Back | eWEEK.com | Search
New Symantec CEO Tells Conference: 'Stop Buying Storage'
By: Chris Preimesberger
2009-04-08
There are 5 user comments on this Data Storage, Data Backup and Storage Virtualization story.
Receive eWeek news alerts on your mobile device.
Get the latest breaking news with mobile-formatted article links.
Click here to subscribe
E-mail
Print
PDF Version
Enrique Salem tells Storage Networking World attendees that storing and securing data more efficiently -- and not simply adding new capacity to handle the ever-increasing data flow -- is the way IT managers are going to have to go during the recession.
Symantec's new CEO, Enrique Salem, toldattendees in a keynote address at the Storage Networking World conference inOrlando, Fla., April 7 that enterprises should stop buying new storage andfocus on obtaining better mileage from their existing systems.
"Stop buying storage. You heard me right: Stop buying storage," Salemsaid. "How? Reduce the amount of information that you store in the firstplace, and make the storage you do have more flexible and efficient."
Sounds like an odd statement, coming from a storage and data security company,but Symantec certainly has its agenda, and it is nothing if not consistent. RobSoderbery, senior vice president of storage products at Symantec, spokethe exact same message last August during the launch of the company'sfront-line Veritas storage management software, CommandCentral.
The fact is, while headcounts and software purchases are falling, storagehardware and data security purchasing remains on track or is increasing, thanksto the incessant amount of data flowing into businesses.
"In this economic climate, when one-third of CEOs are expecting their ITbudgets to remain flat and many are expecting to see them reduced, the mostimportant measure of your success isn't the ROI," Salemsaid. "It's ROY: return onyesterday."
If you want to stop buying storage, Salemsaid, there are four key opportunities that everyone should be looking at rightnow: storage resource management, thin provisioning, data deduplication andintelligent archiving.
'Orphan Storage' an Issue to Be Solved
Of course, Symantec offers those features, but so do a hundred other companies,including EMC, NetApp, Hewlett-Packard,Pillar Data Systems, Data Domain, 3PAR, IBM,Dell and COPAN. These options are in more demand all the time.
"If you're like most companies," Salemsaid, "you have a lot of 'orphan storage.' It's time to give your orphanstorage a loving family. You often have more room to grow than yourealize."
Orphan storage, in this case, refers to storage trapped in dedicated serversthat goes unutilized because the capacity is not included in a virtualizationscheme. Once attached to the virtualization layer, it becomes part of a muchlarger pool of capacity that can be used much more efficiently.
Most enterprise data centers utilize only about 15 to 35 percent of the entirestorage capacity available. The remainder is used for unexpected overhead,locked out of accessibility, intentionally kept for some other purpose orsimply lost track of over time.
All of it requires spinning disks and electricity from the grid that costsmoney on the bottom line, whether or not the storage is in service.
"We had one customer who told us that they were managing massiveinformation growth. They estimated they were using 50 percent of their storage.We showed them they were only using 20 percent," Salemsaid.
"What you need are storage management solutions that work across differentplatforms and give you an end-to-end view of the storage you have, the storageyou're using and the storage you're not.
"You need a better way to peek into your systems so you can make informeddecisions about how your existing storage assets are being utilized. Storageresource management technology can help identify problem areas andconsolidation opportunities and create a priority list of solutions," Salemsaid.
How Good Management Saves Storage Costs
How does managing storage utilization help you stop buying storage?
"When we first started working with [a large financial services company]in 2006, they were using 12 percent of their storage. We worked with them on azero-growth storage initiative, and, two years later, they are at 41 percent,"Salem said.
"That's progress. But the real measure of progress is $70 million. Bydeferring new storage purchases, we helped them save $70 million. If you wantto see a happy CFO in a tough economy, tell them you've found a way to savethem millions of dollars."
That's not going to happen at every company, but it does happen.
Salem, who previously served as thecompany's chief operating officer, is barely four days into his new job aftertaking over for the retired John Thompson, who left after 10 years as CEOon April 3. Thompson will remain as chairman of the board of directors.
Thompson had been under consideration for a couple of Obama administrationjobs: secretary of commerce and federal CIO.
© 2009 Ziff Davis Enterprise, Inc.
Mobilized by mDog.com
