Storage Decisions - How to manage storage easier
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Top tips from your peers
* Be the person that no one likes if that’s what it takes. Someone has to play that storage role - this is key to keeping costs down and know the date it IT teams must protect. Knowing what’s structured and non-structured data helps IT understand what is critical storage. IT cant always know what is critical storage - this should be reviewed often.
* Charge back models work! This can be used to help put a value on data. Pull in a key person from each department to allow for the charge back and continue to classify the data. This puts ownership not only in cost but also defining backup SLAs along with strategic goals and expectations. Get your users involved. IT can only useful if its aligned with the business.
* Rsync may be used more then some of us may think in data replication. Sometimes a no thrills approach is all you need. Don’t overlook the free / cheap tools that can do a very good job at a single task.
Tools
* If you can build reporting in house - you may know your data better. A mix of tools can often be your best friend. For example Yahoo used a mix of home grown and also NetApp DFM to assist in the overall goals utilizing MySQL + Perl + PHP pulling SNMP and other queries.
* Creating a problem and walking through the problem with your vendors may test their critical thinking skills in a time of need. Tossing in screwballs to really see how well vendors deal with the same issues Admins are faced with helps to understand how fast they can respond. This if used the right way may assist in determining your vendor selection.
Overall
* Storage toolset’s seem to be a missing piece to the overall storage world. Bits and pieces here and there seems to be available however the overall picture is something that’s lacking. (I realize this is not an easy task - however - here lies true value in software for storage) Its nice to see that we are not in the same boat!
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