I think this article clearly shows the concerns that RIMs have to have
about the concept of IT taking full control of the "Storage Management
Function" (as they refer to it).  If you look at the snipped portions of
the article below (and I encourage all of you to read the ENTIRE ARTICLE)
it highlights the concerns related to IT not realizing the need to include
the RIMs and especially consult the retention schedule in the process, as
they are still minimizing the effort to simply "backups" when it comes to
actually managing the content generated by the electronic information
management systems

Larry

(BTW, you need to subscribe, or go to the RM Off Topic Yahoo Group for a
captured web page)

Who's running the storage shop?
<http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/strgFeature/1,291266,sid35_gci963743,00.html>http://storageMagazine.techtarget.com/strgFeature/1,291266,sid35_gci963743,00.<http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/strgFeature/1,291266,sid35_gci963743,00.html>html
by:
<http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/strgByAuthor/0,291268,sid35_cid586570,00.html>Rich
<http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/strgByAuthor/0,291268,sid35_cid586570,00.html>Castagna
Issue:
<http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/strgCurrentIssue/0,291265,sid35_iss963740,00.html>May
2004

***SNIPPED CONTENT FROM THE ARTICLE...****



"Absolutely," says Angelo Privetera, when asked if his storage management
group has helped save his company money. "We're able to bill it back, and
reduce the cost by not adding additional staff," explains Privetera, vice
president and director of information and technologies for HDR Inc., an
architectural and engineering consulting firm based in Omaha, NE.

Companies like HDR that have established a formal storage management
structure with specific responsibilities have reaped rewards. Centralizing
storage management helps eliminate redundancies, allows for consistent
maintenance and monitoring of storage and applies the talents of personnel
more efficiently--all of which contribute to the company's bottom line.

Before creating a formal storage management function, a number of questions
need answers:

How many storage specialists are needed?
What are the job responsibilities and required skills?
Should the storage personnel comprise a new, separate entity, or remain in
their current positions with newly defined responsibilities?
How will the storage personnel interact with others such as DBAs and system
and network admins?

Working with others
Routinely, storage groups need to work with other IT disciplines, including
network, systems and database management groups. The storage team's
responsibilities inevitably overlap with other groups, with the potential
for turf battles and contention to develop. Two of the most widely related
examples are configuring HBAs and allocating LUNs and disk volumes for
databases. These activities cross disciplinary boundaries, blurring the
jurisdictional lines between server and storage or database and storage
groups. While some head-butting is inevitable, anticipating these conflicts
and planning for them can minimize disruptions.

These issues can be addressed by incorporating the related disciplines in
the storage group, but for most companies that's probably not a practical
option. However, setting up a combination of formal and informal procedures
is a practical and effective measure that can help defuse conflicts. Bruce
Hall assembled a cross-discipline team of more than 40 staff members when
his company was planning its storage network. As a result, the storage
group now enjoys an effective level of cooperation with other IT factions,
and can amicably negotiate specific responsibilities when a project crosses
functional lines.

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