An estimated 1.6 million terabytes of data were created during 2006, and the number will increase each year. The accelerating growth of stored data is an accepted fact within our industry – it’s a future for which we all need to plan pro-actively. But all too often storage investments are made with little or no information which results in short-lived emergency solutions or overly complex, redundant solutions.

Decisions about future storage needs demand accurate forecasts based on efficient usage. Hardware should be cleaned up, usage should be controlled, and trends should be identified. These actions will allow you to maximize the use of your existing storage infrastructure and dramatically prolong their life-span. With an understanding of how your storage is really being used and the proper policies in place you have  more flexibility in when to make your next storage investment, not to mention the information needed to make the right one.

Northern Storage Suite offers all of the functionality needed to establish an acceptable trend, as well as offering the crucial forecasts themselves. Forecasts can be made at host and path levels, they can be based on users, user groups, storage quotas and mailboxes. They can also be financial or budget forecasts connecting actual costs to real storage use.

Accurate forecasts – accurate investments