The evolution of Enterprise storage has seen many transformations in the span of a few decades. At first, there was the installation of direct attached storage in a standard RAID configuration. For all its uses, this type of setup made it difficult to share between applications. The next step in the evolution came with the introduction of storage area networks (SAN) as well as network-attached storage (NAS). This addressed the problem of multi-application use into a central repository.
As the storage requirements increased, disks had to be migrated closer to the processor. Today, many companies have multiple storage arrays linked in with direct attached storage and a small amount of data stored in the cloud. While this has solved some of the problems, there still remains the issue of poor utilization rates and knowing what data is where. This is where hybrid storage is most beneficial.
Improvements in Utilisation of Storage
Hybrid storage and cloud hybrid storage integration is the future of enterprise storage for small, medium and large-scale businesses. Being able to virtualize storage means that a business can pool multiple storage systems into a single volume, replacing complicated storage management with one singular system. This, in turn, improves replication, remote mirroring, and increased data security. It also allows for data compressing to minimize space.
Maximize Performance
The most effective use of hybrid storage and one with the most beneficial financial implications is the maximization of performance. By instituting a hybrid storage environment, this will allow businesses to add flash to the front end of the storage environment. It has been estimated that just 5% of flash storage to the immediate environment can boost performance by up to 300%. With the price parity closing between SSD and HDD, the introduction of flash can be done gradually with massive performance gains in each step.
Data Tiering
Creating a hybrid environment creates the possibility of data tiering. In a traditional system, data is stored in the application that is required to use it. The value of the data was second to the value of the application. With data tiering, the system can be automated where data should be stored based on the value of the data itself. Data that is most frequently accessed can be stored on flash or disk drives while less frequently used data can move onto lower-performing drives or low-cost cloud servers.
Faster, Easier App Developments
Having multiple cloud storage solutions means that developers can use the public cloud to develop and test out new applications without compromising the production and storage environment tasked with running the business. Only once an application has been approved for use in the current environment can it be allocated a position in the virtual system.
Archiving and Disaster Recovery
Many companies store data on the premises purely for performance purposes, then having a hybrid storage system in place with cloud storage offers some significant advantages. The most prominent advantage of cloud-based hybrid storage including archiving of important data, backing up, and the most important of all, disaster recovery. Hybrid cloud storage also means having a reserve pool that can be used to accommodate unexpected surges in storage demand, commonly referred to as cloud bursting.
Storage Management
Storage management is essential for a company with multiple data areas. A hybrid virtualized system provides the opportunity for advanced management features one of which is data tiering. This drastically reduces the amount of time the data management team spends allocating and managing data. This subsequently translates to a faster business environment and the effort required to respond to user storage requests. Users can even provision their own storage based on their needs and your in-house data storage policies.
The Big Picture
To summarise, moving to a fully hybrid storage environment provides extensive real-world benefits for operational and business costs as well as efficiency. The allocation of storage systems can greatly improve performance with flash and high-end HDD drives doing the heavy lifting while cloud-based systems can be used for disaster management backups and archiving. The implementation of a hybrid system also means better storage utilization, reduction of your storage footprint and the ability to classify and store data based on its value. Finally, the system is able to simplify storage management and create a faster working environment.
ThinkOn offers a wide array of the solution and covers a broad category in the 4 below segments:
- Hybrid Infrastructure Solutions – Dedicated Compute, Private Cloud, VMware vCloud
- Data Archiving Solutions – Veeam Cloud Connect, Object Storage, Commvault Data Archiving
- Data Protection Solutions – Hosted Commvault Backup Server, Commvault Endpoint Protection, Hosted Veeam Backup
- Disaster Recovery Solutions – Veeam Cloud Replication, Hosted Zerto Data Replication
For more information on ThinkOn solutions and the company in general, please visit – https://thinkon.com/