An EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)
spokesman says his company has been selling its NAS products across various
departments at major enterprises for a longer period. But he declined to
give a breakdown.
Industry analysts are convinced that rapid NAS deployment across
companies of all sizes will quickly become a no brainer. Thats because the
technology is quickly and cost effectively scaling to the low end for small
workgroup uses and to the high end for large databases.
Until very recently, NAS boxes were not able to reach the database
side, says Arun Taneja, an analyst with The Enterprise
Storage Group Inc. He says that now, thanks to some emerging products from companies like
Network Appliance and startup BlueArc
Corp., even big Oracle databases can be cost-effectively accessed with NAS
filers. He adds that several other startups are also poised to penetrate the
high-end market.
Meanwhile, Auspex Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ASPX), the company that pioneered the first NAS boxes in 1987
and hopes to return to its former glory, is starting to see its equipment
deployed across large enterprises. For example, French oil and technology
conglomerate Schlumberger originally purchased high-end NAS boxes from
Auspex to use in its software development department. Schlumberger recently
upgraded to Auspexs NS 3000 models and uses them for its entire email
system and for software downloads worldwide, says Mark Amelang, Auspex's director of
marketing.
Vendors selling low- to mid-range NAS products are seeing more widespread
demand but also much more competition. Over the last year or so, several
traditional storage and computer companies have dived into the market for
low-end NAS products and are rapidly driving down prices. They include
Maxtor Corp. (NYSE: MXO), Dell Computer Corp.
(Nasdaq: DELL), Compaq Computer Corp.
(NYSE: CPQ), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM),
and Quantum Corp. (NYSE: DSS),
through its acquisition of Snap Appliances.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
