Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2017 in Third Party Maintenance, Storage Hardware
The New Year is traditionally viewed as a time of new beginnings. Whether that year begins on the 1st of January, or at the end of the previous tax year, hardware requirements always weigh heavily on the CTO’s resolution list.
Because every new year inevitably involves increased demand for storage capacity – way beyond current provisions. And so begins the annual exercise of guesstimating how much additional hardware needs to be bought to cope with the demands of the next twelve months.
But maybe it’s time to think about new in terms of the way you do things, rather than another shopping list for your OEM.
Making old new again
Over the years, most businesses accumulate a sizeable amount of storage hardware that has become redundant simply by reaching its end of warranty. The hardware itself is perfectly usable – just no longer supported by the OEM.
End of Service Life does not mean end of useful life however. Backed by a third party support and maintenance contract, these units can often be pushed back into service to provide additional capacity.
So far, nothing new. But in the era of software defined infrastructure, this “legacy” hardware can be used to build an all-new storage layer. Intelligent, automated rules can then assign capacity on the fly, and ensure that data is stored on the optimal hardware according to use case and priorities.
This new software layer allows the CTO to deliver additional capacity without significant additional capital spend. Which means that they then have additional budget available to spend on genuinely new projects that drive the business forward.
Which is what professional new year resolutions are all about.
Next steps
To learn more about redeploying post warranty hardware as part of a cutting edge software defined storage environment, or to learn more about cutting your hardware maintenance costs, please get in touch.
– See more at: http://www.cds.net/blog/2017/01/new-year-same-old-hardware/#sthash.e9iCikdc.dpuf