Remember back when companies had copy machines in every department? Making copies was a tedious exercise that probably wasted more paper than anything else. But for the IT department, creating copies (data copies) is a far more serious problem, one that can consume a lot more resources than just a few trees. The copies I am referring to are the copies of data that are made to satisfy the demands of data protection, compliance, test-dev and business analytics.
Join us for our on demand webinar "Why 2015 is the Year of Copy Data and What Are the Copy Data Requirements" to learn exactly how many copies of data are needed and how can that process be better managed
What’s Causing Copy Data to Explode?
The copy data problem is not as easily solved as the “old data problem”, a term that refers to those copies that can’t simply be archived. The need for this data is legitimate and access to these copies should be nearly instantaneous. Despite this need for long-term accessibility of files, there should only be two copies of data for data protection (one off-site and one on-site), one copy for compliance, one for test-dev, and one copy for business analytics. But based on our conversations with IT professionals and various research reports, the data being copied is 10 to 20 times that amount. This explosion of redundant file copies is caused by a lack of trust in the data copy process and a lack of control over how long copied data is kept beyond its usefulness.
Step 1 – A Trusted Copy Data Process
The first step in getting a handle on copy data is to implement a copy data solution that can be trusted. For the copy data process to be trusted it has to create a reliable copy of data rapidly while providing application consistency. Snapshots have this capability built in, but they need to be controlled.
Step 2 – A Controlled Copy Data Process
The next step in getting a handle on copy data is to make sure that the process can be controlled. This means automating when snapshots are taken as well as automating how they are presented to the use cases that need those copies. Control also means being able to safely and automatically expire copies after they have served their purpose or have been replaced by a more current copy.
The Best Investment for 2015?
For data centers looking to reduce storage costs while increasing their ability to protect themselves from data loss *and* deliver better service to their users, copy data may be the best investment made in 2015.
In our webinar “Why 2015 is the Year of Copy Data and What Are the Copy Data Requirements” you will learn the why and how of copy data solutions as well as what to look for in this rapidly emerging part of the storage market. If you register today, you will also receive a copy of our white paper “Orchestrating Copy Data – Management is Just The First Step”.
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George Crump is the Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO, the leader in Ultraconverged Infrastructure. Prior to VergeIO he was Chief Product Strategist at StorONE. Before assuming roles with innovative technology vendors, George spent almost 14 years as the founder and lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. In his spare time, he continues to write blogs on Storage Switzerland to educate IT professionals on all aspects of data center storage. He is the primary contributor to Storage Switzerland and is a heavily sought-after public speaker. With over 30 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, and Enterprise Flash. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest storage integrators, where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.
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