Questions to ask when planning storage and server infrastructure

Storage Requirements

  • What our their current storage environment? (What technology do we use? NetApp, EMC, HP, Hitachi, Compellant?)
  • What is our current amount of usable storage?
  • What is our current data in GB / TB? How much of that data is deemed critical as opposed to 2nd tier, or even archivable?
  • What growth increase are we seeing from year to year? (25%? 30%? 40%? More?)
  • Is this our largest variable IT cost within our overall budget?

Server Infrastructure

  • How many servers do we have within our overall Infrastructure environment?
  • What percentage is comprised of Power, Linux or “Wintel”?
  • Do we have a vendor standard? (HP, Dell, IBM?)
  • What is our overall server utilization (7%? 10%? 20%? 50%? More?)
  • Do we utilize virtualization in our server infrastructure environment?
  • If so, what percentage of our environment is virtualized?
  • What version / type of virtualization do we use?
  • Are we looking to do a server consolidation project to help us save on additional software maintenance and energy costs?

Network Infrastructure

  • Do we have (primarily) our own data center or do we store all of our equipment at a co-location / managed services location? (and if so, whom?)
  • What is our current network environment (Cisco? Avaya?)
  • Do we standardize on a vendor?
  • How old / new is their network environment?
  • What kind of connectivity do they have? (T1? T3? DS?)

Security Solutions

  • Do we have a set standard for our security environment?
  • Do we do quarterly security assessments? (PCI and/or FFIEC Assessments?) (Who do we use?)
  • Are there areas we need to improve?

Software Maintenance

Do we have a goto partner we standardize on for software and hardware maintenance contracts?

Projects

  • What are there next three primary projects?
  • What is our IT budget?
  • What is our Calendar year? Jan – Dec? July – June? Etc.

For more information about planning for storage, servers, and network infrastructure, look at our data warehouse pages.