|
Secondary Storage
Secondary Storage gains acceptance
While tape remains the most popular mechanism for secondary
storage, virtual tape libraries are also in demand. By Faiz Askari
 There
are organisations from the small businesses community who have moved beyond
the horizon of primary storage. Some small organisations are looking ahead to
implement storage solutions which allow them meet international standards.
In today’s scenario, data is becoming a key corporate asset in all types
of businesses. The ability to access data quickly and reliably is critical to
a business’ success. For any business, be it small or big, that utilises
a high-performance network server or individual workstations, archiving and
retrieving data in a dependable and consistent manner is mission critical.
The market for secondary storage is growing at a rapid pace. More businesses
are adopting backup to disc as an intermediate stage in their secondary storage
setup. Talking about the status of adoption of secondary storage amongst small
businesses there are two types of secondary storage applications that are getting
adopted by this segment of industry.
56 percent of small organisations use tape as their secondary storage infrastructure.
However, 30 percent of small organisations have invested in virtual tape libraries.
Emphasising the growing demand for secondary storage in the small businesses
segment, Sharad Srivastav, chairman of SNIA says, “This improves the backup
window for them and reduces recovery time. Tape is still being used as a tier
three storage device for offsite storage. In all, backup to disc to tape has
emerged as one of the major trends in 2006.”
The key drivers for secondary storage or for that matter the major reasons why
small enterprises are investing in it are:
- Disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness
(DR and BCP)
- To improve the performance of the backup and restore
process
- The cost of discs have come down in the recent past
(doing backup on cheaper discs gives better price-performance)
- Protection of key assets and avoiding risks
| Many factors are contributing to the rapid surge
in consumption of backup solutions in the SMB sector.
The principal ones are
- Rising perceived value of information
- Consequent need for data protection
- The need for scalable solutions as SMBs
in certain sectors such as auto ancillaries and textiles are doing well
- The need for archival mandated by regulations
that directly or indirectly impact
Indian organisations or MNCs operating in the country
|
Srivastav adds, “The market has also seen disc taking
the role of tape for backup and retrieval of data. A lot of customers have used
cheap ATA-based discs as secondary storage and tape is primarily used for offsite
archival of data. This trend will continue in 2007 as well.”
Having an expansion plan for his storage infrastructure, Ravish Kumar, Business
Manager – Peripherals, Supertron Electronics Ltd shared some information
regarding the company’s experience in dealing with advanced storage solutions.
He says, “We have invested up to a significant level in IT for strengthening
our work efficiency and for enhancing productivity.
As people understand the importance and benefits of information
storage, they also understand the importance of information lifecycle management
(ILM). Srivastav says, “As they adopt practices like data consolidation
and data classification, they shall reap the benefits of moving data to secondary
and tertiary storage.”
Planned investments
 Among
the survey respondents, 22 percent of the companies are planning to invest in
tape as secondary storage for their IT infrastructure. However, the survey also
shows that 18 percent of respondents are planning to invest in virtual tape
libraries.
On the other had, Ajay Vikram Singh, Head IT & Project Co-ordinator, National
Institute of Construction Management & Research says, “At an education
institute of our level. The advanced storage solutions are still at a very nascent
stage. It is because of a few reasons. One is, of course, the cost factor. Limitation
of funds is a big challenge for adopting good IT solutions. However, for bringing
advanced solutions like secondary storage solutions in a set-up like ours, it
is important for the top management to understand the utility of such IT applications.
Awareness of technology has to reach every level.”
Other technologies that will see the light of the day in 2007 include:
- Continuous data protection
- Single instance storage also called as data de-duplication
which will reduce data to be backed up on disc and tapes as well as network
bandwidth being used. Data de-duplication will also give rise to faster backup
and very fast recovery or restores.
|
Small businesses face the everyday challenge of
managing increasing amounts of data while staying within the budget. IT
personnel must monitor exponential data growth while managing backup,
recovery and archival in the company. With limited internal resources
to rely on, these businesses need streamlined, reliable and cost-effective
storage processes that are easy to maintain.
An important and difficult area of consideration
for these companies is staffing. For an organisation of 100 people or
so it is difficult to justify hiring more than one full-time IT employee.
A larger organisation has the luxury of having an IT team or department
to manage its set-up, and can even take the help of on-call personnel.
For a small company, operating 24x7, however, the worst nightmare is a
catastrophic failure requiring restoration from a backup in the middle
of the night or over the course of a weekend when the solitary IT person
is away. Therefore a backup and restore which is fully automated without
requiring the presence of skilled staff can improve performance and security
and bring down costs.
|
Who’s buying what
As per the survey, it has come out that 36 percent of small organisations in
manufacturing and engineering segment have invested in tape as a secondary storage.
27 percent of small organisations of the same segment have invested in Virtual
Tape libraries.
Giving an overview on the other segments that are showing interest in deploying
secondary storage solutions among small businesses Srivastav says, “It
is the telecom, BFSI, Government, media, entertainment, and healthcare which
will drive the growth of secondary storage market. Another area of growth is
DR and BCP in SMBs as they too have realised the importance of it.”
Mohit Jain, Head IT, Paras Jel Foods Marketing says, “We will look at having
a robust storage infrastructure for our organisation. As of now, we have not
yet looked at it as a cost benefit for our business.” He, adds, “We
have a limited amount of IT infrastructure. As and when the demand grows from
our employees and as and when we see it as a strategic benefit in enhancing
our productivity, we will surely start looking for a secondary storage solution.”
Sharing similar views, Belal Ahmad, Head of IT at Khadija National Hospital
says, “Although we represent a hospital, at the same time penetration of
such advanced technology is not that effective in our organisation as it is
among larger hospitals. There is no question of the importance of secondary
storage solutions in a healthcare organisation. However, we also have to think
upon the size of data generated and what data needs to be stored.”
|
