With various aspects of storage evolution marching forward
(in areas such as network convergence, unified IP and SAN
switching, solid state devices, content management, data value and
security), it can be useful to consider the other side of the
innovation adoption cycle, i.e. how we identify, manage and
decommission legacy storage, writes Scott Hunter.
There are more challenges involved with this than first meets
the eye. In fact, many organisations struggle with this aspect due
to the complexity of their storage estate and overall
infrastructure.
Take, for example, a large financial client we worked with
recently. It faced significant pressures to reduce datacentre power
consumption and support costs. Analysis showed poor storage
utilisation figures, highlighting how storage rationalisation could
help ease these power and cost pressures. However, the next steps
were not as straightforward as it thought, and it was only with
careful planning that the project succeeded.
To start with, abstracting the data layer from the
infrastructure was not easy, but progress was made on an
application-by-application (or database-by-database) basis. The
next challenge was to identify suitable existing platforms with
capacity, performance and availability to fit the requirements.
Selecting the appropriate data migration methodology was also
complex as there was a plethora of tools available. Our approach
was to select tools that the organisation was most familiar with,
as this was critical to success.
The process of data migration could then begin - not a trivial
undertaking in a 24/7 live environment. Clarity around what was
being migrated (and what it should look like post-migration)
helped, as did provision of sufficient storage and back-up.
It was important to get the timing of the migration right,
ensuring that it took place when there was the least business
demand on the environment. By doing this we were able to minimise
the potential data changes and test exercises that needed to be
carried out following the exercise. A combination of brief
maintenance windows and live copy technology simplified this.
After revising back-up and disaster recovery plans, we were
ready to decommission, under the usual regulatory restrictions
around environmental and secure disposal. The migration was a
success and the added bonus was that by being sufficiently
proactive in selecting the legacy estate, we were able to raise
some funds through trade-in and resale of the decommissioned
equipment. Everyone is happy when you put cash back in their hands,
but specifically this helped in justifying the next phase of
decommissioning.
Scott Hunter is senior consultant at
Morse