Talk:Enterprise storage

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There is no reason "Backup" has to be off-line or sequential access only. The distinction of an Archive being "content, not data" is nonsensical. -- Austin Murphy 18:36, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Boy, just read this and scream: "Enterprise storage is a field [...] focused on storage [...] of data". This page will never be any good, because "enterprise storage" is just "storage used by enterprises". I would like to add that "enterprise chewing gum" is really "a chewing gum used by enterprises". --Kubanczyk 17:37, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that the term, "enterprise storage" is widely used within the field of (yes) enterprise storage and this article explains that term. There are conferences focusing on this topic (Storage Decisions, Storage Networking World, etc), publications (Storage Magazine, InfoStor, etc), and companies (EMC, Network Appliance, etc). This is much more than a simple term - it is a major industry. It really is called "enterprise storage", and really is differentiated from consumer storage. --SFoskett 17:42, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
I have no doubt that the term Enterprise storage is used in the real world. The problem is that this article doesn't make sense. The links above are all related to the topic of Enterprise storage, but don't actually define the term or even provide good examples. The break-down of the topic into 4 categories as defined in this article just doesn't make sense. All 4 categories (storage, backup, archiving, and disaster recovery) are applicable to Consumer storage too. Each of the explanations is wrong or skewed. Storage has little to do with data protection, backup is a process that can work with any kind of storage, archiving only means moving data offline, and disaster recovery is just that, recovering from a disaster.
The differences between enterprise and consumer storage (that I can come up with off-hand) amount to the scale of implementation and the use of a few unique technologies. SCSI, FibreChannel, SANs, Tape librarys, etc. Other than the use of these technologies, enterprise storage is just plain bigger than consumer storage. Furthermore, what used to pass as Enterprise in the past is now commonplace in the houses of even the least technologically aware people.
In my experience, the term is most frequently used to try to justify the prices of expensive SAN hardware. That basically means it is a marketing term and it should be treated as such. -- Austin Murphy 20:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
Now wait a second. By your logic, if scale and a "few unique technologies" amount to mere "marketing", then the only difference between a pickup truck and a semi-trailer truck is marketing too. And so what if "what used to pass as Enterprise in the past is now commonplace in the houses of even the least technologically aware people"? That's true of almost EVERY aspect of information technology! Finally, given that most companies treat MIS/IT as a cost-center rather than an investment, I highly doubt that every business who's purchased enterprise-class SAN hardware has been duped into paying extra for something they didn't really need. Groupthink 20:45, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
The article still doesn't make sense. If you have any other insight into what makes Enterprise storage a separate topic from Consumer storage or even plain old computer storage, I suggest adding it to the article. References would also be useful. -- Austin Murphy 13:37, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
Here, I've attempted to fix some obvious issues. Still, I'm really unable to find any reliable sources :(( --Kubanczyk (talk) 19:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)