Well the first question: What is Storage Optimization?
A lot of new storage technologies are up and coming that have either Storage Virtualization or Thin Provisioning built as its core value. Those technologies can help run your storage in a much efficient manner, but what are your options related to your existing infrastructure that may consist of EMC Symmetrix DMX & above, EMC Clariion CX & above, NetApp FAS series, NetApp G Series, NetApp V Series, HDS USP, HDS USPV, HDS AMS, IBM DS Series, HP Eva’s, LSI’s, SUN branded LSI’s, etc. I am not suggesting if you are running Storage Virtualization or Thin Provisioning you are running at 90 or 100 percent efficiency, there are still places where these technologies start building inefficiencies as your storage environment starts to mature.
The point I am trying to make is, what have you done last to optimize your Storage Environment. Over the past year, I have met a lot of customers including IT IT Planning folks, CIO organizations, IT Directors, Storage Managers, Storage Engineers where all these folks work so hard to maintain and manage IT Assets on the floor including Storage environments. A Storage Engineer is always busy trying to keep up with new projects, migrations, consolidations, etc. In the race of life to get promotion at work, make managers happy, keeping up with new technology & projects, we all forget about things we decided to do yesterday or rather the day you joined the organization.
When was the last time you thought about reducing your organizations OpEx and CapEx. When was the last time, you took your organization through a Storage Optimization exercise. Have you setup a Storage Economics practice within your Storage environments that would help you reclaim stranded storage, help you re-tier your storage based on business needs, help you increase utilization and reduce inefficiencies within your Storage Environments.
Responses we get talking to various Storage folks, we try to do the best we can to keep up with the day to day storage needs, and we went through an exercise to optimize our environment about 12 months ago.
Wait a minute, 12 months ago? Each wasted month is a savings lost.
In my previous blog posts, I have addressed some very fundamental issues related to Storage Environments that can help you achieve the necessary goals you might have for your organization.
Please see related blog post below that shows how inefficiencies get built, how your storage should be optimized and the overall savings you would realize as an organization:
- Storage Resource Analysis and Storage Economics
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 1
- The IT — Storage World of 2009
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 2
- The IT — Storage Budgets of 2009
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 3
- Some Fundamental Questions
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 4
- Facts about your Data
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 5
- Inconsistencies in Storage Environments
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 6
- The Technical Case
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 7:
- The Business Case
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 8:
- The End Result
- Storage Resource Analysis (SRA): Part 9:
Case Study: A customer has a semi-large storage environment, running between 20% and 30% utilization with 1 single tier (all apps, users use Tier 1 storage – 15K Enterprise drives). They were looking to invest more into a specific storage platform, when the management decided to establish a Storage economics practice.
The customer had external consultants come in and review their entire storage estate, results were astonishing. Total savings of 10 Million US dollars over 3 years with establishing a Storage Economics practice for their 1 PB Storage Environment.
The above savings were minuscule, if there is a customer with a larger environment, the savings would increase substantially.
This savings can possibly help you acquire new technology or can be given back to the organization making you a hero, may be take you much closer to your dreams.
