EMA™ Advisory Note: Storage Efficiencies

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Written by Stephen Lawton, Enterprise Management Associates® (EMA™) Consulting Analyst

What Is Storage Efficiency?

Storage efficiency is not a technology in and of itself; it is an approach to doing business that integrates a

company’s corporate IT, facilities and operational management components. Being storage efficient includes

having the right technology get to the data needed when and how it is needed. Not only is it a technological

approach to storage management, it is a pragmatic approach to storage that looks not only at what is

expedient, but also what is necessary to meet regulatory needs and financial capabilities.

As the price of storage devices falls, the ability to store more and more data increases. After all, if companies

that could afford to store terabytes of storage a few years ago can now store petabytes for the same money,

should they not do so? The answer, of course, is the perpetually vague: “It depends.” Storing data for its own

sake is not necessarily useful. Efficiently storing data so that workflow is

back it up, and also (very important but often ill-planned), dispose of it.

cause a storage nightmare.

Ultimately, managing data and workflow are the cornerstones of storage

efficiencies.

For the purpose of this document, EMA is using the term storage efficiency thusly: Storage Efficiency is an ongoing

data management process that incorporates the IT disciplines of data, storage and systems management, plus the corporate

functions of facilities management and operations. By implementing storage efficiencies technologies, the IT manager can optimizes

workflow, improve systems performance, and reduce expenses related to storage infrastructure costs and facilities management.

Storage efficiency technology is a component of Green Computing.

EMA Storage Efficiency Research Outline

In August 2009, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) published an exhaustive research study into

storage efficiencies based on a survey of 99 storage professionals worldwide. The report focused on

companies with more than 500 employees from a variety of industries. The vast majority of companies

participating in the research had annual revenues of $20 million or more.

From a technological standpoint, there are multiple components that, when taken together, can aid in making

a company storage efficient. These include infrastructure, protocols and architecture, and applications.

Under infrastructure, IT managers need to look at such technologies as server storage, direct-attached storage

(DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), and storage area networks (SANs). How these technologies interact

will play a crucial role in creating and maintaining storage efficiencies.

From the protocols and architecture standpoint, IT managers need to identify and implement the most efficient

methods of accessing and managing data for the most efficient workflow. Internet SCSI – or iSCSI – and Fibre

Channel over Ethernet are challenging the more established protocols such as Fibre Channel and InfiniBand.

EMA ADVISORY NOTE

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©2009 Enterprise Management Associates

optimized and the information is accessible within the parameters set by

company policy and government regulation should be the objective.

Saving data without a plan to manage and control it can cause a storage

nightmare. The IT manager needs a plan to access the data, secure it,

Saving data without a plan

to manage and control it can