Storage Insights

What if I only have a single storage unit? Do I just ignore Storage Insights and continue to log in directly to the Storwize GUI? Surely this product is not meant for the smaller deployments of IBM Storwize? Well I think I have a couple of reasons that may help you decide otherwise.

Faster time to problem resolution. Call home, the data collector and proactive support means problems are automatically logged to IBM Support. In addition, if you are unlucky to experience a problem, you can get help through opening tickets and automatically adding log data, updating existing tickets, viewing open tickets and viewing ticket history. Also, IBM Support has access to diagnostic information about any monitored system with a full 12-month view of some of the metrics to help resolve problems.

As this is delivered through Software as a Service you only need browser access to view your Storage. What if you are offsite without your VPN connectivity and a problem is escalated to you? You can quickly navigate to SI through your phone and get an overview of system health. There are limitations with this of course, no right click on your phone means there are a few actions you cannot perform, but I would still think this access is more of a help than a hinderance.

Last of all it’s free/included with Storwize. Yes, that’s correct. At the base level SI is delivered free so why not use it?

So that just scratches the surface of what SI can deliver. I think the main point I wanted to get across is that you shouldn’t be dismissing this as a product only for larger deployments of multiple storage devices. Yes, it’s great in that scenario but it still provides all the same benefits if you have a single Storwize unit.