Storage Consolidation:
First Things First
By KELLY LIPP
Storage and storage consolidation are the hottest topics in IT today. Onsite, cloud, high-performance, high-function ... there is more technology now than ever before.
Resellers are getting more and more exposure to products every day. But where
should you begin?
Good business practices insist that we
make sure we have a problem to solve
before buying something to solve the
problem. Specifically, how will buying
more storage or different storage help
your business make money, save money,
or gain a competitive advantage? If you
cannot answer the question in one of these
areas, you probably should not be buying
anything. Once you have decided that you
can indeed positively affect your bottom
line, where should you begin?
Before undertaking a storage consolidation or adding more storage to an existing
infrastructure, it would be wise to evaluate the backup infrastructure first. After
all, your storage is only as good as your
back-up solution. As you add or replace
storage, reliance on your back-up technology increases. Mistakes happen during
storage migrations. Can you recover from
such a mistake? Determining the answer
before data loss happens is critical to your
success.
Use a proposed storage consolidation
project as an excuse to evaluate the backup
solution, processes, and procedures. There
is no better time.
In many cases, new storage technolo-
gies offer the ability to enhance or improve
existing back-up techniques. Specifically
snapshot and replication technology
built into most storage devices today can
help to reduce back-up times and pro-
vide disaster recovery at the same time.
However, neither snapshots nor replica-
tion replace backup nor are they inexpen-
sive. Backup and snapshot/replication are
different technologies with different pur-
poses, outcomes, and costs. Your business
may need snapshots and/or replication but
it definitely needs backup. Remember that
replication will faithfully copy corruption.
Your business must have a second copy of
its data in order to protect against all pos-
sible problems.
v
Kelly Lipp is the vice president, manufacturing, and chief technology officer of
STORServer, Inc., a company founded
in 2000 to provide leading data back-up
solutions for the mid-market. STORServer
offers a complete suite of appliances, software, and services that solve today’s backup, archive, and disaster
recovery challenges once and for all.
