Jim Damoulakis, GlassHouse CTO, writes about "The challenge of striking the right balance"

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9003415&intsrc=article_more_bot

I am not by nature a gambler, but there are those moments when the massive lotteries like Powerball or Mega Millions reach enormous jackpots that I find myself getting sucked in an buying a ticket. Intellectually, I know that I have a higher probability of becoming the next New England Patriots wide receiver than actually winning the big bucks, but hope springs eternal, and in reality the loss of a couple of dollars is dwarfed by the sheer size of the reward.

Organizations take far more serious gambles (with hopefully much better odds) every day. Selecting a technology direction that will support critical business functions is a one such gamble, and given the widespread impact, it's understandable that companies tend to be conservative, often characterized by a "follow the pack" mentality. ("No one was ever fired for picking ____" -- I'll let you fill in the blank.) But in areas where technology is rapidly changing, basing a long-term decision on what is today's safe bet also introduces an element of risk. The challenge is striking the right balance.

In storage, some technologies, like virtual tape libraries, can be viewed as relatively "safe" bets. Their impact on the organization is evolutionary, providing improvement to current processes and operations, and can be incorporated without substantial re-architecture or disruption to current practices. On the other hand, the potential effect of technologies like grid computing and CDP are more revolutionary. They provide new, previously unavailable opportunities that require us to rethink existing approaches, driving a reconsideration of requirements, policies and workflows.

Companies doing long-range planning must weigh the potential impact of both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies. With the former, how do existing services improve or become more efficient? With the latter, what new options does this provide, and what organizational, policy and process changes are required to support it? One small example: What is the impact of thin-provisioning technology on operational functions like billing and chargeback?

It is easy at a macro level to play the pundit role and declare that a particular technology will be the next big thing, but applying the right variant of a new technology to address the right problem set requires the evaluation of many factors, both technical and nontechnical. Striking the right balance between "tried and true" and "groundbreaking" can't be accomplished solely based on luck.

Jim Damoulakis is chief technology officer of GlassHouse Technologies Inc., a leading provider of independent storage services. He can be reached at jimd@glasshouse.com