Chi Corporation

Most IT organizations are finding that they must make changes to their storage management strategy to keep pace. But without sound planning, these changes and improvements can actually perpetuate existing problems or cause additional ones to arise.However, budgets are finite and calendars are full. Sound planning requires time and resources that most IT organizations can't afford to remove from the day-to-day demands of fighting fires and keeping the data center running. It requires storage experts who can step back and objectively see the "big picture." 

Capacities Audit

In order to get the most out of your storage assets, it is essential to understand the storage capabilities and assets you already possess by taking stock of your entire storage infrastructure. Chi Corporation's Capabilities Audit service provides you with an analysis of your existing storage management capabilities, the various components being used, and how they can be used more effectively.

The audit includes analysis of known issues, processes, procedures, current infrastructure, performance information, and strategic direction. Areas encompassed in the audit include management, operations, administration, and database functions. Following the collection, documentation, and analysis of this data, clients receive a formal document focused on prioritized risks and problem areas that could cause data loss. 

Requirements Definition and Gap Analysis

While your storage management strategy should be focused on stabilizing your current storage environment, it should also support your organization's business plans and goals. Acquisitions and mergers, new projects, new technology, consolidation of data centers, data warehouses, exponential data growth, costs, and resource issues — all of these factors must be considered when assessing your storage requirements for the future. Chi Corporation's Requirements Definition and Gap Analysis service consists of an analysis of your current business plan and a high-level assessment of the resulting storage requirements.

Assessed areas include availability; backup, restore, archive, and media requirements; disaster recovery; event monitoring; error handling and report distribution/usage; growth projections; and future projects that can affect storage requirements. The outcome of this analysis includes a high-level definition of your current and future storage requirements outlined in a document that can be shared with users, managers, and vendors. 

Capacity Planning

Last-minute hardware, software, or network changes can have a detrimental impact on budgeting, planning, and project schedules. Whether you are stabilizing your current storage environment, planning for new projects, or reengineering your data center, you need to understand the implications for your infrastructure and the resulting effects on your IT budget and customers. These impacts could include response times, services costs, service level agreements, and others. Chi Corporation's Capacity Planning service helps you avoid unplanned downtime, lapses in protection, and unexpected expenditures by periodically determining and documenting projected growth, and clearly defining the time-phased resources needed to support it.

Chi Corporation and partner consultants analyze current and future storage capacity and requirements. Analysis includes projected rates of growth at all data centers, as well as peak storage requirements and trends. After a thorough review of the computing environment and business plans, consultants work with your staff to plan capacity needs. Capacity Planning is also available as a recurring service, with quarterly or biannual checks to keep pace as your business environment evolves. 

Storage Management Report Card

Gaining a handle on your storage management operation can be an overwhelming task. Most organizations find it difficult to absorb the storage management challenges they currently face, let alone find time for adequate future planning. The Storage Management Report Card service provides a high-level review of your current storage management environment and strategy. It highlights current strengths and weaknesses, where you may be at risk, and where you should focus your limited storage dollars first for greatest impact. The service helps you tackle that hard-to-answer question of where to begin.

The Report Card service begins with preliminary information gathering, as well as on-site orientation, interviews, and data collection. After analysis of all information collected, Chi Corporation and partner consultants deliver their findings on-site via the Report Card, which includes an assessment of the organization's ability in each of the major storage management areas. The Report Card also includes recommendations on which steps are most crucial to protecting data and business continuity.