, disk arrays, and tapes to a shared server provides exactly that.
Despite such high growth potential however, The Storage Area Network Market is curtailed by one issue…its price tag.
The market’s most dominant and efficient technology, FC SAN requires the purchase of an FC HBA to assist each attached host. In addition, FC SAN solution requires skilled specialists to resolve network-related issues resulting in an additional cost. Combined, these expenses amount to a prohibitively high investment for startups and SMEs. iSCSI Storage Area Network solutions provide an alternative, but their performance is simply not as good.
This price barrier has allowed the following two SAN alternatives to gain some major headway in data storage industry.
NAS Storage
Resulting from the high expenses associated with the technology, many potential consumers are opting for NAS storage instead of SAN. NAS servers can be accessed through TCP/IP linkage in graphical user interface mode and require fewer IT professionals for its management and configuration. Naturally, many SMEs are adopting this alternative which is a major threat for The Global SAN Market.
Software-based Storage Solutions
In some cases—especially if recovery requirements are only for a single application—using a software-based solution might be more beneficial than using a hardware-based solution like SAN. Plenty of software solutions exist that offer effective host-based disaster recovery, and are much more affordable than Storage Area Network technology.
Fortunately, a few emerging trends in the market are expected to more-than-offset the dents made by these competing technologies. Namely, demand for Storage Area Network technology geared towards the following:
- Cloud computing services
- Disk-based data duplication
- Unified computing
Each of these segments are rapidly expanding, and with SAN technology offering the only comprehensive scalable storage solution for them, the market will naturally flourish as a result.
When it comes down to it, high expenses can present a challenge, but if the quality of technology at hand matches its price tag, then you can bet that revenues will continue propelling forwards—such is the case when it comes to The Global Storage Area Network Market.
For more information, view our 2012-2016 report on The Global SAN Market
