managing storage trends challenges and options 2011 2012

8/6/2019 Managing Storage Trends Challenges and Options 2011 2012

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E M C P E R S P E C T I V E

MANAGING INFORMATION

STORAGE: TRENDS,CHALLENGES, AND OPTIONS2011-2012

Including impact of virtualization and

cloud computing


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How are IT and storage managers coping with the

organizational challenges posed by the explosion of data,

increasing criticality of digitized information, and rapid

introduction of new storage technologies?

This updated paper contains the findings of a study

based on input from over 1,000 storage professionals

and IT managers worldwide.

This research will assist IT/storage managers in

comparing and correlating their environment and plans

with the overall trends in the industry, and the impact of

emerging technologies such as storage virtualization and

cloud computing.


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe explosion of data, its criticality, and business growing dependency on digital informa-

tion are leading to larger and more complex information storage environments that are

increasingly challenging to manage.

Poorly designed or managed storage infrastructures put the entire business at risk in the

case of a catastrophic failure. A robust storage infrastructure requires highly reliable equip-

ment as well as a strong team of experts to manage it efficiently.

This paper focuses on storage infrastructure, and presents findings from a global survey of

more than 1,000 IT professionals. This study will help IT managers benchmark their plans to

align with the overall trends in the industry. The first such study was published in 2006, and

has since been updated annually. A large number of IT/storage managers have used the

information to refine their planning and decision making.

KEY CHALLENGES

IT/storage managers and storage professionals across companies of all sizes

face the following mission-critical challenges:

Managingstoragegrowth

Designing,deploying,andmanagingstorageinavirtualizedserverenvironment

Designing,deploying,andmanagingbackup,recovery,andarchivesolutions

Storageconsolidation

Makinginformedstrategic/big-picturedecisions

Designing,deploying,andmanagingdisasterrecoverysolutions

Lackofskilledstorageprofessionals

Designing,deploying,andmanagingstorageinacloudcomputingenvironment

Convincinghighermanagementtoadoptcloud

Managingexternalcloudserviceproviders

Explosive growth in storage requirements, and a widening storage technology knowledge

gap across the industry, are making all of the above mission-critical tasks even more

challenging.

IMPACT OF CLOUD COMPUTING

The findings of this study clearly indicate a rapid adoption of virtualization and cloud com-

puting technologies. This transformation is impacting the skill sets of their entire technology

team. Approximately 50 percent of the managers indicated that their teams have medium tohighimpactontheirskillsetsacrosssystems,storage,andnetworkingteams.Moderate

impact indicates that these teams need to acquire additional skills, whereas high impact

reflects a need to entirely re-skill the team for cloud computing environments.

Currently53percentofthestoragecapacitiesareintraditional/classicITenvironments.A

large percentage of this allocation (31 percent) is likely to move to either a virtualized server

environment or cloud environment in the next 24 months. Only 42 percent and 18 percent of

the managers believe that they have at least half of their teams capable of working with vir-

tualized and cloud environments, respectively.

Migratingtoahighlyvirtualizedcloudenvironmentisasignificanttransformation.It

requires a considerable amount of technology and business planning. Over 80 percent of the

companies recognize the need for having an in-house team of professionals to lead the plan-

ning, design, and implementation of cloud and related technologies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ExecutiveSummary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.ChallengesFacedby

IT/StorageManagers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 ImpactofCurrentEconomic

Slowdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.2 ImpactofCloudComputing . . . . . . 9

3. ComplexStorageEnvironments . . . . . . 9

3.1 StorageTechnology

Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0

3.2 DataMovementtoVitualizedand

CloudEnvironments. . . . . . . . . . . 1 1

4. FormalizedStorageGroups. . . . . . . . . 1 2

4.1 Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

4.2 StorageGroupSkillsand

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

4.3 SourcesforHiringand

Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5

5. Recommendations and

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7

6. EMCsResponseandInitiatives . . . . . 1 7

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18


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Sincecloudcomputingrequirescrossskilledexpertise,ITprofessionalsarerequiredtohave

necessary knowledge across technologies that will be used in cloud infrastructure and ser-

vices.Morethan31percentoftheprofessionalsexpressthattheyhavethepre-requisite

knowledgeandskills(O/S,storage,networking,andvirtualization)togettrainedand

become cloud-ready.

COMPLEX STORAGE ENVIRONMENTS

Despitethedifferencesinindustrysegmentsandthedatacentersize,thereisastrong

consistency across companies in terms of the technology deployed, storage management

practices, and challenges.

Nearly all critical data is now stored on external disk storage subsystems. The average

usable capacity is approximately 1.3 PB (up 35 percent year over year) which is typically

spreadacrossmultiplesites.Growthinstoragerequirements,largercapacitydisksandsub-

systems, and affordable pricing have all led to large storage configurations. Over 51 percent

of responding companies now have 100 TB or more usable storage to manage. Over five

percent of the companies now manage 10 PB or more usable storage.

