Business Opportunity: Information Explosion Fuels Data Storage Growth
One of the biggest outputs of the Internet age is millions of people and companies have become content producers. Data production continues to grow, making storage and management of information big business. Big business to corporate giants like IBM or Hewlett-Packard, but also for small entrepreneurial companies such as IPR International with their DataGuardian service.
Driving Force: Thank companies like Enron for the changes in corporate environment evoking the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act makes data storage, back-up and recovery, a big issue for companies of all sizes. Another driving force is the fact that we are an information society producing high outputs of data yearly. Data storage is here to stay.
Risks: Out of all types of business opportunities, technology is associated with the highest risks due to obsolescence and rapid changes. Your odds of success are greater pursuing boring business like dry cleaning as opposed to losing your "shirt" on tech ventures.
A risk reduction approach may be offering consulting to the industry or serving the storage needs of the Small Medium Business (SMB) market instead of direct participation. A report by Access Markets International-Partners Inc., estimates SMB storage sales will grow at a compounded rate of 43% versus 5% for large enterprises. Remember, the gold seekers of the gold era most often did not get rich, it was the tool and denim companies such as Levi's that made it big.
Resources:
Computer World Storage Knowledge Center
Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
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