3PAR announced that a recently released report by the Taneja Group defines and analyzes a new category of next-generation Fibre Channel storage systems from vendors including 3PAR. The report forecasts revenue growth for next-generation Fibre Channel storage systems for the period between 2007 and 2011 and identifies shifts in the Fibre Channel storage market that Taneja believes are largely responsible for driving revenue growth for this new segment.

According to the report, the Fibre Channel storage systems market is "undergoing tremendous architectural and technology transition as end user purchasing criteria shift." Taneja cites the new emphasis on price-performance, energy efficiency, capacity optimization, and simplified storage management among these shifting criteria. In addition, the report asserts that server consolidation through the use of server virtualization technologies continues to be one of the strongest drivers for change in the infrastructure. "Consolidated, virtualized server infrastructure drives the need for advanced storage virtualization capabilities," states the report.

"We have a situation where a new class of storage systems designed to provide a simpler, more efficient, high-performance alternative to traditional monolithic and dual-controller arrays are posing a serious challenge to the status quo," said Arun Taneja, Founder and Consulting Analyst for the Taneja Group. "This new breed of storage systems directly addresses the needs of the virtualized datacenter -- something that traditional storage systems were never designed to do."

The report identifies key trends in the marketplace that Taneja believes are responsible for the forecasted shift away from traditional monolithic storage. These trends include the rise of storage consolidation initiatives based on ROI optimization, the prioritization of green storage in purchasing decisions, the use of virtualization and automated management to reduce OPEX, and the need for a more agile and dynamic infrastructure to support service-oriented IT. "Server virtualization and consolidation, green storage initiatives, and the need to contain OPEX costs associated with storage management are forcing users to rethink their traditional storage solutions," states the report.

In the report, "next-generation" storage is defined by Taneja as a new class of systems that meet a majority of a stated list of criteria which includes the use of clustered controller design, sub-disk virtualization, self-configuring and self-tuning storage, automated storage tiering, and "thin technologies." Thin technologies are defined as features that enable capacity to be dedicated on write, not on allocation. This includes support for "reservationless" snapshots, where only a single copy of changed volume data is stored for all snapshots associated with a given volume.

The report segments next-generation Fibre Channel storage systems into two main markets -- "high-end storage" and "mid-range systems." High-end Fibre Channel storage systems are defined by Taneja as those suited for the most demanding I/O workloads and the most mission-critical datacenter applications. Products are classified as "high-end" due to their random I/O performance, partitioning and security capabilities, and scalability characteristics. According to Taneja, next-generation storage from vendors such as 3PAR represents an evolution in storage system design and offers a simpler, more efficient, high-performance alternative to traditional monolithic storage systems from vendors such as EMC, IBM, and Hitachi Data Systems.

"We believe that the shifting priorities of datacenters and IT organizations have increased the demand for alternatives to traditional storage," said David Scott, CEO and President of 3PAR. "Particularly in the area of server virtualization, next-generation storage has been proven to reduce physical capacity needs, ensure high performance, and increase flexibility in the infrastructure. 3PAR's highly virtualized, utility-based approach is designed to integrate with server virtualization technologies to provide an alternative for customers who want to build a complete utility computing infrastructure."