The State of Data Storage Management: 2011 vs. 2012

More, more, more. For years, data storage management meant dealing with requests for more space because of more data used by more applications. Storage admins responded by focusing on centralization and consolidation, as the InformationWeek Report "2011 State of Storage" found. That's changed, however.

According to "State of Storage 2012," demand is stabilizing. The January survey of 313 IT professionals found that almost the same amount of storage is under active management as in November 2010. The data growth rate is slowing, as well--76% of respondents reported rates of just 24% or less. Here's a look at what else has changed and what's stayed the same in data storage management, from 2011 to 2012.

Storage Technology Use

After seeing drops in usage from 2009 to 2010, both replication and encryption surged in 2011--replication was listed as being in use at 67% of the 313 organizations surveyed, compared with 57% at 377 organizations in November 2010. Encryption, which was in use by 47% of respondents in 2010, was used by 55% of organizations in 2011.

In last year's report, author Kurt Marko theorized that the maturity of technologies like disk replication made them less intriguing than newer products targeting storage efficiency and virtualized workloads. "State of Storage 2012," however, showed an increase in interest in data protection and availability technologies, perhaps a sign that the attention once devoted to consolidating and centralizing storage is now being turned to ensuring that the data is secure.