The Business Case for Storage Networks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 2. The Business Impact of Storage Networking Technology

The previous chapter discussed the strategic nature of IT solutions, gave a brief economic history of the last five years, and demonstrated how issues such as poor utilization have plagued companies with large, direct-attached storage (DAS) installations.

This chapter presents the tangible and intangible benefits of storage networks, and evaluates each storage networking technology solution within the context of meeting today's demanding business requirements.

Additionally it discusses in detail the measurement of the total cost of ownership (TCO) for storage solutions (this is the most critical piece of financial analysis), and it demonstrates the basic steps required to build a TCO model for storage. Understanding the financial impact of storage networks is crucial to presenting the business case to management and it is a fundamental step in ensuring that your project meets its financial goals as planned.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Tangible and intangible benefits of storage networking

Technology solutions associated with storage networking

Increased availability

Backup and recovery options

Replication

SAN extensions

Total cost of ownership (TCO)