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Users Search for Power Solutions: Page 2 of 4

StorageIO Group's Schulz urged users to approach these technologies with their eyes open. "It's a myth that powering off devices is a silver bullet -- it might save power but you're going to have a lot of performance issues," he said, adding that technologies such as MAID are best suited to storage that is rarely accessed.

Despite these shortcomings, the analyst highlighted the potential of what he characterizes as Intelligent Power Management (IPM) products, such as a SATA drive with different power settings that has been developed by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), the parent company of HDS. "IPM is about more than just MAID," he said, explaining that recent announcements have at least focused attention on the "pros and cons" of MAID.

The analyst also urged users to consider deploying a broad range of solutions to solve their data center power problems, even using de-duplication and compression. "Tape and de-dupe is a tremendous combination -- de-dupe your data and create an ultra-dense copy of that on tape," he said, explaining that this can cut users' data footprint.

At least one IT manger attending the event sanctioned these tactics. "He's right -- you have to cover all the bases," said Rudolf Rosefort, vice president of management information systems at the Empire State Development Corp. "We're doing de-duplication, snapshots, and off-site tape backups."

CIOs and IT managers also need to go back to basics, according to the StorageIO Group's Schulz, who quizzed his audience on their own power reduction plans. "Have you done a facilities assessment? There's low hanging fruit that you can grab by going through your facility and checking," he said, using the example of excess under-floor cabling that can slow down air movement.