Most users' environments are an architectural mess. With consolidations, acquisitions and multiple buyers of storage, most storage managers are giving up on planning. With both heterogeneous and homogeneous shops operating in near crisis modes, planning for these variables is nearly impossible so for most their primary focus is on keeping the production jobs from running out of disk space.

Part of this blame belongs at the feet of first generation storage resource management (SRM) tools which are a disaster. Taking months to install and years to configure in large storage environments, their value propositions are at best questionable. Need I say more when companies like Creekpath Systems cashed out for US$10 million while AppIQ gathers dust in the HP software graveyard?

What vendors still need to prove with these tools is that they can do basic tasks easily and simply. You would not think inventorying a storage environment and producing reliable reports from an internal web site would be that difficult. But each vendor is always quick to produce their list of hardware that their software does not support.

With storage complexity at an all time high, visibility remains at an all time low. With first generation SRM tools creating an atmosphere of distrust within organizations, vendors need to come up with a better way to install their software and deliver the value that customers want. Otherwise expect storage infrastructures to remain invisible for a long time to come.

Jerome Wendt currently works as a storage engineer and storage analyst. He contributes regularly to a variety of industry trade publications and can be reached at jerome.wendt@att.net.