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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

What Are Storage Communities?


Storage Communities
A storage community helps users connect with experts in systems and servers, storage technology experts, and people with experience and in-depth knowledge of technology in various aspects of storage technology.
Why They Are Needed
The field of data storage is wide and involves a lot of different technologies and solutions provided by different companies.
The IT strategy of a business might involve varied technologies from different vendors. Integrating solutions from different sources is a difficult process. Most vendors provide expert help to the customers when they buy their products. But, ongoing maintenance and upgrades might require the IT staff of the business to look for expert help from various sources.
This is where online technology communities can help. Most technology companies run their own community portal with several different communities focusing on their different products and solutions.
Generic And Specific Storage Communities
Storage communities focus on topics related to data storage. This is not limited to just storage media, but other components of a storage system like servers, virtualization, and networking.
When the user is looking for help on a general topic, like what kind of storage strategies they should invest in, they can log on to generic storage communities on the web. When help regarding specific products and solutions are needed, it is better to go straight to the company website and look for its community portal.
Identifying the Niche On Which Help Is Needed
Most vendors like IBM, Dell, HP, Oracle, Sun, and Microsoft have software communities that connect users, experts, clients, and business partners.
Identifying the particular niche on which help is needed can help the user find a relevant expert who is highly knowledgeable. Through the community, the user can then ask for help on the particular problem they are facing.
The community may also provide information about other ways to contact the expert, like their LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter pages, their blogs and so on. In this way, storage communities can help IT departments tap into expert knowledge.
Some Of The Storage-Related Topics
The storage communities will have experts on the many subsets of products and solutions on the relevant topic of interest. For instance, if the user is looking for help related to systems and servers, he might be looking for help on specific products from the vendor, or help on a more abstract level, like how to get maximum system performance from the vendor's products.
A user may look for help on specific aspects of storage, such as data storage management and disaster recovery strategies. Help may be required on specific storage products or on particular storage strategies like Storage Area Networks.
A storage community can serve customers and clients of specific vendors by connecting them with field experts. But, this can work both ways too. The feedback from clients and users can help drive the future products and product strategies of the vendor.
Thus, a storage community provides a way for technology users and experts to interact and share their thoughts and opinions.
Get more information on: Storage Community
For more information visit: Mainframe Computing


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7132551

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