Value for money
If outsourcing provokes arguments in the storage arena, then discussions of return on investment (ROI) can provoke outright war.
Is it a prime consideration for storage purchases? Opinions differ. -I think vendors make a mistake by over-stressing ROI as such," says Titterington. -Storage is something people have to have. Companies want to provide it as cheaply as they can. It's very hard to take ROI into storage. The calculations would take you far longer than the value of the answer.
-The justification is largely on cost savings and then, when you get into backup, you're buying an insurance policy. People are putting forward ROI arguments based on data mining, but I don't think many are profiting from it yet."
Others disagree. -Storage is an investment. For any organisation to invest, they must find some kind of return," says Johnson. -If we're talking about simplification or ease of management, there are key TCO benefits."
According to Christian, -We really have been able to add value to organisations through consolidation. Maintaining all those servers costs a lot of money from a management perspective."
-If we can deliver the same services without having to backup everything, there's a lot of ROI benefits," says Smith. -It's in the interests of organisations to get a handle on their storage."
-ROI comes down to the question of suitabilityââ,¬"purchasing the right type of storage for certain environments," says Ong. -Customers need to invest in a storage solution that is manageable, scalable, and interoperable."
So what can you do to get better value? -The best way to get value is by getting the lowest possible initial buy-price, by using storage efficiently, and by streamlining the management aspect as much as possible," says Elisha.
Beyond the general rule of plan early and plan often, storage systems can help enhance specific activities.
For instance, faster storage options make it easier to test enterprise applications with close-to-current copies of production data, without disrupting normal operations.
-Using snapshotting or cloning, you can really reduce the time for testing things like ERP systems," says Bowden.
And with those earlier warnings about overall costs in mind, the relative cheapness of disk storage has had one important impact: reducing the cost and speed of backup.
-More and more, disk backup and recovery are taking the place of tape," says Christian. -You only need to go to tape for archiving." In the end, an argument about ROI from storage isn't going to mean you won't need to buy storage solutions.
-Storage is not an optional spend, it's not discretionary, it's essential," says Tunstall. -If you build a good infrastructure, it's going to deliver better value over the long term."
Bad planning means little chance of a value storage investment. -You can't get ROI if you don't know everything about your environment," says Collins. -Using technology to reallocate resources is a key driver."
But ultimately, storage remains a means to an end. -What is the enabler of the business?" asks Gold. -Storage isn't going to do it, but information is."
Storage: an executive summary
- Consolidate your storage. Outcrops of storage on isolated servers will quickly become a management nightmare.
- Network your storage. Connected storage is already the norm in most enterprises, and higher bandwidth technologies should convert the doubters.
- Get good management software. An efficient storage infrastructure and well-considered policies mean your staff will spend less time on routine tasks such as backup and more time on value-enhancing activities.
- Consider outsourcing, with care. Outsourcing can work well for storage applications, but only if you understand how it fits into your total organisational plan.
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