Report: Storage Management Costs More Than Storage

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- While the economic crisis and increased focus on efficient storage has helped to decrease the worldwide power and cooling costs of external storage long-term, other costs related to external storage (beyond the acquisition of the storage itself) continue to cost more than the storage itself. IDC estimates the total annual cost to "manage" the world's installed base of external storage is about 60% of all enterprise storage-related spending, including software, power, cooling, administration personnel, and services.

"As the industry attempts to control IT costs, specifically related to storage, IDC realizes that power and cooling costs are not the only costs associated with external storage," said David Reinsel, group vice president for IDC Storage and Semiconductors research. "In fact, in the grand scheme of things, the cost to power and cool external storage pales in comparison with the cost to acquire and manage storage, including the costs for storage software and storage administrators."

IDC