iSCSI Strides On

iSCSI-based storage offerings are going from strength to strength, according to new research from analyst firms Gartner and IDC. (See SCSI Celebrates Anniversary, Gartner Highlights Disk Growth, IDC Cites Disk Growth, and External Storage Hits $4.2B.)

In recent years, iSCSI SANs have been behind a flurry of product releases from the big storage vendors as well as being behind the success of pioneering IP SAN startups. (See How To: Plan an iSCSI SAN, Globalstor Ships NAS/iSCSI, Microsoft Accelerates iSCSI Support, and Silverback Hoists $16M.) But now, it seems the iSCSI market is establishing itself in a more widespread way amongst customers who dont want to invest heavily in Fibre Channel. (See B&S Insider Inspects iSCSI and SAN Ceasefire!.)

Gartner's research, released today, reveals that the market for external controller-based (ECB) disk storage gear totaled $3.8 billion in the first quarter 2006, up 8.6 percent over the same period last year. Donna Taylor, Gartner principal research manager and the report's author, told Byte and Switch that iSCSI is playing a part in this growth though the firm hasn't broken out iSCSI's specific percentage just yet. "The momentum is picking up -- iSCSI is catching on," she says. "A lot of vendors have come out the door with products that satisfy a lot of different areas."

Still, Taylor warns that iSCSI is far from being a sizeable portion of the market. Many users are taking a "wait and see" approach to the technology, carefully evaluating the progress of early adopters. "iSCSI is gaining momentum, [but] I wouldn't say that it's a done deal," she explains. "That's because a lot of companies are deciding what they will do."

Certainly, a number of users have told Byte and Switch that, while keen on iSCSI, they have yet to deploy it within their own data centers. (See Alliance Systems and World Wildlife Fund.)That said, Taylor expects iSCSI to figure prominently in the future. "I think that we will see more people moving over to iSCSI. Not just from the end-user perspective, but from the vendor perspective." But the analyst was unwilling to venture a guess about when iSCSI will account for 50 percent or more of the storage market.

Gartner is not the only firm to have noticed iSCSI growth. IDC today revealed that the iSCSI SAN market is showing strong momentum, with revenues expected to top $5.1 billion by 2010.

IDC reports that the total market for network disk storage (NAS combined with open and iSCSI SAN) grew 15.4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2006 to more than $2.8 billion. EMC is the leader in this corner of the market with a 28.7 percent share of revenue, followed by HP and IBM with 19.3 percent and 10.7 percent respectively.

— James Rogers, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch

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