Web Operations

Storage Sizing

Storage is expensive. It is one of the most costly components of any modern infrastructure today. This is especially the case in data-intensive environments that house the user-generated content and data of millions of users. For this reason, it is important to plan and spend capital on storage wisely. I've been responsible for some large budgets during my time operating large-scale storage deployments. I've learned that it is key to have a concrete understanding of exactly why the applications you support need storage, how they intend to use it, and how it can be designed and implemented as efficiently as possible.

Engineers and application groups will oftentimes come to us with exact, well-vetted storage requirements in hand. They've researched the workload, growth projections, and capacity requirements they anticipate their application will need, and they have already compiled details and answers to many of the questions they believe we will ask. They've done their homework, and more importantly, they've shown their work. At other times, we've been approached by groups that know very little about the storage they require, other than the fact that their application needs storage. They can't fully identify how much storage they need or what type, and in many cases they have little understanding about storage and how it works. Their initial requirements are fuzzy, but they are eager to work with us and to learn and understand how to design and size a storage solution. ...