Storagesubsystems,SANs,andbackup/recoverytechnologiesaremostcommonlyimple-

mented,followedbyNAS,DAS,andreplicationtechnologies.Technologiessuchasstoragevirtualization and cloud (private and public) have started to emerge strongly in these compa-

niesaswell.Storagevirtualizationisimplementedat45.3percentandcloudat21.3per-

cent of the represented companies.

Each of these storage technology segments is unique, offering their own specific business

and operational value. Each requires a different set of skills for effective design and manage-

ment.Lackofknowledgeandexpertiseinaspecificsegmentcanleadtounder-deployment

of one or more of these technologies.

CRITICALITY OF STORAGE AND THE NEED FOR FORMALIZED

STORAGE GROUPSStorageinfrastructureismission-critical.Losingstorageinacatastrophicsituationcan

severely damage a customers business. When a disaster does occur, information on storage

subsystems can be lost permanently unless a well-designed recovery mechanism is planned

and implemented.

In addition to reliable equipment, a well-structured storage group of highly skilled profes-

sionals is critical to build and maintain a high-performance, high availability storage infra-

structure. Increasing number of companies have recognized this need and have created

formal storage management groups. Today over 65 percent of the represented companies

have formal storage management groupsup from approximately 50 percent in 2006-2007.

Storagegroupsareresponsibleforoverallplanning,design,implementation,monitoring,

administering, managing, and operations. While the structure of the group, titles, and roles

may not be standardized, responsibilities and tasks are common across companies.

Based on IT/storage manager feedback, approximately one-half of existing storage teams can

manageSANs,backupandrecovery,andstoragesubsystems.However,only40percentofthe

existingstorageteamsareadequatelypreparedtomanageNAS,localreplication,andremote

replication. The emergence of virtualization and cloud technologies has placed new training

and development requirements on storage managers and IT professionals. Only 25 percent of

the teams are strong on virtualization and only 7 percent are considered strong on cloud.

THE STORAGE TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE GAPParticipants in this study and their companies have very aggressive plans to hire storage

professionals in the next 12 months. Their forecasts indicate more than a 30 percent (up

from 22 percent last year) expansion of their existing staff.


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Although managers prefer to hire experienced or certified storage professionals, a severe

shortage of such skills in the marketplace is causing managers to resort frequently to inter-

nal recruitment. The skills gap continues to widen as organizations adopt virtualization and

cloud computing.

The shortage of experienced storage professionals, and the lack of storage technology

education in the marketplace and in academics, have restricted the growth of information

storageandmanagementfunctions.EMC has taken the lead and has initiated storage

technology education by collaborating with numerous leading universities.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings of this study, IT managers and storage managers must ensure that:

Theyevaluatetheimpactofvirtualizationandcloudcomputingontheskillsoftheirstor-

age and other technology teams, and plan for them to acquire new relevant skills in virtu-

alization, cloud, or related domains.

SkillsassessmentsanddevelopmentofIT/storageprofessionalsaretopprioritiesto

address growth and transformation.

The serious shortage of skilled storage professionals also creates attractive opportunities forthe next generation of IT professionals and for those looking for a different career in a chal-

lenging, high-growth, and dynamic industry.

EMCS RESPONSE AND INITIATIVES

EMCrecognizestheneedformorehighly-skilledprofessionalsinitscustomerbaseand

acrosstheentireITindustry.EMCconductedthisstudytoidentifydeficienciesinthestorage

industry and to ascertain how we can contribute to addressing these challenges.

The following key initiatives offer options for storage managers and professionals to acquire

or improve their skills to benefit their organizations:

EDUCATION SOLUTIONS

CloudArchitectandDataCenterArchitectopenCurriculum

CrossdomainCloudArchitecttrainingandcertifications

StoragedomainDataCenterArchitecttrainingandcertifications

InformationStorageTechnologyopenCurriculum

Unique offering in the industry; leads with concepts and principles

Coversallsegmentsofinformationstorageandmanagementtechnology

Adopted by a large number of universities worldwide

InformationStorageandManagementbook

EMCTechnology-specificLearningPaths

HelpsleverageextensivecapabilitiesforEMCtechnologyandsolutions

ComprehensivecoverageforallsegmentsofEMCtechnology

EMCProvenProfessionalCertificationProgram

Quality assurance, formal validation, and recognition

OptionofopenandEMCtechnologyspecialties

AlloftheaboveeducationsolutionsareavailablegloballyviaEMCEducationServicestoEMC

customers, partners, and employees.


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To address the widening knowledge gap in the industry, the following exclusive resources

wereintroduced.Theyenablenon-EMCusers,aswellasuniversitystudents,totakeadvan-

tageofthestoragetechnologyopencurriculumtobuildasuccessfulcareerinthishigh-

growth industry.

EMC ACADEMIC ALLIANCE PROGRAM

Informationstorageandmanagementopencurriculumforstudentsincollegesanduniver-

sities, targeted to help build a highly skilled pool of future storage managers and

professionals.

