One of the profound changes that storage consolidation 2.0 will bring is that storage volumes will become mobile, able to be migrated to the optimum price/performance spot. The only group that has the overall view of storage and can best judge the best use of storage resources will be the storage administrative professionals. They will have to earn the right to be trusted that they can deliver. To earn that right they will need to develop not just the skills required to allocate storage, but the even more complex skills of setting criteria for automating the procedures round automatic provisioning, allocation, and re-allocation of different tiers of storage. They will have to institute solid testing procedures for existing and future application types.
Action Item: Storage administration should be given the responsibility to manage and automate storage allocation from soup to nuts, given the tools and training to do the job, and given the rewards or consequences for success or failure.
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