Z/Systems Journal Article

I read an interesting article from the Z/Systems Journal titled “Eight Tips for the New Mainframe Storage Manager” by B. Curtis Hall

The article is far too brief to serve as a comprehensive primer for the new storage manager, but the eight tips do include several pearls of wisdom (some obvious and some not so obvious) that should help the newbie storage manager.

One interesting point made by Mr. Hall is that “storage won’t just manage itself.” While this is obvious to many, the complexities involved in proper storage management are sometimes poorly acknowledged by IT management. Recognizing the total cost of storage as a percentage of the total IT budget can sometimes be used to identify it’s level of importance – and the level of focus – that should be given to managing this important resource.

By and large it is the customer data and not the technology that is of primary importance. This is, of course, the client view of the data.

From a service delivery standpoint, however, the technology supporting the storage environment is the most critical aspect of providing access to the client data. Properly managing these technologies and supporting the appropriate levels of Business Resilience, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, backups, etc., is one of the most critical components of today’s IT management team.



Mike Smith
Recovery Specialties, LLC