Data Guard SAN Could Pay for Itself in a Year

Computerworld - Data Guard Systems Inc., a provider of a hosted accounting system for independent cell phone stores, expects that a $225,000 storage-area network installed in March will pay for itself within a year.

Timothy Maliyil, president and founder of Data Guard, said the monthly electric costs for the new SAN will likely be $20,000 less than the alternative storage upgrade.

The new SAN includes two EMC Clariion CX500 arrays capable of handling between 6TB and 7TB of storage and four Dell dual-processor PowerEdge servers running EMC 's VMware virtualization software, he said.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company installed the SAN to support its rapid growth, Maliyil said, noting that DataGuard's sales tripled between 2004 and 2005. It also uses 60 smaller Dell PowerEdge servers to store data.

Before buying the SAN, Data Guard had looked at doubling the number of PowerEdge servers to support the growth, but it chose the SAN for its reduced electric costs.

Moreover, adding servers likely would have required additional data center space, increasing expenses, Maliyil said.

The SAN will "pay for itself in a year," he said. "I'd rather spend money on hardware than on a data center."

Maliyil said using support services from Dell Inc., which supplied the Clariion systems under its reseller agreement with EMC Corp., eliminates the need for additional staffers to run the new systems.

With the new setup, Maliyil noted, Data Guard can support rapid growth. "Because we bought this, we have room to grow -- even if we had another explosive year like last year," he said.