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TRACK 3 (EXECUTIVE):Managing Storage -- A Plan of Attack
Roles and Responsibilities in the Storage Group
John WebsterSenior Analyst and FounderData Mobility Group
Agenda
Storage Management – a “practice” with multiple “disciplines”
Business opportunity vs. business risk – a balancing act
The Disciplines• The storage domain as a business entity
• Using storage to mitigate business risk
• Managing data – the foundational discipline
Management by Application (MbA) – a thematic variation
Where are the boundary lines drawn?
Wrap up and Q&A
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Are you creating a separate storage management group within the IT department?
1. Yes, been there, done that.
2. Yes, we’re in the process of doing that now.
3. We’re evaluating whether or not we should do this.
4. We’d like to but don’t have the resources.
5. No, bad idea.
Complexity in Multiple Dimensions Fibre Channel fabric
architectures
Ethernet and IP
Server clustering
Data backup and restoration
Wide- and metropolitan-area networking protocols
Bridging, routing, and switching
Host bus adapters and drivers
Object modeling
Long-term archiving
Data traffic management
Diagnostic and recovery technologies
Enterprise management applications
Database and file system architectures
Security
Managing Storage
A good way to solve a complex problem:
Break it down into manageable pieces.
Let’s call the manageable pieces
“disciplines.”
Let’s call storage management a
“practice” built on storage management
“disciplines.”
Three Storage Management Disciplines (a proposal)
Business Management
Risk Management
Data Management
Storage Business Management
Management of the storage domain as a
business entity, complete with customers that
must be kept happy, and a method for
tracking and charging-back usage of capacity
and services.
Storage Business Management (2)
Resurgence of the utility model: Did the SSPs have it right?
Do you think of them as storage users or storage customers?
Riding herd on ROI has become critical
Can you manage your customers with Service Level Agreements (SLAs)?
• On-demand capacity provisioning
• QoS
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Do you currently use SLAs for storage-related services?
1. Yes.
2. We use SLAs for broader sets
of IT services.
3. No.
4. What’s an SLA?
SLA Implications
SLAs imply that you can:
Measure, measure, measure
(“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
Computer Measurement Group)
Identify performance problems and solve
them
Forecast
Risk Management
The use of the storage domain to mitigate
corporate risk through the use of well
established backup-and-recovery procedures,
business continuance, disaster recovery and
most recently, security functions.
Risk Management Disaster recovery and business continuity
Backup and restore
Security
Compliance
Are all of these purely within the storage domain?
Are any of these under the purview of other corporate
executives? (Examples: Corporate Security Officer,
Corporate Risk Manager, Corporate Compliance
Officer, Corporate Legal Counsel….)
Mapping IT Risk From the Viewpoint of a Financial Risk Manager
Source: Contingencies.org
Again, note the position of “IT System Failure”
Managing Risk From the Viewpoint of a Financial Risk Manager (2)
Note the position of “IT System Failure”
Source: Contingencies.org
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Does senior executive management understand the importance of IT continuance and recoverability?
1. Yes, they get it and give us the
financial resources we need
when we need them
2. Yes, they get it but we still have
to fight for financial resources
3. No, they don’t get it right now,
but could in the future
4. No, they don’t get it now and
never will
Data Management
The management of data contained within the
storage domain
Data Management (2)
Underpins or serves as a foundation for the other
two discipline areas
Potentially encompasses databases, file systems
(including distributed or global file systems)
Includes management of data copies and data
migration techniques
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How many TB can one person manage?
1. 1
2. 10
3. 100
4. This is a silly question
MBA: A Thematic Variation
Management By Application (MBA)
Recognizes that applications, business policies
and storage are not worlds apart from one
another
Starts at the application level, then works down
the processing “stack” to the underlying storage
environment
Help is on the way:
• Applications Aware Storage (Vendor-driven R&D effort)
• Applications Optimized Storage (User-driven requirement)
And, One Last Question…
Where’s the boundary between the
storage group and
systems/networks/database groups?
Last Words
Storage users are storage customers
Risk: Its about managing exposure
MbA brings world unification
ASK THE EXPERTin the Northeast Exhibit Hall
MONDAY• 5-6 PM
TUESDAY• 5-6 PM
Please rate John Webster’s talk, “Managing Storage -- A Plan of Attack.”
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