Gartner’s latest storage and data protection hype cycle is an amazingly long report and, this being Gartner, the basic idea is treated to exhaustive analysis by a team of consultants.
The hype cycle concept is a wave-like outline in a two axis space defined by time along the bottom and and expectations vertically. Technologies flow along this line. There is an initial rising line, in what is called the Innovation Trigger period. This leads to a high point, the Peak of Inflated Expectations, followed by a downward plunge to the Trough of Disillusionment. We then see technologies becoming more talked about again and adopted in the Slope of Enlightenment time, followed by them reaching the Plateau of Productivity.
This whole hype cycle idea with terms such as Peak of Inflated Expectations and Trough of Disillusionment is like something out of The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan’s book of theological allegory.
Gartner’s pundits place technologies at various points on the wave outline and justify their choices in great reams of text using a fixed format – Definition, Why This Is Important, Business Impact, Drivers, Obstacles, User Recommendations, followed by a set of sample vendors for each technology:
Mature technologies in the final Plateau of Productivity phase are ignored.
There is also a Priority Matrix table showing the expected number of years to mainstream adoption for each technology:
The whole thing is a great deal of fun to read and ponder.
But it does leave a meta question in B&F‘s mind: where in the overall hype cycle is Gartner’s storage hype cycle? Are we in the Trough of Disillusionment or the Slope of Enlightenment?
