Don’t delay on a data storage strategy

Organising ever-growing quantities of data is presenting a significant challenge to the world’s digital businesses.  With exponential growth in the last few years, it is expected that around 175 zettabytes of data will be created across the globe this year.  Largely driven by digital media, big data, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, this figure is a reality check to organisations that they need to act now to future proof their data storage strategy - or risk being overwhelmed.

Whilst heavily reliant on data for success, huge volumes and varieties of data also mean that traditional on site hardware like physical servers or external drives are no longer enough to fulfil demand for storage.  It is no surprise that companies are rapidly turning to cloud options to source fully scalable, flexible and cost-effective ways to organise, store and access their data.  

For digital businesses, this helps to streamline operations and also supports seamless collaboration and remote working. This could be providing large multimedia files, backing up business critical data or sharing documents in real-time.  In short, cloud storage enables reliable access to data from virtually anywhere without the need for a complex on-site IT infrastructure.

Select storage wisely

Cloud storage is a blanket term covering a range of storage options; the primary ones are file, block and object.  As with hybrid cloud infrastructures, these can be tailored to suit individual business needs with no overall best fit for everyone.  So whether a company is a large corporation or a small digital operation, a carefully selected storage set up will impact cost and the operational efficiency of the business.

To do this thoroughly, organisations need to analyse every use case for their data.  This could include archiving, file sharing, collaboration, backups, big data analytics, or application development.  For each of these, a business should ideally ask about how often data is accessed, identify any cost restrictions and be clear on what the data is required for.  And while doing this requires upfront investment, many businesses will find that the effort pays off in the long term.  

Think about a mass of paper – before the pile gets bigger and more disorganised, it is better to firmly file this around how an individual needs to use this information.  Although on a much larger scale, the rationale behind getting cloud storage sorted is not entirely dissimilar.

Why object storage is popular

Object storage currently occupies the lion’s share of the market, and with good reason.  It is almost endlessly flexible and scalable and lends itself to easily storing vast amounts of unstructured data that is so typical of modern workloads.

Today’s digital businesses need storage that they can immediately scale up or down without planning or the restrictions of complex IT management systems.  Object storage enables a business to add storage capacity as and when, and with minimal cost.  This makes it attractive for media content such as video files, content delivery and web hosting, backups and DevOps.

Object storage assigns an identifier to each ‘object’ based on metadata, all without the need for a file system or limitations to block size.  Data can then be retrieved using customisable search.

However, it is not necessarily the most suitable for all types of data or the way that an organisation needs to access and use this.  For example, object storage is generally less efficient for small, random read and write files.  Applications like relational databases, that need low latency access to pieces of data, may benefit from either file or block storage.

When block or file storage might be better choices

Unlike object storage, block storage works with a file system and supports high speed access, so it is most suited to critical workloads that need low latency to perform at the highest level.  An organisation might allocate data to block storage when there is a need to access and use specific data on a frequent basis.  

Based on data stored in fixed size parcels, it works well with structured data commonly used in production databases, backend storage for virtual machines or transactional workloads as part of enterprise applications.  It lends itself less to unstructured data that requires the use of metadata to search or retrieve information from massive data resources.

Organisations needing to organise transactional data might opt for file storage, which organises data logically by folders, subfolders and directories.   Otherwise labelled Networked Attached Storage (NAS), the way that file storage works is suitable for text and media files that use both structured and unstructured data. 

File storage is a middle ground between object and block storage.  It offers familiarity in the way that users can access data so this is a good choice for file sharing and collaboration from different locations.  As files are stored in the cloud, there is also the benefit of backup and recovery if one device fails.  Use cases could include large content repositories, user directories or local archiving. 

This could be a prudent choice where an organisation has a remote working setup, or for enterprises which have a home based workforce.

As with object storage, these two alternatives are not without drawbacks.  As block storage is more complex to manage than object or file storage options, it comes with a higher price tag.  File storage is not as scalable as block or object storage, especially for very large data sets.

Reaching a fine balance 

For any organisation, the time and investment needed to put the right storage strategy in place cannot be underestimated.  It is well worth fine tuning the balance between performance and cost by carefully analysing data and its use, and assigning different data and workloads to the most suitable storage.

In most cases, businesses will find they need to tap into the different types of cloud storage in a tier arrangement.  For example, e-commerce businesses might use block storage for their order databases, file storage for team document sharing and object storage for the huge volumes of product images and videos and historical backups.

Whatever the choice or combination of storage, cloud enables digital businesses with the flexibility they need to manage dynamic business operations and to get the most effective use out of their data from any location.  By making smarter choices about storage now, any business will be taking a positive step to staying competitive and organised in the longer term.