Table of Contents
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
2 THE NEW DATA CENTER 5
2.1 OVERVIEW 5
2.2 KEY THEMES 5
3 DATA STORAGE 8
3.1 STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES (SAN, NAS, DAS, TAPE) 8
3.2 STORAGE GROWTH: THE CURSE OF CHEAP DISK 11
3.3 STORAGE GROWTH AND CAPACITY BY INDUSTRY 12
3.4 STORAGE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION 13
3.5 STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION (VSAN AND VTAPE) 17
3.6 STORAGE NETWORKING 19
3.7 STRUCTURED DATA: RELATIONAL DATABASES 21
3.8 DATABASE ADMINISTRATION 22
3.9 SUCCESS OF STORAGE STRATEGIES 23
4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 25
5 APPENDIX A - BENCHMARK METHODOLOGY 29
5.1 PROCESS 29
5.2 BY INDUSTRY 30
5.3 BY SIZE 30
5.4 PARTICIPANTS 33
5.5 TIMEFRAME 34
5.6 DISCLAIMER 34

Table of Figures
FIGURE 1: STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES IN USE 9
FIGURE 2: TOTAL SURVEYED STORAGE PER TYPE 10
FIGURE 3: STORAGE GROWTH BY INDUSTRY 11
FIGURE 4: MEAN DISK CAPACITY BY INDUSTRY 12
FIGURE 5: GIGABYTES OF STORAGE PER ADMINISTRATOR 13
FIGURE 6: STORAGE BY EMPLOYEE 14
FIGURE 7: DISK BY EMPLOYEE BY INDUSTRY 15
FIGURE 8: STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR SALARIES 16
FIGURE 9: STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION 17
FIGURE 10: VIRTUAL TAPE 18
FIGURE 11: STORAGE NETWORKING 19
FIGURE 12: DATABASE VENDORS 21
FIGURE 13: DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR SALARIES 22
FIGURE 14: SUCCESS OF STORAGE STRATEGY 23
FIGURE 15: TYPE OF COMPANY 30
FIGURE 16: ANNUAL REVENUE 31
FIGURE 17: IT BUDGET 32
FIGURE 18: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 33
FIGURE 19: PARTICIPANT TITLES 34

1 Executive Summary

Data centers have been around since the dawn of computing. But just because they’ve been around forever doesn’t mean they’ve endured unchanged. In fact, we’re smack in the middle of a radical shift in data-center architecture, design and operations.

Nemertes’ groundbreaking benchmark, “The New Data Center 2006,” details these changes and their impacts, highlights critical issues for IT executives, and provides best practices and success strategies for organizations seeking to deploy and leverage this new data center.

In Volume 1, we examine the overall state of the data center, uncover the four major themes of consolidation, explosive growth, always-on availability and operational efficiency/automation.

In Volumes 2 through 7, we look at the six disciplines of the data center and the major trends in each:

 Computing – Major trends such as virtualization and dense computing.
 Storage – Extreme growth in storage demand and storage virtualization.
 Networking – Optical interconnects, high-speed server interconnects, and more reliance on the WAN to deliver applications.
 Facilities – Power and cooling for dense computing and storage.
 Management – Business service management, Web services, ITIL and CMDB.
 Security – Re-trenched perimeter, mobility and identity.
Finally, in Volume 8, we examine best practices, strategies for success and Nemertes recommendations.
For more information or to schedule a briefing, please contact research@nemertes.com

2 The New Data Center
2.1 Overview
The major themes and shifts of the new data center contained within are based on detailed discussions with 82 IT executives from 65 companies, spanning various industries and company sizes (For further details, please see Appendix A - Benchmark Methodology starting on page 51). The average revenue of the participants is $5 billion, and the average IT budget is $145.5 million. Participant organizations had, on average, 24,000 employees in 385 locations. To serve these employees, organizations operated an average of eight data centers.

--------

Nemertes Retainer Clients have access to the full benchmark report: "The New Data Center 2006 - Volume 3: Strorage". This report is available for sale and as part of a Nemertes Research subscription or retainer service. Contact sales@nemertes.com for further information.

Technology vendors can request to provide a briefing or receive a briefing from a Nemertes Analyst.

Nemertes Research conducts benchmark interviews with leading IT executives. Our research participants receive this research for free. There are limited opportunities for IT executives of all industries and company sizes to sign up as participants.