In this new feature of FarSighted, we bring you the top stories from the leading analyst firms in the industry. For the key takeaways from IT thought leaders' key reports, FarSighted's Analyst Watch is the source.

1. Storage Virtualization to Emerge as a Critical Competitive Battleground, IDC User Survey Reveals
2. EMA Study Reveals Many Organizations Have Little or No Content Management Discipline; Emergence of Online Content Types Adds to Challenge
3. Government and Industry Regulations Fuel the Need for Encryption of Computer-Based Data within the Enterprise, Finds IDC
4. Yankee Group Affirms Server Virtualization Is Transforming Today's Enterprise IT)
5. IDC Reveals New Forecast on the Worldwide Virtual Tape Library Market: Expect Market Revenue to Double by 2011
6. Gartner Says 50 Percent of Data Centers Will Have Insufficient Power and Cooling Capacity by 2008

Storage Virtualization to Emerge as a Critical Competitive Battleground, IDC User Survey Reveals

Over the next five years, storage virtualization in all its forms will emerge as a critical competitive battleground in the storage industry, according to a new IDC study "Storage Virtualization Comes of Age, Following Server Virtualization (http://idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS20465806). These technologies will drive changes in storage system architectures, spur significant investments in new storage software solutions, and potentially disrupt the current competitive environment.

"Storage virtualization has come of age. It's no longer a nascent market with limited user deployments and immature technology. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed are evaluating storage virtualization solutions, and 34% have already implemented such a solution," said Laura DuBois, research director for Storage Software at IDC.

"Our survey respondents' high level of interest reflects the growing role that file-centric applications have in many companies," added Richard Villars, vice president of Storage Systems at IDC. "Given current data-generation trends, file virtualization will emerge as an even more critical market for storage solutions providers."

EMA Study Reveals Many Organizations Have Little or No Content Management Discipline; Emergence of Online Content Types Adds to Challenge

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) recently released an in-depth independent research report on "Enterprise Content Management: Toward a New Content Paradigm"
(http://www.emausa.com/web/ema_news_ecm0107.php). Enterprise Content Management (ECM) consists of a broad collection of disciplines that enable a business to create, acquire, store, index, deliver and delete a wide variety of content. It is a critical part of information technology, providing the ability for businesses to access structured information, meet legal and compliance requirements and serve customers. From a basic paper-based filing system to state-of-the-art electronic asset storage, ECM is essential to any business.

The report finds that:

• Online content technologies are rapidly overtaking traditional content-instant messaging is already more popular than fax, and corporate blogging will triple in 12 months-even though most companies are not prepared for them.
• Overall, enterprises are very happy with their ECM effectiveness and cost-benefit-more than 80% rate their ECM solution as being effective with at worst a neutral cost-benefit.
• Enterprises are implementing ECM primarily to improve access to information, collaboration and productivity. By contrast, cost reduction and regulatory compliance rate last and second-last respectively as expected outcomes from ECM deployments
• E-mail is by far the most used content delivery mechanism, ranked most important by almost 90% of enterprises, beating both Web pages (66%) and hardcopy delivery (50%).
• Many organizations have little or no content management discipline. 82% of enterprises use network file servers as their primary content repository; 60% use e-mail folders; 14% have no formal content repository at all.

"Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a rapidly evolving field within IT management," said EMA Senior Analyst Andi Mann. "In addition to the challenge posed by traditional content such as documents, images, forms and videos, today's enterprise must be able to address new online content technologies like web pages, blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS feeds in their overall ECM strategy."

Government and Industry Regulations Fuel the Need for Encryption of Computer-Based Data within the Enterprise, Finds IDC

According to IDC, data encryption is set to go mainstream (http://idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS20462506) as governments and industry organizations hope to stem the flow of lost, stolen, or misused information hemorrhaging from today's enterprises. Once reserved for protecting matters of national security, data encryption is expanding to become a viable option for combating emerging threats against computer-based data and helping companies comply with government and industry regulations.

In this new study, "Data Protection Multiclient Study: Data Encryption Option," IDC found that 56% of respondents believe encryption should be implemented at the storage system software layer. "For information to be valuable, it must be easily accessible at all times," said Charles Kolodgy, director of IDC's Security Products and Services group. "The protection and preservation of data is critical, and encryption at the storage layer helps ensure protection while maintaining accessibility." Some remain skeptical, however, as 41% of respondents cited confidence of recovery of encrypted data as a barrier to the deployment of storage encryption solutions.