INFORMATION STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT BOOK

We offer one of the most comprehensive books on information storage and management in

theindustry.ItisamusthaveadditiontoanyITreferencelibrary.WrittenbyEMCstorage

experts,thebooktakesanopenapproachtoteachinginformationstorageandmanage-

ment, focusing on concepts and principlesrather than product specificsapplicable to all

IT environments.

1. INTRODUCTION

The unprecedented growth of data, its increasing importance, and business dependence ondigital information are leading to larger and more complex information storage environments

thatarebecomingmorechallengingtomanage.Fromtheperspectiveofdataavailabilityand

protection, the information storage infrastructure is the most critical component of an over-

all IT infrastructure. It plays a key role in making applications work efficiently, both locally

and across multiple sites. With the increasing complexity and criticality of storage, highly

skilled and focused storage groups are as mission-critical as the technology being deployed.

This paper summarizes a global research study that was conducted to gain knowledge about

how companies are meeting these challenging requirements. These findings will assist IT/

storage managers to compare and correlate their plans with the overall trends in the indus-

try. Even though each company has unique requirements, this information will be helpful in

buildingstrongerandmoreefficientstoragemanagementteams.Strongerstoragemanage-

ment teams will, in turn, lead to more robust storage infrastructures.

ThefirstsuchstudywascarriedoutbyEMCin2005-2006,andhasbeenupdatedoncea

year since then. The updates and revisions for 2011-2012 include:

Mostcurrentinformationviaaglobalsurveyof1,024managers(19percent)andstorage

professionals (81 percent)

Informationondatacentersandprocessingcentersinsteadoftheentireenterprise

Afocusonusablestoragecapacitiesinsteadofinstalledrawcapacities

Furtherdetailsrelatedtostoragegroupssuchasjobtitles,tasksandresponsibilities,and

hiring plans

Emergenceofcloudanditsimpactonskillsets

Globaltrendsareidentifiedinareasrelatedto:

Technicalenvironmentsandemergingtechnologies

Managementchallenges

Practicesforbuildingstoragemanagementgroups

Optionsforacquiringmoreorbetterstorageskills

Migrationofdatatovirtualizedandcloudenvironments

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ThestudywasconductedbetweenJanuaryandFebruaryof2011.Weusedcomprehensive

surveys and reached out to thousands of storage professionals to assemble and compile this

information.

The study included:

Allmajorgeographiesandindustrysegments

EMCusersaswellasthoseusingstoragesolutionsfromothervendors

Large,medium,andsmallenterprises

Asia Pacific

Japan, 21%

Europe

Middle East

Africa, 32%

Americas,

47%

Figure1Geographicdistributionofparticipants

Figure2Annualrevenueofcompanies

represented

2. CHALLENGES FACED BY IT/STORAGE MANAGERSIT/storage managers and storage professionals identified the following activities and con-

straints as their key challenges. These challenges are common to both large enterprises as

wellasSME(SmallandMediumEnterprises)sectorsoftheindustry.

Challenges Identified by IT/Storage Managers and Professionals

Managingstoragegrowth

Designing,deploying,andmanagingstorageinavirtualizedserverenvironment

Designing,deploying,andmanagingbackup,recovery,andarchivesolutions

Storageconsolidation

Makinginformedstrategic/big-picturedecisions

Designing,deploying,andmanagingdisasterrecoverysolutions

Lackofskilledstorageprofessionals


Convincinghighermanagementtoadoptcloud

Managingexternalcloudserviceproviders

Table1Mostimportantactivities/constraintsidentifiedaschallengesbymanagersandprofessionals

Each of these activities is on-going at various levels in each of the companies. Activities such

as backup/recovery have been in practice for decades; still the professionals believe that

they are not doing enough or not performing these activities well.

Table 2 summarizes summarizes the input from managers and professionals. When com-

pared with last years responses, an additional 6 percent of organizations are facing the

challenge of managing their storage growth. Organizations have indicated that their second

biggest challenge is to design, deploy, and manage storage in a virtualized server environ-

ment. In addition, about 22 percent of participants cited cloud as becoming an important

technology to tackle.

Up to $100M,

26.2%

$100M -$500M,

16.8%

$500M -$1B,

9.2%

Over $1B, 19.5%

Not Known,

28.2%


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20112012

20102011

IT / Storage Managers and Professionals

77% 71% Managingstoragegrowth

47% 47% Designing,deploying,andmanagingstorageinavirtualizedserverenvironment

41% 53% Designing,deploying,andmanagingbackup,recovery,andarchivesolutions

39% 45% Storageconsolidation

38% 38% Makinginformedstrategic/big-picturedecisions

35% 45% Designing,deploying,andmanagingdisasterrecoverysolutions

22% 23% Lackofskilledstorageprofessionals10% New in

2011-2012


9% Convincinghighermanagementtoadoptcloud

3% Managingexternalcloudserviceproviders

Table 2What keeps them awake? Pain points in order of priority identified by managers and

professionals

Primary reasons for not executing many of these activities to the desired levels are:

Explosivegrowthindatacreationandstoragerequirementsmanagingstoragegrowth

impacts associated challenges such as backup and recovery, consolidation, and disaster

recovery.

