Mainline provides data storage and protection architecture design services to define a client's current and future storage architecture. This includes documenting the existing architecture, facilitating workshops to define assumptions and rules to guide the new architecture, and producing logical and physical diagrams of the architecture at 12, 24, and 36 months. The goal is to align storage infrastructure like SANs, arrays, and backups with strategic needs and growth requirements.
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1. www.mainline.com | 866.490.MAIN(6246)
DATA STORAGE AND PROTECTION
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
Assumptions are good! They are what
guide the design of your storage architecture
Mainline Information Systems | Storage and Data Services Practice
Making uneducated, unexplored and unconfirmed assumptions in life is not advised, but when building
and documenting your experience-based IT assumptions, it is critical to ensure the validation of a defined
architecture.
At Mainline, we document your existing storage architecture and then facilitate the building of your planned architecture by defining a framework and a series of
assumptions to guide the crafting of that architecture. Once validated, these assumptions become the detailed, low-level rules or architectural decisions and guidance
used to align your SAN, storage arrays, backup/restore and archive infrastructure with future growth requirements in conjunction with your strategic storage mission.
The results of this architectural definition are part of a larger best-practices effort typically defined as part of the storage strategy. Architectural definition is a process
and as a process, it requires a definition that is documented, published, maintained and enforced.
It is not just about painting a pretty picture of your architecture
While not taking for granted the value of visualizing an architecture, the deeper business value of an architectural definition is about operational efficiency and the
healthy questions involved in building a process around who owns and administers that process. Is that owner the IT director/manager? Who is the administrator? Is it
someone on the team? Is it a new hire? Is it someone on the existing or future engineering team? Once the owner and administrator are established, what do they do
to maintain and enforce that architecture standard?
If we were just painting a picture, in six months that picture would become invalid. Even if we documented the assumptions, the same is true for them. The overall
architecture definition and detailed implementation of it must be maintained as part of regular business. If service classes are defined, each class has an architecture
to be defined. If data placement, retention and residency were defined per class, they get included as part of that architecture definition. As the SAN switch
infrastructure grows, those new devices get added to both the physical and logical diagram. Without better tools, when a new LUN is allocated, that LUN is manually
documented on a detailed physical array diagram. Keeping an updated definition is critical when managing problem and change. When making procurement decisions,
issuing RFPs, and making tactical and strategic decisions to expand that solution, your storage architecture is the on the ground extension of your storage strategy.
What is included as part of this offering?
Mainline brings storage technical and business expertise and conducts a storage architecture workshop meant to define the data storage, protection and archive
infrastructure, including up to two sites, the SAN, inter-site telecommunication links, fibre channel, iSCSI and IP arrays (NAS), archive solutions (CAS), tape library
solutions, and any storage cloud solutions and services. Architectural decisions will be defined for the above, with assumptions about of structured and unstructured
growth and what the future-state logical architecture should look like. Detailed physical diagram requirements will be identified, whether rack-level views or data-
center-level views, to define a future SAN switch-cabling diagram or how the equipment would be placed in the racks. Assumptions about the rules for building racks,
placement on the floor, cabling rules, use of patch panels, etc. all get defined as it makes sense for your infrastructure. You will validate this documentation, and a final
presentation will be given back to your team defining the existing architecture, the future architecture and those related architectural decisions used to determine that
architecture, including an estimated view of the logical diagram at 12 months and 36 months.
2. www.mainline.com | 866.490.MAIN(6246)
Data Storage and Protection Architecture Design is part of Mainlines larger storage assessment
Mainline Information Systems | Storage and Data Services Practice
methodology
Mainlines Storage Assessment methodology
consists of ten service areas that can be
delivered as a whole to exploit the inherent
synergy, or they can be delivered as stand-
alone services, depending on where you are
in the storage transformation journey.
Data Storage and Protection
Architecture Design provides
additional value when delivered with
the following services within the
methodology...
Enterprise Storage Assessment with
Data Storage and Protection Architecture
Design takes the current and target
environment described in the Enterprise
Storage Assessment and uses it as the
starting point to converge on the future
architecture within the design session.
Infrastructure Application Landscaping
with Data Storage and Architecture
Protection Design provides detailed
application-level requirements for storage
infrastructure, providing a framework for
architectural elements required to address
each service class.
Infrastructure Data Analysis will provide
specific storage tier and backup retention
policy recommendations that will drive
growth estimates by tier over time.
EXPERTISE YOU CAN TRUST
Eighty-five storage experts skilled in storage solutions from every major vendor
Decades of industry expertise in designing, implementing and optimizing storage
solutions for environments of all sizes
Services covering product implementations, complex data migrations, information
lifecycle management, storage assessments, and advanced archiving and
protection strategies
Residencies and managed storage services to improve storage operations and
reduce operating cost
Next Steps:
Contact your Account Executive, or you can reach us at
StorageServices@mainline.com.
For more information on our storage services, go to
http://mainline.com/storage-transformation.
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STORAGE STRATEGY
WORKSHOP
A facilitated and managed approach to
defining infrastructure strategy.
INFRASTRUCTURE
APPLICATION
LANDSCAPING
Facilitate infrastructure and
application teams working together to
build a score card, score application
requirements and agree on the future
onboarding process.
ENTERPRISE STORAGE
ASSESSMENT
Define current and target data storage
and protection environment, identify the
gaps, and provide an actionable
roadmap of recommendations. The
core of any storage assessment.
DATA STORAGE AND
PROTECTION ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN
Define and illustrate both your current and future
environment, including both logical and physical
diagram modeling growth over 12, 24 and 36
months by data center.
STORAGE INVESTMENT ANALYSIS
Define and enable a loaded unit cost of storage
supporting showbacks/chargebacks through the
development of TCO, ROI and CBA.
SERVICE READINESS
ASSESSMENT
Use Mainlines scoring tool to establish a service
delivery baseline and compare against your industry
average. Use to measure improvement.
SERVICE CATALOG DESIGN
Organize your infrastructure services into a catalog of
your choosing based on strategy, data requirements
and agreements with application teams by service
class, or build a starting point to update as you
learn more.
INFRASTRUCTURE DATA
ANALYSIS
Using an agentless, cloud-based
Storage Resource Management tool,
define valid and invalid data,
recommend residency and retention
policies, and classify application
data/servers into service tiers.
PROCESS ENGINEERING
Document and detail ITIL-based
process definitions within an
IT-based process reference model,
starting with storage and backup
processes and building an operational
guide delivering auditable, repeatable
one-way-to-implement infrastructure.
INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITION
PLANNING
For any large transformation or migration
project, define a project plan to be
delivered by your team, a third party,
Mainline or some combination.