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IT RESELLER - March 2002
Avoiding Unmanaged Data Overload
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Volumes of data are expanding, expanding exponentially. The race to keep up with data growth has spawned vast arrays of high capacity storage devices, the addition of each device increasing the burden on the administrator. Where will it end? It may never end. Data is the lifeblood of companies in these high tech times, it must be made accessible to anybody anywhere in the world every minute of every day. Without access, businesses will collapse. Overloading the businesses with unmanaged data will also bring about collapse.
Maybe it’s time to take a step back. Ask the question, what are the requirements for this ‘Lifeblood’? How much of this ‘Lifeblood’ is actually used on a regular basis? Are we trying to achieve millisecond access to massive amounts of data that may only be accessed once in every 5 years? Is this a wise use of costly resources? Are there better ways of handling this data?
Every time new higher capacity storage devices are added to the system, so the back-up times increase. At what point do we stop taking back-ups just because there are not enough hours in the day to do them? Is this risk acceptable or does it leave the business exposed? Would the business survive in the event of loss of data?
The time has come to be a little more creative. Assess the real needs of the company. Determine the legal and regulatory requirements of the storage of the data along with users needs for access to it. What is the nature of the data? Is it static? Does it change? Give thought to that data that must be kept but is rarely needed, can it be separated from data that is accessed regularly? Give thought to implementing multiple parallel storage strategies for data with differing requirements.
With storage, questions must be asked before solutions can be proposed. The panacea that is Storage Area Networks does not solve all problems. It can actually make the problem worse by delaying the inevitable when little thought has been given to the overall long-term strategy.
A little lateral thinking must be employed. Why backup on a regular basis data that is static? Why use RAID to guarantee resilience when it can’t? Why trust in tape? On-Line archival is a way to avoid many of the pitfalls that lie in wait for those securing their data for the long-term. On-line archival provides secure long-term accessible storage that sits outside of the normal backup regimes. It allows for growth in data without any associated growth in administrational overhead. It meets regulatory requirements for those wishing to secure data for decades. It’s more Storage Management than just data storage. It frees up existing storage media for re-use, how environmentally friendly is that? More to the point mention to the FD the cost savings. Return On Investment is a much used term when justifying new equipment, on-line archiving can pay for itself in months, and return savings over many years.
The technology behind on-line archiving has been around for decades. It has proven itself across a wide breadth of industries, with both vertical and horizontal markets endorsing its use. Optical disks have a proven track record. When installed and managed correctly they are a trouble free solution to many companies needs. Optical technology has a proven compatibility migration path, demonstrated over many years and many generations of product. Newer optical technologies are now being deployed with ever-higher capacities and ever lower cost ratios. DVD-RAM is providing Terabytes of secure storage at very reasonable costs, whilst Magneto Optical is providing the performance many demand. Next generation optical, UDO, is now a reality and is set to take capacities to the next level. Embrace the solution.
The technology is available to cure so many of the storage headaches. Maybe now the time is right to stop throwing magnetic disks at a problem, step back, consider what the real needs of the business are, remove the blinkers and see what alternatives exist that can actually help. Determine what data is most appropriate for archival, size the solution to last for the foreseeable future and go for it. When properly integrated with the correct software, optical jukebox storage provides resilience, data security, data accessibility and full and fast disaster recovery. Don’t fight change, deploy it and benefit from it.
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