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2. Challenges Faced by IT and Storage ManagersIT and storage managers identified the following activities and constraints as their key challenges.These challenges (Table 1) are common to both large enterprises as well as SME (small and mediumenterprises) sectors of the industry.Challenges identified by IT and Storage ManagersManaging storage growthDesigning, deploying, and managing backup and recoveryDesigning, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutionsMaking informed strategic/big-picture decisionsDesigning and deploying emerging storage technologies (such as storage virtualization,IP-SAN, GRID, etc.)Designing and deploying multi-site environmentsLack of skilled storage professionalsManaging data availability/data retention complianceTable 1: What keeps them awake? Pain points in order of priority identified by managersEach of these activities is ongoing at various levels in each of the companies. Activities such asbackup/recovery have been in practice for decades; still the professionals believe that they arenot doing enough or not performing them well. Table 2 summarizes the input from managers andprofessionals. There is a strong synergy between the managers and individual contributors asthey have identified exactly the same challenges in similar priority order.IT and Storage Managers82% Managing storage growth60% Designing, deploying, and managing backup and recovery59% Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutions51% Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions45% Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies (such as storage virtualization,IP-SAN, GRID, etc.)31% Designing and deploying multi-site environments26% Lack of skilled storage professionals21% Compliance regulationsStorage Professionals81% Managing storage growth63% Designing, deploying, and managing backup and recovery58% Designing, deploying, and managing disaster recovery solutions48% Making informed strategic/big-picture decisions42% Designing and deploying emerging storage technologies (such as storage virtualization,IP-SAN, GRID, etc.)31% Designing and deploying multi-site environments28% Lack of skilled storage professionals19% Compliance regulationsTable 2: Most important activities/constraints identified as challenges by managers and professionals6
Explosive growth in storage requirements and the storage professionals’ knowledge and skill gapsare the primary reasons for not executing many of these activities to the desired levels. These gapsare not necessarily due to lack of competence, but to the fact that a comprehensive storage technologyeducation has not been available. For example, colleges and universities have not, until now,included information storage and management in their courses. On the other hand, vendor trainingtypically focuses on their products covering deployment and usage rather than building skills andcompetency to architect, design, integrate, and manage an entire infrastructure and end-to-endinformation lifecycle management.We will learn the methodology by which most storage professionals acquire knowledge and buildskills to carry out their assignments in section 4 of this paper.Figure 3:Distribution of multi-site data processingenvironments (Number of data centers/processing facilities across representedcompanies)3. Complex Storage EnvironmentsThis study sought to determine the similarities and differences among storage infrastructures. Theresponses reveal that data centers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia have deployed very similarstorage solutions, including hardware and software. The sizes vary based upon business requirements,or in some cases, a particular vendor may have a stronger presence in a given environment,but on the whole, the deployed technology and challenges are very similar.• Nearly 75 percent of the companies have multi-site data processing environments• Nearly 80 percent of the companies are at various stages of storage consolidationMore thanthree38%Three13%One18%Two31%• Nearly 45 percent of the companies have 100 TB or more of usable storage to manage• Average installed usable capacity has doubled to 450 TB compared to the previous year of 222 TB.3.1 Storage Technology SegmentsStorage technology deployment and its importance to the data center aligned with general markettrends for each of the storage technology segments:Figure 4:Distribution of storage capacity acrossrepresented companies• Storage subsystems, by default, are the most important segment as they provide the backboneinfrastructure, storage capacity, reliability, availability, performance, and connectivity.• Two segments, storage areas networks (SANs) and backup/recovery (BR) were rated important bymore than 75 percent of the storage professionals.500TB-1PB9%Over 1PB15%100-500TB23%Up to 100TB53%• Remote replication was considered important by 50 percent of storage professionals• NAS, virtualization, and local replication are considered important by 25-50 percent of theprofessionals• CAS, IP-SAN, and emerging technologies are considered important by 12 percent of theprofessionalsEach of the technology segments is unique, bringing its own specific business or operational values.For example, SAN and NAS provide connectivity options with unique functionality, while BR andreplication technologies provide options for information protection against planned and unplannedoutages.7
Page 6 and 7: EMC’s Response and InitiativesEMC
Page 10 and 11: IP-SANCASLocal ReplicationVirtualiz
Page 12 and 13: Storage Group - Tasks & Responsibil
Page 14 and 15: SANB/RPlatformsNASRemote Replicatio
Page 16 and 17: 4.5 Storage Group Skills ModelAnoth
Page 18: About the AuthorsAlok Shrivastava i

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