In the previous article I discussed the subject of Billing and Chargeback. This entry discusses some of the issues raised in that post as additional considerations.

The DroboElite is the most fully featured storage array in the Data Robotics range of devices. Regular readers will know I’ve posted frequently on these devices, from the first Drobo “Classic” to the DroboPro, both of which I own and have purchased myself. Data Robotics have kindly loaned me a DroboElite for this series of posts. As you will see, the top of the range model offers all the features the other models provide, plus the benefits of multi-user support.

In any system, resources are finite. There is always a limitation to what is available. However there’s also a truism that states if resources are free then they will be consumed at an infinite rate. So it is with storage. Someone has to pay for the storage resources that are placed on the floor. If customers are not charged in some way for their consumption of storage, then they will continue to consume resources ad infinitum. The solution is to implement chargeback or, to be more precise, billing.

I’m not a fan of making press releases on behalf of other companies however once in a while, a news item catches my interest. So it is with the announcement of the Violin Memory Inc. 3200 series of all-memory storage arrays. Why are these interesting? Because I think they are moving and potentially blurring the boundaries between spinning drives and memory-based permanent data storage.

As discussed previously, the Service Catalogue is a key component of delivering storage as a service. In this post, I’ll explore some thoughts on developing a Service Catalogue and how its abstraction from technology allows the delivery of a more efficient operation.

IT has matured and we’ve mostly moved on to a service-orientated method for delivering computing (and in this case storage) resources. To effectively deliver storage resources within an organisation, it is essential to move to a service-based model where storage is provided as a service offering that is planned and managed, rather than simply on-demand.

You may have assumed from my previous post on VPLEX that I am negative towards the concept of storage federation. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, ever since I was involved in deploying ESX onto enterprise storage infrastructure (some 4 years ago), I’ve been waiting for the day true federation would arrive. Here’s why.

With the usual EMC fanfare, VPLEX has been heralded as “a new storage platform“. For a product that appears to contain no storage at all (and in fact writes through to the underlying virtualised arrays before confirming I/O to the host), I can’t quite see how the claim stacks up.

I’m about to start a new series of posts discussing the whole process of Storage Management. I’m calling it the Four Pillars of Storage Management as there are 4 main components: Service, Operational, Commercial, and Technology

What an interesting and extremely busy day the first day of the HP StorageWorks Tech Day 2010 proved to be. The day was a mixture of vision and product demos, providing both the high level and detailed view of current technology and future plans.