Any IT administrator wishing to enjoy a fruitful, long-term relationship with its IT environment, also needs to think of anyone else who may be affected by this partnership. If their new match is going to affect other users in their company it is important that their needs are also taken into consideration during the selection stage. CTERA’s Saimon explains, “It’s also important to engage with business folks to understand their requirements. After collecting/analysing the data and getting business input, it’s time to formulate your functional requirements and start looking for the most appropriate storage solution(s).”
Another essential step when looking to build a long-term relationship, is to look ahead: an IT organisation scouting around for a new match should look beyond the here and now. Just like a person may not tick all the boxes on the first date, upon learning more about them, additional, desirable, highly-compatible aspects may come to light. The same goes for a data storage product: an IT administrator should not dismiss a solution because it may not tick all the boxes at the start because new, useful features may be on the roadmap.