08-23-2007, 05:43 PM
Quote:I think part of the problem is you're looking specifically at the home market. Data warehousing is starting to really take off in business. In order to have a good data warehouse you need space, lots of it. This is why things like SANs, NAS, and DAS have taken off (espeically SAN). As various business applications get more and more intricate, the need for more space becomes apparent (I've worked with SQL databases that were growing at 500% per year after routine compression done daily and sometimes hourly). While the general home user may not need this kind of space, business are screaming for it to try and keep down the foot print of their equipment in their data centers (along with the operating costs as less equipment requires less power, less personnel, and less maintenance).
I don't think we're in disagreement. I should have been more clear from the start, I was talking specifically about the home market. Although there are plenty of business technologies that have jumped ship and gone into the public everyday market, there are also a good number of technologies designed for the corporate world which remain corporate. I have no doubt the needs in the corporate world will keep up demand for bigger/faster/better storage options. I've seen examples of Oracle DB's that make my head want to explode (btw, a 500% per year growth rate on an SQL db is pretty mind blowing to me).
But the corporate world that demands these technologies won't think twice at high hardware costs if it saves them space, time, and as you mentioned maintenance/personnel. So while a new technology may be great in the corporate world, a $1000+ player just isn't going to effect my life that much - unless I jump ship from servicing small corporations SQL db's to ones like you see, an unlikely and scary idea to me!
Cheers,
Munk