Improve Availability and Scalability with Managed Storage

The concept of managing storage is simple: as computing needs grow, you should add more storage. But doing this in a business is anything but simple. That’s because factors like speed, location, type, data architecture, access requirements, and, yes, size are all important to your storage infrastructure decisions.

On top of choosing the proper storage solutions for your current business needs, you must also plan for the future. Will the storage solution you implement today be viable in three years? How soon will it be before you need to scale your infrastructure once again? These are just a couple of questions that give your IT team nightmares.

Managed storage is when an organization outsources its storage management to a third-party provider. Depending on the organization’s needs, this may involve cloud storage, offsite storage, onsite storage, or a combination of the three.

Leverage the Benefits of Managed Storage

With a traditional storage setup, once you run into the limits of your capacity, it’s time to upgrade or add to your hardware. As your organization grows, adding to your infrastructure becomes more complex because you must fully integrate new resources and make them accessible to your team. In contrast, a managed storage provider lets you scale storage resources on demand and only pay for what you need. How does managed storage benefit availability and scalability?

• Dedicated storage administrator. One of the challenges of IT infrastructure is procuring the talent to manage essential components. Working with a managed storage provider allows you to leverage their team’s storage administrators for an instant injection of storage expertise.
• Scale with advanced hardware. When managing hardware in-house, the goal is to get the most ROI out of every component. Reaching this goal often requires teams to use hardware for as long as feasible. A managed storage provider will have access to modern infrastructure with low latency capabilities. They can also provide node-based infrastructure, which is essential for scaling out your network.
• Scalable security. Security is another concern when scaling resources since your attack surface grows as your business grows. Many teams lack the internal expertise to ensure systems stay secure. But working with a managed storage provider gives you access to their security team and partners. Your provider should also be able to adapt and secure onsite and offsite storage to fit your needs.
• Near zero downtime. Managed storage providers have the infrastructure to provide redundancies at a level that’s hard to emulate for those doing it independently. Additional redundancies make possible techniques like live migration, allowing you to move systems without taking them offline. Moreover, systems can be backed up and restored, and resources can be allocated to workloads without users experiencing a hiccup.
• Operational efficiencies. Working with a managed storage provider simplifies tasks like deploying additional resources and billing, providing an accurate view of existing storage resources. Since your storage provider takes care of management, you also remove this workload from your IT team’s plate so they can focus on company applications, services, etc.

Typical in-house storage infrastructure gets updated every three to five years, which likely happens when teams look at how well the previous system served their needs. Managed storage solutions are attuned to your business’s needs and can be optimized actively — leading to systems that perform better throughout their entire lifecycle.

Managed Storage for Your Evolving Infrastructure Needs

We don’t expect our personal computing devices to handle applications that come up five years from now (thus, the average replacement time is under three years). So, why should we expect differently from our business infrastructure where machine learning, computer vision, and blockchain applications are becoming more common?

Organizations are using their computing resources to power virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), analytics software, private clouds, and more. Managed storage provides elastic infrastructure that allows you to allocate resources for a number of different needs and manage growing user bases. But how can you get started?

OneNeck is an IT solutions provider that offers managed storage services and more. We can help you use Azure, HPE, Cohesity, Commvault, NetApp and many more solutions in your storage strategy to ensure your data is always available. If you want to control your infrastructure and save money while harnessing deep storage expertise, contact us today.