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It’s tough work managing storage area network (SAN) technology.
With so many tools to manage the complex environment - it all just becomes a convoluted mess.
Sure, there are different solutions out there to help manage all of the moving parts. But using different technologies may make life even more complicated and increase business risk.
Conversely, there is also the one-size fits all approach to SAN management. You know - the one tool that does it ALL. This could be an effective - but expensive solution.
How can a SAN management guru find balance?
The experts at Computer World have a few words of advice. Ryan Perkowski recently published an article offering these three tips for finding that line between new SAN management tools and keeping things simple in your environment.
1. Define your goals
You must have a clear understanding of what upper management is looking for in terms of results. Once you understand their goals, the rest is as easy as brain surgery (in the off chance you are a SAN manager and a brain surgeon, it’s as easy as rocket science).
2. Strive to do better
It is a given that your IT environment will continue to grow. Even as companies strive to do more with less, they continually invest in and rely on IT. That said, know you are always going to have to do better tomorrow than you did today. In the long run you will spend more time architecting, managing, upgrading, troubleshooting and complaining about a gaggle of smaller switches than you would if you had one large switch. Remember, your environment will grow, and it’s much easier to make investments in equipment that can grow with it than to bolt on another “budget” stop-gap solution.
3. Arm yourself with knowledge
The lack of knowledge ranges from not knowing what the applications might do throughput-wise to not knowing the throughput requirements. For instance, being able to see its traffic pattern (on the SAN), including heavy traffic moments and less intensive periods, can mean knowing you can complete a level 0 backup within the backup window without investing in another HBA (more cables and another switch port).
There’s no doubt about it - managing a SAN is daunting. It’s fast. It’s expensive. It’s loud. And, and it’s the biggest generator of heat in any data center.
But a SAN management administrator doesn’t have to lose sleep at night worrying about the task at hand.
Simple practices and a great management product - like Tek-Tools Profiler - can make all the difference in the world.
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