Storageprofessionalsknowledgeandskillgapslackofskilledstorageprofessionals

impacts the ability to execute to the above challenges and make informed strategic

decisions.

Emergingtechnologiessuchasvirtualizationandcloudincreasingdeploymentofvirtual-

ization across the industry has an impact on how IT tasks are carried out in a traditional

operational environment. This further widens the skills gap.

2.1 IMPACT OF CURRENT ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

Marketimprovementin2010resultedinapositiveimpactonthere-skillingrequirementsof

storageteams.Managershavingtore-skilltheirentireteamwasreducedto9.4percentfrom

11 percent. Also only 54 percent of managers reported that their team requires additional

skills compared to 56 percent the previous year. Overall, the improved market had a slight

positive impact on the skill set of these teams.

45% 48

%

7%

33%

56%

11%

37%

5

4%

9%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

Same as last year Additional Skill required Reskilling of entire team

2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012

Figure3Impactofcurrenteconomicclimateontherequiredstorageskills

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2.2 IMPACT OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Managershaveindicatedthatcloudcomputingisimpactingtheskillsetsoftheirentire

technology team. Approximately 50 percent of the managers indicated that their teams have

hadmediumtohighimpactontheirskillsets.Moderateimpactindicatesthattheseteams

need to acquire additional skills, whereas high impact reflects a need to entirely re-skill the

team for cloud computing environments.

14% 11.50% 8.90%

38% 39% 40.60%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Systems Group Storage Group Network Group

High Impact Moderate Impact

Figure4ImpactofcloudcomputingontheITteam

3. COMPLEX STORAGE ENVIRONMENTSThis study sought to determine the similarities and differences among storage infrastruc-

tures. The responses reveal that data centers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia have

deployed very similar storage solutions, including hardware and software. The sizes vary

based upon business requirements, or in some cases a particular vendor may have a stron-

gerpresenceinagivenenvironment.However,onthewhole,thedeployedtechnologyand

challenges are very similar.

75percentoftheorganizationssurveyedhavemorethan20TBusablestorageandabout

51 percent of the companies have 100 TB or more usable storage to manage.

Companieswithover1PBusablestorageincreasedfrom17percentto20percentin

2011-12. This represents a 17.6 percent year over year growth rate.

Nearly5percentofthecompanieshavecrossedthe10PBmarkintheirusablestorage

capacity.

Figure5Distributionofstoragecapacityacrossrepresentedcompanies

Averageinstalledusablecapacityis1.3PB.Similarcalculationswithlastyears(2010-11)

data shows an average capacity of 1.16 PB, reflecting an increase of 35 percent year over

year in (average) installed usable capacities per company. This high rate of growth in storagedemandcausesthenumberonechallengefortheIT/Storagemanagersmanagingstorage

growth.

Up to 99 TB, 49%

100 TB - 499 TB,

22%

500 TB - 999

TB, 9%

1 PB - 10 PB, 15%

Over 10 PB, 5%


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3.2 DATA MOVEMENT TO VIRTUALIZED AND CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS

Participants have indicated that their organization is planning to move data to virtualized

andcloudenvironmentsfromclassicdatastorageenvironments.Currentlyabout53percent

ofdataisinaclassicenvironment.Duringthenext24months,about30percentofdatain

classic environments is expected to be moved to a virtualized/cloud environment. The high-

est growth, 69 percent, is expected in internal/private cloud.

Figure8Datamovementtovirtualizedandcloudenvironmentsin24months

Even though organizations are planning to move a substantial amount of data to virtualized

and cloud environments, only 18.5 percent of managers have indicated that at least 50 percent

of their team possess the necessary skills to design, deploy, and manage storage in a private

cloud environment; whereas 42 percent of the managers (companies) indicate that they have

atleasthalftheirteamcapableofworkingwithvirtualizedenvironments(Figure8.1).

25.6%

15.4%

16.9%

21.5%

20.5%

46.9%

19.6%

14.9%

7.2%

11.3%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Less than 10% 11% - 25% 26% - 50% 51-75% 76-100%

Storage skills in a Virtualized Environment"

Storage skills in a Private Cloud Environment"

Companies with

atleast 50% of their

Figure8.1Managersviewoftheirstorageteamsskillsetinvirtualizedandcloudenvironments

Migratingtoahighlyvirtualizedcloudenvironmentisasignificanttransformation,requiring

aconsiderableamountoftechnologyandbusinessplanning.Companiesrecognizetheneed

for having an in-house team of professionals to lead the planning, design, and implementa-

tion of cloud and related technologies.

Morethan80percentofmanagersindicatethattheyneedinhouseskillsfordesigningvir-

tualized and cloud environments. In addition, more than 55 percent of storage professionals

have indicated that cloud has impacted their current skill set, requiring a level of re-skilling.

