CIOs are in the middle of a storage crisis, but much of it is of
their own making. The proliferation of data, as well as compliance
and other legal regulations, is creating a data retention nightmare
for companies that they can't seem to wake up from.
But storage doesn't have to put a stranglehold on businesses.
Experts say it's just a matter of understanding what you need and
where to go to get it.
"There are people out there who haven't put in any kind of
storage resource management [SRM] and they are drowning in
complexity," said Brad Wood, senior director of enterprise
technology at Corrections Corporation of America, a private
correctional services company.
Wood, who uses an SRM package from Symantec, which specialises
in security, management and business continuity products, said the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act continues to put huge demands on his storage
infrastructure. As a highly regulated business with a huge
compliance-induced retention policy, it was impossible for
Corrections Corporation to add another storage array and call it a
day.
"I should have looked at SRM sooner," Wood said. "[Doing it] late
in the game was a bit painful."
"We see companies ignoring the problem," said Joe Trupiano,
director of marketing at MicroNet Technology, a provider of
disk-based storage products. Or they're putting it on the
backburner until they can afford the more expensive solution.
Unfortunately, he added, "companies operating without storage plans
are like companies operating without legs."
Greg Schulz, founder and a senior analyst at The StorageIO
Group, agrees. He said many CIOs, particularly in smaller and
mid-sized companies, have just figured out they can't operate
business as usual but are not yet tackling the problem head-on.
It's not hard to see why, Schulz said. In the past, the solution
was just to buy more storage. Now, it's not only about backup.
Today, a CIO has to ask about bandwidth, scalability, management,
archiving and retention. Then there are technologies:
networked-attached storage, storage area networks, fibre
channel.
"People get hung up on the technology," Schulz said. There's a
misconception that it's the storage solutions themselves that are
more complex, he said, when in reality it's just that buying
storage is more complex.
Schultz said there are solutions out there that are not so
difficult. If that's the case, where's the challenge?
"Most midmarket CIOs don't have the resources or expertise to
dedicate to figuring out a solution," he said. "Suppliers need to
help them navigate the waters."
Charles Brown, CIO of Fire Materials Group (FMG), said, "There's
so much information out there. The suppliers, the technology out
there … the din and clutter could scare the heck out of
anybody."
For Brown, going to the channel and finding a solid valued
partner (FMG partners with CDW Corp.), played a huge role in his
company's storage expansion. "We looked for a supplier that had
enough depth and breadth and bandwidth that would put their best
foot forward."
The high cost of doing nothing
"The cost of storage can be directly related to the lack of
[business continuity] planning," said Josh Howard, data storage
specialist at CDW, a large computer reseller.
One reason storage costs so much is because companies are
thinking of backup in traditional terms, Howard said. "Stop doing
it the way you've always done it."
With limited IT budgets and IT staff, experts say they're not
underestimating the struggle of the mid-sized company. Still, they
insist that by addressing their storage requirements, businesses
can find dozens of options that will fit their needs and
budgets.
"I've seen people do some really great things," Howard said.
"They're getting the most of their budgets without having to
sacrifice redundancy."
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Kate Evans-Correia, News
Director