Consolidation

Information is the most valuable asset to an enterprise of any size. As a result, the amount of data that is being stored and the amount of time it is kept online is growing rapidly, while the resources to manage it are not. This presents a considerable challenge to companies striving to exploit information for competitive advantage and storage administrators tasked with storing, managing, and protecting that data. Consolidation of storage systems is being considered by more and more companies as a way to address this challenge. However, because of their massive scalability, monolithic storage systems have been thought of as the primary migration target when consolidating data storage, with modular storage systems remaining an afterthought.

One reason that storage consolidation is emerging as a solution to the information influx is because it holds the promise of not only supporting increased storage needs but also simplifying operations and improving resource utilization and efficiency. It enables re-centralization and increases open floor space through the reduction in the number of storage systems needed to support applications. Consistent policies and procedures, such as a single backup and restore platform can be employed. And consolidation rewards IT managers with a potentially reduced bottom line. Operations costs can be lowered through improved storage administrator productivity (managing fewer systems but increased terabytes), reduced environmental expenses, and diminished software license and hardware and software maintenance expenditures. By consolidating or re-centralizing storage capabilities into fewer storage systems, IT administrators can realize the advantages of centralized management along with a single backup and restore platform. Storage consolidation delivers budget benefits that add up as:

•	Storage is used more efficiently
•	Server capabilities are maximized
•	Open floor space is increased
•	Management costs are lowered
•	The number of storage devices are reduced
•	The number of software licenses are reduced
•	Hardware and software maintenance costs are decreased

The benefits of storage consolidation are being realized by more and more companies and seen as a way to streamline many storage-driven applications.

Consolidating storage resources with modular storage systems can help meet the challenges of efficient management of rapid data growth and improving an administrator's productivity, without impacting availability and performance. Consolidating onto storage modular storage systems can simplify operations, reduce TCO, and improve productivity and resource efficiency.