"There have been cases where backups were not as current as we would like them to be, which is not acceptable," Commer says.
Today, the company uses a mix of automated storage-management tools and manual processes, with spreadsheets that track the owners of the data and the applications that run on each server.
SAN and storage management, however, don't typically get as much attention in budget planning because they're already getting done, albeit manually, Park says. Southern developed some in-house storage-reporting tools, including those for inventory management and file-system management. The company also runs Configuresoft's Enterprise Configuration Manager for tracking and managing storage resources for its Windows servers.
WHAT'S NEXT
ISCSI storage technology, meanwhile, may be on the horizon for remote sites where technicians aren't stationed full-time. That way, Southern could set up more reliable backups that don't require hands-on support. The utility already has installed a Veritas VeriStor iSCSI disk subsystem at one of its remote sites.
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