Data storage management for SMBs: Clearing up the confusion
Greg Schulz, Contributor
09.28.2006
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Although it feels like a reality to many, it is a myth that data storage management products for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are too expensive, lacking in features, difficult to acquire or a combination of these challenges. But there are some steps SMBs can take that will make their storage experiences easier.
Know thyself
Key to a successful storage acquisition for an organization of any size is to know what you must have and would like to have. It is also crucial to understand what products are available, how they can benefit your data storage management and how to get them.
Here are seven questions to prepare for a storage acquisition:
Comparing apples to oranges
The storage market is full of storage products for SMBs ranging from entry-level to midrange to ultra scalable storage solutions. It is important to make apples-to-apples comparisons and look beyond how many disk drives and what storage capacity exists for a given price. Here is what SMBs should look into and compare:
Vendors with SMB solutions include Dell Inc., Dot Hill Systems Corp., EMC Corp., EqualLogic Inc., Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Intel Corp., LeftHand Networks Inc., Net
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work Appliance Inc., StoreVault, ONStor Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc., among others. Venues for acquiring storage solutions for SMBs include the manufacturers as well channel and distribution partners, such as Bell Microsytems Inc. and CDW Inc., among others.
Assuming your data storage needs will grow, look for modular storage systems that allow you to transparently manage storage including data migration across different tiers of storage. Avoid focusing just on dollar per gigabyte as a comparison; also look at performance, response time and reliability for storage.
Determine your needs on your own or with the assistance of a business partner, such as a reseller, integrator or value-added reseller, and seek out third-party and neutral opinions. Keep in mind that the lowest-cost storage may not be the cheapest solution when you add in the cost of optional management tools and software or other required components. Align the applicable technology that meets your requirements along with providing extra value to support growth and simplify day-to-day management without adding complexity.
Greg Schulz is founder and senior analyst of The StorageIO Group (www.storageio.com) and author of the book Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier).
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