Given the ever-increasing demand for storage in an increasingly connected business environment, it is imperative that memory and storage technology increase to meet the demand. New generations of storage methods and devices have been recently introduced that can help control IT’s rising footprint and costs. Methods such as data consolidation and virtualization have stopped the over-provisioning of resources to applications, and object-based storage devices (OSDs) have allowed the enterprise to manage data more efficiently.
The key to any successful storage resource management initiative is data tiering. Data tiering prioritizes and classifies information based on type of information and how often it needs to be accessed. While it continues to evolve, most enterprises choose three tiers: high-performance servers for things such as transaction data; midtier arrays for everyday files; and tape and optical media for archival data. Each of these areas has seen changes that can help the enterprise.
High-performance storage has usually relied on hard-disk technology. But hard disks are still not completely reliable; to improve speed, some disk drives were purposely not used to full capacity. Solid state disk (SSD) storage memory (usually in the form of Flash storage) increases speed and reliability. Initial cost of SSD is higher, but because of its speed, savings are said to accrue over the long run. Another new technology still in the concept stage is in-memory computing, which offers the potential of instant access to data, particularly transaction data. Such instant access promises great leaps for business intelligence (BI) initiatives and the elimination of traditional databases.
Everyday storage of files continues to pose a major problem for the enterprise. Applications need access to appropriate storage to function, but dedicated storage for applications leaves underutilized resources. Virtualizing storage allows for applications to share resources and for storage managers to add storage capacity when they're running low. Whether this storage is in the cloud or in-house, one of the most difficult parts of this process is identifying data and prioritizing it. For its part, OSD relies on metadata to help with this process. OSD can tag data for deletion, eliminate data duplication and identify which data is crucial to archive.
And it is in the archiving of data where some of the more challenging data storage decisions have to be made. Choosing the cheapest but most reliable storage method can be difficult. Despite many predictions of its demise, tape backup is still alive in the data center. Tape is reliable, cheap and can hold data longer than many other choices. Optical disks such as CD and DVD degrade faster than tape and suffer from irregular manufacturing. And new tape choices, such as LTO, can hold massive amounts of data reliably for up to 30 years. On the optical front, Blu-ray technology eliminates much of the degradation of other optical formats while providing more capacity than the older media. Regardless of your choice, higher capacity and greater reliability will help with costs and compliance issues.
Taken together, these tools represent major steps forward in storage options. Deploying them as part of a well-considered storage strategy will save space, energy, management time and money all while giving you quicker access to your data.
For further reading see:
Tiered Storage Continues to Evolve
SSD in the Enterprise: The New Face of Storage
Tape Backup: Not Dead Yet!
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