Midrange Makes Its Move

The midrange SAN market is rapidly growing in popularity, functionality, and complexity, according to the latest Byte and Switch Insider, this publication's paid subscription research service (see B&S Insider Scopes Midrange SANs).

The report, Midrange SAN Systems: A Morphing Market, identifies the midrange as the fastest growing storage segment, due largely to a fundamental shift in architecture that moves it out of the shadow of the high-end market. The growth is driven by several factors:

Of course, the new options and capabilities make buying and managing midrange SANs more complex than ever before, the report says. The advantages bring tradeoffs for buyers. For instance, SATA drives are cheaper but less reliable than Fibre Channel drives. And the virtualization process aimed at simplifying storage management will likely complicate matters until the market matures.

There are also more vendors to choose from. Established SAN players EMC, HP, IBM, and Sun are joined by Fibre Channel and iSCSI startups as well as traditional NAS vendors moving into SANs.

Pubic companies in the report include:

Private companies discussed include:

Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch

The report, Midrange SAN Systems: A Morphing Market, is available as part of an annual subscription (12 monthly issues) to Byte and Switch Insider, priced at $1,350. Individual reports are available for $900. For more information, or to subscribe, please visit: www.byteandswitch.com/insider