Economic Crisis Part 2: Hoarding Cash
by David Merrill on February 3, 2012
This is part two of a three-part blog series on strategies and tactics during an economic crisis. You can read part one here.
by David Merrill on February 3, 2012
This is part two of a three-part blog series on strategies and tactics during an economic crisis. You can read part one here.
by David Merrill on January 31, 2012
I hope you survived the solar flare-up the other day. I did not get my usual number of cell phone calls on Tuesday, so I am blaming the sun. I am convinced that if Chicken Little is ever proven right, it will be because of space junk falling into the earth’s atmosphere (after being melted by solar flares). I did notice some space debris over the weekend, but that could have been spent bottle-rockets from the Chinese New Year (btw happy year of the dragon!).
by David Merrill on January 27, 2012
Hu and others have recently been blogging about storage efficiencies, in terms of capacity, management, allocation, data protection and energy efficiency. I will add another dimension to this discussion, and that is the methods in which efficiencies can be measured.
by David Merrill on January 25, 2012
Virtualization in the data center is a stable and proven approach to make IT more efficient from desktops to servers and from networks to storage. Whether storage virtualization is host-based, controller-based or through an appliance, it is a core ingredient in economical IT architectures. As in most new technology investments, you need a clear understanding of the benefits versus the costs. When you can project a positive ROI and fast payback, your projects gain more traction with IT management. Storage virtualization is a critical element for any organization that wants to significantly reduce unit costs in 2012.
by David Merrill on January 24, 2012
Hu and I have blogged about rising disk prices, and how virtualization can be a key instrument to hold down costs: Read More »
by David Merrill on January 23, 2012
Taking some comic relief from normal blog posting, and instead, sharing some of my favorite Dilbert storage (and economics) cartoons:
by David Merrill on January 19, 2012
One of the expenses included in storage and IT economics is the cost of procurement. I discovered and documented this cost element about a year ago while working in Australia.
by David Merrill on January 12, 2012
You may have heard news about the devastating floods in Thailand, and now the ripple effect of increased HDD prices due to mfg and supply shortages. HDS, EMC, NetApp, and IBM have all stated temporary price increases of 5-15% for the next few months. It is at these times that we need to step back and differentiate price and costs, and to look at storage architectures (not arrays or HDD) that produce the lower total cost of ownership.
by David Merrill on January 6, 2012
Happy New Year to all.
I came across this news article from Sweden, where web and data sharing has been recognized as an official state religion.
by David Merrill on December 1, 2011
Storage Economics at HDS is approaching its 13th year, and along with the thousands of engagements done around the world, we have prepared many people to think like an economist, talk like an accountant, and act like an architect.
Hundreds of HDS employees, partners and even some customers have taken the path of IT economics enlightenment. Part of this includes a formal learning path, much of which is available through the HDS Academy. I am proud that so much of our economic material (theory papers, case studies, tools) are in the public domain, and that so much training is available to partners and customers on this subject matter.
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David Merrill
Chief Economist
