5 steps for evaluating your Information technology infrastructure

In the pursuit of optimized Information technology models, primary data officers (CIOs) need to carefully evaluate their existing Information technology infrastructures and make choices that cut costs and streamline processes, every bit I discussed in my previous blog, Optimizing IT for 2013. To brand that happen – and to deliver cost savings of upward to 70 percent – following these five simple steps should make a major impact in improving your lesser line:

Stride one:  Dedupe your backup environment. Fill-in is the biggest headache facing most organizations. It is important for an Information technology department to accept an inventory of the existing backup surround, business objectives for recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery signal objectives (RPO) for applications. In an optimized It model, backup and recovery are typically the largest benefactors from a cost savings perspective. Dedupe to disk can save your arrangement a ton of money while nonetheless letting you leverage tape for long-term archives. Make sure the solution you lot choose integrates with any existing tape backup environment and enables you to automate record for long-term athenaeum Later information is replicated offsite.

Step 2: Fix your network. The local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) infrastructure must be robust enough to provide high performance for all client access while providing residual bandwidth for information motion between locations. Since WAN bandwidth is critical for data replication and in plough disaster recovery (DR), it must be robust enough to handle all production workloads while maintaining bandwidth to go along data in sync between sites to meet stringent RPOs. Since leasing WAN bandwidth can exist the most expensive recurring cost for Information technology, information technology is disquisitional to ensure that all data is optimized and minimal bandwidth is required. You tin accomplish an optimized It model when you use global data deduplication and delta versioning at all levels so that when any data asset is moved, it moves equally efficiently as physics allows. Invest in solutions that replicate data with maximum efficiency for DR and enable server-less, LAN-gratuitous backups to remove backup traffic from the network.

Footstep 3: Optimize servers and applications. In the earth of open, distributed computing, server virtualization enables toll reductions through the ability to use less concrete hardware for application services. This in plough enables more than cost-constructive DR, since fewer physical servers are required at remote sites. It should run applications on robust "blade server" or GRID infrastructures or Domain- and LPAR-based physical servers, or use server-based virtualization solutions from vendors such as Microsoft, VMware and Citrix. Virtualization can put an organization ahead of its peers in terms of cost reduction and consolidation.

Step 4: Virtualize your storage area network (SAN). The SAN can be one of the nearly costly areas of IT, especially as it pertains to annual operational expenditure (OpEx), which can be four times more costly than majuscule expenditure (CapEx). Take all available measures to provide a robust, loftier-performing and reliable infrastructure for data storage in the most cost-efficient way every bit possible. For example, an Information technology section tin can mirror information betwixt ii lower-price modular storage arrays rather than purchasing loftier-price monolithic storage arrays. The goal is to commoditize disk to keep costs downward. An organization tin can move the intelligence for information protection and replication out of the storage arrays and into the cloth and then that there is no demand to purchase expensive, array-based software licenses. IT departments should exist able to motion data betwixt different arrays at volition while applications are up and running, and replicate data between unlike devices. Storage virtualization with material- or appliance-based intelligence makes disk a commodity and enables IT departments to keep vendors honest and costs low.

Step 5: Get your business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) under control. Organizations benefit dramatically from an optimized It model in terms of reduced BC/DR costs. Data deduplication and delta versioning can exist used beyond all services to reduce storage and WAN costs. Low-price iSCSI connectivity tin be used in lieu of a SAN at the DR site. Material-level replication and virtualization can be used to reach single console DR across all storage classes and vendors. This eliminates the demand for advanced data service licenses within the storage arrays, and it enables replication between disparate storage resources. On-demand concrete-to-virtual conversion and automated virtual-to-virtual recovery of application servers reduces downtime and streamlines the recovery procedure.

Implementing any of these steps individually will help reduce your costs, merely together they create a compelling advantage in IT savings over the long run, and the New Year is a good alibi to start.

Christopher Poelker is the author of Storage Area Networks for Dummies, and has over 30 years of experience architecting storage, backup and disaster recovery solutions. Chris specializes in storage virtualization and data protection. Chris's postings on this site are his own.

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