#STaaSChat - CrowdChat

#STaaSChat

Storage as a Service (STaaS): Addressing storage consumption in a better way

#staaschat @toddgray321 @dixonhowdixon @ajstrauser @jmzuccaro

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Andrew J Strauser17

Q3) So it is likely that organizations are either thinking about STaaS or are actively investigating it. How does IBM describe the key characteristics or core tenets of Storage as a Service?

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Howard Philip Dixon

@AjA comprehensive (end-to-end) GTS storage solution which utilizes NetApp technology to consolidate and transform customer on premise storage infrastructure into a dynamic, always-on storage environment managed by IBM and delivered on a consumption-based

Howard Philip Dixon

model

Yes! IBM Storage as a Service offers time-tested methodology, experience, tools, and highly skilled personnel to deliver results, while covering multiple platforms and systems in virtually all major industries worldwide.

Given our long standing and strong relationship with IBM, and our continued investment in solution design, IBM is uniquely positioned to develop new solutions around Storage as a Service.

The key is that IBM’s managed STaaS aligns storage consumption and spend and at the same time provides a more responsive and agile infrastructure services delivery for a client’s changing business.

Niharika Trivedi

Understanding the state of our clients’ IT infrastructure to help boost their business efficiency is key to IBM Storage as a Service.

Andrew J Strauser12

Research indicates Storage as a Service (STaaS) represents a large and rapidly growing market with a CAGR of 47% with a total market of nearly $6B in 2015… What do you believe are the drivers for this market? (Do you agree if this is just a paradigm shift

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Howard Philip Dixon

@AjStraGood question. I believe unprecedented demands on client’s storage environment. Increased business transactions, the dramatic rise of mobile and social computing, demand by Lines of Business for analytics are some of the key drivers for this market.

I think the STaaS growth trend is yet another indicator of the overall shift in how customers want to consume IT. Many customers I have spoken with want to leverage public cloud for its On Demand, Pay-as-you-Go model, but have concerns around

this is a paradigm shift; Everyone is talking “cloud” and one of the main reasons is the ability to move to a consumption based model for consuming resources to further enable agility and responsiveness to business changes.

data sovereignty, security and regulatory compliance. STaaS gives customers auditability and control of their data with the consumption benefits of public cloud.

Andrew J Strauser11

Q7) How does STaaS deal with changes in client consumption needs?

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Howard Philip Dixon

STaaS matches client storage consumption to spend with the ability to flex up/down as needed.

STaaS consumption is very dynamic by nature. It’s similar to how consumers pay for utilities such as telecom or electricity.

There are no surprises as the consumption is based on a known $/GB rate

Andrew J Strauser10

Q8) How is STaaS different from a traditional cap-ex purchase?

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Howard Philip Dixon

With STaaS, customers can avoid up front capital spend based on long term capacity planning that won't be immediately utilized.

Capital expense often leads to bulk purchases, often buying more than customers need and leaving them with stranded assets they have to depreciate. This results in customers spending more and getting less.

Yes, a client need not incur the cost of a 12 or 24 month capacity projection on Day 1;

Andrew J Strauser8

Q13) What advantages does STaaS provide to clients managing their own storage infrastructure?

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This is a paradigm change; client becomes a consumer of storage and IBM becomes the provider of storage; client no longer needs to managed procurement and planning for incremental asset purchase.

Howard Philip Dixon

Storage as a Service is a paradigm change, clients will now be consumers of storage and IBM will now take on the responsibilities of a storage providers, such as procuring, managing, and planning for any incremental storage growth.

Howard Philip Dixon

The client will no longer have to perform these tasks.

Customers don’t change what they doing overnight and we don’t expect them to. The STaaS solution gives customers the ability to adapt the way they consume data resources over time and as their business needs change.

Andrew J Strauser8

Q4) What are the benefits a customer can expect from this service?

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Howard Philip Dixon

Some of the underlying benefits a customer can expect from this service include:
1. Move to an operational expense model
2. Align consumption and spend, Pay only for storage capacity they used

Howard Philip Dixon

3. Have in place buffer capacity ahead of demand when needed at a known cost rate@AjStrauser

Howard Philip Dixon

4. Reduce process complexity and provisioning time needed to satisfy end user storage requests
5. Ability to set up on customer’s own premise (private cloud)

Customers benefit from IBM Global Technology Services (GTS)’s breadth of experience in managing and delivering their most critical IT Asset – Data, moving away from operating IT and focusing their attention on deriving business value from it.

Your storage IT engineer can be engaged earlier with high priority projects while tracking storage consumption and SLA reporting

Niharika Trivedi

Another great benefit of STaaS includes - it be easily added to a service provider’s offerings with minimal cost, little deployment time, and significant ROI.

Andrew J Strauser6

Q11) How does STaaS accommodate changes in workload storage performance needs?

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ONTAP technology allows for non-disruptive workload moves across different tiers of disk types within the storage array.

Howard Philip Dixon

As Joe indicated, IBM Storage Administrators will be able to leverage the NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP technology to move non-disruptively workloads from one storage tier to another within a NetApp FAS device as needed to address performance

Howard Philip Dixon

needs/requirements.

One of the real benefits of a Storage Infrastructure based on NetApp is our Software-Defined approach to service delivery. IBM GTS leverages our capabilities to establish dynamic service levels based on performance, capacity and availability

we see IoT solutions driving storage growth ...storage is one of the essential components , depends on context and use case - there might be other regulatory, access and retention requirements.

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You're absolutely right. This is one of the main benefits of data sovereignty, security and control with STaaS

managed STaaS in an on premise private cloud is essential here

@jmzuccaro I would say that is too strong a statement, good example is all the body camera videos police are starting to produce, a regulated (CJIS) storage service can be SHARED across the police departments, many of whom don't have on-prem IT

for IoT, I would agree. I was thinking of critical business apps in a clients data center

Andrew J Strauser5

Q15) How does a customer know if they are a good candidate for managed STaaS?

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- Are we paying for storage we aren’t using?
- Are we struggling with adequate storage administration staffing and specialized training?
- Is our storage provisioning process complex and lengthy?

Performing an assessment is important in order to understand what’s right for my storage infrastructure for a longer run.

Howard Philip Dixon

IBM can perform a complimentary ROI analysis that may help customers to understand if they are a good candidate for managed STaaS.

Howard Philip Dixon

You can find more information here: https://www-01.ibm.c...

Andrew J Strauser5

Q14) What are the challenges customers face when implementing Storage as a Service? Do you need special expertise to implement STaaS?

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Howard Philip Dixon

Making sure their own Finance and Accounting departments can handle the move to an op-ex model.

Whether the client has existing NetApp storage products or will be new to NetApp, IBM Global Technology Services (GTS) has the expertise to define and implement the required roadmap to establish the STaaS environment.

The added expertise and focus around monitoring, reporting, and adjusting to changes in storage needs does involve learning to use new tools and implementing new processes. IBM’s managed STaaS provides that expertise for you.