EMC Professional Services is offering a range of different analyses related specifically to data storage. An organisation`s current storage environment will be assessed and data growth over a five-year period estimated to provide the input parameters for an analysis that aims to uncover known and hidden costs in a model based on the GartnerGroup Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) definition.
"In the new hyper-speed world everything is becoming initiative, or event-based," says Keith Goosen, Engagement Manager, Professional Services at EMC SA. "Continued operation of ongoing systems certainly costs money, but purely in the sustaining role. Incremental improvements must be cost effective and clear-cut to have any chance for approval. If the improvement to ongoing operations requires significant investment, then it is likely to lose out to new business opportunities."
The analyses address a key element in building information infrastructures, that of time-to-market, and can be adjusted to the specific needs of any organisation. The more basic studies consist of a TCO analysis by means of which two alternative storage strategies are compared.
The more advanced analysis involves a series of interviews of users of IT-services, sales, marketing and the strategists in the organisation. "The resulting report gives recommendations for key areas influenced by data storage. Based on the business direction and strategies identified in the interviews, recommendations for how IT and data storage can support these strategies are provided," Goosen explains.
These can include factors influenced by availability of IT-solutions, potential gains caused by reduced planned and unplanned down time, risk assessment, disaster recovery, potential effects caused by consolidation of IT solutions and how well business strategies are supported by IT infrastructure and solutions.
"A full assessment discusses the economic, operational and strategic impacts caused by implementing alternative data storage strategies, and covers areas such as business continuity, business strategies, disaster recovery and consolidation," he says.
The full assessment looks at storage, overall business processes, users, operational and infrastructure concerns to ultimately define financial and business benefits that can be attained. "Essentially, `pain points` can be identified within the infrastructure and turned into opportunities. Architecture, applications and storage are taken into account to help organisations make better decisions," says Goosen.
"Standards and policies will be defined through interviews, which will unravel and simplify business processes to show the roadmap forward."
The purpose and scope for the analysis is defined prior to the project initiation. This definition is the basis for a proposal from EMC Professional Services, which uses a worldwide network of experts to assign the best resources to every analysis. The analysis takes from six to eight weeks to be completed and cost is based on the size and complexity of the analysis.
A focused assessment covers one or more areas in a full assessment and requirements are defined jointly by the client and Professional Services, and reflected in the project proposal. These assessments look at the business impact and take from two to three weeks. Again, cost is determined by the size and complexity of the analysis.
"The assessments will articulate a `justification model` to show improved revenue generation through higher application uptime, improved disk usage, more efficient infrastructure management and, ultimately, improved service to users.
"New opportunities come and go so fast that companies need to hit the ground running. When a new initiative is approved it is no longer feasible to wait for long, drawn-out technology evaluations or architectural discussions. There is just too much advantage to being first, too much money to be made by skimming the cream of demand and too little time to establish a dominant market position. To support the business as fast as possible, time-to-market and smooth operations are the only success factors," Goosen concludes.
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