By Jim Klossner, Senior Director, Product Management and Software Development, Think On, Inc.
This is Part One of our blog series on Object Storage—a deep dive into the challenges and solutions of big data management and security. Part Two, “It’s a Lock: The Immutable Data Advantage”, focuses on the value of immutable backup in object storage for critical data.
As a business or public service, data is your most precious asset. It provides insights that can help grow your business and streamline operations. The value that you—and those who entrust it to you—place on your data is the reason why it must be protected, but how do you leverage its power to transform business?
The exponential rate of growth in data stores represents a massive challenge to organizations. There’s buried treasure in all that data, but how do you make the most of it while maintaining security and compliance—and without breaking the bank?
More data, more challenges
The rate of data collection is accelerating every day, according to the Business Council of Canada, and more than 80 percent of that data is unstructured, a figure that is growing by over 55 percent every year.[1] Worldwide, there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated each day.[2]
And when data demands escalate faster than the ability to expand capacity, it becomes a problem. According to recent reports, 90 percent of the world’s data was generated in the last two years, hitting an all-time high of 328.77 million terabytes of data each day.
“In the space of 13 years, this figure has increased by an estimated 60 times from just 2 zettabytes in 2010. The 120 zettabytes generated in 2023 is expected to increase by over 150 percent in 2025, hitting 181 zettabytes,” says data researcher Fabio Duarte of Exploding Topics.[3]
Increased capacity means escalating costs, and this challenge is even greater if the organization is suffering from vendor lock-in with hungry cloud applications and hefty egress fees that prevent them from considering more cost-efficient solutions.
Unstructured data or buried treasure? X marks the opportunity
A challenge can also be a hidden opportunity, and another way to look at those expanding data stores is to see them as a map to buried treasure. Your data holds secrets that can tell you a lot about how you run your business, who you are serving, and how to serve them better.
Unstructured data should never be ignored. Make the most of this valuable resource with a storage solution that safeguards critical data while leveraging its power to gain insights.
“Data talks…it’s trying to tell you something, and you should listen if you want to accelerate success,” said Craig McLellan, CEO, ThinkOn. “That’s why we give you the flexibility you want and the scale you need to turn your unstructured data into business insights.”
Having lots of data isn’t a problem when it’s stored using a flexible, secure, and cost-effective solution. Once you put big data in its place, mining for insight treasure becomes an adventure, not a headache.
More data, secure data
At ThinkOn, we recognize the significant value that effective object storage creates when consistency and dependability are critical.
As your business accelerates, you collect more and more data that must be analyzed, leveraged, and stored. For effective management, security, and reliable compliance, you need expanding data storage capacity that performs with speed and agility to deliver dynamic data services and protection for your critical data.
“Digital transformation can’t happen without data storage transformation,” says Paul West, Director, Global Public Sector at ThinkOn. “Escalating data stores are filled with buried treasure. We help organizations overcome inefficiencies caused by siloed data, disparate and legacy solutions, and high storage costs, so they can mine the value of data and make it thrive.”
Treasure hunting should be fun and profitable, and in the digital world, that equates to solutions that are simple and uncomplicated while keeping costs under control and data secure.
The big data challenge: locked in, not locked out
Our partners and customers want secure solutions that lock out the bad guys, but don’t lock them into outdated or out-of-control applications. The big data challenge is to expand capacity, streamline operations, and leverage data insights so organizations can grow without breaking the bank.
ThinkOn Standard Object Storage and Object Lock with immutable storage are specifically designed to solve these challenges with:
- Sky’s-the-limit storage capability—Scale without worrying about volume limitations.
- A solid defensive position—Ensure continuous data integrity and compliance.
- Big data without big storage costs.
- No sucker punch in your bill—No fine print or hidden fees.
- Multiple layers of security—All data in flight and at rest is encrypted.
To be effective, digital environments must allow you to consume and store unlimited data in a system that grows with your data, adding capacity as needed—seamlessly and without incurring disruption. Security features that give you peace of mind while allowing you to leverage the power of your data are the keys to eliminating your capacity headaches and making your data thrive.
Critical and insightful: the best of both data worlds
The most crucial aspect of data protection and business resilience is the capacity to recover data quickly, accurately, and easily, from a source you know you can trust. Standard Object Storage helps protect against ransomware and other malware, with features like immutable storage to ensure that the data cannot be changed or deleted. ThinkOn solutions are designed to lock away sensitive data without cutting off its power to transform business by providing data insights.
“With the stakes this high, organizations need to plan now to protect their businesses,” says John Slater, ThinkOn’s Chief Security Officer. “A next-generation holistic backup and robust disaster recovery solution with ransomware protection can prevent attacks and lock out bad actors—saving millions in revenue due to lost business transactions and ongoing reputational damage.”[4]
Our partners and customers can rely on ThinkOn to do the right thing. For us, the big data challenge is about putting the security, business growth, and cost-effectiveness of the organizations we serve first. It’s not just about truth and transparency, it’s about who we are, and our partners and customers should demand nothing less.
Want to say goodbye to data storage challenges? Say hello to opportunity and business value with ThinkOn Object Storage.
[1] The Business Council of Canada. 2020. “Data Driven Report and Recommendations.” https://thebusinesscouncil.ca/report/data-driven
[2] Bernard Marr. 2023. Bernard Marr & Co. “How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read.” https://bernardmarr.com/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/
[3] Fabio Duarte. 2023. Exploding topics. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/data-generated-per-day
[4] John Slater. 2023. ThinkOn. “Cyberattacks Cost Organizations Millions in Revenue Loss and Reputational Damage: The Hidden Threats of Missing Out on the Right Cybersecurity.” https://thinkon.com/blogs/hidden-threats-of-missing-out-on-the-right-cybersecurity/