Note

In selecting consolidated storage, the goal is to meet strategic business requirements while getting the most for your dollar. Find the best fit for your needs in an increasing consolidated vendor landscape.

Solution Set

This solution set will clearly describe the strengths and weaknesses of a full range of vendors in midrange storage and will apply a range of scenarios to provide deeper insight into what solutions are best.

Tool

The Storage Vendor Shortlist Tool allows enterprises to profile their storage solution requirements and generate a rank ordered vendor shortlist from a fixed list of vendors.

Template/Policy

Organizations embarking on the selection process for a storage vendor may select to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) after determining their final selection criteria.

Tool

For organizations that have issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to evaluate consolidated storage vendors, gathering and scoring the various responses can be difficult and time consuming. This tool enables enterprises to evaluate and...

Template/Policy

This script provides questions that you can explore with a reseller to clarify the specific value add that the reseller brings to the engagement. Use this interview to help solidify your vendor choice.

Vendor Research

This report is designed to help vendors and solution providers understand the market dynamics surrounding consolidated storage. The analysis and guidance provided will help in selling and marketing consolidated storage solutions.

Vendor Research

This report will help vendors and solution providers understand the marketplace dynamics surrounding data center consolidation purchases.

Vendor Research

This report is designed to aid vendors and solution providers in understanding the market dynamics surrounding Storage Area Networks (SAN). The analysis and guidance provided will help in selling and marketing SAN solutions.

Note

Cloud storage is typically seen as an alternative to in-house backup or archiving capacity. However, businesses are finding multiple use cases for cloud storage, often adopting it across the enterprise to experience maximum benefits.

Tool

The Cloud Storage TCO Calculator enables IT professionals to estimate the costs of deploying a cloud storage solution, comparing it to the cost of purchasing new NAS or SAN storage capacity.

Video

Regardless of how you plan to use cloud storage, there are key criteria that must be met, and the initial data migration challenges that have to be resolved. Now there are several technologies and vendors that can accelerate your data transfer...

Video

Consolidated network storage is a strategic enabler that forms the foundation for server consolidation and a unified approach to data and system availability and recovery.

Tool

This is the Storage Vendor RFP Scoring Tool populated with actual evaluation scores created by Ken Juneau and others at TM4.

Note

Now that 10G Ethernet is available at lower prices, data center technical staff is pushing it for day-to-day infrastructure. As with all new technologies, there is an optimal time for upgrading. Use this solution set to understand what needs to...

Template/Policy

The typical trigger for acquiring consolidated networked storage (CNS) is server consolidation; however, getting the most value out of storage purchases requires a strategic context. This business plan template puts the CNS acquisition in the...

Tool

In storage acquisition strategy it is ideal to balance the most storage capacity and performance with the lowest cost per unit of storage. Some solutions have a lower overall price tag, but have a higher TCO per Terabyte because of a lack of...

Tool

iSCSI SANs are rapidly catching up to Fibre Channel (FC) in both usage and performance. However, FC SANs may still be appropriate for many organizations. Use this decision tool to assess the appropriateness of Tier One FC SANs, Tier Two iSCSI or...

Note

Consolidated network storage makes more efficient use of storage resources through the elimination of waste and effort duplication across distributed islands or silos of direct attached storage. Consolidated storage is also a strategic enabler...

Solution Set

Consolidated network storage is a fundamental enabler of agile utility infrastructure. Storage consolidation and server consolidation are like two sides of the same coin. Benefits include better capacity utilization (reduced waste over...

Solution Set

Situation. Implementers generally report success in their virtualization projects.

Note

One way to implement virtualization is simply to keep virtualizing until something breaks and performance suffers. Greater success occurs when implementers anticipate potential limitations and how to mitigate them. Avoid the pain of hitting the...

Prevailing wisdom says that networked storage is needed for storage consolidation. So why consider direct attached Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) storage? It is now possible to achieve many consolidation objectives with direct attached SAS. Don't...

Tool

This tool is designed to help organizations determine top tactics for cost reduction within the server and storage service area. After the questions have been completed, the tool will generate guidance on which cost-saving actions to take, the...

Note

Servers and storage infrastructure make up a significant portion of the budget for most IT organizations. When faced with a mandate to control costs, IT managers must take steps to manage these expenses. Start with these techniques to optimize...

Networked storage vendors are aggressively targeting small enterprises in an attempt to grow market share. However, there remains considerable confusion around storage area network technology in the small to mid-range space due to considerable...

Any small enterprise that wishes to create an agile, highly optimized server infrastructure can do so using the hardware and tools currently available. The utility infrastructure will continue to evolve and improve as more server rooms migrate...

The success of iSCSI storage products from EqualLogic (now part of Dell) and LeftHand Networks (acquired by HP) is largely seen as a sign of the progress of iSCSI. However, iSCSI alone is not the whole story. It is a cluster storage approach...

Enterprises strapped for space and without a formal data center can now create a complete computing facility in a single box. Small form-factor blade server chassis with advanced I/O and storage capabilities can meet the needs of many...

On Feb. 27, 2008, the Bank of New York Mellon shipped a tape containing the personal information of more than 4.5 million clients to an Archive America offsite storage facility. That tape never arrived. The information contained on the tape...