The days of offices full of filing cabinets
taking up space are quickly being replaced by today’s paperless offices.
While this may save companies money on
rent, it creates new expenses and plenty of
storage challenges.
The most common challenge that business owners face is the explosive growth
of storage needs. E-mail and electronic
documents are replacing traditional paper
documents. This requires companies to
store, backup and archive “e-docs.”
It also requires companies to protect the
information. When electronic documents
travel outside your building on laptops or
USB keys, they must be encrypted for protection, says Martin Sizemore, chief technology officer for Premier Technologies.
Smart Business spoke with Sizemore
about changes in data storage and how
companies can store data concisely and
reduce storage costs.
How has data storage changed?
There have been a few major changes in
virtualization, security, improvements in
backup/recovery and dramatic drops in
cost.
Virtualization of storage simplifies applications that rapidly use storage like e-mail,
document archiving or media applications.
It solves the dilemma of small chunks of
wasted storage that are hard to reuse due
to outdated storage management software.
Security is a top issue. Storage vendors
are beefing up protection mechanisms and
including security software with new storage systems. The big improvement in backup and recovery software is encrypting
backup tapes prior to off-site storage.
Costs for storage are falling as new software applications are demanding growth.
This shift in storage to commodity prices is
good news for small to medium businesses
that want to scan, organize and store all
business documents in electronic format.
How can companies reduce the cost of data
storage and reduce complexity?
Companies can reduce the cost of data
storage by developing a strategy designed to address its overall IT architecture, with
a special focus on identifying key corporate information, the value of that information to the business, the cost of protecting
and restoring that information and, finally,
retention policies for that information.
Ironically, many companies retain years of
customer orders but allow the immediate
destruction of e-mail messages that may be
more important for legal defense or meeting regulatory requirements.
Backup systems and recovery processes
are key to reducing data storage complexity. To make these things successful, companies must test them frequently. An excellent backup and recovery process includes
multiple copies of the backup tapes.
How can companies consolidate stored data?
There is physical consolidation or logical
consolidation. In physical consolidation,
multiple disk drives are combined into a
storage area network, or SAN. This approach simplifies backup and recovery and
solves the age-old problem of reallocating
files when they become too large for one
disk drive. The SAN software simplifies
management of the storage volumes.
Logical consolidation is a good choice for
companies that already own storage systems that are from multiple hardware vendors or its servers have storage that is
underutilized. Logical consolidation creates a ‘virtual’ storage area network using
either storage management software or a
special storage management device. Logical consolidation helps companies avoid
the rip-and-replace approach and allows an
easier transition to physical storage consolidation in the future.
Why is it important for companies to keep up
with changes?
Customers are buying network storage
across multiple tiers in order to cost-effectively manage huge data volumes and satisfy
long-term data retention and regulatory
compliance requirements. Rapidly changing
laws require that companies pay attention
and make appropriate changes to protect
consumer data. These laws require the disclosure of data loss, new procedures for
archiving e-mails, abiding by SOX or HIPAA
guidelines, and business continuity planning.
Storage was once viewed as merely a part
of the computer; today it is a valuable asset
of the business that often contains intellectual property worth guarding.
What regulations govern the different types
of data storage?
Consumer privacy protection laws are
causing Congress to change data storage
laws rapidly. In public companies, owners
should seek assistance on Sarbanes-Oxley
compliance for data storage and auditing. In
health care, special regulations on data storage, movement and auditing protect the privacy of patients. In small to medium businesses, owners should seek assistance from
their certified accounting professionals.
Reliability is key when dealing with large
amounts of data storage because restoration times can turn into days, not hours.
Clearly understanding the cost of unplanned downtime can offset the desire to
add storage without the adequate ability to
restore it in the event of a loss.
MARTIN SIZEMORE is the chief technology officer for Premier
Technologies. Reach him at [email protected].