Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
By Linda Gail Christie
According to a study conducted by HighGround Systems, as much as 45% of the storage that supports IT networks is wasted by storing duplicate, unused, and/or orphan files.
"This can cost big bucks as companies migrate their data to storage service providers (SSP) that charge by the gigabyte," said Tom Rose, VP Advanced Marketing for HighGround. "However, answering the question, 'What do I have now and how is it being used?' is one of the biggest problems customers have when a Storage Service Provider (SSP) shows up."
Storage assessments can be expensive and time consuming -- often requiring months of customer interviews and manual searches. And because of high turnover, often employees can't answer questions about storage usage and demand.
To speed up storage assessments as well as improve results, now storage consultants can employ a new, automated tool to quickly gain critical knowledge of a client's storage infrastructure. Surveyor Storage Resource Manager (Surveyor SRM) is a Web-based storage reporting and analysis solution that can survey multiple, open-systems platforms (Windows, NT, Unix, Netware, Exchange, etc.) and different types of storage topologies (direct-attached, network-attached, and SAN) to determine how your storage is impacting applications.
According to Rose, automated storage assessment solutions such as HighGround's Surveyor SRM, allow storage vendors, integrators, and
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consultants to quickly gain a clear picture of existing storage infrastructures in order to make accurate recommendations. "Surveyor SRM allows storage providers to recommend the right connectivity, quality of service, number of connections, and capacity," Rose said.
Storage management tips are written by Linda Gail Christie, a contributing editor based in Tulsa, Okla.
This was first published in September 2000
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