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The right storage solution for any application
Customers are recognizing the need for long term data management strategies, and they’re looking for companies who can help them translate their business challenges into successful storage management infrastructures. Some of the biggest opportunities in today’s market are in assessing, designing and implementing storage solutions. Paradigm has taken our company’s storage skills to the next level. We are a premier storage solution provider, assisting the capture of additional and more predictable sales, and gain the status of “trusted advisor.”
The need for storage services has never been greater than today. Data from traditional applications—such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), plus mail and messaging applications—is driving companies to add more storage at great rates. The rate of increase is largely due to the expanding requirements for information to be served up through business-to-business connections (such as web-based applications). Recent Gartner Dataquest research in the external disk storage market reflects “a year-over-year gain of 5.2 percent by leading vendors in the first half of 2003.” (Gartner: 3Q03 Update: Global Disk Storage Forecast Scenarios, 2003-2004)
But while customers are adding more storage as a tactical solution to growth of their data volumes, they are also concerned with long-term storage management issues, such as cost, reliability, ease of management, downtime reduction, integration and scalability, as well as backup, recovery and archiving options. In fact, a recent Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) report indicated that Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was the key driver for respondents when looking to make purchases to deal with the continued growth of data that they were expected to manage.
The current opportunity in storage services can be likened to the networking boom of the late 1990s. Companies then quickly became aware that their technology infrastructure needed to be scalable so that new users could quickly be added, and robust enough to support the demands of internal and external customers, partners and employees. With data volumes quickly growing alongside user requirements, companies are interested in making strategic investments in their storage infrastructures.
So how can we help solve your short-term data management challenges, while also addressing strategic requirements? The answer lies in our role as a business advisor. Paradigm has developed the storage skills necessary to guide your company through the assessment, design, implementation and management of an optimal storage infrastructure that meets your current and future business requirements.
Paradigm Storage Consulting Practice
Paradigm has successfully moved beyond the traditional hardware-oriented offerings and has invested in building storage skills that promote open storage solutions that address a wider range of customer challenges as well as help foster deeper and longer-term relationships with our customers. Moving to a more storage-centric business may require creating a services-based business model, understanding storage from an enterprise level and delivering open storage solutions.
Paradigm services-based business
A strong storage business starts with shifting the focus from hardware-oriented solutions to a services focus that is aligned with the customers’ return on investment (ROI). These services provide a stronger relationship with customers that puts Paradigm in the forefront of continuing engagements as a company that truly understands your business needs. The primary value of a storage consulting business is addressing the customer’s business. The key is to offer total storage solutions, integrating hardware and software with your strategy and implementation services to pull it all together.
Understanding storage from an enterprise application level
Another fundamental shift for many is to look beyond the disk-attached and network-attached storage they may be familiar with and understanding the role that storage plays across the enterprise. CRM or ERP applications are still a major force in today’s economy, and those applications depend heavily on databases and, of course, on the storage devices where the data lives. Resellers need to understand how data is used by these applications and by different audiences across the organization in order to determine the optimal storage infrastructure solution for those needs.
Delivering open storage solutions
Open storage solutions are the cornerstone to storage consulting practice. While your server-based business may focus on one or two primary system vendors, a true open storage solution should include storage components from several vendors, with proven interoperability. Most storage hardware and software vendors provide some level of integration with other vendor solutions, but this is one area where customers will really depend on the skills of their storage consultant to recommend an open solution that is truly interoperable with current and future server investments. We are familiar with industry partnerships and best practices, including many existing technology relationships that help our customers. Many industries must comply with mandatory regulations regarding the transmission, retention and security of data and information. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates how the healthcare industry manages patient records, while the Sarbanes-Oxley Act legislates corporate governance, financial disclosure and the practice of public accounting. In both cases, organizations in these industries need to address data management and storage infrastructures. Paradigm is a perfect opportunity to provide the high-level business and technology consultation services to help customers comply with the reality of these mandatory regulations.
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