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Five Ways a Storage Area Network Can Improve Your Life
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Are you controlled by, rather than in control of your IT infrastructure?
For many midsized organizations, change and crisis management become major headaches, particularly in today's 24x7, always connected world. And as companies grow, there comes a time when direct-attached storage (DAS) is the root of many of these problems. At this point, investing in a storage area network may be the most cost-effective solution for storage management. A storage area network will minimize change and crisis management, increase reliability, and prove IT personnel with more time for strategic initiatives. Consider the following five ways that a storage area network can dramatically improve your storage management situation:
1. Improved Efficiency of Storage Utilization
Storage area network implementations provide potential capital investment savings by increasing storage utilization from 50% to 90%. DAS storage utilization is inherently inefficient because storage capacity is not pooled and accessible by all servers. While one server may be running out of disk space, another may be utilizing only a fraction of its storage capacity.
2. Reduced Time and Cost of Server Management
Storage area network implementations dramatically reduce the time and disruption of common server maintenance tasks. Advanced storage area network technologies (such as the Xiotech Corporation's Magnitude® and Magnitude 3D® families) dramatically simplify common but necessary server maintenance tasks such as applying patches, installing and upgrading software, adding capacity, consolidating servers, deploying servers remotely or backing up data. In addition, many of the server management tasks can be done nondisruptively, and therefore, can be done during normal business hours without an interruption of service.
3. Simplified Storage Management
Storage area network implementations optimize the storage environment with more reliability and less administration. Advanced clustered and virtualized storage area network technologies, such as those available from Xiotech, simplify the processes for increasing or decreasing storage allocations, moving data from high to low performance drives (or vice versa), moving data from one location or chassis to another, and changing RAID levels-all in a manner that is reliable, nondisruptive, transparent to the servers and users, and easily accomplished.
4. Enhanced Data Protection & Availability
Storage area network implementations provide a greater range of data protection alternatives in a manner that is easier to administer and more reliable. Storage area networks inherently provide improved data protection and availability compared with DAS systems. Most storage area networks are designed to ensure that disk drive or component failures do not result in data loss or downtime. They also simplify backups and enable the use of additional solutions for data replication and recovery, such as continuous data protection (CDP) technology.In addition, the centralization of data protection and availability makes data protection easier to administer and more reliable.
5. Server Virtualization
Server virtualization can further simplify server management and reduce IT costs. Networked storage, like a storage area network, is a requirement for server virtualization. Many organizations are realizing the benefits of server virtualization, utilizing products such as VMware ESX Server and Windows Virtual Server. Server virtualization requires a shared storage environment such as a storage area network. Virtualized storage area networks, like those from Xiotech, complement the virtualized server infrastructure, improving the allocation of disk space, facilitating the movement of data, and further simplifying storage and server management.
Are You Ready?
As with all IT investments, the decision to invest in an upgraded storage infrastructure such as a storage area network isn't made lightly. It's a significant investment with long-term implications that requires careful thought.
However, deploying a storage area network can yield significant return on investment in terms of real cost savings, operational efficiencies, flexibility, and reliability. Equally important, it will help you gain control of your IT infrastructure, lessen the burden of your existing change and crisis management, and give you back the time for more strategic initiatives.
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