The 2009 Enterprise IT Storage Model: Performance + Efficiency
You don’t need a crystal ball to predict how the global economic slowdown and a prolonged recession will impact IT spending in 2009: it’s going to be ugly. Many projects will be delayed, eliminated outright, or at the very least, cut severely in scope.
This poses a huge problem for enterprise IT managers. Why?
Quite simply, enterprise information demands continue to increase with no end in sight. And, data center managers will have to do anything and everything in their power — without making significant new IT capital investments —to keep up with the increasing IT system performance demands.
Failure to do so will be unacceptable, so what are the options?
Two things come to mind: 1) optimizing existing IT systems for increased performance; and 2) significantly reducing the energy consumption of power-hungry high RPM hard disk racks. Is this difficult?
It may be easier than one thinks and requires no change to the existing infrastructure, management software or systems. By adding Enterprise Flash Drives (EFDs) to handle the performance workload of many spinning hard drives, both goals can be achieved. The high performance of the EFD enables more I/Operformance and flexibility to meet peak periods and growing demands. By combining EFDs with high capacity HDDs, today’s storage racks can be reduced to storage shelves saving power (up to 80%), space and money.
I predict that beginning in 2009, EFDs will be a key tool for enterprise IT managers to survive the economic turmoil while optimizing their existing storage systems.
And, let’s face it, it’s time for a change to the traditional approach to high-performance storage solutions.
Interested to hear your feedback, so please feel free to comment.
Amyl Ahola