Enterprise Storage Systems: Guide to understanding storage system capabilities, understanding vendor tactics, developing system and vendor requirements, and making informed acquisition decisions

This Guide provides insights and recommendations to help organizations have a productive and satisfying experience when acquiring enterprise storage systems. It addresses the kinds of fundamental questions customers, vendors, and industry watchers ask about the storage acquisition process:What values (i.e., capabilities and functions) can enterprise storage systems provide to customers?What values can storage vendors provide to customers?How can customers determine their particular storage and vendor requirements?What tactics do vendors use to help sell their systems?How can customers determine the system and vendor best able to meet their storage requirements?Going beyond only the "facts," the Guide is written to promote readers' understanding of storage systems and vendors. For example, specially marked "tips" provide insights into the implications of numerous topics. This provides a much more meaningful picture of storage than books that focus on technical "bits and bytes."

The author wrote this book after a long career in Information Technology that included product development, technical sales support, and competitive analysis. The book captures insights gained and lessons learned of significant value to anyone in the IT industry who acquires, administers, supports, or writes about computer storage systems. The author previously wrote the MVS Answer Book (Wiley, 1994) about IBM mainframe servers.