This IDC study reviews the 2007 predictions and previews of IDC's storage team and the technologies and market forces that will shape the storage industry in 2008.

Demand for storage capacity continues to grow at a rate of nearly 60% per year, and IDC believes that during 2008, the industry will see significant shifts in the way data is stored, managed, and protected, and create a variety of critical transition points.

"In the past several years, storage trends have tended to be tactical and focused on developments in specific technologies," said Benjamin S. Woo, vice president, Enterprise Storage Systems at IDC. "2008 is likely to represent an inflection point in the way applications and storage will be interfaced."

"The overarching theme of storage efficiency will intensify throughout 2008 and increase the industry's focus on virtualization strategies and green initiatives as well as information consolidation techniques like deduplication," added Dave Reinsel, vice president of Storage and Semiconductor research.