Storage Emerges As A Speciality

Storage VARs have always had a significant and challenging role in business, tasked with the responsibility of helping IT administrators manage the storage resources that keep their companies up and running. The constantly evolving IT landscape also demands a high learning curve and the need for VARs to evaluate and implement new technologies that present measurable benefits to their customers. These benefits include increased productivity, security, and cost savings.

Storage is a technology that also continues to gain importance. Data is being generated at a faster rate than ever before due to a wide variety of factors, including the exponential growth of applications and Web-generated content. This has led to significant increases in storage requirements and a larger percentage of budgets being allocated for storage purchases. Although the implementation of storage networks was already increasing, the events of September 11 also shed new light on the importance of safeguarding critical data. Storage concepts such as disaster recovery, remote mirroring, and backup and restore quickly invaded the consciousness of business management executives everywhere.

Develop Specialized Skill Sets
The rapid implementation of storage systems and their complex nature has created the need for resellers with specialized skill sets. Unfortunately, some VARs are approaching this challenge the wrong way. Network and storage are certainly complementary technologies, and as a result many networking VARs are increasingly being charged to take on the role of storage expert as well. But there are certain complexities involved in storage that differentiate it from other networking technologies. Unqualified personnel who are not well versed in storage could make costly, irreparable mistakes that jeopardize data integrity, or worse yet, lose it forever.

Educated and experienced storage VARs bring a wealth of specialized skill sets to businesses. They are specially trained on complex and heterogeneous storage environments, and they are experts in safeguarding data and making it continuously available.

Experienced storage VARs can provide a number of services to their customers as well. Storage capacity planning is one example. The storage infrastructure directly affects network performance. If there is insufficient storage capacity to handle data and software applications, the network will inevitably slow down. Since fast access to corporate data directly affects productivity, it is a top priority. VARs must be able to quickly assign new storage and make it available to users. They must also act as fortune tellers of sorts. Users are often completely unaware of how much disk space they use, let alone whether they are they able to provide accurate projections of storage and workload requirements for months down the road. The VAR must accurately allocate capacity, while keeping a keen eye on future demand.

Storage VARs also need to be adept at managing a wide variety of storage environments composed of heterogeneous platforms. These environments can range from the more traditional, such as large numbers of servers with direct attached storage, to newer concepts such as network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SANs). NAS systems have gained in popularity due to their simplicity, ease of implementation, and cost-effectiveness. But at the high end, NAS systems have increased in complexity and are best handled by a skilled professional. NAS relocates storage onto its own independent platform, effectively separating file sharing from application serving. Since applications and storage are no longer running on the same system, this frees up file server bandwidth and reduces overhead on existing application servers. SANs largely remain an enterprise-level concept due to their complexity and cost. They effectively consolidate storage resources, provide centralized management of those resources, and are also favored for their scalability and larger capacity.

Storage integrators also need expertise in the various storage topologies and the advantages and disadvantages of each. In addition to popular interfaces such as SCSI (small computer system interface) and Fibre Channel, a variety of new options are presenting themselves, including iSCSI (Internet SCSI), InfiniBand, and Fibre Channel over IP (Internet protocol). Each presents certain benefits. Only by understanding each technology can VARs determine which one is best for their customers.

VARs: Safekeepers Of The Data
Data is a company's most valuable asset, and it is the responsibility of the storage integrator to protect that data from system failures, viruses, and disasters. This concept grew significantly in importance after the events of September 11, as scores of companies were forced to rebuild without their precious data. Integrators must be experts in formulating and implementing a solid disaster recovery plan. This is key to preventing the loss or contamination of data.

Although the word disaster may conjure up images of floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, the possibility of employee sabotage and computer viruses has also become a reality. Disasters result in lost productivity and profitability and must be planned for if they are to be survived. The storage VAR must be well versed in tasks such as backup and restore, virus protection, and data replication.

The backup process exists for one purpose: to provide a duplicate set of data that can be used to reload and restore information onto a failed system. Vast amounts of data can be backed up during an overnight window. This reduces restore times in the event of a system failure and increases the chances of maintaining data integrity. In recent times, we've also seen debilitating viruses that have brought businesses to their knees in a matter of minutes. The ability of viruses to spread through e-mail and the Internet has greatly increased the probability of virus infections. VARs must also understand anti-virus measures to maximize data security.

Lastly, storage VARs must understand data replication. The disaster recovery process takes several hours to complete, during which time users have no access to data. Since this potential downtime could be very costly, data replication was designed to fill the gap. A secondary server mirrors the data of the primary server in real time and immediately stands in should the primary server fail. Once the primary server is fixed, the secondary server re-syncs the files to the primary server, which then resumes its original tasks.

Experience Is Everything
Storage is a multifaceted technology that is best served by specialized storage experts who are experienced in the management of storage assets. Although businesses benefit most when network and storage integrators work in tandem, network VARs should focus on the networking environment, while storage VARs concentrate on the storage environment. Businesses will continue to generate massive quantities of data. Storage VARs will continue to be called upon to improve overall efficiency in the usage of storage resources, reduce administration costs, and maximize business productivity by making data continuously available to those who need it.