Software, AI, Cloud Combine To Bring Value To Data
The growth of the value of the data storage industry at least for now continues to scale to new heights. Research firm IDC in January estimated the worldwide enterprise storage system external OEM market rose 6.1 percent in 2021 over 2020 to $31.1 billion and will rise another 7.6 percent in 2022 to $33.5 billion, with annual growth tapering off in the following three years.
While that statistic is interesting as a proxy for data storage system growth, it doesn’t begin to reflect what is happening above the hardware part of storage. Instead, to understand what is really happening in storage, it is important to look beyond increasingly commoditized hardware to the software that defines storage, the cloud that can either complement or replace on-premises storage, and the efficiencies that come from a mix of artificial intelligence and better management tools.
CRN is taking a look at what to expect from the data storage industry as 2022 unfolds.
And, by the way, take a look at CRN’s data storage predictions for 2021, which were published a year ago this month, and see whether we got it right or missed the key points.
