Businesses generate an enormous amount of data. As a result, it is crucial to identify the best data storage options for your organization.
This is especially the case in the travel industry, where the volume of data has increased exponentially over the last decade. As such, the right storage options are crucial to sustainable growth.
However, difficult questions arise when it comes to capacity. Companies need to avoid acquiring too much storage space, yet ensure that their selected system is as future-proof as possible. Here, we discuss how to assess the data storage needs of your organization.
Unpacking storage options
Theoretically, storage infrastructure management is simple. IT professionals use a combination of tools and protocols to ensure the timely delivery of data to end users, applications, servers and other IT systems. Experts construct these apparatus in accordance with an organization’s objectives and policies, and government legislation.
Even though it might seem straightforward, it’s essential that IT professionals keep these 3 points in mind:
Capacity
Simply put, an organization's storage systems must have the space to accommodate the amount of data generated. One obvious motive is to avoid running out of disk space. Despite this, frugal IT professionals are also keen to avoid the over-provision of data storage. Not only does excess storage require a larger investment upfront, but also requires costly maintenance.
Availability
Trapped data are no good to anyone. After all, information is only valuable if it is accessible. Large organizations require reliable and resilient storage architecture to ensure that data are available when they are needed. This is the major reason why enterprise–scale storage systems have premium price tags.
Performance
System speed is another important factor. Although single users can tolterature a delay of second or two while they obtain a file from shared storage, high-volume transaction systems usually cannot afford to be kept waiting.
Why is everyone so clueless about large-scale data storage?
Alex Wallner, senior Vice President and General Manager EMEA at NetApp, recently said that most of their clients have no idea what their storage requirements will be in 3 years’ time. But this is fair enough – as physicist Niels Bohr once remarked, “prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”
Now, almost every business event generates data, both internally and externally. For instance, as online sales supersede physical transactions, more and more data generates. To give a further example, automation – whether it replaces human employees or augments them – produces vast swathes of data.
Processes must be analyzed, performance tracked, and every detail monitored to ensure automation improves efficiency. Then consider IoT sensor data: even modest IoT networks are capable of generating high volumes of bits.
Consequently, businesses must store all of this data. To make matters even more complex, storage costs are not immutable. Furthermore, storage systems are not getting larger or cheaper at the rate technology is advancing.
No one can predict the future – but you can develop a strategy
For most organizations, the future of their data is ultimately undefined. How their data grows will depend on many external, uncontrolled factors, which are often impossible for the IT team to predict. However, with enough analysis, planning and investment, companies can create scalable data storage solutions that grow with the business.
