The Business Case for Storage Networks (Paperback)

Description:

Understand the business case for storage networks and lower your total cost of ownership with this comprehensive guide

• Introduces the benefits of storage networks, providing a comprehensive business case for the adoption and deployment of storage networking solutions
• Provides a complete overview of the TCO methodology for storage networks
• Summarizes the EVA, NPV, and ROI metrics used to evaluate projects, ensuring their financial success
• Outlines the best practices for executing a storage migration strategy
• Includes a TCO calculator and decision-making checklist that you can use to assess your decision

When adopting a storage networking solution, you need to understand the business case for your decision. Yet this process is fraught with many business and technical considerations. How will the adoption of a storage networking solution affect your current infrastructure? How will your IT team grapple with the addition of a new technology? How can you turn the cost of your storage network into a business benefit, strengthening your bottom line and paving the way for future success?

Storage networking technologies promise a high return on investment (ROI) and have the potential to reduce the cost of corporate IT functions, which can result in significant savings. The increased efficiency associated with networked storage also promises a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for storage, and a lower, fully burdened cost of storage means greater long-term savings for large and small corporate datacenter environments. SAN technologies also offer increased business continuance capabilities for increased uptime and availability.

The Business Case for Storage Networks covers the problem of direct-attached storage (DAS) and the solutions offered by storage area networks. It details the experiences of IT decision makers and implementers who have deployed SAN solutions to address the formidable problems facing their companies, which are now overwhelmed with expensive, inefficient, and difficult-to-manage DAS solutions. The Business Case for Storage Networks addresses the problems of storage growth and increased consumption, the role of the IT department as a cost center, and how SAN technologies can help save money in the long run, helping you make an informed decision about your storage networking investment.

This volume is in the Network Business Series offered by Cisco Press. Books in this series provide IT executives, decision makers, and networking professionals with pertinent information on today's most important technologies and business strategies.

 

I. THE STORAGE NETWORKING VALUE PROPOSITION.

1. Industry Landscape: Storage Costs and Consumption.

    Storage Management Matters.

    Implementing a Storage Vision.

    Irrational Exuberance.

    Macro Sources of Economic Downturn.

    Commoditization of Hardware.

    The Disk as Commodity.

    The Server as Commodity.

    The Impact of Competition on IT.

    The Impact of Legislation on IT.

    Regulation Fair Disclosure.

    Sarbanes-Oxley.

    Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

    Title 21.

    Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Utilization and Yield.

    The Cost of Poor Quality and the Storage Problem.

    Storage Yield.

    Obstacles Inherent in DAS.

    Utilization.

    Conclusion.

    Summary.

     End Notes.

2. The Business Impact of Storage Networking Technology.

    Tangible and Intangible Benefits of Storage Networking.

    Technology Solutions Associated with Storage Networking.

    Increased Availability.

    Backup and Recovery Options.

    LAN-Free Backups.

    Server-Free Backups.

    Replication.

    Asynchronous Replication.

    Synchronous Replication.

    SAN Extensions.

    Optical Networking.

    Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol.

    Internet Fibre Channel Protocol.

    Internet SCSI.

    Total Cost of Ownership.

    Conclusion.

    End Notes.

3. Building a Value Case Using Financial Metrics.

    Using Payback, ROI, NPV, and EVA.

    Payback Method.

    Return on Investment.

    Net Present Value.

    Economic Value Added.

    Value Case Analysis.

    DAS-to-SAN Migration Value Case.

    Storage Consolidation Value Case.

    DAS-to-NAS Migration Value Case.

    iSCSI Implementation Value Case.

    Conclusion.

    End Notes.

4. How it Should Be Done: Implementation Strategies and Best Practices.

    Technology Adoption.

    Storage Technology Primer.

    TCO, Tiered Storage, and Capacity Planning.

    Information Lifecycle Management.

    Performance Planning.

    Oversubscription.

    Core Topology.

    Core-Edge Topology.

    Redundancy and Resiliency.

    Choosing the Right Vendor.

    Request for Information (RFI).

    RFP/RFQ.

    Changing the Support Model Paradigm.

    Networking and IP Transport Model.

    Virtual Storage Team.

     Dedicated Storage Team.

    Outsourced Professional Services.

    Service Level Management.

    Defining the Storage Vision.

    Defining the Services.

    Finalizing the Framework Repository.

    Execution and Functional Roles.

    Role of Project Manager.

    Role of Storage Architect.

    Role of Storage Administrator.

    Role of Professional Services Staff.

    Conclusion.

    References.

5. Maximizing Storage Investments.

    Enterprise Storage Software.

    Storage Resource Management.

    Storage Operations Management.

    Cost-Saving Strategies for Storage-Centric Firms.

    Storage Consolidation.

    Server Consolidation.

    Virtualization.

    Information Lifecycle Management.

    Conclusion.

    References.

II. CASE STUDIES.

6. The Cancer Therapy and ResearchCenter.

    Executive Summary.

    Storage Environment.

    The Move to Storage Networks.

    Total Cost of Ownership.

    Future Initiatives.

    Conclusion.

7. Internet Service Provider.

    Executive Summary.

    Storage Environment.

    The Move to Storage Networks.

    Interoperability of Storage Solutions.

    Networked Storage Implementation.

    Tiered Storage Implementation.

    Storage TCO.

    Replication.

    Organizational Impact.

    Capacity Planning and Utilization.

    SRM.

    Future Initiatives.

    Conclusion.

8. Cisco Systems, Inc..

    Executive Summary.

    Environment.

    Support Infrastructure.

    The Move to Storage Networks.

    Implementation.

    Consolidation.

    TCO and ROI.

    Tiered Storage Implementation.

    Capacity Planning and Utilization.

    Storage Recovery.

    Conclusion.

    References.

9. Retail Grocer.

    Executive Summary.

    Storage Environment.

    The Move to Storage Networks.

    SAN Consolidation.

    Future Initiatives.

    Conclusion.

    References.

10. Financial Services.

    Executive Summary.

    How Derivatives Work.

    Storage Environment..

    The Move to Storage Networks.

    Data Integrity and Resiliency.

    Storage Management.

    Future Initiatives.

    Conclusion.

III. APPENDIXES.

Appendix A. Decision Maker Implementation Checklist.

Appendix B. The Business Case for Storage Networks: Storage Strategies for Lowering TCO.

Appendix C. TCO Calculator.