Many companies invest in a storage area network (SAN) in the hope that it will solve all their problems, but often don't use it to its full potential, according to Adam Day, product manager at SYSDBA.
He believes SANs have the potential of much saving, but must be "chosen wisely and implemented correctly".
Day has seen large companies purchase storage technologies but never implement them, due to the perceived complication of using the functionality.
It's important to keep track of what your company truly needs, and what will benefit you the most. "The bells and whistles may seem great, but if they're not going to be used effectively they become a waste of money."
Day also outlines some statistics on the subject: "A study by a leading analyst shows the total cost of ownership of networked storage solutions is less than half that of direct attach storage (DAS) solutions, primarily because of huge savings in management costs. The study found that networked storage was able to lower the budget for storage administrators from 47% of total cost to less than 10%."
But, while solutions have many benefits, such as easier implementation of high availability, and the fact that servers can connect to remote storage even over vast geographical distances, he recommends every user investigates and choose their systems wisely.
"Request demonstrations of the proposed capabilities to see how simple they really are, and ask for proof points to see first-hand how the actual benefits relate to your environment."
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