Phase 3 – Final report. The HiReturn team provides a business Financial Impact
Report that summarizes the ROI findings of the assessment and outlines the
suggested strategy, along with other key recommendations.
The On-site Assessment Produces the Needed Facts to Build a Business
Case
The HiReturn analysis is conducted at the customer’s site. Hitachi Data Systems
consultants spend time prior to the assessment gathering data and facilitating cost and
technology workshops to capture and model the customer’s current and future IT
environment. The following elements need to be defined for use in the ROI determination
process:
• Cost of fully burdened labor rates for storage administrators
• Depreciation rate, Internal Rate of Return and/or lease terms
• Cost of data center space ($/sq. ft or m
2
)
• Corporate tax rate (marginal tax rate)
• Current data center floor space with current storage systems and equipment
• Cost of power ($/kWh)
• Power and BTU ratings of current storage systems
• Estimates of $/GB and annual storage erosion rate
• Number and average cost of servers (typically Microsoft
®
Windows NT
®
servers)
used exclusively for storage access (NFS, CIFS mounted servers)
• Hourly cost of scheduled and unscheduled downtime (opportunity cost/loss)
• Current hardware maintenance costs for storage networks and elements
• Current software maintenance/license costs for storage networks and elements
Results and Reports Quantify Both IT Benefits and Business Benefits
As a result of the on site meetings and data collection, the HiReturn team produces a
Financial Impact Report that summarizes ROI assessment findings. Overall client
assumptions, ROI tool output, and business and technical conclusions are provided. The
report may also introduce alternative technology and solutions that are likely to produce a
superior ROI result and meet enterprise business requirements. The ROI impact is defined
in hard- and soft-dollar savings that can be used by you to rationalize and justify future
capital expenditures.
Hitachi Data Systems
50
To arrange a no-cost
HiReturn analysis,
please contact your
Hitachi Data Systems
representative.