Human beings have been collecting data over the course of history beginning with the cuneiform tablets of ancient Babylon to the computer storage systems of today. Your business cannot be sustained without storing data, but when you start searching for company data storage solutions to meet your needs, the endless possibilities can make your head spin. In addition, you will have to decide how much of your precious budget and time you are willing to spend searching for the definitive company data storage solutions for your business. The concerns surrounding storage solutions revolve around the integrity, availability, and expandability of company data storage solutions– and probably foremost, data security. These concerns have reached a new level as cloud and mobile computing has exploded on the scene.
Whether you are a long-time IT expert or a newcomer to the field, the intricacies, and language of storage solutions can be intimidating. Definitions and acronyms abound in the world of IT and without help from dedicated IT communities and companies in the business of storage solutions, decisions are difficult to make.
Storage Definitions
- Cache (pronounced CASH) is a place to store something temporarily in a computing environment.
- In computing, active data is often cached to shorten data access times.
- Tiered storage is assigning different categories of data to different types of storage media in order to reduce total storage cost.
Three common types of storage
- DAS (direct attached storage), data is stored on the hard drive of your computer and accessed directly from that piece of computer hardware.
- NAS (network attached storage), data is stored on a server connected to a computer network.
- SAN (storage area network), a dedicated data storage area network that multiple servers use to access data storage devices
A rapidly evolving area of company data storage solutions is flash data storage. Flash storage is any type of data storage system that uses flash memory. Flash memory is universal in small computing devices such as smartphones and tablets, and becoming more common for larger applications. This type of storage is making inroads in corporate data centers and cloud service providers. It is rugged and beats other storage solutions in compactness and energy savings. Enterprising IT managers are focusing on flash array storage systems that are capable of optimizing and protecting the data and applications. This shift to flash data storage has been in response to customers top concerns about data storage solutions.
Top Three Customer Concerns
- Flexibility
- Today’s IT managers are required to support hundreds of apps and workloads
- Each of these situations brings different performance and capacity requirements
- Security
- Customers are in industries with significant security concerns, i.e. healthcare, financial services, government, and data service providers
- Security necessitates encryption, compliance, and sensitive data environments
- Control
- Customers require an unprecedented control over their storage infrastructure.
- Ability to monitor each data storage machine
If you have questions or concerns about your company data storage solutions, do not hesitate to contact us. Clarus Communications is interested in helping your business find the best company data storage solution possible.