Expansion Planning For Systems Growth (continued)
"I would be willing to bet there is huge amount of data that doesn't need to be spinning around twenty-four hours a day,'' he adds. "Data's value and access patterns change over time, and because we architected it and stored it there on day one doesn't meant that's where it should be on day two-hundred."
If companies took 75 percent of their data off their primary production storage area and moved it to a lower cost, lower power, lower performing storage area, the savings garnered could be doubled, according to experts.
"If it's not possible to grow physically we have to take a data-centric view,'' says Duplessie. "If we place everything around the life cycle and value and importance of the data, which is variable over time, and don't treat it the same, we have the opportunity to make decisions based on whatever criteria we have. It's treating everything the same that gets us in this power, cooling and space problem because it's easier to make the decision to buy more of what we have -- but it's usually strategically worse for that operation."
Over the long term, companies need to recognize that data has a life cycle and it can be staged on different servers that have different attributes around performance. That will let IT devise plans that capitalize on existing data center usage and minimize the need to add real estate to duplicate what is already in place.
About the Author
Esther Shein is a freelance writer and editor specializing in technology and business issues. She is the former editor-in-cheif of Datamation, an online technology magazine.
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