VirtualizedServer

Environment,

36.1%

Internal, Private

Cloud

Environment,

8.3%

External Cloud

Environment,

2.7%

Traditional /

Classic

Environment,

52.9%

Current

Virtualized Server

Environment, 45.0%

Internal, Private

Cloud Environment,

14.1%

External Cloud

Environment, 4.3%

Traditional / Classic

Environment, 36.7%

In 24 months


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7.1%

11.0%

24.2%

19.8%

37.9%

5.5%

1.6%

21.4%

9.9%

61.5%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Do not know

In-house skills not ciritical

Will be critical in 12-24 months

In-house skills critical but will use vendors

Critical to have in-house skills

Virtualized Environment Cloud Environment

Figure8.2Organizationsrequiringdesignskills

Sincecloudcomputingrequirescross-skillexpertise,ITprofessionalsarerequiredtohave

necessary knowledge across technologies that will be used in cloud infrastructure and ser-

vices. 21 percent of the professionals indicated that they possess the required level of skills

acrossallcoreinfrastructuretechnologies(Figure8.3).Attheveryleast,itcanbesaidthat31.5percentoftheprofessionalshavethepre-requisiteknowledgeandskills(O/S,storage,

networking, and virtualization) to get trained and become cloud-ready.

21.3%

27.2%

31.5%

37.6%

61.9%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

O/S, Storage, Networking, Virtualization, B/R, Security

O/S, Storage, Networking, Virtualization, B/R

O/S, Storage, Networking, Virtualization

O/S, Storage, Networking

O/S, Storage

Figure8.3Cross-domainskillsofprofessionals

4. FORMALIZED STORAGE GROUPSStorageinfrastructureismission-critical,andasignificantpartofinfrastructurebudgetsis

allocated to storage-related products and services. A well-structured storage group of highly

skilled professionals is key to building and maintaining high-performance, highly availablestorage infrastructures.

Job titles and descriptions of dedicated storage professionals are evolving. The following are

themostcommonjobfunctionsdeployedbythestudiedorganizations:

Storage ManagerManageroftheformalizedstorageteamorusedinterchangeablyfor

StorageAdministrator

Storage AdministratorResponsible for day-to-day administration, provisioning, configu-

ration management, monitoring, availability management, and so on

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Backup and Recovery AdministratorResponsible for day-to-day backup- and recovery-

related operations

Storage ArchitectResponsible for capacity planning, technology planning/design, and

process management

Disaster Recovery Administrator or Business Continuity AdministratorResponsible for

disaster recovery, backup and recovery, planning, implementation, and management

6.9%

26.9%

14.2%

11.4%

31.0%

9.6%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Other Storage roles

BR Administrators

BC Administrators

Storage Architects

Storage Administrators

Storage Managers

Figure9Distributionofstorage-relatedfunctions

With the advent of storage virtualization and cloud computing, the industry is expecting the

expansion of core skills of storage professionals to include systems and networking skills.

4.1 RESPONSIBILITIES

Storagegroupsareresponsiblefortheoverallplanning,design,implementation,monitor-

ing, managing, testing, and operation of all components in the infrastructure. Interactions

with IT/storage managers and professionals resulted in the list of activities/tasks for which

they are responsible (Table 3).

Thelistencompassesvariousjobfunctions,includingstorageadministration,architects,DR

administration, B/R administration, and so on. Percent time captured for each of the activi-ties highlights the effort involved, and possible importance of the tasks. This list could be

used as a tool to define responsibilities of the storage group and individuals.

When compared with the results from the 2010-2011 study, though there are minor varia-

tions in the percentages, in general, the priorities and time distributions remain very similar.

A new finding in this study reveals that storage groups are spending about 2.6 percent of

their time on cloud related activities.

Storage GroupTasks andt Responsibilities Percent of Time Spent

Designand/orparticipateinthedesignofthestorageinfrastructure 12.3%

Integration of the storage infrastructure, databases, and applications 12.3%

Managingtheimplementationofthestorageinfrastructure 11.6%

Storageprovisioning 11.6%

Backup, recovery, and archiving of information/data 11.4%

Monitoringofthestorageinfrastructure 8.4%

Troubleshooting 8.4%

Storagecapacityplanning 6.7%

Evaluating storage technologies from different vendors 5.9%

Storagerelatedreportingandanalysis 5.2%

Other storage related activities 3.8%Design,discussion,andplanningofstorageincloudenvironment 2.6%

Table 3Typical tasks and responsibilities of storage teams and percentage of time spent (last 12 months)


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Another equally important dimension of these responsibilities is their alignment to different

storagetechnologysegments.Skillsandprocessesarerequiredtomanagethesetasks

against expected expertise in one or more assigned specialty or storage technology

segments.

Figure10illustratesthepercentoftimespentinthelast12monthsbykeytechnologyseg-

mentsimplemented.Comparedtothepreviousyear,thepercentageoftimespentbythe

storage group on storage virtualization increased from 4.5 percent to 6.9 percent, and on

cloud from 1.2 percent to 3.1 percent. This indicates that both virtualization and cloud tech-nologies are making inroads into organizations.

