Planning for next year (Continued from page 6)
For many storage managers, planning for the next year's budget starts right about the time the current budget is approved. It's an arduous process that requires company-wide vision and the ability to anticipate the unexpected. But the process of deciding how much you'll spend and what you'll spend it on typically also involves finding places to trim current costs.
"So far, we've been relatively immune to cutting costs," says Hunter with the City of North Vancouver, but even stable budgets can look a bit shaky when costs are rising. "We're also looking at ways of maintaining my headcount."
For others, reining in costs is a matter of revisiting current practices. "We've been finding ways to centralize licensing," says Kulesa, referring to the CME's current licensing arrangement for Symantec Corp.'s backup app. He thinks they might be able to trim costs a bit through consolidation and by reducing the number of licenses required.
"We had to cut costs," says Taylor, as he explains how his company accommodated the purchase of its new array. They cut back a little by delaying some work on a few app projects and security enhancements. "I know that's going against the grain," says Taylor, "but if you don't have any data to secure, what does it matter?"
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About the survey:
Storage's Purchasing Intentions Survey is administered twice a year. This is the fourth year we've asked storage managers to respond to the survey. Survey responses for this edition of the Purchasing Intentions Survey were gathered in August 2006, with a total of 564 responses overall, representing a broad cross-section of industry sectors. The number of responses for particular questions varies because respondents were asked to only answer questions in the product categories for which they have purchasing authority.
