As file data continues to grow at a rapid pace, businesses are looking for more ways to cut their storage costs and lighten the management burden on IT. But where should you begin? The storage market presents an overwhelming array of choices even to experienced storage veterans, in terms of both technologies and vendors. Instead of starting with potential solutions, you should first develop an understanding of your data storage requirements, not only as they are today but also how they are expected to change over time.

To achieve this level of understanding, you must monitor your file storage environments over time, tracking what kinds of files are being created, why they are being created, who is creating them, how old they are, and how much storage capacity they consume. Using this information, you can create a smarter storage strategy based on business value. This strategy uses business value as the barometer by which to match your data to storage with the appropriate performance, availability, and cost. The result is a storage infrastructure that not only addresses your business needs, but does so at the lowest possible cost.

This paper explores why it is important to have deep insight into your file storage environment, and offers tips on how to develop a storage strategy that best meets your organization's needs. It also looks at how storage reporting and capacity forecasting tools can help you create a smarter storage strategy by automating the critically important but time consuming process of data capture and analysis.