NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE 11/30/04 Today's focus: Capital expenditure must increase to keep up with growing data
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Per-gigabyte price for storage hardware declining but mgmt. ��expenses increase * Links related to Storage in the Enterprise * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88771 _______________________________________________________________ COMPREHENSIVE ENTERPRISE STORAGE INFORMATION Go to NW Fusion's Research Center for detailed information on enterprise storage. Find the latest breaking news, case studies, white papers, commentary, reviews and more. Topics on how ILM impacts your storage strategy, how to migrate to a new tape drive, how to link SAN islands and more are all found in the Research Center. Click here: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=89284 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Capital expenditure must increase to keep up with growing data By Mike Karp One typical measure of the effectiveness of IT management is how efficiently IT personnel manage each gigabyte of storage. We should note here however, that while the dollars per-gigabyte metric has been with us in its basic form for quite a while, it has undergone one fundamental change: just a few years ago today's "cost-per-gigabyte" measurement was a "cost-per-megabyte" calculation, and already at many enterprise IT sites cost-per-gigabyte has given way to a "cost-per-terabyte" measurement. Because of this, while we can perhaps take some comfort in the fact that the per-gigabyte price for storage hardware declines each year, our comfort level decreases precipitously when we realize that IT will still spend more on hardware this year than last, and even more next year than it did this time around. The sheer mass of data we are accountable for, after all, has a habit of growing whether we tend to it or not. The implications for IT purchasing when we stop talking about terabytes and begin to speak in terms of petabytes (already the case at a few sites), exabytes, zettabytes, yottabytes and beyond (good grief) should be more than enough to make any CIO, CFO or CEO reach for the aspirin bottle. And as the data we store (and in a relatively few cases, also manage) continues to grow, it's a good bet that while we may begin reaching for the aspirin tomorrow, it won't be long before we have begin to grope for a bottle of a different sort. Because of this explosion in total data to be stored and despite the fact that the per-gigabyte cost of storage hardware is declining, total capital expenditures (CAPEX) are likely to increase as we make additional outlays to ensure our storage hardware assets keep up - in terms of capacity - with our data requirements. Information lifecycle management offers one way to address the problem of growing CAPEX. The presence of tiered storage provides the opportunity to assign the most important data to the best storage and services, and to allocate less important data to cheaper (and perhaps older) devices. The decision to buy "good enough" rather than "best in class" should certainly help to offset some of the up-front expense. Next time, how software investment can reduce some up front costs. After that, on to the meatier matter of reducing operational expenses. *** ��On another note: The holidays are closing in on us and it's time ��for me to begin putting together my annual wish list for Santa. ��If you have a particular storage annoyance you'd like to see the ��vendors address, or just have a few wishes you would like to see ��passed along to the Great IT Santa In The North, drop me a line ��and I'll try to include your ideas in my letter to the big guy. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Sun to boost storage package Network World, 11/29/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/112904sun.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Mike Karp Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88771 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Storage newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/stor/index.html Breaking storage news and analysis: http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/storage.html _______________________________________________________________ Embracing Linux While Preserving Your Outlook Gregory Volan the CIO for Bloomington, Indiana, and Julie Hanna Farris, the Founder of Scalix, take you inside that city's successful and seamless migration of email and calendaring to Linux. Watch now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=89283 _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE DOWNLOAD INDUSTRY WHITE PAPERS NOW NW Fusion's White Paper Library is your source for the latest industry white papers. Recent additions to the library include white papers on securing remote access, VOIP and productivity, domain name system best practices, WLAN security, IT documentation and much more. Click here to download: <http://www.nwfusion.com/vendorview/whitepapers.html> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. 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