The research results were published Thursday in Gartner's "MarketScope for iSCSI SAN Integrated Solutions." The emerging iSCSI, or small computer systems interface protocol over the Internet, is a technique that allows clients to consolidate storage in data center storage arrays while providing hosts (such as web servers) the illusion of local storage.

Driven by the storage requirements of virtual data centers and internet business and the abundance of social networking sites such as Facebook and mobile devices such as the BlackBerry, Dell said new business models are generating a massive amount of data that demands equally massive storage that goes beyond the limitations of traditional storage.

The advantage of iSCSI, Dell said, is that it runs over Ethernet networks and switches, can communicate over local and wide area networks, and it is an extremely flexible protocol that facilitates virtualization "because it runs on top of IP." Dell has developed a range of iSCSI products from the entry-level PowerVault line to enterprise-level Dell Equallogic solutions with scalable Dell/EMC products falling in-between.

Dell EqualLogic PS series SANs have been deployed by online personal and business directory WhitePages.com, which has since stored 105 terabytes on 32 Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage arrays in order to index 180 million-plus people.

"That's more than MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn combined," WhitePages.com senior director of IT/Operations Jack Valko said. "The number of rows in our database more than doubled last year. We can't continue to be successful unless we have adaptable, reliable storage that tightly integrates with Linux and scales easily."

Dell, traditionally known as a computer hardware manufacturer, expanded their operations when they acquired enterprise class iSCSI SANs developer EqualLogic in early 2008, and made a first foray into the containerized data storage center industry when it announced the development of its own self-contained mobile data center in May.