How have requirements changed compared to previous years? "From a tech point of view, more cores on a single CPU," said HP's See, who added that "a lot of clients will convert from a single server to a blade-server setup." He added that "sales depends on support."

"Hardware-accelerated encryption tape drives [are] on the rise," said IBM's Yuen. According to Yuen, the latter is due to "a series of tape loss fiascos from world-famous companies and organizations" which has led to "increased market demand for encrypted tape."

"The biggest change we have seen is in the managed security and storage space, both from suppliers and users," said Chua. "Additionally, we have seen in increase in remote managed storage projects-especially related to fulfilling compliancy requirements, i.e. secure email, email archiving, archive management, DRP and BCP."

Challenges for 2007

What do you expect the biggest market challenges to be in 2007? "People resources," said See from HP. "People move between organizations, and expect higher salaries...the organization's ability to retain core staff--and their skills--will be key."