Different technologies require higher levels of maturity to be successful. Many companies will try to use an advanced storage function such as remote data replication and find it ineffective because they don't know which data to mirror. Some will try to force a fit by mirroring all data - a very expensive proposition - while others will just give up. Both approaches aren't mature enough for the technology.

That was the case where a client was trying to implement EMC's Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) remote replication product without having their data classified. They decided just to mirror their entire production environment to a disaster recovery (DR) site. Once the hardware was in place, they realized that they didn't have the bandwidth needed to keep the two arrays synchronized, much less to do the initial mirroring. Rather than canceling this important DR initiative, we worked to develop a data classification policy for the client, identified which Symmetrix volumes contained critical data and mirrored just those volumes. In the process, we documented the storage environment and storage management processes, bringing the operational maturity to the level required by this technology.

[TABLE] Incidentally, low organizational maturity is not necessarily a bad thing. Each system demands a level of maturity appropriate to it. For example, a test platform may not require mature management processes, and a branch office server may not justify them. The introduction of a new process, application or technology sets everyone back to the initial stage, and maturity has to build as knowledge is applied. Each logical element of an organization will naturally pull for more or less mature management.

Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) is an excellent example of a technology that's unworkable without high organizational maturity. It requires data classification, which in turn demands a solid understanding of both the data under management and the applications supported. So HSM requires organizational maturity level 3, a defined and standardized environment. However, the real value of HSM is its ability to move data to different classes of storage depending on its value - achieving this requires even higher maturity. No wonder it has seen limited success in the open systems market, where organizational maturity rarely reaches level 3.

Storage Resource Management (SRM) can be an enabling application for improving maturity. Organizations are always amazed when they try out an SRM product and realize just how low their storage utilization really is. This knowledge lets them understand their storage infrastructure and adopt a more proactive storage management posture. Once the environment is understood, it can be documented and standardized, and SRM can be a valuable assistant here as well. At each new level of maturity, more value can be realized from these tools.

The next time a big idea in storage comes around, ask yourself if your organization is ready for it. Once you've determined if the product is a technical match, ask yourself: Is this part of your infrastructure ready to be retired? Are your storage management processes mature enough to make effective use of the product? Most managers understand that there's more to integration than technical requirements, and these questions can help identify those additional requirements.