EMC Managed Services Portfolio Promises Simpler Storage

The company's new modular lineup of services, delivered 90 percent on-site and providing either short-term or long-term storage management, is designed to allow customers flexibility.

EMC bolstered its professional services business on April 12 with the introduction of a modularly designed Managed Services portfolio designed to help organizations more effectively improve service levels, control information and oversee their storage systems.

Aside from remote monitoring, about 90 percent of the consultation and information infrastructure management delivered through the EMC Managed Services portfolio will be carried out on-site at a customers premises by EMC IT professionals, said Derrell James, senior vice president of the Technology Solutions Group at EMC, in Hopkinton, Mass.

Click here to read more about EMCs January 2006 information lifecycle management rollout.

The new services, currently available, can be easily fitted to provide either long-term or short-term storage management based on EMCs best-practices assistance, allowing organizations the cost and architectural flexibility to expand storage operations and grow at their own pace, James said.

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The portfolio includes EMC Residency Services, whereby EMCs professional services group will provide on-site technical expertise and hands-on help with day-to-day storage operations.

These tasks could involve capacity and storage monitoring; storage reporting, provisioning, configuration, and device and software integration; root-cause analysis; and troubleshooting operations.

From a cost-savings and storage management perspective, James said the portfolios EMC Managed Utility Service should be a key ally in helping customers compensate for quickly escalating storage complexity.

The service helps businesses align storage consumption with resource allotment in an effort to sidestep any unexpected data usage or taxing storage-demand scenarios. EMC uses a software tracking tool to determine billing for the service in conjunction with the number of EMC professionals on-site.

EMC Storage Management Services cements best-practices strategies and procedures for customers as part of its service delivery through the presence of assigned EMC Technology Solutions group members at previously agreed-upon service levels. The portfolio is also delivered on-site.

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According to James, the only point where EMCs new Managed Services portfolio will deal with a hosted facility is via a storage-management services partnership with any large scale outsourcer, such as Electronic Data Systems, for instance.

Looking toward the future, he said the Managed Services portfolio may feature a focus on security, and, through the Residency Services aspect, may help companies develop and adopt a hardened data protection strategy.

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