1. For midsized and enterprise IT operations, storage is an inseparable part of the overall IT infrastructure. For those segments, storage can only be properly understood within the context of the overall IT system.  Smaller companies are different.
   
2. While technology may be inherently interesting, business values are what drive technology sales. For a vendor's offering to be successful, it needs to do more than just work.  It must also either provide demonstrable savings, enable an increase in revenues or -- ideally -- both.

Mike Karp is a veteran of the telecoms, systems and storage technology wars. He held various technical and marketing roles at Prime Computer and then at Calyx Corp in the 1980's and 90's before founding Flying Fish Software.  Later he managed strategic alliances for NCR Microelectronics/Symbios Logic/LSI, and in 2000 became Director of Strategic Business Development for Bellcore's OSS group.  In 2001 he "went over to the dark side" and became an industry analyst, first as director of storage services at Hurwitz Group and then spending eight years heading up the storage practice for Enterprise Management Associates. 

As an analyst, Mike has provided strategic guidance to senior management, marketing and sales staff at a wide range of vendors, with particular focus on go-to-market and sales enablement issues. He has consulted and written on such topics as data reduction, virtualization, cloud, SRM, grid, SMB, data protection, VTL, and CDP, all with emphasis on market requirements and improving IT efficiency of operation.  He has developed storage business analytics, most recently in the areas of dedup and ROI, worked to identify potential partnerships between clients, and conducted primary and secondary research on emerging/existing technologies and market opportunities.

Mike has extensive contacts with professional media, and has approximately 1,000 publications to his credit. From 2001-2007 he was the author of the twice-weekly Storage in the Enterprise newsletter for Network World.  Mike makes many public presentations, and has been a featured speaker on NPR and at such public forums as Comdex, N+I, SNW, Storage Conference, and SCSI Trade Association meetings.

Mike's education includes an A.B. from Franklin & Marshall College, an MA from Brandeis University, and extensive doctoral work at both Bryn Mawr College and Colorado Technical University.

Who we are

Mike Karp, the founder and principal analyst at Infrastructure Analytics, is a 30 year industry veteran in the storage, systems, and telecoms segments.

While he has spent the last 10 years as a storage industry analyst, he differs from most industry analysts in that the majority of his career has been spent in the real world, working for everything from Fortune 500 companies to startups.  Early on, at such vendors as Prime Computer and Calyx Corporation, he worked in development, product management and technical marketing. Later, at NCR Microelectronics/Symbios Logic/LSI, and Bellcore he focused on strategic alliances, channel support, biz dev, and go-to-market programs.

Mike is widely quoted and has been a featured speaker on NPR as well as at many industry conferences, including Storage Networking World, Storage World Conference, COMDEX, N+I,  and SCSI Trade Association meetings. His writing is well known, and is widely accessible on the web and on numerous clients' websites.  For five years he authored the twice-weekly Storage in the Enterprise newsletter for  Network World.  

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