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.
Read More »
by David Merrill on November 21, 2011
Storage economic principles and concepts are expanding (at HDS) beyond the storage realm—where it has grown up over the last 12 years. Data center costs, VDI, converged platforms, servers and hypervisors infrastructures all have the same requirement to identify and reduce unit costs.
by David Merrill on November 15, 2011
Two weeks ago, I shared the stage at Gartner’s ITxpo with Paulette Scheffer from Adobe. Our combined message was on the economic impact of storage virtualization. It was a great fusion of theory (me) and real-world experience (Paulette) on how storage virtualization has a direct impact on the unit cost of storage. The presentation was very popular (standing room and over-flow – check out the pics!) and we had several requests to re-record the event.
I am glad to share with you this link of a recorded session with the exact same material (and technical/economic passion) that we presented at the ITxpo.
Read More »
David Merrill
Chief Economist
