What is Data Storage Management? Explosive data growth is an inevitable reality of today's business operations. Companies have seen their data storage needs expand dramatically each year, in part due to e-mail proliferation and our reluctance to permanently delete anything.

Effective data storage management solutions can transform your IT environment by providing flexibility and systematically standardizing and simplifying your data storage systems.

How Will Data Storage Solutions Benefit My Business?

Data storage management and storage consolidation can help you to:

• Improve efficiencies by reducing administrative overhead and freeing up IT resources
• Provide a central data storage management system
• Reduce data storage maintenance needs and expenses
• Achieve greater scalability for future growth and flexibility

How Can I Help My Business Embrace Data Storage Solutions?

When evaluating data storage solutions, it's important to ask the following questions:

• How much of the existing budget is dedicated to deploying and maintaining primary vs. secondary data storage systems?
• How will that change after your new data storage management system is in place?
• Where will my data reside and how predictable will it be to track growth?
• How will my compliance posture change as a result of my new data storage solution?
• How dispersed is my existing data storage environment?

What Comprises a Data Storage Management Solution?

An effective data storage solution can consist of one or more of the following components:

• Storage Area Networks (SANs)
  SANs are storage architecture that provide a high-speed redundant path to a pool of storage devices. These devices house data to maximize performance of servers and applications. SANs can be connected through a fibre or iSCSI interface.
• Blade Servers
  A blade server is the processing power of a traditional server, housed with other blade servers in a chassis that shares the power, cooling, connectivity, and management of each server.
• Data Storage Management Software
  Data storage management software provides central management of your data and data storage systems. Typical software will enable you to reduce the complexity of multiple data storage systems by automating data storage and availability across the network.
• Data Deduplication
  Most data on corporate networks is static and redundant, meaning the same file is backed up multiple times on multiple devices. Data deduplication can provide significant cost savings by reducing both redundant data and the systems required to store the data. You will require less physical space within the data center, which can translate to heating, cooling and power savings.
• Data Storage Virtualization

Data storage virtualization takes multiple data storage systems and makes them appear as a single data storage system. This is commonly used in conjunction with SANs to provide a single "virtual" data storage device.

Geting Started with Data Storage Management

Your CDW Account Manager and certified specialists are ready to assist you with every phase of choosing and leveraging the right solution for your IT environment. Our approach includes:

• An initial discovery session to understand your goals, requirements and budget
• An assessment review of your existing environment and definition of project requirements
• Detailed vendor evaluations, recommendations, future design and proof of concept
• Procurement, configuration and deployment of the final solution
• Ongoing product lifecycle support