Storage Effect

In no particular order, events and trends driving storage in 2007:

• Microsoft Windows Vista. The launch has been touch and go, but eventual broad-based adoption means much more storage per PC.
• “Lost data” events - TJ Maxx, the UK Government, etc.  Lost and stolen customer records in the news have created a whole new category of nightmares for business owners, driving them to invest in data security.  Or secure data.
• Data deduplication.  Amazing data efficiency is becoming readily available.  Rather than reduce the amount of data saved, it’s expanding the use of archiving.
• Home servers.  Microsoft Home Server launched just as the market seems poised to adopt these content “home bases”.
• External storage drives.  Prices dropped this year, spiking sales of 250GB, 500GB, even 1 TB backup drives for homes and small businesses.
• Video surveillance.  Analog-to-digital conversion plus image processing innovations have resulted in huge growth in terabyte-scale surveillance for businesses of all sizes.
• Video downloads. iTunes, Unbox, even network TV have introduced downloading movies and episodes (and seasons) into the mainstream.