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Tiered Storage School: Table of Contents

Get a better understanding of what tiering can do for your storage, how it works and why a tiered plan can aid in backup, DR, overall management and long-term archive

Published: 12 Jun 2007

According to Mike Casey, VP and Principal Analyst at Contoural, Inc. "A tiered storage strategy, properly planned and executed, can increase service levels for your critical applications and data sets, while reducing the overall cost of data storage."

But, setting up a plan of action is not intuitive. Because you may need help deciding if a tiered storage strategy is right for you, defining the architecture necessary in building a tiered environment and selling this vision to management .

In this lesson you will walk away with a better understanding of what tiering can do for your storage,and your business -- and how to classify your data, design your tiered storage architecture, and sell your plan to management.

The professors for Tiered Storage School are seasoned experts from Contoural, Inc. Both Mike Casey and Greg Forest bring more than 20 years of IT experience to the Tiered Storage School classroom.

Class is in session, enjoy!

Tiered Storage School

Lesson 1: The right storage at the right cost
Most businesses today are faced with high growth in the amount of data they have to store, but IT budgets are flat or being reduced. IT can no longer afford to keep all their data on high-end storage platforms, or staffing levels to manage large numbers of storage targets. The answer is to produce a small set of storage tiers that align with business requirements to provide the optimum service level at the lowest cost. Lesson one of Tiered Storage School will help you understand the key drivers of data growth -- including regulatory compliance, litigation discovery readiness, and business productivity. These business drivers provide the motivation and justification for a tiered storage strategy, and help you define the retention policies and service level objectives that your storage infrastructure must support.
Listen to Lesson one right now.
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Lesson 2: Aligning your business with storage tiers
The key to a successful tiered storage strategy is defining the requirements of your business data. Before you can design your new storage tiers you need to understand your application catalog and how your business uses it. This requires looking beyond the traditional IT metrics of RTO and RPO. Focusing on a broader set of key business drivers will allow you to use your storage tiers to offer the appropriate service levels to your business units while reducing overall costs. Lesson two of Tiered Storage School helps you align your business goals with your storage goals, by classifying your data. This key step starts with a discovery process to inventory your existing storage infrastructure and catalog your application data sets. Real-world examples illustrate the key concepts of application data groups, data classes and service level metrics.
Listen to Lesson two right now.
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Lesson 3: Designing a tiered storage architecture
A properly defined storage architecture will give you the ability to justify spending levels for your existing catalogue and future provisioning. Once you have gathered your requirements and properly classified your applications you are ready to design your storage tiers. Lesson three of Tiered Storage School assists you in storage tier design. This webcast covers tiered storage architecture, using real-world examples to illustrate the addition of new storage tiers and service level configurations. It also includes an example gap analysis and action plan for tiered storage implementation.
Listen to Lesson three right now.
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Lesson 4: Justifying your tiered storage strategy to management
Now that you have designed a tiered storage strategy that matches the needs of your business, how do you justify it to your senior management? What steps should you take in the short term? How do you move forward to your desired state? How do you justify short term capital spending to reduce long term costs? Lesson four of Tired Storage School will help you make your case to management. It maps tiered storage impacts to the strategic agendas of the CEO, CIO and CFO, focusing on business benefits such as improved service levels, reduced risks and lower costs. Greg and Mike also provide practical tips on preparing your case and timing your requests -- and tactical advice on how to move turn a crisis into an opportunity.
Listen to Lesson four right now.
Get the worksheet, follow along with class

Want to see this school in person? Join Mike, Greg and nearly 600 storage users at the Fall Storage Decisions show. This show is FREE for qualified attendees.

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