Storage resource management policies: Do you need them?

Storage resource management policies: Do you need them?

Storage resource management (SRM) -- considered as the policies that permit access and use of shared storage resources -- is an important and challenging aspect of successful storage operations. Indeed, Gartner Group estimates that storage management constitutes 80% of storage total cost of ownership (TCO).

However, doing SRM successfully is tricky to say the least. SRM is "tricky" not so much because of any technical issue but because any kind of exercise dividing the storage pie can produce organizational discord. Rules and regulations are never popular and, if carried to an extreme, might actually hurt operational efficiency.

NTP Software, a server-applications development and services company based in Manchester, NH, offers a useful white paper that discusses some of these issues and also provides a framework for developing an SRM policy. The paper can be viewed

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here.

At Storage Network World, Precise Software Solutions based in Westwood, Mass., announced the availability of what it says is the first storage resource management policy development program. The product can help create a customized storage usage policy with automated monitoring and enforcement that offers the potential of reducing storage management costs.

"As the heart of the corporate enterprise, data storage is one of the costliest components of the entire IT infrastructure," said Nancy Marone, senior storage analyst with Enterprise Storage Group. "At the same time, it's one of the most underutilized and abused."

Marrone predicts that Precise's SRM policy development program will help companies get a handle on how their data storage resources are used, "leading to reduced TCO and improved fulfillment of service level agreements."

For more information:

For more information on the Precise product, go to: www.precise.com

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  • Alan Earls often writes about things NAS and SAN in his weekly "SAN/NAS Update: Trends" column. View the latest

    • About the author: Alan Earls is a freelance writer in Franklin, MA.


    This was first published in April 2002

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