Users modernizing their storage infrastructures within tight budgets and challenging environmental regulations are relying on virtualization, new storage systems, green storage technologies, and better management practices and tools to meet their service-level agreements and security needs.

Several issues intersect in a broad set of choices and outcomes involving an IT organization's storage requirements: expanding business requirements, new and emerging technologies, tactical considerations, and evolving best practices in the deployment and management of storage. This research highlights some of the most important questions driving Gartner's 2009 research agenda in the storage space.