How Storage biz will weather the world financial crisis...

Since the world is now moving to cost-cutting and cost-saving to weather the latest global financial storm. Every companies are trying to see how they can reduce their expenses and even go a great length to even cut employees.

Today, after a nice party, I think of the unavoidable crisis in terms of storage business. In the past Storage Area Network investment is very huge, normally exceeding server/network investment.

The question is how to do more with less?

The famous buzz words now are 'consolidation', 'virtualization', 'etc.'. But does it really work?

If you are going to do consolidation, you need to spend money first before you see the benefit. And most benefits come from human capital investment (less storage, less servers = less people to manage). The other camp may argue that consolidation/virtualization give companies flexibility and scalability. However, it comes with the cost.

Step 1. Assess

So what is the idea? First things first, you need to know if your current infrastructure is sound. Having said that, that means the first step is to conduct an assessment to figure out if your infrastructure is up to what you expect it to be.

If it is, then you can proceed to step 2. If not, you have to decide if you really have to upgrade or make it what you expect then proceed. In most cases, you probably can live with what you have. Otherwise, you would have changed it long time ago.

Step 2. Architect

How should we architect? If you have the SAN, the storage that you need, what you need is to lose what you don't need. That means all the files that you don't open in 2 years, it should be saved outside the precious Storage infrastructure. Things like DVD jukeboxes come into play to move unused files. This could be done inexpensively using opensource products to analyze all your files. So at this stage, you come up with the plan that you want to do.

If you have to invest in new equipment, you may need to look at all alternatives. Then get the management to sign off on it.

Step 3. Actualize

Once you know what to do, you get approvals to do. It's time to do it.

Disclaimer: I am now working part-time as a Principal Consultant to a large multi-national Storage company.