NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE 12/21/04 Today's focus: Santa's storage list
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Some wishes that would keep your storage manager happy * Links related to Storage in the Enterprise * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Cisco Systems Become a SAN Extension Expert in Only Five Steps Need to become a SAN extension expert quickly? Go to the "Steps to Success" site where Cisco has compiled a complete overview of the technologies, resources, and requirements for SAN extension. Select from numerous white papers, design guides, and customer success stories that can help answer even your most difficult questions and get you on the fast track to success. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91603 _______________________________________________________________ NW'S RESEARCH CENTER ON STORAGE Go to NW Fusion's Research Center for detailed information on enterprise storage. Find the latest breaking news, case studies, white papers, commentary, reviews and more. Topics on how ILM impacts your storage strategy, how to migrate to a new tape drive, how to link SAN islands and more are all found in the Research Center. Click here: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91563 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Santa's storage list By Mike Karp Dear Editor, I am writing to you again this year. I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in the storage newsletter, it's so." He is an IT director. Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? If there is, please give him this wish list from Papa. Dear Santa, I would really like the following for Christmas. If that is not possible, I would be glad to accept them for Chanukah or Kwanzaa or Arbor Day or Midsummer Night's Eve. * For the employees of Symantec and Veritas: A smooth transition ��as the two companies merge their cultures. * For the customers of Symantec and Veritas: The hope that those ��companies can merge their product lines so that compatibility is ��there where it is needed, and interoperability is there where it ��is required. * For the engineers at Sun: Seemingly, while nobody was looking, ��Sun refreshed and strengthened its storage line. Let's wish the ��engineers a marketing department that can provide them with a ��less stealthy approach to supporting product rollout and market ��entry. As for their marketing team - Nice going on keeping the ��secret, guys. * For small business owners and managers of remote offices: A ��back-up appliance that can be installed locally, is mostly ��self-configuring, has an installation wizard that takes the user ��right up to the point where the machine comes online, requires ��no management over the course of a year, and costs about as much ��as one of the PCs it supports. * For young girls everywhere: Barbi's IT Fun House, a new toy ��available just in time for holiday gift giving that will provide ��them with a sense of how much fun they can have if they set ��their sights on careers in the computer room. * For Roy, a systems integrator in the U.S.: A fair and ��independent third-party analysis showing head-to-head ��comparisons of storage-area network performance (2G-bit Fibre ��Channel) vs. DAS performance (Ultra 320 SCSI). If any of my ��readers can help with this, I'll make sure Santa delivers it to ��him. * For Kurt, a senior storage consultant in Australia: Clients ��who understand that strategic planning is frequently of much ��more use before implementations than after. Also, may he have ��more time to e-mail to his friends. * For a very deserving storage analyst, who also writes a ��newsletter for Network World: More correspondence from readers ��in exotic places like Fiji, east Africa, and India. Vicarious ��travel to such places, after all, is always better than business ��travel. * For enterprise storage buyers: A standard set of definitions ��for such terms as "on-demand," "utility computing" and "grid." * For all of us: A teddy bear. These always seem to help. ��Really. * For corporate road warriors: Automated back-up and recovery ��services for their laptops that run when they are traveling. ��First, a policy should define when a backup is to be done. Then, ��a small agent or client on their machines should sense for an ��Internet connection and, when one is identified, should provide ��services in the background that upload data to the back-up ��server. There is too much corporate data that is off the server ��and is - for the most part - being ignored when it comes to ��receiving basic IT services. * For the vendors who are offering solutions based on storage ��virtualization: A good dose of enough common sense. Then perhaps ��they will realize that the debate over in-band/out-of-band ��performance is much less important to IT managers than is the ��question of "Can I manage it cheaply?" Operational expenses are ��where the savings are, guys. These days it has to be all about ��the business. * For the managers doing their IT budgets for next year: ��Maintenance agreements from their vendors that don't try to ��gouge them for more than 20% of the purchase price per year; ��15%-18% in most cases is more than reasonable. * For the managers doing their IT budgets for next year: The ��ability to manage maintenance agreements intelligently by ��looking at the whole of IT maintenance as a single system. For ��example, if they have just spent a fortune on replication ��technology, may they have the wisdom to downgrade the ��maintenance contract on their storage servers from their present ��two-hour platinum service to the astonishingly cheaper next-day ��lead service. Do the math. * For all of us: May the vendors supply us with tech manuals ��that don't remind me of reading an old Unix man page. * And finally, may everyone who attends your department's ��holiday party be successful in suppressing the apparently primal ��urge to photocopy parts of their bodies that none of us really ��wanted to see in the first place. Santa, my wants are simple. Unfortunately, of late your gifts haven't helped me keep up with the technology curve. Please do what you can. Milk and cookies are in the usual place, under the raised floor panel by the UPS. Thanks Santa P.S. Please don't smoke your pipe in the computer room. We are all sorry about that business with the Halon last year. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Cisco rolls out branch office storage Network World, 12/20/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/122004newcisco.html Tech Update: Change management reins in SANs Network World, 12/20/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2004/122004techupdate.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Mike Karp Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91630 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Storage newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/stor/index.html Breaking storage news and analysis: http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/storage.html _______________________________________________________________ Webcast - Wireless Network Troubleshooting Watch this webcast and get an overview of wireless LANs including: key standards; the link and physical air wireless LAN; infrastructure, bridge, and ad-hoc modes; and wireless switch architecture. Watch now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91591 _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE THE EXTENDED ENTERPRISE: NW'S ANNUAL GUIDE Here we analyze the latest tools, techniques and strategies for extending your business reach. Find out how connecting to your business partners is influencing those relationships, how you can make your business partners take security issues as seriously as you do and more. Click here: <http://www.nwfusion.com/ee/2004/?ts> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. 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