Disk tiering

The disk tiering module identifies disks that are configured on higher-performance tiers even though their workloads do not consume the level of IOPS or throughput available at that tier. These disks continue to incur premium costs without delivering proportional value.

Problems addressed:

Lumen’s disk tiering solves critical enterprise pain points:

• 50% of enterprise disks run on inappropriate tiers

• 25% of disk tiering spend is pure waste due to inefficient tier selection

• Downtime costs an average of $9,000 per minute — making traditional tier conversion methods requiring VM reboots unacceptable for mission-critical operations

How does it work:

For each attached disk, the platform continuously evaluates:

• Provisioned IOPS compared to observed IOPS consumption

• Provisioned throughput compared to observed throughput consumption

• Peak versus steady-state performance behavior

This analysis is performed over a course of 30, 60 and 90 days to account for real-world workload behavior, ensuring that occasional spikes or short-lived events do not trigger inappropriate recommendations.

Below is an example showcasing how Lumen provides ideal recommendations to move disks to the right tier without impacting performance

Key capabilities:

• Unified dashboard: Aggregates critical storage metrics across multiple cloud provider portals

• Disk tier recommendations: Identification of the right tier for over-tiered disks along with simulation of performance on new tier with historical workload

• Zero-downtime conversions: Convert between disk tiers without VM reboots, minimum performance impact and minimum risk