In today’s digital world, a huge amount of data is being produced every second – much of which isn’t even utilised (yet).
Data-intensive innovations such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and social media produce a huge amount of unstructured and potentially unpredictable data on a daily basis. Traditionally, data is categorised and filed for simple retrieval. Unstructured data, however, lacks a pre-defined data model and isn’t organised in a particular way.
Due to the rapid rise of technological innovation and all of this associated unstructured data, storage demands are increasing exponentially. By 2017, 80% of storage will be unstructured, and by 2019, object-based storage will more than double from 26% of the revenue in 2013 to 60%.[1]
This raises some fairly significant storage problems for businesses of all sizes. It can be hard to determine where to put all of this data – as well as how to structure and recover it when needed. Traditionally, individual storage options aren’t easily scalable: you simply add another on-premise server as you need it. However, with most IT budgets staying flat, and the cost of office space at an all-time high, this isn’t an option for most organisations.
When it comes to storing unstructured data, a virtualisation solution can therefore add great value. Based on The Missing Link’s experience implementing storage solutions for a wide range of clients, here are three key priorities we believe are crucial when it comes to storing your unstructured data:
1. Scalability
In the past, when your data grew, you would simply need to add another storage array. This was costly and time-consuming.
This is where a solution such as Lenovo Storage DX8200C Powered by Cloudian comes in. This new solution delivers complete Simple Storage Service (S3) capacity storage, robust back-end storage and a full-front end, with 100% compatibility for virtually every storage application.
Importantly, it also offers peer-to-peer architecture. This means that as you need more storage, you simply add in another DX80200C, and the software pulls it into the overarching cluster. You can easily expand your storage as your data needs grow – maintaining a single global name space that just keeps growing with your data.
Cloudian also has partnerships with Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, so if you do want to tier-up into the public cloud, you can do so easily and cost effectively. Similarly, if you want to pull something from the public cloud, you only pay to pull the data you need – helping keep costs to a minimum.
2. Standards-based
When it comes to storing data, it’s important to ensure your data is compatible and able to be used in the future – regardless of how technology changes.
When you choose Lenovo/Cloudian, you can rest assured that our data storage systems are all 100% native S3, which means you can access files and data written with a range of other tools.
Thanks to Lenovo’s scalable storage systems, you can also enjoy the flexibility of working with data from multiple environments, and the confidence that your investment is protected well into the future.
3. Cost-effective
For most businesses, a significant amount of data can now be stored in the cloud. However, the public cloud isn’t suitable for some industries and applications, and Inherently a lot of organisations want to maintain some on premise.
Lenovo is a cost-effective solution that’s both on-premise and behind your own firewall – yet not in public cloud.
It keeps metadata local, so when you do access data from the cloud, you only access what you need. This reduces overall costs as you only get charged for accessing data as you need it.
Find out more
If you want to learn more about how your business can best store unstructured data, give us a call on 1300 723 381.
[1] IDC Object Storage Market Summary Dec 2015 IDC: Structured versus unstructured data: The balance of power continues to shift http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=251626
