Storage a 'necessary evil'?

Last few months, I have been busy with products issue. It is surprising how little I had to say through my blog during this time. In reality, I enjoy thinking about how grid storage can solve customer issues than why host A is not seeing device B! So, if you are a grid storage company, I would like to hear from you.

Two weeks ago, it was a nice change to visit Princeton to attend a weekend backyard party. Mostly, people working in IT management and CIO office of pharmaceutical, healthcare and financial services industry were present. Three years ago, when I failed to raise sufficient funding for a storage software startup, the conversations at one such party was the catalyst for launch of storage services.

This year, my conversations revolved around how IT management perceives storage. Three points were quite apparent in all conversations.

• Storage is a cost center whose spigot need to be tighten.
  
• Storage is a 'necessary evil,' something you need but can suck all your resources.
  
• Storage needs new strategies to demonstrate its value to bottom line of business.

The reasons behind these points were quite clear. In last few years, storage industry has been promoting fear and insecurity about data loss and need to spend on data protection. And customers are spending increasing portion of their storage budget on data protection and regulatory compliance.

This is leading to a change in executive level perception that storage is a cost center, an expense that doesn't add to the bottom line of their business. This is a significant change in perception from few years ago when the justifications for storage project was how they have direct impact on the company revenues/bottom line though improvement in data accessibility and uptime.