Research is based on IT End Users and Storage Management Interviews on How IT Measures Calculates Storage Efficiency
Boulder, CO, April 19, 2011: Evaluator Group publicly releases “Storage Efficiency, An IT Perspective,” as part of its Evaluation and Educational Series Guides. Evaluator Group has recognized that storage efficiency is an important topic of discussion with IT staff and vendors. To accomplish an adequate TCO and manage their environment, including future needs, IT uses varying types of measurements. It was the objective of this study to identify the measurements used and by IT for these purposes.
“During our interviews with IT customers we found a wide range of variability when considering what is included and what constitutes measurements of storage efficiency,” said Randy Kerns. “The singular agreement is that storage efficiency can have a major impact on budgets and improving efficiency provides long-term economic benefits.”
Evaluator Group used a re-iterative process with IT end users to report on which measurements best met the needs of the business. This was done through interviews and peer review research. Evaluator also pulled from its history of participation with the Computer Measurement Group (CMG) and involvement in benchmark measurements a discipline that seeks best practices within context of use. It is firmly believed that without measurement the term storage efficiency is at the same time subjective and vague. Actual measurements bring meaning to storage efficiency.
Evaluator Group also found that what is being measured and how it is measured evolves over time as needs change and technology changes. For instance, capacity utilization has been augmented by provisioned storage percentage to capture the effect of thin provisioning.
“Storage Efficiency, An IT Perspective” is part of a two part series. This first part focused on IT’s perspective and their perception of the important elements and measures. The second part of the series will be the vendor perspective and how they bring value and measure storage efficiency.
About Evaluator Group
Evaluator Group Inc. is dedicated to helping IT professionals and vendors create and implement strategies that make the most of the value of their storage and digital information. Evaluator Group services deliver in-depth, unbiased analysis on storage architectures, infrastructures and management for IT professionals. Since 1997 Evaluator Group has provided services for thousands of end users and vendor professionals through product and market evaluations, competitive analysis and education
