ARTICLE POSTED April 17, 2006 What storage OEMs owe customers By Kelly Lanspa Information is vital to the success of any business and it is its most important and guarded asset. In today's real-time world where having access to timely and accurate information is a key business driver, IT managers face a diverse set of challenges that center around storing, managing, and protecting this valuable data that can either reside locally or networked globally. Moreover, the convergence of video/audio/data/transmission technologies coupled with the advancements in computing and storage technologies have resulted in an exponential rise in data generation and storage requirements. Analysts estimate that the worldwide storage demand presently ranges from 30 to 50 percent annually, depending on the business. As IT budgets and headcount remain relatively flat, companies are faced with the challenge of optimizing their storage infrastructures and meeting increasingly stringent business requirements placed on stored information. The need for reliable, cost effective products that lower the total cost of storage ownership is greater than ever. Several new storage requirements are beginning to appear with compliance, fixed-content and long-term archival applications, expanding storage demands even further. Increased regulations, coupled with data-intensive imaging applications (i.e., medical, satellite, broadcast, digital intermediate, surveillance and security, military, etc.) means more and more data will be at risk. In today's customer-centric marketplace, vendors are expected to go the extra mile—to provide more value in the storage and services they are delivering to their customers—and to assist them in protecting their data. It is not enough to only provide robust features and functionality. Vendors have a responsibility to develop innovative technology solutions that offer efficiency in space, power and cooling, while delivering 24x7 access to data on a global basis. Additionally, high availability is at the top of every customer's list of requirements. With the convergence of networking and storage, more and more application and hardware vendors are partnering with storage OEMs to provide a complete, integrated solution to the end user. Delivering an excellent user experience requires a close partnership between the storage OEM and their software and technology solution partners. In today's world, storage OEMs provide more than just the raw power behind the applications, and meeting customer requirements means more than simply supplying products. There are many behind-the-scenes activities required to deliver a fully differentiated and cost-effective storage solution for a range of applications, including DAS/NAS/SAN, cluster computing, online and nearline, virtual tape library and content addressable storage. Timely delivery of storage solutions Delivering products to customers according to the customer's schedule requires a seamless supply chain workflow process that accommodates multiple methods of getting the product to market, including drop shipping and merge-in-transit (products from multiple vendors are shipped together to partner's site) techniques. Further, storage OEMs must have the logistical savvy and supply chain knowledge to integrate multiple drive, RAID and software components. Finally, vendors must either have the mechanisms in place, or work with partners to deliver storage products directly to the customer, the technology solution partner or a warehouse for inventory. Products that work—now and in the future End users must have their critical data available when they need it. Therefore, storage vendors must ensure the highest level of drive availability, conduct extensive drive testing to detect early failures, and find drive fall-outs before the product is shipped. Additionally, drives, firmware, RAID controllers, sub-systems and application software must be tested together as an integrated unit to ensure compatibility and interoperability. Application-tuned storage solutions To get the most out of applications, vendors must tune storage to meet the unique requirements and characteristics of their applications. Some applications require fast read/write performance and sustained throughput such as multi-media, while other applications are more capacity-driven. Storage vendors must work with their technology solution partners to customize storage solutions that allow the application to perform at its best. The goal is having each application-tuned component offering unsurpassed performance, high availability, cost-effective scalability and simplified management, while delivering the industry's best price-performance and best per-square-foot solution. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Customers demand a low TCO. As the quantity and quality of stored data increases, so does the cost of owning and managing this data. Storage OEMs can help bring these costs down through management software that provides a common interface across all products, monitors failures and configures multiple arrays from any location. This management software must also be consistent across all products. Using common components such as RAID controllers or drive carriers across multiple storage solutions also simplifies the management and servicing of the storage. Thus, fewer parts have to be inventoried, reducing the overall cost to end users. Affordable, cost-effective storage Customers want the correct, most cost-effective storage for their needs. Storage OEMs have multiple methods of accomplishing this. Giving customers the ability to choose the right mix of high performance and cost- effective/high capacity drives in the same storage enclosure (SAS/SATA) is one way to offer customers solutions at the appropriate price point. Reducing the cost of field replacement units by having common components (RAID, drive carriers) across multiple products is another method. Also, storage OEMs must have a global sourcing strategy that balances costs, quality and lead times. If there is a problem, fix it fast Customers expect excellent service and maintenance response times. Storage is not the core competency of many technology solution vendors. Therefore, Storage OEMs should provide well-designed products with common components, and act as an extension of the vendor by offering superior education, training and support. Storage vendors owe customers a commitment to provide service and support through the entire product life-cycle, and to offer a path for replacing products that approach end of their lives with faster-cheaper-better alternatives. As experts in their area, storage OEMs are the eyes and ears into new industry initiatives and technology that affects users. Storage vendors should provide leadership and direction in assessing new technologies and consult with their customers to provide continual innovation. About the author Kelly Lanspa is Director Xyratex Storage and Network Systems. Feedback: feedback@snwonline.com Questions: questions@snwonline.com Technical difficulties: webmaster@snwonline.com