Why Tiered Storage

Data is Growing Exponentially

According To The Fifth Annual IDC Digital Universe study, the amount of information created and replicated in 2011 surpassed 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes). Most of this data is unstructured, accounting for 90% of the digital universe. The best way to manage massively growing data is with a hierarchical storage management plan.

Optimal Storage Infrastructure

Tiered storage utilizing tape saves organizations money by reducing power, cooling, space, media and administration costs. Accessing data is efficient with LTFS indexing and improved access time.

Cost Reduction Using Tiered Storage

By moving data between high-cost disk media and low-cost tape storage media, an organization can save money. Chart 1.3 demonstrates the large cost reduction of utilizing 4 tiers vs. only 1 or 2. Not only is the organization saving on media costs but also on infrastructure and energy costs.

Is your organization wasting huge amounts of money by storing data on disk?

The Argument For Tape In Tier 3

Tape has made significant improvements since 2000 including drive reliability, cartridge capacity, media life and data rate. Features for enhanced performance include data encryption and Write -Once-Read-Many (WORM) for security and LTFS dual partitioning functionality to facilitate file management for long-term archival requirements.

Longer Media Life

Tape media life has reached 30+ years while Disk remains at 4-5 years before upgrading is recommended. Tape allows for less frequent data migrations that are labor intensive.

Higher Capacity

Tape capacities are currently at 8.5TB and >20 TB compressed while maximum Disk capacity is 4 TB. As Disk capacity grows, so does RAID rebuild times.

Moore, F. “Tape in the 21st Century.” 2013. White Paper.
Moore, F. “Colossal Content – How Will You Manage It? – Storage Explosion Seminar.” Perpetual Storage, Inc. Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Salt Lake City, UT. 1 Oct. 2013.
Robb, D. “10 Reasons Tape Storage Is Better Than Disk.” InfoStor., 15 June 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Gantz, J. and Reinsel, D. “Extracting Value from Chaos.” IDC., June 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.

[call_to_action title=”” text=”For more information about Tiered Storage, download the Understanding Tiered Storage White Paper.” button_text=”DOWNLOAD WHITE PAPER” button_link=”http://perpetuals.wpengine.com/understanding-tiered-storage-white-paper/” ][/call_to_action]