Every business runs on data, and with data capacities increasing year after year, it gets even harder to manage. The good news is that there are tools available to improve data storage management that organise the data and increase the capacity.
Some of the biggest issues businesses come across with data storage is the cost, infrastructure, scalability, security, and accessibility, all of which can be solved with a type of management system like storage arrays, cloud storage, and storage tiering.
What Is Storage Management?
Storage management is the process that stores data in an organised way, so it’s easier to find and safely secure through software and techniques. One of the main goals is to improve existing resource performance by compressing the data, which reduces the space and improves the file transfer speed.
A Few Ways To Improve Storage Management
1: Multiprotocol storage arrays
A multiprotocol storage system supports SAN (storage-area network) blocks and NAS (network-attached storage) files without the need for routers, gateways, and bridges. It is an effective storage option that incorporates both storage types, effectively cutting costs due to easier management of block and file.
2: Storage tiering
The concept for tiered storage is quite simple and very effective. It operates with different tiers of storing files, for example, frequently accessed data being the most important is stored on the fastest SSDs, and the least important data is stored on less expensive and slower storage disks.
With a tiering system, administrators are able to place data into classes of importance, making it easier to find and access data when they want it.
3: Storage arrays
Storage Arrays use a collection of HDDs and SSDs to store data separate from the server to scale more efficiently, and because it has multiple drives managed by a central system, it can store huge amounts of data.
HDDs (hard disk drives) are the most commonly used in businesses for storage purposes and come with a nifty feature called RAID (redundant arrays of independent disks). RAID makes copies of data across many hard disks so that the data is always available if one of the disks fails.
SSD (solid-state drives) storage arrays are built for performance and speed compared to disk-based storage systems. They have an enormous storage capacity allowing businesses to store lots of data.
4: Hybrid cloud storage
Data that is stored in the cloud is a practical way of storing large amounts of data without any management involved. A host of major companies like Netflix and Airbnb already use the hybrid cloud to store their data due to its pay-per-use and on-demand features.
The cloud offers private and public servers to store data for flexibility, cost efficiency, and maximum security. For companies that want an unlimited amount of data storage, the cloud is one of the best options available and considering major companies use the cloud to better manage data, it has to be good!
5: Object storage
Object storage is a new array type of storing data, and its strategy is to manipulate and manage data, then designate it as an object rather than a file or block. These stored objects get a customer identifier with all the relevant metadata making managing the data much easier.
Choosing an object-based storage system comes with many benefits such as greater analysis of data, an infinite amount of storage, faster data retrieval, reduced costs for storing your data, and better optimisation because the metadata is customizable, meaning there are fewer complications and limits.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.