The cost of data storage is increasingly important in IT budgets, but Brett Samuel, Veritas product manager, says a significant amount of storage can be reclaimed through storage resource management (SRM).
"Typically, around 30% of data storage can be reclaimed by analysing content and eliminating duplicated and non-business-related data." He says this can lead to significant savings for most companies.
"In the past, companies tended to solve storage problems by purchasing additional storage," he says, "but that`s no longer viable because the ratio of the cost of buying new storage to the cost of maintenance is estimated at 3:1."
Samuel says better storage utilisation can be achieved through SRM, which typically involves a collection of different tools that enable companies to understand and then control what data is being stored through policies based on business needs, giving access and storage rights only to those who need them.
"A suite of tools such as those grouped into Storage Central by Veritas enables storage reclamation through identification of duplicated, out-dated and other junk data," says Samuel. "Storage Central also helps reduce data growth by around 25% through blocking the storage of inappropriate file types, automating file housekeeping, and providing detailed data content and usage reports."
"Veritas StorageCentral software is a Windows-focused SRM solution that improves server availability by enabling companies to establish and enforce storage policies to eliminate server failures," says Gareth de Laporte, Veritas product manager at distributor Drive Control Corporation.
Apart from reclaiming storage, reducing data growth, enforcing storage quotas, and providing detailed reports, Samuel explains SRM enables companies to predict future storage needs more accurately, preventing them from buying extra storage capacity unnecessarily.
Samuel concludes by pointing out storage automation solutions are the building blocks of the utility computing model, providing automated cost-efficient management for complex multi-vendor storage subsystems.
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