IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING

Executive Summary

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading industry analyst and consulting firm dedicated to

the IT management market, has completed a new primary research study of storage efficiencies. For

this study, EMA surveyed 99 North American and global IT and business professionals involved in

selecting and using storage technologies for their organizations. This report covers the results of that

research and is written specifically for the storage management customer audience.

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

into consideration a company’s corporate IT and operational management components. Being storage

efficient includes having the right technology to get 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.

Multiple calculators are available that might help determine the return on investment (ROI) of a par-

ticular piece of hardware, but storage efficiency is not about a specific piece of hardware. It is about

how the storage infrastructure fits into the overall IT and operational environment.

Storage today accounts for a significant amount of the total IT spend in a new data center. Federal

regulations, new laws and a myriad of court decisions also dictate, in part, how a storage infrastructure

will be built. No longer is storage tied to operating systems or specific CPUs; standards have made stor-

age essentially free of other hardware considerations. For example, it is not uncommon to find Linux-

based network-attached storage devices connected to a Windows-based network. Multivendor com-

puting environments, in fact, require that storage be agnostic to the dictates of operating systems.

As new storage protocols begin to replace older, slower protocols, storage management has become

as important to the overall health of the IT department as network management. Data today might be

stored anywhere on any type of device, and often is in organically grown networks. Managing the data

and devices has become deeply entwined with such other operational aspects of a company such as

facilities management. Not only does the IT manager need to determine the need for storage, but he or

she also is tasked with doing so in conjunction with operational budget items such as heating, cooling

and air conditioning (HVAC), real estate, and of course, personnel.

Key Findings:

• Implementing storage efficiencies results in improved storage management, including workflow,

storage optimization, and storage utilization

• Nearly a third of the respondents expect their annual data growth to increase by 51% or more

• Green computing is more than just saving on electrical costs, it is a management-directed

approach that combines facilities, IT and operations in making decisions that will improve

company operations while reducing capital outlays and infrastructure costs. As a side benefit, it

is also good for the environment

• Despite the recession, now is a good time to make a company storage-efficient

• Many technologies that fall under the storage efficiency umbrella are not only widely accepted

and understood, but also underutilized

Employing Storage Efficiencies

©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 1

IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING

Introduction

As data centers grow exponentially due to the low cost of storage and the high value of immedi-

ate information, the need for storage efficiency has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have

capability. No longer is it acceptable to tell the CEO that the historic data the board wants today is

stored somewhere offsite on tape and that it will be accessible in a few days. Today, CEOs, corporate

attorneys, board members and stakeholders expect that when data is required, it can be found quickly

and efficiently.

On a pragmatic basis, this change is due to our society of immediate gratification. The Internet gives

unreasonable expectation of immediate information. Generation X and Generation Y executives grew

up on immediate access to data, be it on a MP3 player, the remote control for the entertainment sys-

tems or on the ubiquitous laptops. The rules that existed 20 years ago about nearline and offline data

simply do not apply anymore; looking for a typed page in a filing cabinet is so passé that it has virtually

no frame of reference today.

Additionally, new government regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, The Health Insurance Portability

and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Department of Defense (DOD) records management standards,

Federal Rules of Evidence, and more now mandate that data be accessible in a timely manner. These

mandates do not just impact large, multinational corporations with state-of-the-art data centers and

highly trained IT departments; the regulations impact small and midsize businesses as well, both public

and private, that might not have the sophisticated data centers found in Fortune 500 companies.

Storage Efficiency Defined

As the price of storage devices fall, the ability to store more and more data increases. After all, if com-

panies 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.” It

all comes back to the cliché many of us heard as children, “Just because you can do something, it does

not mean you should.” Storing data for its own sake is not necessarily useful. Efficiently storing data so

that workflow is optimized and the information is accessible 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, back it up, and also (very important but often ill-planned),

dispose of it. Ultimately managing data and workflow are the cornerstones of storage efficiencies.

Managing data and workflow are the cornerstones of storage efficiencies.

There are various definitions of storage efficiency that are similar, but none that have been defined

by a standards body. It touches a broad range of corporate disciplines that must work in concert for

a storage efficiency program to be successful. Essentially, storage efficiency allows IT managers to

take their existing storage infrastructure and manipulate it in a manner so that they get more effective

storage space, reduce the complexity of their storage environment, improve workflow and make data

more accessible, all while reducing the overall cost of ownership and cost of operations. It is the Holy

Grail of Storage: get more for less and make it easier to use, manage and maintain.

Employing Storage Efficiencies

©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 3

IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING

For the purpose of this report, here is how EMA is using the term storage efficiency: 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.

Has your company implemented storage efficiencies?

Yes

83%

No

17%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Figure 1: Storage Efficiency Adoption

Research Highlights

Some key findings from this research include:

• 20% of the respondents manage 1PB or more of disk storage, while more than two-thirds

manage from 100TB to 1,000 TB

• 44% of the respondents spent $500,000 or more annually on their storage budget alone

• 70% of all respondents use at least one iSCSI SAN in their storage topology, while 66% have at

least one Fibre Channel SAN

• Fewer than half of all respondents use Fibre Channel over Ethernet or InfiniBand

• 54% of all respondents currently have or plan to have a Green IT program for storage

• Of those with a Green IT plan, 37% are doing so to control the costs of storage, rack space,

cooling and electricity

Employing Storage Efficiencies

©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 4