We feel your pain. Even today's networked and cloud storage options can't always keep up with the data explosion. But to the folks who aren't responsible for providing storage, the supply seems almost infinite.
"To solve the problem, you need to look at the groups that are producing the data," says Jim Damoulakis, CTO of Glasshouse Technologies, an IT infrastructure services provider. "DBAs are some of the biggest examples. They are extremely risk averse, tend to save everything, and want to have total control over all of it. But having to save everything forever can bring your backup systems to a screeching halt. You need to incent them to be more efficient."
In other words, once a department has to foot the bill for its insatiable storage habit, it may begin to appreciate the wisdom of efficiency. The problem is that most people hate chargebacks with a passion, says Damoulakis. The alternative is to set up a system that reports which users are consuming what resources, so when the CFO comes around to beat on the storage people for spending too much money they can say, "Talk to these guys."
Interestingly, says Damoulakis, a lot of this is already happening because of the cloud. Departments that bypass IT to order services directly from a third-party cloud vendor are finding that they're charged on a consumption basis, whether they like it or not.
"In a funny way the cloud is moving this to the forefront," he says. "It's a backdoor into a chargeback mechanism. Organizations that are adopting private clouds are also finding they can use that to make DBAs and other groups accountable for their own IT spend."
Dysfunctional IT relationship No. 2: Senior developers vs. junior developersI'm a new software developer for a large company that desperately wants to be on the cutting edge. I'm trying to help them do that, but I keep getting stymied by the graybeards. The senior developers are always reviewing my code, and it takes forever to get approval for even a simple change. They're slowing down the company and, frankly, hurting my career. How do I tell these old dudes to back off without getting fired? Young & Restless
Old people -- when will they ever learn?
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