* Data is just as valuable to the SMB manager as it is to a manager at a Fortune 500 company
The small and midsize business segment has two significant characteristics on which everyone can agree. Paradoxically, the first of these is that no two vendors seem able to define it the same way. Second, no matter how SMB is ultimately characterized, everyone understands it to be a huge and underserved market.
When it comes to storage, many vendors have mistakenly assumed that SMB only buys cheap hardware and the simplest management software. Truth be told, this likely was the case in the past when most vendors concentrated on software for large environments and served enterprise customers far batter than they have served smaller ones. As a result, SMBs lost out because a number of fundamental technologies were never made available to them.
Still, data is just as valuable to the SMB manager as it is to a manager at a Fortune 500 company, and the need to protect it is no less significant. That, plus the realization that the midmarket and high end are already saturated – and perhaps, supersaturated – with vendors and products, means that no one should be taken by surprise now that the large software vendors are no longer are willing to leave this potentially lucrative field to their smaller competitors. CA, EMC, HP and IBM have all released or are releasing robust management suites with new pricing models that will make it easier for SMB managers to squeeze more value out of their storage assets.
Unfilled need generates new products from many competitors, and the current mix of demand and necessary goods and services will result in a sharp uptick in SMB storage buying. You don’t need a crystal ball to understand that, of course – this is Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” explanation of a market-based economy, and it works just as well today as when it was first noted in the 18th century.
Still, while we all agree that SMBs will be buying a-plenty, just what they are likely to spend money for remains an issue. Luckily, a short glance into Karp’s crystal goldfish bowl offers some guidance. Peering amidst the murk I see the likelihood of more than just a quantitative change – buyers will be looking at some new technologies as well.
More on that next time.
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In a few weeks, it will be time to publish my sixth (good grief!) annual letter to Santa with my pan-sectarian storage wish list. Much of the input for this comes from my readers.
This is an opportunity for you to tell the vendors what you would like to see from them in the coming year. If you want to make a point, zing a vendor, or just engage in some healthy venting, e-mail a list of the things you’d like to see from the storage vendors some time during the next two weeks. If you don’t contribute, you have no right to complain. If you do… well, who knows what you might find under your blade server on the big day?
