LSCIV - I don't think IOPS will disappear, just that we'll get a budget of them and/or an SLA, and someone else will handle all the ugly details of disks and raid and such. The tools, as much as they have advanced, still have a ways to go, but with the DMV type info evolving, we should get to the point in the next gen or two where the tools will tell us whether we're using or abusing resources. At that point the business pays us to try to reduce consumption, or pays to increase resources. True today of course, but often a swag, I look forward to it being something we can easily measure which way has the better ROI.

I guess it's also that my visions matches the flow I already see. I rarely deal with disks any more, and it's taken a bit to get comfortable with that, less control you know! But specialization is the trend and I think it's healthy, just makes sense to have someone that focuses on storage.