Thin Provisioning - One of the Silver Linings in Today's Environment of Doom and Gloom

As the global economy continues to weaken, one might begin to think that all technology is suffering along with it. In fact, a number of recent press releases from Gartner do little but reinforce the doom and gloom:
Worldwide Server Shipments and Revenue Experience Double-Digit Declines in Fourth Quarter of 2008
Gartner Says PC Industry Will Suffer Sharpest Unit Decline in History in 2009
Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue On Pace to Decline 24 Percent in 2009
Gartner Says Worldwide Vertical Market IT Spending Will Be Flat in 2009

Yet in the face of all this, the storage market continues to enjoy steady growth. Even Gartner highlighted that the storage industry is still growing citing 11.3 percent worldwide growth in the external controller-based disk storage market in 2008. Another analyst, Jon Collins with Freeform Dynamics, states, "There is no recession in storage for many reasons, but the two main ones are: the continuing growth of rich media, and compliance. As long as we need to keep records of everything, the need for more storage will always be with us."

But as DCIG has been writing about in this blog for some time now, we must remember that the purchasing of storage just because one needs more capacity is futile. While the economy is taking a dive, storage technology as a whole has the potential to prosper and help companies beat tightening budgets. When the economy goes south, there tends to be a greater necessity and, as a result, a greater push for companies to find innovative technologies that will help them reduce their TCO. DCIG's blog archives already cover the importance of using innovative and solid technologies that help organizations of all types and why it is critical to their survival. Previous DCIG blogs on this topic include:
Troubled Economic Times Call for Solid Technology Answers
The Greenback might be Floundering but Green IT is Proving Profitable
CSUEB Sees More Green with Less Hardware, Lower Power Requirements and PG&E Rebates
Even Nonprofits Need to Innovate During Tough Economic Times
Dynamic, Agile Infrastructures are Key to Picking Today's MSPs

Interesting to note, back in 2007 Gartner stated that Thin Provisioning Is Revolutionizing Storage Management and that "insatiable storage growth, coupled with staff shortages and budget constraints, will make thin provisioning a must have feature"--increasing utilization rates, staff productivity, and performance while reducing footprint and TCO. Fast forward to today and we see storage provider 3PAR leading the way with their 3PAR InServ T-Class Storage Servers with the Thin Built In ASIC and 3PAR Thin Provisioning software.

Just as the economy is floundering, 3PAR is seeing an increased demand for its highly virtualized, cost- and energy-efficient storage arrays. And in the face of corporate failures and increasing numbers of layoffs, 3PAR is expanding its operations by adding to its European team and opening new offices including a second London location to support the company's regional headquarters--beating the acquisition, merger, or failures seen by other storage vendors that have not been able to deliver on innovation. But by offering customers a highly cost-efficient alternative to traditional storage that enables them to lower both CAPEX and OPEX (of huge importance these days), 3PAR has been able to sustain growth by having products that appeal to both the IT administrator and the budget holder and enabling them to do more with less--a critical selling point in today's tough economic times.