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Cost-Efficient Storage Optimization
Storage optimization may be defined as the process of moving data to the most efficient and cost-effective storage system for that data. Here are a few quick steps to cost effectively identify, manage, and protect your most important data.
Step 1: Identify
You can’t protect what you can’t see or identify, yet too many organizations are struggling to do precisely that with their most valuable data. Unstructured data (such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel or PDF files) accounts for an estimated 80 percent of the data that organizations retain in their storage systems. Unfortunately, it is also intermixed throughout those storage systems with structured data (databases, spreadsheets, etc.), resulting in a complex entanglement of data that is expensive to protect and nearly impossible to manage.
Nexsan Secure Data Discovery Tool is an interactive software tool that enables organizations to quickly identify their most valuable data and determine the most efficient way to store and protect it. By utilizing this free tool, organizations can begin to assess the volume and value of their file data based on the ages and types of files being stored. Once it has identified its valuable data, an organization’s next step is to understand its key storage trends.
Step 2: Understand Data Growth and Trends
Organizations must periodically run analysis reports to reveal data trends that can impact the answers to these fundamental questions:
In addition to enabling identification of valuable data, Secure Data Discovery analysis reports also help organizations see the sheer quantity of such data they are currently storing—and how quickly it is growing. Armed with this information, organizations are far better equipped to understand what data (and how much of it) can be migrated from their costly primary storage onto a secure active data vault storage platform.
Step 3: Offload Data
Data must be able to be easily and transparently migrated onto a cost-effective archive storage system without any disruption to ongoing operations. Nexsan Assureon™ solutions not only free up space on primary storage for use by more frequently accessed data, they also automatically protect data from the moment it is migrated onto the active data vault.
Assureon-protected data does not need to be repeatedly backed up during weekly full or daily incremental backups, dramatically reducing the size, time and cost of the backup process. Assureon combines superior data protection with instant, active access to files by transparently migrating data off the expensive primary storage with no need for custom APIs or changes to existing applications. The files are replaced with shortcuts on the primary storage saving 85% to 96% of the space of the file that’s been moved. Now that space can be utilized for active files without the need for expensive tier-1 expansions.
Step 4: Unlock Full ROI Potential
The value proposition of storage optimization is clear; reduce storage costs by moving less-frequently accessed data from expensive primary storage onto a more cost-effective
active data vault. Assureon takes the benefits of storage optimization to a significantly higher level by not only freeing up primary storage, but also protecting that data to the highest levels of the regulatory standards. Assureon also delivers significant IT savings by eliminating the need for data to undergo onsite and offsite (DR) backups, encryption, deduplication, snapshots, etc.
The net result is that Assureon’s unique architecture and technology combine to deliver superior data protection while enabling dramatic improvements in storage efficiency and ROI.
