SAN storage has been around for quite some time now and many businesses are adopting it rapidly. But, just plainly adopting SAN storage is not recommended. Conducting proper SAN storage capacity planning is the right way to put in place SAN storage. Otherwise, you won’t be able to fully utilize your SAN storage solution.
In this article, we highlight what exactly is SAN storage capability planning, how does it work and what benefits can it offer.
What is SAN Storage Capacity Planning?
SAN storage capacity planning the practice of assessing current data storage needs. It also involves forecasting the future storage needs and requirements of the business.
The end goal of SAN storage capacity is convenience. Businesses can buy enough disk space to meet the needs of the users and the applications.
SAN storage capacity planning ensures that storage resources are available when needed. This ensures that there is no shortage of resources when the business needs them.
One general tip for SAN storage capacity planning is that admins must look how storage is allocated. By looking at this, admins better access storage needs. This includes files, databases and other resources used by the business.
Effective SAN capacity planning lets admins buy only what is needed, when it is needed. As a result, businesses save money on storage and no storage would go to waste. This also enables businesses to invest their storage budgets better elsewhere.
How Does SAN Storage Capacity Planning Work?
There are many ways to determine the storage requirements of the business. The most popular way is to deploy storage capacity planning tools. These tools analyze storage systems. They also generate reports on all the storage that is available, as well as performance.
But there are manual methods as well. For instance:
– Businesses can capture storage data manually. They can post it on spreadsheets and then perform analysis of previous and current usage trends.
– Another way is to put in place a chargeback process. This process tracks storage use by groups and even departments.
These manual methods are not recommended as they are time-consuming. This is why automated storage capacity planning applications are used.
Benefits of SAN Storage Capacity Planning
SAN storage capacity planning provides many benefits to businesses. These benefits include:
– SAN storage capacity planning lets admins plan and schedule disk purchases based on the needs of the project.
– Another benefits of SAN storage capacity ensures that the storage resources are available when they are needed.
– SAN storage capacity lets businesses only buy the storage that they need.
– SAN storage capacity can identify the best time to make changes in the storage resources. This is done by using historical data, performance data and metrics for future requirements.
In Summary
SAN storage is a great storage option for many businesses but it must be used effectively. This must be done with proper SAN storage capacity planning. By doing so, businesses can divide their storage smartly and can also save storage costs as well.
Now, if you are looking for a SAN solution for your business or want to learn more about SAN storage, then you can contact SAN storage experts such as StoneFly.