29.2%

19.8%

16.4%

11.0%

6.9%

6.7%

4.1%

3.1%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Storage Area Networks (SAN)

Backup, Recovery & Archive

Storage Platforms/ subsystems

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Storage Virtualization

Remote Replication

Local Replication

Storage Technology for Cloud Environment

Figure10Percentageoftimespentbystorageteamsbystoragetechnologysegment(last12months)

4.2 STORAGE GROUP SKILLS AND PERFORMANCE

Even though 65 percent of participants indicated that their companies have dedicated stor-

age teams, analysis of IT/storage managers assessments of skill levels leads to the conclu-

sion that only about 40 percent of their teams are well skilled to carry out their

responsibilities on core storage activities. Only 13.2 percent of their team has necessary

skills to design storage for cloud environments.

This is a key challenge for storage managers because it underscores the very real skills gap

intheirteams.Sub-optimalskillsyieldsub-optimalstoragedeployment.Ontheotherhand,

a well-skilled team will lead to higher productivity, better technology deployment and man-

agement, and optimal utilization of existing staff.

Figure11illustratestheoverallratingofthestorageteamsagainstidentifiedtasksand

responsibilities(seeTable3).Strong,moderate,andweakbarsindicatethelevelofexper-

tise within overall storage teams in the represented companies.

45.1%

43.5%

42.6%

41.0%

38.7%

37.7%

32.9%

29.3%

28.8%

25.9%

25.8%

16.4%

13.2%

10.6%

42.7%

47.2%

46.9%

46.0%

46.0%

44.4%

53.9%

56.1%

57.5%

51.2%

51.6%

53.5%

30.8%

32.9%

12.2%

9.3%

10.5%

13.0%

15.3%

17.9%

13.2%

14.6%

13.8%

22.8%

22.6%

30.2%

56.0%

56.5%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0%

Backup, recovery, & archiving of information/data

Storage Provisioning

Manage implementation of storage infrastructure

Server Virtualization

Evaluate storage technologies from different vendors

Troubleshooting

Design &/or participate in design of storage infrastructure

Integration of the storage infrastructure, databases, & applications

Monitoring of storage infrastructure

Storage capacity planning

Storage related reporting & analysis


Design storage infrastructure for Cloud environment

Cloud Computing

Strong Moderate Weak

Figure11Abilitytoexecutetasks;skilllevelsofstorageprofessionalstocarryouttheirtasksandactivities

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64.0%

55.6%

51.1%

50.3%

41.2%

35.0%

33.9%

25.6%

6.8%

6.8%

30.3%

38.5%

43.8%

42.6%

40.0%

44.2%

43.6%

47.0%

38.9%

37.0%

5.6%

5.9%

5.1%

7.1%

18.8%

20.9%

22.4%

27.4%

54.3%

56.2%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0%

Storage Area Networks (SAN)

Storage Platforms/ subsystems

Backup, Recovery, & Archive

Server Virtualization

Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

Local Replication

Remote Replication


Cloud Computing

Storage Technology for Cloud Environment

Strong Moderate Weak

Figure12Competencebystoragetechnologysegments

Figure12mapsskillsetsofthestorageteamsagainsttheimportanttechnologysegments.

TeamskilllevelsinSAN,backup/recovery,servervirtualization,andstoragesubsystemsare

ratedhighwhileskillsinNAS,remotereplication,localreplication,andothersareratedlow.

Mostcompanieshaveverylimitedskill-setsinemergingtechnologiessuchasstoragevirtu-

alization and cloud technologies. A correlation between ability to execute tasks (as shown in

Figure11)andcompetenceinrelevanttechnologysegments(fromFigure12)willpaintaclearpictureoftheeffectivecompetenceofthestoragegroup.Detailedassessmentofeach

individual within the group is required to ascertain strengths and weaknesses for each task

and related technology segment.

4.3 SOURCES FOR HIRING AND DEVELOPMENT

The most significant challenge faced by IT/storage managers is the shortage of skilled stor-

age professionals in the marketplace. In fact, lack of skilled storage professionals is the

most serious industry challenge.

Consideringtheaggressivehiringrequirementsandplans,thelackofskilledresources

becomesaseriousbottleneck.Figure13highlightsthelevelofhiringrequirementsacrossthe industry. The hiring plans indicate staff growth of more than 30 percent (last year was 22

percent), requiring hiring, training, and deploying capable storage professionals.

In addition, organizations are planning to hire cloud professionals both in architecting and

administration areas. Once again, this trend highlights the impact virtualization and cloud

technologies have on the organizations.

