StorageSwitched!

Thinking Green…

The whole IT industry is talking green, but it’s not what you think.

My friend and fellow blogger - Amy Gahran turned me onto an interesting ‘green IT blog‘. Lot’s of good info and references to other sites in the posts.  The blog got me thinking.  I like green as much as the next guy, but too many IT vendors are looking at padding their wallets with a different green.  They are working 7×24 trying to convince us to buy their products and save the planet.

One vendor says that my persistent data isn’t important enough for instant retrieval.  If green IT means that I’ve got to wait  minimum of 13 seconds for a simple mouse click to return a file - I’m taking my green elsewhere.  Sorry, but as 21st century information consumers, we’re an impatient bunch. For some backroom operations (i.e. backup) it’s got potential.  Then again, when you have a system down that’s costing real money for every second it’s down - maybe not there either.

Another storage vendor recently spoke of how much energy would be saved if only you’d trade in last years product for their new stuff.  Of course that’s great for the energy side of things, but what about the impact on landfills etc.  The total cost of pre-mature retirement needs to be fully considered, not just the utility costs.

I’m wondering about all the dollars to add an additional tier (class) of storage - the ‘green’ class.  Now we’ve got Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Compliant, and Green classes of storage.  More or less depending on how you like to slice and dice.  Every new tier, adds complexity and management costs.  And at less than 100% utilization levels - for each additional tier you’re spinning more disk, that isn’t doing anything.

Others are riding on a de-dupe and compression pitch - (less data), but they require extra processing power and the expense for the engines (hardware and software) to perform those processes.

And, once again, people are oversimplifying their information management.  The value of information increases significantly if it is available with integrity and in a timely fashion.  I’ve harped on this before - there is value in information. BUT, only if it is available when users want it.  I’ve spoken with literally thousands of users, and never has one said  that they were willing to wait for their data.  They want it NOW.  IT guys have arbitrarily made those kinds of decisions, often without understanding the implications to costs nor value of the data to the business.

So, before jumping into something that’ll make your vendor money - make sure you’re doing what’s right for your data, your users and your business.

August 3rd, 2007 Posted by Clark Hodge | Uncategorized | 4 comments