Monthly Research Update

Storage Trends & Directions

Experton Group believes the next few years will see an unprecedented level of information growth, mostly coming from new products and technologies, which combined with regulatory requirements, will strain the storage management capabilities of many large enterprises. Moreover, the costs associated with managing the information will exceed by a factor of two to four times the outlays for the storage itself or the energy consumed to keep the storage available. IT executives need to understand implications of the information storage trends and start addressing these issues now, or within two to three years the enterprise may be unable to effectively manage its information assets.

Business Imperatives

  • The unconstrained growth of electronic data coupled with the regulatory requirements on the storage of that data will prove to be a challenge for organizations over the next two to three years. This will be true across all industries. IT executives need to determine the impact the rate of growth and the volumes to be stored will have upon their enterprises, and develop and implement strategies to address the demand before it hampers business performance.
  • Aside from the scalability and volume requirements, there are a number of storage pain points that IT executives need to address. Failure to do so will only compound the problems and cause greater pain. Fortunately, there will be new innovative solutions to address them over the next few years. IT executives need to identify and weigh their storage challenges and seek near term solutions that mitigate or resolve them.
  • Storage advances fall into four categories: agility/flexibility, economics, operational performance, and risk management. By the end of 2010 the advances in these areas will have transformed storage as IT executives know it today. IT executives should understand the provider roadmaps and their business requirements, and determine and execute a strategy that allows them to achieve their business goals while repopulating and upgrading their storage infrastructure.

The Bottom Line: Experton Group believes the explosion of information that must be captured, stored, retrieved, retained, and then destroyed appropriately will put a strain on most organizations' storage management capabilities, especially with its impact on compliance and corporate image. Fortunately, there are significant innovations that will be forthcoming over the next few years to meet these added demands. However, enterprises will be hard pressed to repopulate their storage ecosystems within the two year period. IT executives should develop a strategy now, lock it into their upcoming budgetary cycles and begin executing the plan as early as possible, lest they end up on the wrong side of the curve.

In order to get into the driver seat Experton Group strongly recommends to analyze the Storage Efficiency Index (SEI = single data x 2 / total storage space), the storage cost and storage landscape. Virtualization and De-duplications with the correct consolidation are essential steps.

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Greening of Data Center – Over 75% are outdated – Get a Green Certificate

Experton Group recently participated in running the Next Generation Data Center Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. The 127 participants were IT executives and data center managers for many of the largest businesses that are trying to find ways to extend the life of existing data centers and develop best practices for building new ones.

Over 50% of all Data Centers are outdated from an energy efficiency design standpoint and another 25% need to be consolidated from a cost and management standpoint. Therefore a total of 75% of all Data Centers our outdated and only 25% are State-of-the-Art.

Data centers for the last two to three years have been undergoing a constant struggle in keeping up with power and cooling requirements for new denser blade servers. In addition, data center managers are trying to find ways to get more efficiency out of individual servers that are often running at only 10 to 20 percent utilization. IT executives come to Experton Group to understand what other companies are doing about these issues and what the best practices are for building energy efficient data centers.

One of the best ways to start becoming “Green” and saving money is the Green IT Assessment and potentially later the Green Certification. In addition to an overall situation analysis it also gives you an answer if your Data Center is outdated or not.

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Key to Reducing IT Run rate

Experton Group studies show large enterprises are still spending too much on their IT operational expenditures (OpEx). While there is a litany of reasons to explain how this occurred, the good news is that it need not continue. Methodologies are available that enable financial and IT executives to perform detailed analyses and develop finely honed plans to eliminate excess costs without cutting service or jeopardizing business plans and strategies. Given the current market conditions, executives should undertake such an analysis now so that funds can be freed up as soon as possible for key initiatives.

  • Too frequently data centers are populated with a myriad of servers and server types due to the lack of a data center architecture, and a standardized platform policy and selection process. Finance and IT executives should establish a uniform enterprise-wide server architecture and selection process, and should select target platforms based upon the target architecture, total cost of ownership (TCO), and a cost per application (CPA) analysis.
  • Politics, technical ideologies, and vendor platform preferences for packaged applications are the primary drivers behind server selection. Replacing the current point solution ad hoc process with one that is designed for optimized data center cost, performance, and utilization will require the firm, unwavering commitment of senior management. Executives should put in place an unbiased task force consisting of facilities, finance, and IT personnel to analyze the current TCO and CPA of existing applications and systems and, where appropriate, develop recommendations and action plans for porting these systems over to target platforms.
  • Changes in business requirements, energy and environmental constraints, and technology shifts require executives to develop and execute a long-range data center plan starting now. Executives can expect major advancements and alternative designs over the next three to five years and therefore need to plan for these shifts carefully so as to avoid or minimize unneeded costs. Executives should bring together key application developers, facilities managers, information architects, operations and testing personnel to develop and execute a long-range data center plan.

The Bottom Line: Experton Group believes finance and IT executives, using comprehensive TCO and ROV methodologies, will be able to reduce their overall IT operational costs by up to 50 percent or more over time. Executives should see an initial payback within 24 months and be able to find affordable approaches that will allow them to reduce IT costs each year of a restructuring initiative. Executives should scrutinize IT operational expenditures carefully to see what the appropriate target architectures and platforms should be and then develop and execute a strategic data center plan that achieves their objectives.

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Executive University for CxOs, CIOs, and IT Executives

Who should attend? While this event is specifically designed for CxOs and CIOs or equivalent, they should feel free to bring or send their direct reports and high potentials. This is a rare opportunity to attend a high level IT Executive Training.

Background: Experton Group Advisors were involved in delivery of many CIO Boot Camps in the United States and Europe. Around 1,000 CxOs, CIOs, direct reports, or potential future CIOs have successfully participated in those Executive training events.

Based on the feedback and the demand of IT Executives in Europe and the Middle East, Experton Group has responded with this specially designed “IT Executive University Program” to be held twice each year.

The first Summer University 2008 was held in the beautiful Bavarian Alps of South Germany.

The Winter University 2009 will be held in Dubai, UAE from February 1 to 5, 2009.

The next Summer University will be held in the city centre of Munich in the Sofitel Hotel in August 3-7, 2009.

Feedback from the 2008 Event: What did delegates say to the event 2008:

“This Summer University is a very good chance for me to meet the experts from Experton Group, learn from them and exchange ideas. Although the period of 5 days is not enough to learn everything, but no doubt, it opened my mind to many issues that I need to tackle when I go back home.”

“Actually it was an excellent opportunity to broaden the knowledge of several IT & Telco hot topics in a very short time, complimented by the one-on-one discussions was a good idea to make use of the highly specialized consultant presence, in different topics.”

“Thank you very much, it was a great event & very useful.”

“This event was very interesting to me. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot and I understand new concepts. I also identified some areas where I need help and support from subject matter experts.”

“It saves me time for research and takes me miles ahead. I feel I'm again back on the track.

“Having access to a diversified group of subject matter experts under one roof was gratifying. An excellent venue for learning and knowledge sharing.”

“I spent a few days with a wealth of experience. Come prepared with all questions you are faced during your practice as you can probably get them all answered.”

“Thanks a lot everything was super”

“Just repeat it every year.”

Please click here to get to the webpage for more details and registration or download the brochure.

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