We've all heard that data is growing at an unprecedented rate. And anyone in business also knows how critical it is to store, retrieve and archive data efficiently and cost-effectively.
However, with a storage system's total cost of ownership often running significantly higher than its purchase price, where can you possibly lower costs? The answer lies in maintenance, labor, and power and cooling. To get the best and the most storage for your dollar consider these three cost-impacting factors: provisioning capabilities, energy efficiency and data reduction features.
Look for automated provisioning
A single storage administrator has limited bandwidth. And as data proliferates, you can afford to hire only so many people to manage it. One task that takes up a significant amount of administrators' time is storage provisioning, so a system's ability to automate provisioning tasks can significantly impact storage costs.
For example, the HP StorageWorks Dynamic Capacity Management software for the Enterprise Virtual Array and HP StorageWorks Thin Provisioning software for the XP Disk Array can automate storage provisioning, removing the risk of slow and error-prone human intervention while increasing storage utilization rates. When bottlenecks occur, the systems can automatically reallocate storage from underutilized disks, and business keeps humming. In fact, the Edison Group found it takes 80 percent less time to provision storage on a StorageWorks EVA disk array compared to competing arrays from EMC and NetApp.
These features increase the cost-effectiveness of a storage purchase by allowing you to buy only what you need today and in the near future. For example, you might project a need for 600 GB of space for a certain application over the next year. But over the next six months, you need only 300 GB. With automated storage provisioning, you can give the application only what it needs–300 GB–but make the application think it has all 600 GB at its disposal.
Then, based on how your storage system is configured, more space can be automatically added prior to hitting your storage thresholds. Because the application has already been provisioned for 600 GB, you don' t need to reprovision unless you go beyond that amount. You not only save the time it takes to continually reprovision storage, but also the cost of buying disks today when they will most likely be cheaper in the future. You also save on the cost to power and cool underutilized spinning disks, which leads to the next consideration: energy efficiency.
Cut energy costs
Power density in data centers has increased significantly over the last 15 years. A study released at the Digital Power Forum in September 2006, found that data center power density was ten times that of 1996. And in some cases, cooling represented 70 percent of the total data center power spend.
To lower those expenses you must consume less power and cool equipment more effectively. The HP StorageWorks EVA can help you reduce energy consumption. Internal testing conducted by HP in June 2007, found that HP StorageWorks EVA4100, 6100 and 8100 midrange disk arrays can improve power efficiency by up to 45%.
To consume less power, also consider investing in HP BladeSystem, which packs multiple ultra-small disks into a single enclosure that shares power and cooling resources. HP offers many varieties of storage blades, from direct-attach to all-in-one to NAS and tape—all of which cost less to operate than traditional storage and offer cost savings. Plus, HP storage blades are integrated with blade management software so you can easily manage all of the blades as one.
To help cool your data center more effectively, HP offers thermal assessments and Dynamic Smart Cooling, which can cut your cooling costs by 25 to 40 percent. Thermal assessments provide a 3-D model of heat in your data center so you can know the effectiveness of your air conditioning and arrange equipment accordingly. In addition, Dynamic Smart Cooling employs temperature sensors to continually monitor and regulate cooling according to real-time needs, so you pay to cool only the systems that need it, when they need it.
Reduce redundant data
Storage data is growing because your company is producing and acquiring more and more of it. But it's also growing, in large part, because you likely have so many redundant instances of your data—in some cases more than 10. All those extra instances add up to a lot of unnecessary disk space, unnecessary disks to manage, and unnecessary disks to power and cool.
To minimize data redundancy, HP now offers data deduplication with disk-based backup systems. Data deduplication compares blocks of backup data being written to disk with backup data already stored on the system. If the data is already stored, the new instance simply points to the original data instead of writing another copy. If some of the backup data matches but some is changed, the system adds only the new or changed data. That can lead to a dramatic reduction in the amount of disk-based data you need to store. Combine it with other methods of data reduction, such as data compression, and you can save money on disk expenditures, improve disk utilization, rely less on tape backup and recover much faster from data loss.
Going even further
When investing in storage, look beyond price-per-terabyte to the factors that truly affect total cost of ownership, such as automated provisioning, energy efficiency and data reduction features. HP offers all of those technologies as well as solutions that go even further, including unified management, utility storage, automated backup and storage security. A balanced combination is the best way to ensure that your enterprise is getting not only the most for its investment, but also the best—saving money now and in the long run.