Close this panel
Computacenter's end-to-end services and solutions and current promotions.
Continue reading
All the latest news, updates and financial results from Computacenter.
Continue reading
The latest IT industry news, stories and media comment.
Continue reading
Customer case studies and articles: Computacenter solving customer challenges.
Continue reading
Vision NHS issue 04 Survive the data deluge
Survive the data deluge
Computacenter's Matthew Yeager explains how organisations can cut storage costs and complexity with an optimised environment
For something so intangible, digital data consumes a massive amount of space, time and power - all factors that hurt a company's balance sheet.
With the global volume of data set to top one zettabyte (ZB) - the equivalent of a million million gigabytes - by the end of 2010, the consumption of these resources is only going to intensify in the future. Whilst industry experts predict that by 2020 the world will contain a staggering 35ZB of data, it is only when this is put into context - it would take a datacenter one fifth of the size of Manhattan to hold just one ZB - that the problem can be truly understood.
To cope with this challenge, we need to get smarter about how we manage and store information throughout its lifecycle.
Silo versus service
Like many IT infrastructure components, storage has traditionally been managed as a silo with different datasets being allocated different blocks of capacity. As a result, storage utilisation rates are often as low as 30 per cent.
To tap into this redundant resource, organisations need to radically rethink their approach to storage. Instead of focusing on the individual devices needed to house this increasing demand on the datacenter, IT departments need to adopt a service-based approach to storage. Let me explain. Along with processing power and connectivity, storage is one of the IT fundamentals for every organisation. Rather than provisioning and managing storage as a single entity, organisations need to look at how they can provide a service that integrates all these fundamental elements for the business.
Technology fact file
Data deduplication:
With duplicate files accounting for as much as 40 per cent of stored and backed up data, adopting this approach will prevent multiple versions of the same information from taking up valuable storage capacity.
Data compression:
This approach minimises primary storage requirements by compressing information at the block level in real time.
Grid storage:
By introducing a scalable grid-based storage architecture based upon common components, organisations can dramatically increase asset utilisation and support growth through a multi-tenant storage infrastructure
Thin provisioning:
By provisioning data storage to production systems at the block level on an on-demand basis, thin provisioning increases utilisation rates and lowers capital expenditure.
Zero page reclaim:
Optimises data storage utilisation by returning idle capacity to a universal pool for reuse. Using this approach, organisations can free up as much of 70 per cent of their storage resources.
Virtual and scalable storage
Holistic solutions, such as Virtual Datacenters (VDCs), are helping to facilitate this unified approach by providing organisations with 'pre-packaged' virtual servers, network and storage as well as management software in an optimised 'container'.
In addition to being highly scalable, VDC solutions will invariably include a range of storage optimisation technologies that will help increase utilisation rates to more cost-effective levels.
These technologies also help address the root cause of the problem - the growing volume of data that needs to be stored. For example, data deduplication solutions identify multiple copies of the same files and leave a marker rather than storing duplicate versions of the same data while still providing seamless user access.
With some organisations seeing compound annual growth rates of 100 per cent for data storage, every terabyte that can be saved will help prevent mounting costs and complexity.
Greater capacity at a lower cost
Data deduplication is just one of the optimisation strategies that enables organisations to claw back precious storage capacity; thin provisioning, data compression, grid storage and zero page reclaim can all increase utilisation and decrease costs (see technology fact file).
Leveraged as part of a VDC initiative, these technologies can reduce capital and operational expenditure across the IT infrastructure by as much as 50 per cent.
Although cost is a major driver for both standalone storage optimisation efforts and VDC adoption, both these approaches deliver a number of other business benefits.
Business agility, regulatory compliance and sustainability can all be enhanced by adopting an intelligent and service-based approach to data storage. Realising these benefits, however, is no easy feat, and will require extensive knowledge of not only storage optimisation technologies but also end-to-end virtualisation and IT infrastructure expertise.
No organisation will be able to halt the data tidal wave, so taking the appropriate survival measures is essential. Proactively optimising your infrastructure will provide a long-term life raft that will not only increase storage capacity but also reduce costs for years to come.
* Matthew Yeager is Computacenter's Practice Leader for Data Storage and Protection.
Find out more
Storage Solutions: Find out about Computacenter's Storage Assessment
Find out more
Datacenter Current State Assessment 
Visiontech
Read our new technology website Visiontech
, providing a clear insight into the best of breed technologies to support your business issues.
Highlights:
Matthew Yeager discusses global data growth and storage on the BBC's The World Today
Empowering the Business with Agile IT