The Storage Economist

This is part three of a three-part blog series on strategies and tactics during an economic crisis. You can read part one here and two here.

This is part two of a three-part blog series on strategies and tactics during an economic crisis. You can read part one here.

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

Hu and I have blogged about rising disk prices, and how virtualization can be a key instrument to hold down costs:

Taking some comic relief from normal blog posting, and instead, sharing some of my favorite Dilbert storage (and economics) cartoons:

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]