GlassHouse Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of independent storage consulting and services, today introduced its core consulting and services methodology, the Storage Management LifecycleSM.
The Storage Management Lifecycle (SML) encompasses the various phases IT managers must navigate as they design, implement, operate and support enterprise storage. GlassHouse uses the SML to measure the effectiveness of client IT environments as it provides storage consulting and services. Clients benefit from application of the SML’s 50+ policies and procedures, which provide an effective base of activities that contribute to better control of ongoing and new investments in storage hardware, software and administration.
“There is a lot of noise in the market about Information Lifecycle Management and the various products that users will have to acquire to realize its promise,” said Mark Shirman, President and CEO, GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. “The Storage Management Lifecycle is a process-based approach that delivers the benefits of ILM by enabling clients to match the cost of their storage infrastructures to the value of their data, moving towards a storage utility model. This is why GlassHouse was founded – to help clients deal with their stored data in predictable, manageable ways, taking advantage of infrastructure already in place. The Storage Management Lifecycle is the roadmap to ILM,” Shirman concluded.
Historically, users have focused on the management of storage devices – a technology view – rather than data, which is the business view. The SML enables users to look at storage from a business, rather than technology perspective. Structuring the management of storage environments around a Lifecycle with a full set of effective policies and procedures, organizations are able to apply the three essential practices of effective management in their IT operations: standardization, centralization and simplification.
Each phase of the SML – Demand Planning, Provisioning, Operations and Maintenance, and Customer Care – includes a series of discrete activities and tasks with associated Standard Operating Procedures and Service Level Agreements that can be implemented by IT organizations. By measuring storage environments against the SML, clients are able identify areas for improvement in policies, processes and procedures that offer significant return on investment for IT operations and the business.
In the SML, GlassHouse has adapted the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to reflect the challenges of data storage management. The SML describes roles and responsibilities, tying these to standard operating procedures that allow IT managers to set, and deliver, to service level agreements with their business clients. The result is an IT department that can tie the benefits of storage directly to business initiatives using proven, mature policies and procedures.
About GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
GlassHouse Technologies is the leading provider of services that help organizations solve the business problems of enterprise storage. From strategy through implementation, operations and customer support, GlassHouse partners with clients to achieve predictability and manageability in storage and backup operations, transforming storage into a strategic advantage. GlassHouse clients include Biogen Idec, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc., Pitney-Bowes, Inc. (NYSE: PBI) and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. More information about GlassHouse is available at www.glasshouse.com.
