Critical Steps in Storage Management: How Business Requirements Shape Policy Decisions

Even as hardware costs decline, total storage costs are increasing as corporations struggle under a growing mountain of data. Much of the blame can be attributed to ineffective storage policies and procedures. An attempt to cut storage costs by targeting TCO fails to recognize that the crux of the problem is a mismatch between the business strategy, business requirements and storage policies and procedures. In this paper, we describe the steps in the storage management process, building a top-down argument for why business strategy or business requirements should ultimately shape storage policies and procedures. This approach allows us to appreciate the storage "process" as a dynamic flow of decisions, one that can react to changes in the business strategy or in the regulatory environment.