Tech Alert: Will a Point Solution Solve Your Information Management Problem, Delay It or Aggravate It?
May 05 2010 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
When evaluating point solutions for a single information
management challenge, IT professionals are encouraged to consider
cost, complexity, and strategic scope to determine whether such an
approach will address the issue as intended, according to
Digitiliti, Inc. (OTCBB:DIGI), the leader in Operational Business
Intelligence for small to midsized enterprises. Typical point
solutions include storage appliances, search/index appliances,
deduplication appliances, backup servers, email archive systems,
virtual tape libraries, physical tape libraries, and offsite
tape/disk services.
Cost is an obvious factor when organizations consider all-in-one
versus single-use solutions. However, when there is more than one
data management problem to solve, as is often the case in a growing
network, costs add up quickly. Often the price of an all-inclusive
system is lower than the combined costs of multiple point
solutions, and throwing good money after bad rarely makes sense. A
point solution may seem like an affordable compromise if it
postpones the purchase of a more comprehensive solution, but should
be evaluated based on how long it is likely to delay the
inevitable.
Complexity becomes an issue particularly when the addition of a
point solution requires a workaround or increases management and
maintenance time. The infrastructure required to manage, control,
retain and access data using disparate IT products is inevitably
complicated. Some functions may overlap, whereas some may conflict.
Mastering several point solutions in order to configure,
troubleshoot and support them all is far less feasible when an IT
department is already overburdened.
The third consideration is less quantifiable but involves a more
strategic view of the overall infrastructure and the data. Rather
than buying products for problems as they arise, the ability to
identify and predict inevitable or even potential problems makes
better long-term business sense. For example regulatory compliance
is a tactical objective, but taking a higher-level view, the
strategic reason for it is protecting the organization from risk,
which likely requires more than a point solution. Protecting
against risk may involve continuous data protection, encryption,
storage tiers, offsite archives, access and revision control,
lifecycle policies, content indexing, search and disposition.
Ken Peters, Digitiliti’s executive vice president, advises
information management pros to consider how many point solutions it
is feasible to budget and handle, and how a problem may be
addressed strategically. “In most cases point solutions will
increase cost and complexity, and have the long-term effect of a
band-aid on a bullet hole. Throwing products at a new crisis,
rather than solving fundamental problems holistically, rarely pays
off in the long run.”
Digitiliti recently introduced DigiLIBE, a groundbreaking
information management solution that solves fundamental problems
associated with managing, controlling and quickly accessing
unstructured data. DigiLIBE is a simple, integrated Virtual
Corporate Library (VCL) system with policy-based applications to
protect, control and secure data from its point of origin to final
disposition. DigiLIBE addresses information growth across all
points of the organization including office files, email, images,
primary, secondary, offsite, and active archives. As a single
architecture comprised of three simple components – information
director, archive information store, and client agents – DigiLIBE
reduces the number of disparate IT products needed, and the
complexity and costs involved with managing and supporting
information growth.
A flash presentation is available at:
http://digitiliti.com/index.php/solutions/digilibe.html.
About Digitiliti, Inc.:
Digitiliti, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a pioneer and
technology leader in the information management business.
Digitiliti's fast growth results from its focus on providing
SMB/SME companies with enterprise class features and services that
are easy to use. Digitiliti services include DigiBAK, a
comprehensive off-site data protection solution, and DigiLIBE, a
complete information management solution to mine the knowledge in
unstructured content.
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