0

0

1108

584

468

1278

394

122

132

398

216

146

437

122

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

Cloud Administrators

Cloud Architects

BR Administrators

BC Administrators

Storage Architects

Storage Administrators

Storage Managers

Current Planned

New

New

31%

34.2%

31.2%

37%

35.9%

Figure13Hiringrequirementsfornext12months


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Figure14showsthepreferredhiringoptions.Themajorityofmanagersprefertohireexperi-

enced professionals to reduce the learning period and risks associated with hiring new

employees, followed by internal transfers or appointments. The next-best alternative, indi-

cated by 62.5 percent of participants, is to hire certified individuals.

29.0%

33.5%

55.3%

62.5%

79.7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Hire New Collges Graduates

Engage Consultants

Internal Appointment

Hire Certified

Hire Experienced

Figure14Managerspreferenceforhiringoracquiringstorageskills

Thereisashortageofskilledmanpowerintheindustry.Capable,experienced,andskilledindividualsareusuallynotavailabletobehired.Majorfactorsforthisskillsshortageinclude

lackofstoragetechnologyeducationinthemarketplaceandinacademia.EMChastakenthe

lead and successfully introduced storage technology curriculums (and certification) in hun-

dredsofuniversitiesaswellasintheopenmarketviapublicclasses.However,alotmore

needs to be done in the industry to convert this industry-wide bottleneck into lucrative

employment opportunities for aspiring professionals.

Giventhatthereexistsascarcityofcertifiedorwell-skilledstorageprofessionalsinthemar-

ket, managers frequently resort to internal recruitment. Often internal recruitment involves

moving an existing valuable employee who has different expertise (such as operating sys-

tems, databases, and so on) but has limited storage technology knowledge, which creates aknowledge gap in both technologies.

23.4%

32.8%

34.8%

41.1%

72.9%

76.1%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

In-house Training

Authorized / Independent Vendor training

Professional certification

Self- Development

On-the-job Training

Vendor Training

Figure15Mosttrustedtrainingsourcesfordevelopmentofstorageskills

Preferred sources of storage training and development include technology vendor training,

on-the-jobtraining,andself-developmentbyreadingmanuals,followedbytrainingprovided

by authorized/independent IT training companies and training for certifications.

On-the-jobtraining,technologyvendortraining,andselfdevelopmentbyreadingmanuals

typically cover usage and management of products and technology that is either already

implemented or is in the process of being implemented. In addition, there is a need for

wider and deeper training focusing on underlying technology concepts, planning, design,

and management. This will enable storage professionals to independently and more effi-

ciently design and deploy storage infrastructures that fully leverage the capabilities of all

applicable storage technology segments.

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5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONSFromtheperspectiveofdataavailabilityandprotection,theinformationstorageinfrastruc-

ture is the most critical component of an overall IT infrastructure. It plays a key role in mak-

ing applications work efficiently, both locally and across multiple sites. With the increasing

complexity and criticality of storage, highly skilled and focused storage groups are as mis-

sion-critical as the technology being deployed.

This study underscores a widening knowledge and skills gap in this fast-growing industry.

A high-quality hiring and placement decision is possibly the most important challenge faced

by IT/storage managers today, exacerbated by the shortage of experienced or certified

professionals.

Duetoalackofcomprehensivestoragetechnologyeducationintheindustry,moststorage

professionalshavereliedonon-the-jobtraining,vendorproducttraining,andselfdevelop-

ment. Though probably adequate for day-to-day administration, a lack of broad and deep

knowledge hampers the ability to make informed strategic decisions and to proactively plan,

design, and manage storage infrastructure.

Well-constructed, comprehensive, and strategic plans must be efficiently implemented to

meet the challenges of managing multi-site, multi-vendor environments.

Companieswithoutformalandfocusedstoragemanagementgroupsmustevaluatethis

mission-critical requirement.

Companieswithdedicatedstorageteamsmustcarefullyanalyzeskillsrequirementsand

current skill levels of their teams.

Companiesmustdevelopspecializedexpertsineachofthestoragetechnologysegments

they have deployed.

All organizations must evaluate the impact of virtualization and cloud computing on the

skillsoftheirstorageandothertechnologyteams,andplanfortheirmoveeitherasCloud

ArchitectsorDomainArchitects.

Storagetechnologyvendorsshoulddevelopknowledgeandskillsintheindustrywhen

they introduce new technologies.

Leadinguniversities,colleges,andtrainingprovidersmustincludestoragetechnology

coursesintheirITandCScurriculatooffertheirgraduatescareeropportunitiesinthis

industry. The next generation of IT professionals, or anyone looking for a different career

path, have a great opportunity to learn the skills and meet the demands in this high-

growth, dynamic environment.

6. EMCS RESPONSE AND INITIATIVES

EMCEducationServicesconductedthisstudytoidentifyandaddressthechallengesfacedby

managers in the storage industry.

The following key initiatives offer options for storage managers and professionals to acquire

or improve their skills to benefit their organizations.

