IT budgets are always tight in , and when it comes to storage, many simply bolt on additional boxes to accommodate growth and data retention regulations without considering the added complexity and long-term costs.

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In fact, most SMBs do not have a comprehensive , but there are a few simple ways SMB IT teams can to maximize their investments. To start, companies need to determine the expected size of their data set. To make that assessment, SMBs should determine:

" The size of the company or the number of employees " The size of the company's data (gigabytes or terabytes?) " Data access frequency " Time-to-data requirements " Long-term retention requirements " And whether or not data needs to be transported from one location to another

Second, companies should determine how the infrastructure will be managed and the comfort level with relying on an external resource as a trusted adviser. SMBs often turn to external consultants and value-added resellers (VARs) as their IT specialists, where bigger businesses can afford dedicated, in-house IT staff. VARs can offer SMBs the latest insight on new technologies, manage vendor relationships and make recommendations on buying decisions. Whereas, in-house specialists know the company's needs and business, are able to make adjustments quickly and maintain control of the infrastructure.