Access "TCO analysis: does it work for storage?"
This article is part of the Vol. 1 No. 9 November 2002 issue of Optimizing your enterprise database storage
What does a storage solution actually cost? Ask a vendor and they'll most likely answer your question with another question: How much do you want it to cost? It's a well-known fact that vendors, consultants, analysts and even CIOs themselves can manipulate the TCO analysis to make costly solutions look cheap, cheap solutions look costly and anything in-between depending on their particular agenda. Manipulating TCO models TCO models offer ample places to build in bias. Acquisition price-the lower the price, the lower the TCO, but is this the price you actually get? System sizing-vendors can undersize the system to lower the acquisition price and resulting TCO. Estimated utilization-the higher the utilization the lower the TCO, but who is doing the estimating and how realistic is it? Cost of management-the more people it takes to administer the storage the higher the TCO. This is a judgment call only you can make. High availability-the greater the uptime, the lower the TCO. Is it 99.999 or 99.9? Be realistic. Frequency of configuration changes-the more ... Access >>>
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Features
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Storage industry index
May followed April's dramatic decline.
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Saving Media from Extinction
What do whales and digitizing analog broadcast tapes have in common?
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Bocada clarifies backup picture
by W. Curtis Preston
Bocada's latest version of BackupReport could make your life easier if you have to track multiple backup servers.
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Virtualize the right way
by Marc Farley
Here are some guidelines for designing virtualized systems.
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Brocade, McData Bolster Midrange Families
Dominant Fibre Channel switch vendors Brocade and McData have both made significant enhancements to their midrange 2Gb/s Fibre Channel switch platforms.
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Network appliance raises the bar for NAS/SAN convergence
by Michael Desmond
The FAS900 series breaks new ground in bringing together file and block storage.
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The Whys and Wherefores of Failed Backups
Despite all the effort storage administrators pour into backup, backups fail about 40% of the time.
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Definition
Direct Memory Access
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Towards the new data center
by David Braue
Modular servers, separate storage and networked storage all add up to flexibility and efficiency unprecedented in the glass house.
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Storage industry index
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- API Swaps: Only Skin Deep
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Microsoft Scales Data Center Wall with MPIO
Microsoft is exhausting data center managers' objections to running Windows in the data center.
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TCO analysis: does it work for storage?
TCO analysis is all the rage, but use with caution—the numbers can be twisted by vendors trying to make a sale.
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Migrating Data No Picnic - and No Bargain
To describe data migration as complex is an understatement and tools to assist in data migration, meanwhile, are few and far between,
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How to make your budget case
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Justify yourself to the budget committee - here's how.
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Director or core switch: which one works for you?
Each brings with it certain assumptions about reliability and manageability. But there's hope: The architectures are converging.
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Storage Manager Profile
NAS vs. SAN? Who Cares?
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Get top performance from database storage
by Benjamin Kuo
Taking your SAN beyond backup to run production databases requires the right layout, good practices and better integration. The benefits: high performance, floor-space savings and streamlined operations.
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Columns
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It still comes down to good old backup and restore
Storage Bin: After all these years, it still comes down to good old backup and restore.
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Guidelines to troubleshooting your SAN.
by Darryl Brooks
Guidelines to troubleshooting your SAN.
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Hot Spots: Create a storage services group now
Our new columnist looks at creating a storage services group.
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Do you use 1Gb/s or 2Gb/s switches?
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Pick the right database backup option.
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Integration
by James Damoulakis
Pick the right database backup option.
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Time to sign up
by Mark Schlack
Time to sign up.
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It still comes down to good old backup and restore
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