Business Case for Storage Networks, The

Product 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.

Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful Essential knowledge for the managers, May 25, 2005 By  Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews          This review is from: The Business Case for Storage Networks (Paperback) One of the greatest weaknesses of American business is that managers are often limited in their technical knowledge and the technical people limited in their business knowledge. Therefore, the lack of a common frame of reference means that the two groups often do not understand each other. Furthermore both groups are often not very good at educating each other. This means that it is critical for there to be business materials that can be understood by technical people and technical material that can be understood by business people. This book is written for managers and presents the case for incorporating storage networks into your business. Most of the terminology is within the standard vocabulary of business. Part I: "The Storage Networking Value Proposition" starts with the advantages of using storage networks, the impact of storage networking, using financial metrics to justify the allocation of resources, implementation strategies and how to maximize the value of your... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful Presents the Business Case, Not the Technical., November 2, 2004 By  John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews    This review is from: The Business Case for Storage Networks (Paperback) Computer Architecture, Computer Architecture - General, Although Cisco is well noted for the technical depth of most of their books, this is not really a technical book. Instead it is aimed at the buisness manager who is thinking of installing a Storage Area Networks (SAN). It covers how to calculate such things as the total cost of ownership, the effect on your current infrastructure and how the present IT staff will cope with the new equipment, the new technology. The book is not completely untechnical. It includes a complete overview of the concepts which include the interconnection systems, the topology, backup and replication, etc. But these subjects are covered at the business manager level, not the level of the technicians responsible for the actual installation of the system. All in all, the clearest business oriented book on the subject I've seen. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment

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Praise For Business Case for Storage Networks, The

The Business Case for Storage Networks
Reviewer Name: Charles Ashbacher

One of the greatest weaknesses of American business is that managers are often limited in their technical knowledge, and the technical people limited in their business knowledge. Therefore, the lack of a common frame of reference means that the two groups often do not understand each other. Furthermore, both groups are often not very good at educating each other. This means it is critical for there to be business materials that can be understood by technical people and technical material that can be understood by business people.

This book is written for managers and presents the case for incorporating storage networks into your business. Most of the terminology is within the standard vocabulary of business. "Part I: The Storage Networking Value Proposition" covers the advantages of using storage networks, the impact of storage networking, using financial metrics to justify the allocation of resources, implementation strategies, and how to maximize the value of your investment in storage networks. Part II deals with five case studies:

• The Cancer Therapy and Research Center
• Internet Service Provider
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Retail grocer
• Financial services

Each starts with the initial conditions, current problems, TCO numbers, the consequences of moving to storage networks, and future plans for expansion. They are well presented, giving examples of how such migrations work and how they can fail.

I strongly recommend this book for managers who need to reliably store large amounts of data, which is just about everyone. Standard business practice means it is necessary, but the recent imposition of new regulations means that the consequences are no longer limited to business failure. If you fail to store data now, the legal consequences can be considerable.

Index

Download - 162 KB -- Index

Appendix

Download - 856 KB - Appendix A - Decision Maker Implementation Checklist (PPT)
Download - 1.20 MB - Appendix B - The Business Case for Storage Networks: Storage Strategies for Lowering TCO (PPT)
Download - 53.5 KB - Appendix C - TCO Calculator (Excel)

Table of Contents

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.

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Download - 2.09 MB -- Chapter 1, Industry Landscape: Storage Costs and Consumption