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Changing... and Managing Change

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Demand for storage capacity and information management are growing

exponentially because of e-business and other data-intensive applications. Large

online databases are required for corporate customer management and a host of

other critical business functions. As networks and e-business applications

become the mainstay of most corporations’ information technology

infrastructure, data storage has also become a critical issue in network design.

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"The

amount



of data being generated by businesses nowadays is amazing, and
growing at an incredible rate
"

Biswarup Banerjee

Exponential growth in the amount of information and the user’s desire to

store is forcing corporate information technology and communication managers to

focus on the importance of network storage. Adding corporate back-end storage

management needs with network storage needs, the need for a comprehensive

storage management solution for corporations becomes critical. The quantity of

data being generated by businesses today is growing at incredible rates. This

increase is placing significant pressure and constraints on corporate

information technology organizations. Faced with these pressures, businesses are

looking increasingly to enterprise storage management solutions to meet

explosive data expansion and just as importantly, to protect critical business

data.

Frost&Sullivan estimates that 50% of overall IT expenditure will be

directed towards storage management solutions and associated labor and material

costs by 2004. A key challenge that organizations face in storage management is

inadequate knowledge of their storage infrastructure. In many instances, it has

been observed that organizations in India often add storage resources in a

haphazard manner. They are often unaware of aspects such as the total number of

storage devices that have been used in the organization, their location, and

proper usage.

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Frost&Sullivan further believes that organizations can overcome these

challenges by diligently preparing a roadmap as to how their storage management

requirements are likely to evolve during the course of next three-to-four years.

They need to understand the contours and costs of their current information

infrastructure and at the same time ensure that they have qualified and

experienced professionals so that they can reach their infrastructure goals

without any bottlenecks.

A majority of enterprises have not put in place a proper storage management

policy primarily because this is often regarded as a sensitive issue because in

a way by implementing such a policy the organization is putting a restriction on

the amount of storage one person or group can use and also limiting the types of

files that users can store on the storage service. In simple words, you are

asking the users to place limits on something they currently perceive as

infinite or free. Before implementing such a policy the users need to be

educated about the rationale behind putting in place such a policy and also

communicating to them how each individual user is likely to benefit from such an

initiative.

Organizations need to realize that storage management policy has little to do

with the technology and has more to do with changing the mindset of the actual

users. People need to be clear why the company is implementing storage

management. They need to know what their role in the process will be.

The writing is on the wall–there’s bound to be resistance by the users

when such a policy is brought into place in the organization and not everyone is

going to be happy with limits on how much and what they can store. The onus

would lie on the senior management to communicate the value proposition to the

end users so that the transition is smooth.

The author works with Frost & Sullivan He can be contacted at mail@dqindia.com

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