Storage service providers could be the answer to your all data
management prayers
The development of the Internet has continued to increase the
requirements for on- and offline data storage. Large storage
projects involve both large costs and a high level of business
risk. The time is ripe to consider the use of outsourced storage
provision and management from a new type of online service
provider, the storage service provider (SSP).
An SSP is a company that provides computer storage space and
management. In addition to the storage itself, SSPs typically offer
back-up and archiving, remotely-managed storage, and some also
offer the ability to consolidate data from multiple locations to
enable effective data sharing. Customers can be billed at a monthly
rate and for each managed terabyte of storage.
The SSP market is still relatively small, but IT service
organisations such as IBM and other types of service providers are
entering the market as they realise it is a crucial part of their
overall offering. Telecoms companies are also beginning to offer a
type of SSP service.
Storage is a large part of the IT infrastructure, up to 50% of
total IT hardware spend. Devices and technologies have their own
life cycles and obsolescence. As corporate IT becomes more
distributed, with mobile devices, laptops, home working and
collaboration becoming commonplace, data storage and back-up has to
evolve. Business needs are changing fast and storage has to adapt
to meet them. All this requires a structured process just as much
as other aspects of IT.
Fears about handing over a vital business asset to a third party
have held back storage outsourcing in many enterprises, except
where it is part of outsourcing the entire IT operation. However,
critical appraisal shows that the overall quality of service given
by an SSP often exceeds that from an internal department. The main
advantages are the economies of scale and specialist expertise that
an external organisation brings. Storage networks are complex
entities to build and operate, and few small or medium-sized
organisations have the in-house skills needed.
Many organisations that would benefit from using a storage service
are unaware of the fact because they are not accurately accounting
for storage costs. Traditional storage has been regarded as an
integral part of the computing infrastructure and its capital and
operating costs have not been separated from those of the
application servers. In our research, 77% of organisations expect
their general IT staff to handle storage matters.
While most organisations use an outsourced service as part of their
disaster recovery strategy, only a small proportion of them
outsource frontline storage. You can choose different service
providers for these two roles, but there is an advantage in gaining
the synergy that comes from using a single provider.
Service level agreements (SLAs) should be a key consideration in
choosing a provider. If storage is outsourced you must have
confidence in the financial stability of the supplier, and the SLA
must be mutually acceptable. The service provider must prove that
it is capable of delivering the agreed level of service.
SLAs are key to establishing trust and accountability in this
emerging market. It is disappointing that the industry is not yet
offering the sort of SLA that promises to protect customers' data
and provide full compensation in the event of failure. While you
should push for promises in the core areas of the service, you have
to be prepared to accept what is on offer. In the present state of
the business the existence of the SLA is more important than its
precise provisions. A relatively good SLA shows that the service
provider cares about what it is delivering and that it has some
confidence in its ability to do so. Some users rarely invoke SLAs,
feeling that negotiation is more fruitful than confrontation.
Current practice is to limit the SLA to covering the delivery of
the service, specifying the proportion of time when the service is
live and the response times for customer enquiries. Compensation is
usually small, and mainly paid in the form of free service periods,
rather than cash. Consequential business risks are never
included.
In future service providers must recognise their customers'
dependence on their services and provide guarantees, including
insurance for business risk. SLAs should cover:
- Good performance
- Very high availability
- Data security
- Corrective action when a failure occurs
- Meaningful compensation when business loss is
incurred.
Only then will storage outsourcing represent a mature business
proposition.
Katy Ring is director of e-business research, Ovum