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Reassessing Storage Area Network Economics
Storage area networks are demonstrating strong financial returns as the technology continues its move into mainstream computing. This report examines the benefits of storage area network (SAN) technology and looks at adoption rates for small, medium, and large organizations. We also compare adoption rates with the return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) experiences of various-sized organizations. We conclude with recommendations for achieving maximum benefits while improving the TCO of this technology. (4 pp., 4 figs.)
November, 2007
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SAN Benefits Require Infrastructure Best Practices
As more companies move toward storage capacities near or above the petabyte level, the need to effectively manage storage is growing in importance. According to a recent Computer Economics survey, more than two-thirds of all companies are meeting this need through the deployment of storage area networks (SANs). This report investigates approaches to effectively manage the implementation and ongoing growth in SANs. It also analyzes the key management principles that can help improve the availability, functionality, and reliability of storage systems. Finally, it presents the results of our survey, which provides insights into the economic performance of this technology. (7 pp., 7 figs.)
October, 2006
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Storage Management Disciplines are Declining
Although the cost of disk storage has been dropping, the demand for storage is ever increasing. Therefore, good storage management is still an important discipline for data center managers. However, benchmarks collected over the past decade show that storage management practices have gotten worse across the board: in mainframe data centers as well as in UNIX and Windows server environments. (3 pp., 3 figs.)
June, 2006
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Defend Your Storage Area Network
Storage area networks are growing in popularity because of their history of providing excellent returns to organizations that use them. Success in storage security requires a combination of wise use of technology along with good management practices. While SAN security resembles other IT security methodologies in some respects, storage has unique requirements that must be addressed.
August, 2003