Efficient But Risky PAGE 4 OF 4 Even energy company Enron is getting into the business. Its Broadband Services unit launched a B2B exchange on Jan. 31 that matches excess capacity owned by SSPs with corporate storage buyers. Enron has signed a deal with StorageNetworks and is negotiating similar agreements with at least six other providers, said Ravi Thuraisingham, Enron's lead storage trader.
Many analysts see a massive consolidation on the horizon.
Meantime, the amount of data that companies amass is increasing exponentially with the advent of e-business. Forrester Research predicts that companies will increase their average online storage capacities by a factor of 10 over the next five years. That means storage and associated administration will grow from 5 percent of current information systems budgets to 17 percent in 2003, the firm estimates. The business outlook for SSPs is rosy.