| Intelligent solutions, intelligent management. Let’s face it. Storing data is cheap. Costs per megabyte of storage on virtually all storage media have been plummeting in recent years about as fast as the quantities of data needing to be stored have risen. Multi-gigabyte thumb drives are routinely given away at industry events. But storage is not simply about putting the bits and bytes on a disk or tape or other media. The real challenge and costs of storage are wrapped up in managing the stored data. And management of stored data has grown dramatically in complexity as data volumes have exploded, nearly doubling every year or two in many midsize businesses as rich data files proliferate. If IT managers aren’t careful, real storage costs can chew up big chunks of the IT budget while yielding little strategic return to the company. Fortunately, there’s help. Consider the story of 24\7 Inteligência Digital on page 14, which provides storage solutions for very high-capacity files for big companies such as Brazil-based Staples, Walmart and Nextel. Adopting a storage strategy based solely on Dell™ Compellent™ technology, the company can now automatically and dynamically store data to the proper and most efficient storage device, depending upon how the data will be used. That’s a great example of intelligent storage management. Speaking of intelligent management, ask yourself this: How well does our IT keep track of software licenses and costs? If your answer is “not as well as we should be,” you have a lot of company out there. And possibly you are at risk of being fined for improper use of unlicensed software in addition to paying for licenses on software that’s not even being used. As our story on page 16 shows, Dell™ KACE™ has an elegantly simple solution for handling software license inventory and management. The solution quickly discovers all network hardware and software, and then sets up analyzing licensing requirements. Both of these Dell solutions emphasize the ease of use and non-manual input that fast-growing midsize firms need today to free up vital but often scarce IT staff for strategic projects. And that is just what Dell’s Catalyst magazine aims to do in every issue — provide expert guidance and advice to technology decision makers in midsize organizations looking to drive business growth. You can let us know how we are doing by writing to catalyst@dell.com |
 | Jeff Hamlin Dell, Executive Marketing Director, US Medium Business |
