How you can save money by storing data in tiers

Most people in the world of IT understand what a chaotic mess data storage can be and often is. In fact, even the thought of trying to retrieve information that is valuable from these storage locations can cause nothing but frustration and headache.

The truth is, if administrators in the IT world want to get the most out of their storage centers and extend the lifespan of their data, they must get serious about the organization processes. In other words, the act of sorting data is a vital task that must occur in order to preserve precious data and store away the less critical data.

How to Make Sense Out of Your Storage Areas

Solutions exist nowadays that can help IT teams easily sort through and manage their otherwise messy storage environments. These products aid in the classification and overall management of crowded collections of unstructured data. By implementing such tools, administrators will be thrilled with the structure and frugality of their new data storage environments. Teams will breathe easier and will ultimately have more clarity regarding the data being stored.

So, if you are at the end of your proverbial rope with the mess that exists in your data environment, please take heart! These tools are there to help you turn even the most chaotic areas into neat and tidy environments which will actually become understandable. As a matter of fact, some of these tools are trackable in that they supply a link to data that has been migrated in the storage area. Talk about convenience! By investing in certain products, administrators will find that their files can be effortlessly accessed, despite the location. To make things even better, information about particular files can also be seamlessly obtained since nothing about the data will remain hidden. This makes it much easier to not only access data, but to comprehend it as well.

With the Proper Tools, Data Will Be Appropriately Analyzed

As mentioned previously, by implementing the right tools into your storage environment, you will see how easily data can be gathered, grouped, and acted upon in order to accurately identify it. The benefit of the right identification of data means that it will go to the most appropriate storage location. In fact, the overall value of data in relation to your business will be looked at, as will the various classifications that set different kinds of data apart from one another. A prime example of this would be grouping specific things together.

Grouping Data In a Way that Supports Your Budget

Today’s tools that help organize storage environments are also known for their ability to store data into tiers. The tier system is a method of grouping particular types of data together to maximize both the performance and the budget. For example, tier 1 would hold the most important data. This tier is also referred to as a high-performance storage area as the costs are high, but are a financially wise choice for high-value data. It may go without saying, but the lower tiers will generally hold the less valuable and slower media (like SATA disks). It is interesting to note that as the tier descends, so does their efficiency and speed. The beauty of the tier or grouping system is that administrators have the unique freedom of being able to define and change the definitions of the tiers depending on the necessary business requirements.

Grouping Data by Tiers is a Fast and Frugal Solution

Such tools also generally have automated features. For example, many of these grouping tools are able to automatically match the proper type of storage to the appropriate data depending upon the user-defined policies. These tools have a technologically-advanced intelligence that can analyze data, determine its value, and figure out the best home for it. Did you know that the storage costs associated with tier 1 generally include hardware for quick data reading or writing? The bottom line is that data that doesn’t require immediate access ought to be moved to secondary storage. This way, the tier 1 data can function more efficiently.

With these nifty solutions, storage is maximized and frivolous hardware purchases are avoided. Storage areas that perform at top notch levels can be your expectation when you implement these grouping tools. With storage that is organized using the tier systems, you can rest assured that your data will be placed in the location most ideal for the overall performance you expect and the budget you have anticipated.

Photo Credit: Lychy/Shutterstock

Jason Zhang is the product marketing person for Rocket Software's Backup, Storage, and Cloud solutions.