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Automation for Storage
Clouds
iWave Software enables Enterprise IT organizations and Service Providers to
build Storage Clouds using their existing storage infrastructure.
Storage Administrators face a daunting challenge. According to industry
analysts like the Gartner Group, storage under corporate IT management will grow
between 60 and 70 percent in 2011. IDC estimates that by 2020, the storage that
IT organizations manage will grow by 20 times, but the staff tasked with
supporting that storage will grow by just 1.5 times.
iWave Storage Automator enables Enterprise IT and Service
Providers to deliver enterprise storage as a a policy-driven, fully-automated
cloud service, by providing:
- Self Service Storage Portal: provides storage
consumers such as DBAs, application developers, and server support staff with
the ability to submit and track requests for storage as well as advanced storage
services such as replication, migrations, etc. - Storage Services Catalog: provides storage
consumers with a catalog of fully-automated storage services. Storage consumers
are restricted to accessing the Storage Services that are defined for their
particular role(s). - Fully Automated Storage Services: all storage
services defined in the Storage Services Catalog are fully automated and do not
require manual effort by a Storage Administrator. Fully automated services can
include storage provisioning, reclamation and remediation. - Enforcement of Best Practices: all storage
services are defined using an organization’s best practices for storage
administration. Enforcing best practices through automated services enables
Enterprise IT Storage organizations to avoid outages caused by configuration
errors or failure to follow the proper storage run book procedures. - Storage Classification: storage administrators
can offer services by storage classification. For example, they may offer a
fully automated service to provision “gold” or “tier-1” storage for an Oracle
CMDB. - Policy Driven: all services are driven by
policies defined by the storage administrator. For example, storage
administrators can specify that certain services require approval before they
are delivered. - Fully Audited: each action performed by a
fully-automated storage service is recorded in a secure audit log.
Storage Clouds offer a seismic shift for the way enterprises manage IT
storage, replacing the old manual, device-centric administration paradigm with
an automated, services-centric paradigm, where administrators create fully
automated, storage services, set the policy for those services, then monitor the
quality of services delivery. Instead of constantly focusing on the minutia of
storage operations, IT Storage Support can work closer with their business to
identify new opportunities to define automated storage services that provide
real solutions to the business’ challenges.
For IT Organizations that make the shift to Storage Clouds, the
benefits are compelling:
- Scalable Storage Administration: By automating
common storage administration tasks, Storage Clouds can enable enterprise IT
organizations to scale their existing storage admin resources to manage the
predicted 60+ percent growth in enterprise storage. - Fewer Storage Outages: the majority of server
outages are caused by configuration errors introduced by storage admins or
consumers do not follow approved, best practices. Storage Cloud policies can
ensure that automated storage services always follow best practices. - Reduction in Storage Provisioning Times: Storage
Clouds can take the time required to provision new storage from days and weeks
to minutes, improving the productivity of both storage admins and consumers. - Improved Customer Satisfaction: faster storage
provisioning times and fewer outages equates to happier storage consumers. - Reduction in Storage Operating Costs: most
Storage Clouds pay for themselves in the first 18 months through reduced storage
admin labor cost (future hires avoided), productivity gains by storage admins
& consumers and in fewer storage outages.
iWave Storage Automator provides IT organizations with a scalable,
enterprise-class storage automation platform to build Storage Clouds. For more
information, visit the iWave
Storage Automator product page.
