Two Days to an Annual Storage Strategy
Modernize your plan and make storage a business enabler.
- Storage has changed dramatically over the last several years, with organizations storing more data for longer than ever. The scalability of legacy solutions is being pushed to the limit, both in terms of capacity and performance.
- Most storage administrators are stuck in firefighting mode, reacting to problems as they arise rather than effectively planning ahead.
- It’s all too tempting to stick with the approach that’s been used in the past simply because it’s the most familiar option. However, this might mean sticking with a solution that hasn’t performed as well as another option might.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Though the SAN as a technology isn’t going anywhere in the near future, emerging technologies such as flash storage, public cloud offerings, and converged systems have matured to the point where it is worth asking yourself “What if we didn’t use a SAN?”
- The key to a successful storage strategy is to look both ways at once. Get a clear understanding of your environment and your requirements by opening the channels of communication with your users. At the same time, touch base with business leaders and build a forward-looking strategy that can help drive your organization’s future plans while responding nimbly to changing circumstances.
Impact and Result
- Building and documenting a storage strategy can improve IT effectiveness by nearly 50%, and can enhance IT’s ability to respond to changing needs and expectations in an agile fashion.
- Storage is always a major purchase. Having a strong sense of requirements and a clear idea of any future plans is the first step toward purchasing a storage solution that is driven by actual needs, not what a vendor wants to sell you.
Workshop: Two Days to an Annual Storage Strategy
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Make the Case for a Strategic Storage Plan
The Purpose
- Understand the value of creating a storage strategy.
- Identify emerging technologies that can help optimize the storage environment.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An understanding of trends that will significantly affect storage.
- A strategy for presenting a business case to core stakeholders for the value of optimization.
Activities
Outputs
Challenge Analysis
- Make the Case mini-deck
High level discussion of potential approaches and barriers
Module 2: Audit Your Present Storage State
The Purpose
- Audit the present storage state.
- Identify trouble spots in the infrastructure.
- Build a list of initiatives that respond to organizational challenges.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identification of pain points and challenges currently affecting the storage environment.
- Pain points are pinpointed to specific regions of the storage infrastructure.
- Identification of strategic responses to storage pain points.
Activities
Outputs
Brainstorm storage pain points
- Logical storage diagram
Map trouble spots in your storage infrastructure
- Physical storage diagram
Document your present storage assets
- Prioritized list of reactive storage initiatives
Map your storage assets to applications
Analyze pain points and isolate trouble spots
Construct a physical storage diagram and document feedback
Analyze the physical storage diagram to diagnose trouble spots
Turn storage trouble spots into IT initiatives
Categorize initiatives according to criticality
Module 3: Build a Strategy That’s Ready for the Road Ahead
The Purpose
- Strategize responses to strategic business initiatives that will affect storage.
- Plan the blue-sky storage vision.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Storage environment is transformed into a business enabler.
- Documentation of desired storage initiatives to assist in long-term planning.
Activities
Outputs
Identify the business impact of disruptive trends
- Blue-sky list of storage initiatives
Turn disruptive trends into IT initiatives
Align storage strategy with business initiatives
Categorize your initiatives according to criticality
Draft your blue-sky storage vision
Module 4: Perform a Gap Analysis to Determine Your Storage Strategy
The Purpose
- Define new storage solutions and initiatives and identify transition requirements.
- Calculate total costs of proposed initiatives.
- Formulate a project timeline.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Develops a realistic list of storage initiatives for the coming year that meet organizational requirements and restrictions.
- Creates a plan for implementing initiatives that will optimize the storage environment.
Activities
Outputs
Determine in- and out-of-scope initiatives
- Gap analysis document
Create a prioritized list of in-scope initiatives
- Prioritized list of annual storage initiatives
Gap analysis
- Total cost of ownership analysis of storage initiatives
Define technical requirements
- Implementation timeline
Identify storage technology options that meet technical requirements
Estimate total cost of proposed initiatives
Use a sunrise diagram to plan upcoming initiatives
Create your strategic storage plan timeline
Module 5: Document Your Annual Storage Strategy
The Purpose
- Document and communicate the proposed storage strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Develop a communication strategy to win stakeholder support.
Activities
Outputs
Compile storage strategy outputs and assemble the storage strategy document
- Annual storage strategy document
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 5 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call 1: Review module one and assess the need for a refined storage strategy
Discuss with an analyst storage pain points and identify emerging storage trends likely to affect the organization.
- Call 2: Strategize responses to felt pain points and discuss with an analyst the potential rewards and challenges of a given approach
Develop a prioritized list of initiatives that will be undertaken in the coming year.
- Call 3: Identify business initiatives and assess with an analyst the potential impact they will have on the storage infrastructure
Create a “blue sky” list of initiatives.
- Call 4: Use a gap analysis to determine the barriers between the present state and the desired storage state
Discuss with an analyst potential ways to overcome some of these barriers as well as alternative approaches.
- Call 5: Build an implementation timeline and document the storage strategy into the strategy template
Evaluate the annual storage strategy and review vendor solutions specific to the use case.
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