Data Storage Growth

Managing storage means more than just having disk storage. Backup technologies and servers are an important part of any storage infrastructure. Network storage has an important role to play in business continuity. Consolidated storage is easier to replicate to backup sites than a myriad of hard drives on small servers and PCs. Technologies like iSCSI and FCIP can help connect data centres, and allow remote offices to access the same data sources as the rest of the business. The resulting distributed infrastructure should make it easier to unlock the information inside an organisation.

Implementing network storage infrastructures isn't something to do overnight. The goal is to develop a strategy and storage architecture that allows you to manage storage growth and maintain consistent performance despite cyclic user demand. At the same time, enterprises must reduce the complexity and cost of storage management, which is now often many times the purchase price of storage itself, in order to stay competitive.

So what does the future offer? One obvious trend is the merging of DAS, SAN and NAS technologies into iSCSI. Already vendors such as Cisco are producing switches with multiple connectivity ports that allow connection from for example a SAN - iSCSI, while others are selling Storage Virtualisation Systems that acts as a gateway between existing SAN systems and the wider Internet Protocol world.

Open, interoperable network storage can be a key tool to help build a resilient, agile IT infrastructure for businesses of all sizes, from the smallest SME to the largest Fortune 100 enterprises.

In any company or organisation one problematic area is that of backup. You have a large number of file/print and application servers that need to be backed up against failure through disk crash, accidental erasure, server crash, acts of terrorism, malicious acts, virus attacks, mother nature, power spikes etc. In any company these servers are constantly being filled with bits n bytes in essence information, information key to the smooth running of the business.

The backing up of these systems has evolved from a simple method of inserting a tape into a direct attached tape drive to the server, through to centralised robotic tape libraries that backup across networks, to today where many companies are carrying out Disk – Disk – Tape backups. The reason that Disk – Disk backups came about is performance and a limited backup window. So now the Disk – Tape part can take place during the day! These systems are expensive to install and maintain and do not scale easily. The backup software licenses for these devices are also very expensive.

The old adage of disk is cheap is true when purchasing, but it does not represent the true cost of buying more disk space.

RAID arrays are normally fitted in a 19” rack, have 16 disk drives, 3u in size and consume 15.6Kw per day in energy. In addition to this you also need air conditioning to keep the whole RAID operating.

RAID arrays provide a level of redundancy and increased performance over individual disk drives; they also provide operating systems with an enormous amount of disk space for data storage. Most RAID arrays today are still directly attached or built-in to the server. When these RAID arrays require more disk storage, they are backed up, taken offline, the new disks are added and the RAID is re-striped. This requires a lot of resources to carry out and ensure the process is completed correctly.

Optical disks hold a small amount of information, compared to an LTO-3 tape (Sony PDD2 50GB vs 400GB LTO-3). Some major advantages of optical media is it has a lifetime of 50-100 years, its access time is comparable to that of a hard disk and if you need to keep legal documents on a permanently written media, Optical WORM (Write Once Read Many) is the ideal medium.

A scanned document A4 Black/White scan takes up approximately 100k of space. Therefore a small 2TB optical jukebox would hold 20 million scanned documents.