SPM Maturity Matrix
Organizations that have implemented mature SPM processes that are proactive and predictive, will have significantly fewer fires to fight. In addition, mature sites spend less on storage hardware because they buy and maintain the most effective configurations. The most important benefits of robust SPM are described by the maturity matrix below.
Immature SPM is characterized by significant manual effort, hardware vendor dependence and reactive management of issues. Mature SPM is characterized by automated visibility, hardware vendor independence, and avoidance of performance issues.
Reactive
In an environment characterized by reactive processes, end users notify IT support when there is a performance issue. IT then responds by initiating reactive problem determination activities. Often times, problem resolution is lengthy and requires support from various vendors. In a reactive environment storage hardware is typically configured and sized by the vendor. It is common to see significantly oversized vendor configurations. While this provides a degree of risk management it also results in significantly over spending on hardware. Volume placement in a reactive environment is typically random. Reactive environments are characterized by the lowest levels of service level attainment and the highest storage costs.
Proactive
In a proactive environment most performance problems can be identified before they impact users through early detection systems designed to identify potential storage system bottlenecks. Typically problem resolution takes place quickly and without assistance from the vendor as tools, procedures and skills are in place to rapidly resolve problems. Planning and storage sizing is performed internally using historical data and estimating techniques. Volumes are placed and migrated based on best practices or hardware optimization techniques. Service level attainments are typically high and storage costs are low.
Predictive
In a predictive environment operational performance models are regularly updated with steady state performance data and business driven growth scenarios are used to predict likely performance impacts. Potential problems can be avoided by providing sufficient time to plan changes to the environment such as hardware upgrades or re-configuration of existing hardware to optimize layout or connectivity. Storage is sized using hardware independent modeling. Volume placement is optimized for the entire storage system using advanced modeling and layout solutions such as IntelliMagic Balance that provides a before and after picture of the volume optimization. In a predictive environment service level attainment is the highest and storage hardware costs are the lowest.
