Common tasks for a storage administrator

I was wondering whether you or someone on your staff has a formal list of what are the most common tasks that a storage administrator completes to get his or her job done and which are the most time consuming? Also, I am trying to determine if there is any third-party market research available, which focuses on the IT needs of storage administrators.

Thanks in advance for your help?

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Common tasks for a storage administrator.

Note:
1. Storage = disk, tape, SAN, and storage software
2. Percentage after each task is approximatley timed

1. Manage current storage environment (20%)

  • Resolve any storage shortages
  • Alert and resolve any performance issues and notify end-users
  • Insure that data is available to all applications

2. Application support (20%)

  • Work with application developers to determine storage requirements
  • Work with existing programmers, DBAs to optimize storage

3. Backup (15%)

  • Maintain proper backup schedule
  • Restore and recover data as requested
  • Facilitate off-site storage of tape

4. Monitor current storage environment (15%)

  • Usage
  • Performance
  • Availability
  • Reporting on status

5. Capacity planning (10%)

  • Forecast storage growth
  • Determine allocation of different storage types

6. Evaluations (10%)

  • Provide input from vendor proposals
  • Due diligence on new software
  • Drive vendor testing

7. New installs (10%)

  • Responsible for planning and execution of the storage installation
  • Perform any host-level tasks need to access new storage

For third-party input, check with Gartner, IDC, Enterprise Storage Group or the Evaluator Group.

Hope this helps.

Jim

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This was first published in March 2002

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