Appliance Deployment Featured Article

If you’re working with server-based application platforms and continuously deploying appliances, you need a smart way to complete system and data management to keep your whole system functioning, “from a single platform to its connectivity to the global network.”

That’s according to a recent post on the NEI (News - Alert) blog. Of course, appliance deployment is of increasing importance in today’s enterprise, and this post presents five characteristics you’ll want to have in place.

Lifecycle System Management. All this means is that you need to have a good routine for maintaining and monitoring all hardware, operating systems and the application software for as long as you have it. Common sense, really, but something that can fall through the cracks in an IT department. Watch how you deliver updates and upgrades, maintain security, and monitor usage. NEI officials note that DAMA International, a professional organization for data management, defines data resource management as developing and executing policies and practices for all aspects of the data lifecycle, including architectures, since they don’t take care of themselves.

A Variety of Options. No one ISV can manage everything you need from cloud deployments to virtual integration across all storage, security and communications needs. This is impossible. Your own system and data management needs will require expertise beyond any one provider’s abilities.

Resource Requirements. Rolling out all the updates and upgrades you need for your systems is going to require resources, especially considering the need to protect against security breaches while maintaining hardware and monitoring how well the software’s actually working. Some core business functions could be hurt if this doesn’t all go smoothly, so again, you need to be working with a company that knows what it’s doing.

Specialized Appliances. You need adequate backup and recovery, but we hope we’re not telling you anything new there. NEI observes that purpose-built backup appliances are being deployed to handle “backup, recovery, and storage optimization with the use of data duplication,” citing from a recent IDC (News - Alert) report showing that PBBAs provide “faster restore and recovery times compared to tape-based backup and recovery processes.”