This is true even though technologies such as virtualization, deduplication, intelligent storage tiering and more recently software defined storage allow more efficient utilization of storage hardware.

FORBES: Nothing Comes for Free

Despite the move to control the growth of digital storage requirements in data centers (e.g. the cloud) by means of virtualization, deduplication and other methods to achieve higher storage capacity utilization the amount of stuff and the size of the stuff we store continues to increase.

FORBES: Why We Should Expect HDD Growth Later this Year

This growth in the overall amount of content overwhelms our efforts to concentrate the storage of content and increase the utilization rates of digital storage systems.

FORBES: Why We Should Expect HDD Growth Later this Year

As shown in a recent Samsung event, increasing utilization of enterprise equipment, including digital storage, keeps the equipment in data centers working even harder, resulting in even higher energy use.

FORBES: Pumping Iron and Keeping Cool

Control of power utilization in these data centers will drive new tiered storage approaches with solid state storage combined with HDDs and with new non-volatile memory using either flash memory or new approaches such as MRAM.

FORBES: Pumping Iron and Keeping Cool

New ARM-based server all around lower power utilization, high density. 3Par has better solution in storage.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Utilization rates of between 20 and 30% of total capacity are common for first-line production storage systems.

FORBES: No new storage in 2013