Storage Priorities in ANZ

Sun's storage expert Rob Nieboer and IDC's Graham Penn recently hosted an inaugural Let's Talk Live Web event. The session focused on the top four storage priorities identified by the ANZ audience.

The priorities were:

1. Aligning storage infrastructure and processes with business requirements
2. Managing data growth in terms of scaling, capacity & cost
3. Data protection & business continuity
4. Increasing control through consolidation & virtualisation

Download the Web event now to gain insights and best practices on these storage challenges.

You'll also receive an IDC Special Report: Actions for Storage Management 2007.

Top priorities - Why they matter?

Aligning storage infrastructure and process with business requirements is pre-requisite to the development of a solid storage strategy.

It enables you to address other critical storage issues such as data protection and storage management. Further, it allows you to extract the full business value from stored data.

The process involves translating business requirements into storage management policy through to data classification. Once the process is complete, you can tailor the infrastructure to meet specific demands from your business.

Managing data growth is a universal challenge and it was no surprise it ranked as the number two priority.

The good news is that there are various tools to manage the cost and complexity of data growth, including:

• Server/Storage hybrid appliances, including the Sun Fire X4500
• Server, disk and tape virtualisation
• Tiered storage management that includes tape for cost effective back-up

Evaluate the ROI of different approaches with Sun's Storage Value Tool.

Concern over potential business risk has placed data protection and business continuity at the top of the priority list for many IT professionals.

The latest solutions to tackle these challenges include virtual tape, encryption and identity management.

To reduce the time and cost of data backup and protection, focus on the active storage pool and move unreferenced data to low-cost archive appliances.

Consolidation and virtualisation still a priority

In October 2006, an EDGE survey was conducted to gather insights on storage virtualisation.

Forty one per cent of the respondents indicated storage consolidation as a priority while 32 per cent were focused on storage virtualisation.

Today, consolidation and virtualisation are still firmly on the agenda for most organisations - whether the focus is on application consolidation or server virtualisation.

To simplify the entire IT environment and reduce costs, a holistic approach that begins with data consolidation is optimal.

Learn more about Sun's approach to consolidation and virtualisation.

View the Web event now.

Also, for more storage management tips, download the Information Management Best Practices in Business/IT Alignment white paper.

Register your interest now to be involved in future events and we'll alert you to those relevant to your business.