System and method for identifying underutilized storage capacity

Abstract

Described herein is a system and method for detecting underutilized capacity within a storage system environment. The technique comprises collecting performance data of various storage objects within a storage system environment for various performance measures at designated time intervals. The collected performance data may be formatted and stored to a database. One or more parameters may be received specifying at least one performance measure, at least one threshold value, and/or at least one time period. The performance data for target storage objects may be analyzed according to the received parameters to determine any underutilized storage objects. A report may be generated according to the parameters listing the storage objects and address locations of any underutilized storage objects. The report may comprise various information corresponding to the underutilized storage object, such as the business units, tiers, data centers, and levels of service they are associated with.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for identifying underutilized storage objects of a storage system, the method comprising:
 providing an analysis engine for performing:
 collecting performance data for first and second performance measures for each storage object, the performance data comprising a plurality of values for the first and second performance measures; 
 receiving parameters comprising a time period, a first weight for the first performance measure, a second weight for the second performance measure, and a threshold value; 
 for each storage object, using the performance data to produce a first standardized value for the first performance measure by determining a first representative value for the first performance measure during the time period and normalizing the first representative value; 
 for each storage object, using the performance data to produce a second standardized value for the second performance measure by determining a second representative value for the second performance measure during the time period and normalizing second the representative value; 
 for each storage object, determining an overall standardized value based on the first weight, first standardized value, second weight, and second standardized value; and 
 for each storage object, determining whether the storage object is underutilized based on the overall standardized value and the threshold value.