Frontline launches Utility Ready Storage

New on demand model helps Australian enterprises manage unpredictable storage capacity demands and costs

To help Australian enterprises store and manage their business data more efficiently and more cost effectively, Frontline Systems, a leading Australian IT services company has launched utility ready storage (URS). URS allows for greater flexibility in enterprise consolidated storage environments, and businesses simply pay a monthly invoice for the actual storage capacity used.

According to an IDC report last year, by 2011 global digital information is expected to grow to 1,800 exabytes, so finding a home for that data is not only a cost issue, but a huge administrative burden too. Frontline Systems will be the only company to offer URS in partnership with Hewlett-Packard for the next six months.

URS helps balance the risks and costs associated with buying and upgrading storage devices and software. It can also help manage widely varying or unpredictable storage capacity demands without increasingly IT-related maintenance and support costs. As a result of aligning costs to storage utilisation, it can help remove cycles of over and under utilisation in the business, whilst helping companies to react quickly to new demands or reduce procurement cycles for example.

To start using URS, simply select the storage devices, configuration, capacity, software and services that are appropriate for the company’s requirements. Based on the master service agreement, Frontline can verify that the storage doesn’t run out and is on-site when it’s needed. Frontline then quotes a monthly fee for the entire system and services, installing the storage device and metering technology at your site. The metering technology with advanced security features measures storage capacity usage and sends the information to Frontline.

Chris Ford, national sales manager at Frontline comments, “Data is the lifeblood of any business, so it is essential that it’s managed and stored correctly. In that respect, CIOs are under pressure to do all this whilst keeping costs down. Utility Ready Storage helps by giving CIOs greater control over what the kinds of capacity they use and the costs they pay. It does away with having to pay upfront for storage which might not be used in the short-term. You set and pay only for what you use.”

Storage is priced as a $/GB/month of the businesses average allocated capacity, based on the actual average raw usage. A single monthly invoice is then sent out that includes hardware, software and services. So it’s all contained in one, simple solution. For further information visit:  http://www.frontline.com.au/urs