EDUCATION SOLUTIONS

CloudArchitectandDataCenterArchitectopenCurriculum

CrossdomainCloudArchitecttrainingandcertifications

StoragedomainDataCenterArchitecttrainingandcertifications

InformationStorageTechnologyopenCurriculum

Unique offering in the industry; leads with concepts and principles

Coversallsegmentsofinformationstorageandmanagementtechnology


18/20

Adopted by a large number of universities worldwide

InformationStorageandManagementbook

EMCTechnology-specificLearningPaths

HelpsleverageextensivecapabilitiesforEMCtechnologyandsolutions

ComprehensivecoverageforallsegmentsofEMCtechnology

EMCProvenProfessionalCertificationProgram

Quality assurance, formal validation, and recognition

OptionofopenandEMCtechnologyspecialties

AlloftheaboveeducationsolutionsareavailablegloballyviaEMCEducationServicestoEMC

customers, partners, and employees.

To address the widening knowledge gap in the industry, the following exclusive resources

havebeenintroduced.Theyenablenon-EMCusers,aswellasuniversitystudents,totake

advantageofaninformationstoragetechnologyopenCurriculumtobuildasuccessful

career in this high-growth industry.

EMC ACADEMIC ALLIANCE PROGRAM

InformationstorageandmanagementopenCurriculumforstudentsincollegesanduni-

versities, targeted to help build a highly skilled pool of future storage managers and

professionals

Introduced in mid-2006, this program has helped establish alliances with hundreds of

universities in several countries

INFORMATION STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT BOOK

We offer one of the most comprehensive books on information storage and management in

theindustry.ItisamusthaveadditiontoanyITreferencelibrary.WrittenbyEMCstorageexperts,thebooktakesanopenapproachtoteachinginformationstorageandmanage-

ment, focusing on concepts and principlesrather than product specificsapplicable to all

IT environments.

Formoreinformationontheprograms,offerings,alliancesandpartnerships,visit

EMC.com/training.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSAlok ShrivastavaisSeniorDirector,EMCEducationServices.Alokisthearchitectofseveral

ofEMCssuccessfuleducationinitiativesincludingtheindustry-leadingEMCProvenProfes-

sionalprogram,industryreadinessprogramssuchasEMCAcademicAlliance,leadingthe

developmentoftheInformationStorageandManagementBook,auniqueandvaluableref-

erenceresourceoninformationstoragetechnology,andrecentlyEMCProvenProfessional

CloudArchitectandDataCenterArchitecttrainingandcertificationprograms.

Alok provides vision and leadership to a team of highly talented experts and professionals

whodevelopworld-classtechnicaleducationforEMCemployees,partners,customers,and

other industry professionals.

Priortohissuccessineducation,AlokbuiltandledahighlysuccessfulteamofEMCpresales

engineers in Asia-Pacific and Japan. Earlier in his career, Alok was a systems manager, stor-

age manager, and a backup/restore/disaster recovery consultant working with some of theworldslargestdatacentersandITinstallations.HeholdsdualMastersdegreesfromthe

IndianInstituteofTechnologyinMumbai,IndiaandtheUniversityofSagar,India.Alokhas

worked in, and held a unique passion for, the information storage technology field for most

of his 29-plus year career in IT.

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19

G Somasundaram (Somu)isdirectorofEMCEducationServices,leadingworldwideindustry

readinessinitiatives.SomuisthearchitectofEMCsopenstoragecurriculum,aimedat

addressing the storage knowledge gap that exists in the IT industry.

Underhisleadershipanddirection,industryreadinessinitiativessuchastheEMCAcademic

Alliance program continue to experience significant growth, educating thousands of students

worldwide on information storage and management technologies.

KeyareasofSomusresponsibilityinclude,guidingaglobalteamofprofessionals,identify-

ing and partnering with global IT education providers, and setting the overall direction for

EMCsindustryreadinessinitiatives.Priortohiscurrentrole,Somuheldvariousmanagerial

andleadershiproleswithinEMCaswellaswithotherleadingITvendors.HeholdsaMasters

in Engineering degree from IIT Bombay as well as an undergraduate engineering degree from

AnnaUniversity,Madras,India.


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EMC2,EMC,EMCProven,andtheEMClogoareregisteredtrademarksortrademarksofEMCCorporationintheUnitedStatesand

othercountries.Allothertrademarksusedhereinarethepropertyoftheirrespectiveowners.Copyright2007,2011EMC

Corporation.Allrightsreserved.PublishedintheUSA.4/11EMCPerspectiveH2159.7

EMC Corporation

Hopkinton, Massachusetts 01748-9103

1-508-435-1000 In North America 1-866-464-7381

www EMC com

CONTACT US

Contact Us by Phone or Email

Online:http://education.EMC.comEmail:[email protected]

Phone:1-888-EMC-TRNG(888-362-8764)

International:

[email protected]

+44 208 758 6080 (UK)

+4961964728666(Germany)

[email protected]

+61 2 9922 7888 (ANZ)

+6563336200(SouthAsia)

[email protected]

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[email protected] +82 22125 7750 (Korea)

[email protected]

+91 80 6737 5064 (India)

[email protected]

+861084386593(GreaterChina)

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