Customer Reviews

The Business Case for Storage Networks

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the greatest weaknesses of American business is that managers are often limited in their technical knowledge and the technical people limited in their business knowledge. Therefore, the lack of a common frame of reference means that the two groups often do not understand each other. Furthermore both groups are often not very good at educating each other. This means that it is critical for there to be business materials that can be understood by technical people and technical material that can be understood by business people.
This book is written for managers and presents the case for incorporating storage networks into your business. Most of the terminology is within the standard vocabulary of business. Part I: "The Storage Networking Value Proposition" starts with the advantages of using storage networks, the impact of storage networking, using financial metrics to justify the allocation of resources, implementation strategies and how to maximize the value of your investment in storage networks. Part II deals with five case studies:

*) The Cancer Therapy and Research Center.
*) Internet Service Provider.
*) Cisco Systems Inc.
*) Retail Grocer.
*) Financial services.

Each starts with the initial conditions, current problems, TCO numbers, the consequences of the move to storage networks, and future plans for expansion. They are well presented, giving examples of how such migrations work and how they can fail.
I strongly recommend this book for managers who have a need for reliably storing large amounts of data, which is just about everyone. Standard business practice means that it is necessary, but the recent imposition of new regulations means that the consequences are no longer limited to business failure. If you fail to store data now, the legal consequences can be considerable.

Computer Architecture, Computer Architecture - General, Although Cisco is well noted for the technical depth of most of their books, this is not really a technical book. Instead it is aimed at the buisness manager who is thinking of installing a Storage Area Networks (SAN). It covers how to calculate such things as the total cost of ownership, the effect on your current infrastructure and how the present IT staff will cope with the new equipment, the new technology.

The book is not completely untechnical. It includes a complete overview of the concepts which include the interconnection systems, the topology, backup and replication, etc. But these subjects are covered at the business manager level, not the level of the technicians responsible for the actual installation of the system.

All in all, the clearest business oriented book on the subject I've seen.