Your employees generate massive amounts of data every day through their work—from project files and emails to customer records, accounting documents, and more. Additionally, your virtual server environments and critical business applications are producing huge volumes of machine data. With so much information being created and stored, you need robust, scalable storage solutions to keep it all organized and accessible to the right users.
As the amount of data under your control continues to skyrocket, it's time to upgrade your aging storage. New IT infrastructure servers are needed that can reliably support your business not just today but well into the future as growth continues.
In this post, we'll break down the top 10 factors you must consider when selecting replacement storage servers tailored to your unique IT needs and strategic business goals.
1. Assess Your Needs for Storage Capacity
The first step is assessing your organization's current and projected storage capacity requirements.
- You'll want to do a thorough audit of all the data you need to store.
- Start by taking inventory of files and documents across your entire IT infrastructure network.
- Tally the sizes of shared folders, individual user folders, databases, and other application data stores.
Be sure to also account for non-file data like backups, emails, databases, and virtual machines.
- If you back up user systems daily, how large are those backups, and how long do you retain them?
- Do you have compliance requirements dictating backup retention periods?
- For databases, consider average and peak sizes over time as data volumes grow.
Once you have a detailed list, review trends over the past 12–24 months to gauge typical annual data growth rates. Then factor in your company's projected expansion plans.
- Are you hiring more users each quarter?
- Adding new applications or databases?
- Expanding into new markets or services?
All of these will influence infrastructure service needs.
Consider a 3-5-year forecast horizon. This helps ensure any storage servers you select have ample room to scale over the lifetime of the investment. Don't forget to account for data growth even during server refresh cycles. With these insights, you can estimate realistic storage capacity requirements, both short- and long-term.
2. Consider Performance Requirements for Your Various Workloads
Not all data workloads have the same performance needs. Some, like databases and VMs, require flash-based SSDs for low latency and high IOPS. Others, like backup archives and file shares, can leverage higher-capacity HDDs. Look at which applications and user groups will be accessing data the most critically. Also factor in whether workloads will be consolidated onto fewer, more powerful servers or distributed across multiple nodes. Matching workloads with the appropriate infrastructure service media and server configuration will maximize performance.
3. Evaluate Data Protection Needs for Availability and Security
Data loss can be devastating, so choose servers with redundancy features like RAID and hot-swappable components to prevent downtime from hardware failures. Consider backups and options for offsite replication, too. Also assess compliance and security needs to protect sensitive files and virtual machines.
4. Consider Integration with Your Existing Infrastructure
Evaluate servers' compatibility with your current operating systems, hypervisors, applications, and management tools. Look for seamless support for monitoring, backup, and cloud integration software. Easy integration minimizes disruptions and simplifies management of hybrid or multi-cloud environments.
5. Factors in Scalability for Future Expansion
As AI storage needs grow rapidly, select servers designed for non-disruptive scaling. Modular designs accommodate adding processors, memory, and disk shelves without service interruptions. Servers with scale-out architectures allow starting small and expanding seamlessly by adding individual nodes. Consider maximum supported configurations and roadmaps to avoid hard capacity limits down the line. Scalability protects investments and future-proofs infrastructure.
6. Weigh Management and Monitoring Needs
Of course, additional AI server costs might just be a small piece of the proverbial pie. On the other hand, keep an eye on electrical consumption, software licensing, support agreements, and deadlines for additional modules.
By using servers with the highest efficiency ratings and, even better, energy-star appliances, we minimize our electricity bill. Supply tactics that include the procurement of hardware and software services decrease the chances of a downtime risk. Among the other inputs, inclusive cost modeling, which will be required for budgeting and ROI recalculations, is the key.
7. Factor in Budget and Total Cost of Ownership
We have to be able to trust our backup storage system, which means support beyond question is not an option. Delve into 24/7 contact support services online or by phone, plus guarantees of answer time requirements.
Service options could also be considered to be pursued; repairs should be as fast as possible. Assess warranties on servers and beyond while you consider the benefits of upgraded support plans. In addition, make sure you consider the vendor's reputation, operational stability and industry certifications as well. A partnership with a legendary brand eliminates concerns about the possibility of a brand going on sale, thus reducing worries about customer defection.
8. Evaluate Support and Service Level Agreements
Enterprise servers are mission-critical, so reliable support is non-negotiable. Look for 24/7 phone and online support, plus response time guarantees. Consider on-site service options too for faster repairs. Evaluate server warranties and available support plan upgrades. Also assess the vendor's reputation, stability, and industry certifications.
9. Consider Location, Density, and Environmental Factors
Enterprise servers require careful planning for space, cooling, and power infrastructure. Consider rack density, dimensions, weight loading, and cable management needs. Evaluate temperature and humidity operating ranges. Look for certifications like Energy Star and low acoustic noise ratings too. The right fit streamlines deployment at edge locations and eases facility management.
10. Try Before You Commit
Whenever possible, request product evaluations or deploy test units. Hands-on trials reveal real-world performance, usability, quirks, and suitability for your specific workloads. They also help validate sizing assumptions before large purchases. User acceptability testing delivers insights that analytical research may miss. Hands-on experience de-risks procurement and ensures smooth production rollout.
Key Summary
By addressing all these key factors, you can select storage servers tailored precisely for your unique IT needs, both now and in the future. Choosing infrastructure with scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency in mind sets your business up for digital transformation success. Getting the storage foundation right is a lynchpin for supporting innovation and fueling your company's continued growth for years to come.
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