When it comes to storage management,
IT professionals face both the challenge on harnessing their organization’s
demand for storage and the opportunity of purchasing more storage devices as
prices continue to plummet. However, managing growing storage networks can
become a complex progress requiring intensive resources. In many organizations, storage managements
get carried out without any strategy to contain costs and to promote efficient
use of storage devices.
The range of IT devices, platforms,
and applications in use across an enterprise complicate the storage management
picture. Data can reside in
geographically diverse locations and on technologically disparate devices,
making the management of these resources across the corporate information grid
no easy task. Unavailable data spreads
harmful effects to corporate applications, rendering them ineffective.This process can slow or even halt business
operations, impairing the enterprise’s financial success in one continuous
stream.
Every enterprise relies on a set of
storage management practices. Some
common practices might not be the most effective or efficient methods when
viewed as a corporate strategy. In
contrast, specific strategy practices can help an organization improve, not
only the effectiveness of a storage management strategy, but it’s efficiency.
IT departments must develop strategic
practices that protect their most important asset: the data supporting their applications. Many storage management tools protect data through routine
backups and centrally managing the information grid.
A strategic approach based on
distributed storage management can help ensure, not only that the data is being
back up, but also that information grid can be recreated in the event of a
disaster. The type of strategic storage
management approach enables an IT department to do the following:
the resources consumed for storage management operations by transferring and
storing the smallest amount of information to protect the information grid.
the life of their current network infrastructure and processing power.
greater returns with lowest media costs on the organization’s investment in
secondary tape resources.
IT departments can achieve these
benefits in a centrally managed environment by selecting the right storage
management solutions and carrying out the following strategic practices:
a central database of files under storage management, which enables central
monitoring and control and reduces the amount of data stored.
up only changed data, which improves backup time, reduces network demands, and
saves on storage resources.
backup tapes for off-site storage to support disaster recovery efforts.
both end users and LAN administrators to perform restores; empowering end users
to restore only their own files, which saves time and effort for local LAN
administrators.
restarting restore operations in case of network failure during a remote
operation.
a storage management policy as needed, across heterogeneous platforms.
data using a centrally managed archival/retrieval systems, so that end users
and applications benefit from robust records-retention services without the
overhead of direct management of these activities.
Elizabeth M. Ferrarini . She is a free-lance writer from Boston, MA.
