An IT checklist

Ways to prepare for tomorrow’s integrated server and storage management potential

You can prepare today for tomorrow’s integrated server and storage management potential by:

• Considering server and storage consolidation projects that leverage virtualization. While in the short term tools for server and storage virtualization will be separate, consider using these tools to assist in consolidation projects to improve utilization of servers and storage.

• Evaluating vendors based on their strategies to build integration. Over the longer term, it will be important to choose vendors that have begun to demonstrate integration with other third-party tools.

• Determining how integrated server and storage virtualization strategies could assist your move to a service-based operations model (or utility computing initiative). A core requirement of today’s enterprise data center operations increasingly is focused on defining and maintaining service levels. By employing consolidated server and storage virtualization strategies, customers should meet service levels more effectively and improve efficiencies and utilization of server and storage resources.