Bob Laliberte, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, notices the struggles SMBs can have with storage management compared to larger enterprises. "SMBs tend to have much smaller, less complicated environments [from a scale perspective], but they have the same issues: Keep production data highly available, make sure it is fully protected and recoverable to the stated
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recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) and respond to business needs," said Laliberte. "The difference is in the enterprise environments. There are hundreds, if not thousands of IT resources [for larger enterprises]. In an SMB [environment], one person may be wearing different hats. [This] may be why newer technologies like virtualization take hold quicker in the SMB space. Automation enables the same number of people to manage larger environments."
To help you learn more about data storage management for SMBs, we've compiled our five best tips on storage management from 2009. Whether you want to optimize your RAID data storage, find out the best data retention policies, learn the best data storage saving tips, or want to learn more about storage virtualization solutions for SMBs, we have all the information here on SearchSMBStorage.com.
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Optimizing RAID data storage for your business Many SMBs use RAID data storage for their storage management, however, before an SMB can choose which type of RAID to use, they must first explore where to house RAID drives, whether they should use software- or hardware-based RAID controllers and which RAID level will best fit their data storage needs. In this tip, learn about the best ways to optimize RAID data storage for your SMB.
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Data retention policies and procedures for SMBs Data retention isn't just a problem in large enterprises. SMBs are affected and governed by data retention laws and regulations and often struggle with the execution of data retention in their companies due to budget constraints and lack of management oversight. So what steps should an SMB take to overcome data retention obstacles? In this tip, learn about essential data retention policies and procedures for SMBs, such as knowing what data you have and where it's located, documenting your data retention policy and being careful of what data you delete.
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Five tips to save data storage costs for SMBsAs storage increases, data storage costs also increase. Increasing data storage costs becomes a concern for SMBs with limited budgets, especially this past year with the nation's struggling economy. This tip explores five ways to save data storage costs for SMBs, which include partnering with a VAR, using tiered storage, lifecycle optimization, capacity planning and data protection rationalization.
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Five must-have data storage security tools for smaller businesses Data storage security is a concern for all enterprises, bust most of the widely used and known data storage security tools are geared for larger enterprises. So what tools should you use if you are a smaller business? This tip explores the five must-have data storage security tools for smaller businesses and the types of security problems SMBs should be on the lookout for.
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Storage virtualization solutions for SMBs Storage virtualization is usually discussed in the context of large enterprises. It's not often that information is supplied on how SMBs can take advantage of the benefits and economic value that storage virtualization can offer to their data storage environments. For example, using storage virtualization in an SMB environment can make data migration a painless exercise. It also allows SMBs to use tiered storage. In this tip, read about all the storage virtualization solutions for SMBs.
To help you stay up to date on SMB data storage management in 2010, bookmark our page on storage management for the latest news, tips and tutorials on storage management for SMBs.
This was first published in December 2009