ABSTRACT
Migrating from Direct attached storage to storage area network is the first place to improve where and how people spend on storage. Once the people and processes are established, they become habits, usually bad habits. IT operations people simply carry out the migration, backup, or expansion without considering the alternatives, such as migrating stale data to cheaper systems or retiring aging data to archive. Expect both end users and frontline IT people to resist moving any of the shared folders. Most virtualization systems have tools to migrate virtual servers and virtual disks with automation; migration involves small quantities of downtime. Most importantly, applications have tools and information about the data to separate the hot data from the aging cooler data —in other words, applications like Oracle have built-in archiving features.