• In the future, many will expect encryption to be a feature of removable media
• Cost isn't a large barrier for those who decide to use encryption
• Vendors see encryption technology as mature and ready for primetime, but users remain wary

Yankee Group Affirms Server Virtualization Is Transforming Today's Enterprise IT)

Recently, Yankee Group revealed the results of its 2006 Global Server Virtualization Survey
(View Survey), which found that server virtualization is a mainstream technology, with three out of four businesses already using or planning to deploy the technology.

A virtualized server enables businesses to consolidate physical space in the data center, consolidate server licenses to potentially lower costs and achieve greater compliance, improve reliability, and more quickly and flexibly deploy applications. In turn, this enables firms to achieve optimal total cost of ownership (TCO) and accelerated return on investment (ROI) results. For the overwhelming majority of corporations, the more important question is when-not if-they will implement virtualization in the corporate data center.

Some of the major survey findings include:

The global respondents had near universal praise for virtualization. However, the rapid growth of the technology has left little time to establish a much-needed operational and procedural standard. To avoid disruption, CIOs and IT managers need to adapt and continually monitor their approach to virtualization.

"The Yankee Group 2006 Global Server Virtualization Survey validates the perceived popularity of virtualization, the drivers for adoption and the recognized market leaders," said Laura DiDio, Yankee Group Application Infrastructure & Software Platforms research fellow. "By taking the time to fully understand all aspects of this new technology, IT managers can better understand its disruptive influence."

IDC Reveals New Forecast on the Worldwide Virtual Tape Library Market: Expect Market Revenue to Double by 2011
Recently, IDC revealed its new forecast on the worldwide virtual tape library (VTL) market. In the report "Worldwide Virtual Tape Library 2006-2011 Forecast and Analysis: Laying the Foundation" (http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS20414806), the firm predicts that the worldwide VTL market will double in value over the next five years, reaching $1.4 billion by 2011, while the market terabytes will increase at a rapid 47.4% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the same period. Open system VTL solutions will drive market growth and eclipse enterprise mainframe VTL market value in the year ahead.

"The long-term outlook for the worldwide VTL system market calls for solid growth in market value and terabytes through 2011," said Robert Amatruda, research director for IDC's Storage group. "Although the opportunity looks bright for VTL adoption, suppliers must educate customers about the potential benefits and value proposition of VTL systems and not merely tout them solely as an alternative to tape-based data protection."

Other key findings include:

Gartner Says 50 Percent of Data Centers Will Have Insufficient Power and Cooling Capacity by 2008

During the Gartner 25th Annual Data Center Conference, the firm noted that organizations are increasingly deploying more computing power, but, by 2008, 50 percent of current data centers will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high-density equipment (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=499090).

"With the advent of high density computer equipment such as blade servers, many data centers have maxed out their power and cooling capacity," said Michael A. Bell, research vice president for Gartner. "It's now possible to pack racks with equipment requiring 30,000 watts per rack or more in connected load. This compares to only 2,000-3,000 watts per rack a few years ago."

"Increased power translates into significant increase in heat gain, where the electrical cost to cool the data center can equal or exceed the power to energize the computer equipment," Mr. Bell said. "The heat produced by this high density requires new solutions in power and cooling management, specialty cooling solutions, data center design and layout, and processor efficiency."

Traditionally, the power required for non-IT equipment in the data center (for example, cooling, fans and pumps) represented about 60 percent of total annual energy consumption. As power requirements continue to grow, energy costs will emerge as the second highest operating cost in 70 percent of worldwide data center facilities by 2009. However, a flurry of innovation is under way that will converge during the next three years to substantially mitigate the power/cooling issue.

"Equipment manufacturers are developing more energy-efficient enclosures, processors and cooling solutions," Mr. Bell said. "The leading processor manufacturers are battling to produce more energy efficient chipsets. Server manufacturers are employing more-efficient power supplies, heat sinks and power management systems, as well as offering a host of in-rack cooling solutions, supplemented by facility design and assessment services. We'll see fully integrated management systems that will monitor and manager server workloads and power/cooling demand and optimize capacities in real time."

To build an optimized, reliable and efficient facilities environment, Gartner recommends that data center managers take a holistic approach in planning, designing and laying out the data center to optimize power and cooling capacity. This should include looking at all the variables from site location to building type, building systems, rack configuration, equipment deployment, and airflow dynamics must be integrated and optimized.

"Although the power and cooling challenges will not be a perpetual problem, it is important for data center managers to focus on the electrical and cooling issue in the near team, and adopt these best practices to mitigate the problem before it results in equipment failure, downtime and high remediation costs," said Mr. Bell.