Gartner: Storage Should Get To Basics

Trusting solid state drives

In this context, new solid state drives (SSDs) may actually be more cost-effective than they seem, even given the premium price vendors currently charge, he says. Although it costs ten times as much as hard disk storiage, its read performance is about fifty times as fast, so it can replace a larger dedicated disk array used for a database.

“Flash storage is reliable and safe,” he says. Although it’s new and IT managers may not feel inclined to trust it, multiple SSDs can be RAIDed together to increase their reliability, just as with conventional hard disks.

Reclaiming storage using a storage resource management product can be a good idea. The idea is to spot orphaned storage, that is not being used, and add that back into the shared pool: “you can put off buying new storage for months,” says Filks. Storage gets inflated, but resource management can reverse that.

Enterprise agreements

All this information can feed into negotiations with IT providers, he says and, as so often, the IT professional’s best weapon is veiled threats. “Get advice from other vendors,” suggests Filks. “Then if your own provider has been fleecing you, they may come and help you themselves.”

Once again, it comes down to effective management – not technology.