Lowering Storage TCO: Reducing Expenses By Increasing Functionality

Jamie Blomquist, Product Marketing Manager, Compellant

Traditional SANs are typically thought of as difficult to manage, require extensive training to operate and expensive to purchase and maintain over long periods of time. However, new technologies and the driving need for less costly, easier to maintain network storage solutions are propelling advancements in storage technology. As a result, these technologies are increasing functionality while decreasing the financial burdens that traditionally come with them. Advanced applications like automated boot from SAN, continuous snapshots, remote replication, automated tiered storage, thin provisioning and storage and server virtualization are becoming more common in the industry and users that implement them are realizing a drastic reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO). It is to the benefit not only for IT and network administrators to understand how these storage technologies affect TCO, but also for CIOs and other decision-makers to have a firm grasp on how TCO can affect their bottom lines.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the different components of storage TCO, how they impact IT budgetary planning and why all relevant costs should be considered when making
  
• Discuss the traditional difficulties typically associated with SANs
  
• Examine various storage technologies available today to IT and how they help lower TCO; learn how to measure TCO and conduct an accurate TCO analysis