Over the past year, IT departments have been overtaxed with new demands for their ever-increasing storage needs. Storage networking technology remains complex, and end users are looking for assistance. The question remains: Where should IT managers turn when seeking assistance with their enterprise-wide storage environment? To help answer this, industry magazine Byte and Switch engaged Thomas Lah Ltd.  Drawing on the firm's experience with evaluating service organizations and its specific experiences with storage product vendors, Thomas Lah, Ltd. has developed a unique methodology to help evaluate storage consulting providers. For this report, Thomas Lah Ltd. devised the SCS Rating™ system (which stands for Services, Capabilities, and Satisfaction – explained later in the article), which should prove a helpful tool for senior IT managers who are trying to evaluate the multitude of service providers now crowding the storage consulting field. Whether you are an IT manager attempting to define and deploy a new enterprise-wide storage strategy, or one who is ready to throw out his current storage vendor because it has failed to deliver on critical commitments, you have a critical requirement to identify a competent storage consulting vendor. Byte and Switch Insider identified nine leading providers of storage consulting services to rank: CNT; Datalink Corp.; Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS); EMC Corp.; GlassHouse Technologies Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; IBM Corp.; Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek); and Veritas Software Corp. The ratings for each of these companies are discussed in the following sections.

from the article:  Storage Consulting Services by Thomas E. Lah

Published by Byte and Switch