10 Things to Know About Data Storage Management
Storage plays a key role in data management. Choosing the right storage method can be a daunting task as there is no such thing as a solutions that caters to everyone’s data needs. Analyzing data based on structured and unstructured information helps to determine your storage needs, while the motivation behind data storage is also a key component of your final decision. You can choose from clouds, mobile data storage and other storage solutions where the data is protected and retrievable. The following are ten suggestions that will allow you to choose the best storage solutions for your data, so that you can create a perfect data backup.
1. Segregate Your Data Wisely
Every piece of data is not the same as its business value may differ, and this difference helps to determine the best-possible storage strategy for your business. There are some key factors that need to be considered while formulating the storage strategy like recovery of data, data retention specifics, security and even the regulatory requirements.
2. Evaluate Your Compliance Needs
The compliance needs of your storage service may differ whether you are a public or a private company. The companies regulating in financial services and healthcare also need to abide by high standards of compliance and security so their data storage service needs to be chosen accordingly.
3. Use A Strategic Storage Approach
The process of tiering while storing data is crucial as high data volumes become manageable with this process and the load on high-performance storage systems is also reduced. The utilization of different tiers in storage systems improves the efficiency of processors, so that less expensive platforms than clouds can also be used for storage.
4. Trust Servers, Not Storage Arrays
There was a time when storage arrays ensured a lot of storage capacity, which made them the go-to storage solution for many data managers. However, servers emerged as better storage alternatives as they have better storage potential and are used as Server-SAN or a hyper-converged Virtual SAN. Servers have undoubtedly emerged as reliable storage prospects in the current scenario.
5. Understand the Cost Factor
Upfront cost should not dictate your storage decision as operating cost of many years is what helps to ascertain its true value. So, choose your storage service per your need and not the price.
6. Understand Your Storage Cloud
The use of hybrid storage systems to create a dependable storage infrastructure significantly depends on your storage cloud. Every storage cloud is different and they are optimized for archiving or to enhance the performance and stability of primary storage systems to create data backup.
7. Ensure Load Balancing and Manage Capacity
While storing data, you need to be careful about load balancing where nodes will not be able to boost the performance of storage solutions in the clusters of network traffic if they are not balanced properly. The capacity management products can grow, monitor trends and even improve capacity when supporting the working of your storage system.
8. Avoid Storing Redundant Data
Data storage is a planned process where storage space can be a hassle and storing redundant data will increase your problems. With economic storage solutions in the market, the practice of storing almost everything is common and it leads to this problem. It is wise to prioritize your storage needs.
9. Secure Your Stored Data
Security is a key priority while adopting any storage service where availability of data, physically as well as virtually, is essential. The encrypting process of data should also be ascertained.
10. Don’t Overlook the Existence of a Data Retention and Recovery Policy
Backup plans become even more essential when important business data is at stake. A disaster recovery plan is vital for every organization irrespective of the storage solution they are using, as sometimes data gets lost by human error and at times natural calamities can be the reason. Here, cloud backups become the safest storage options. These data storage management basics can be used by system administrators once they gain adequate networking knowledge while pursuing the Networking with Microsoft Windows Server 2016 course from Quickstart. The basic as well as advanced networking skills taught about Windows Server 2016 are covered along with other necessary IP fundamentals in this 5-day course so that you can manage data in the most efficient manner.