Getting to grips with modern data management

Until recently, enterprise data storage mainly consisted of disk-based systems for immediate availability and tape for offline backup. Rarely used data could be stored on lower tiers of disc (often spinning HDD’s) to save cost – but this demanded layers of redundancy and RAID solutions to guarantee access to that rarely/little-used data. With in-house disk-based storage systems employing layers of solid-state architecture, tiers of spinning disks and complex management software, many organisations faced eye-watering (and ever-increasing) data storage costs.

At the mercy of increasingly sprawling storage systems, IT managers and their teams found they had dwindling insight into the nature and use of data under management. Ultimately, many groups were compelled to treat all data similarly, no matter if it was business-critical, temporary, or legacy. Anything else was too risky.

Exploding data growth

Today, this loose approach to data storage can no longer be tolerated. Organisations are facing explosive growth in unstructured and structured data from all sides – and they are increasingly expanding the number of silos and classes under management. Many organisations are employing a mix of private cloud object storage, public cloud file and object storage, and disk-based solutions. Additionally, most teams are actively using a hybrid cloud architecture to provide them with all the features of native cloud solutions.

Naturally, the more significant vendors have created intelligent storage management software solutions that can dynamically control data orchestration on storage classes. However, these storage management systems lack the intelligence and flexibility many organisations demand. Often, the software will lead the customer into a vendor lock-in situation or fail to deal comprehensively with hybrid cloud architectures. This situation can lead to even more complexity for the customer’s data storage team – with increasingly complex software layers. Worse still, customers face software customisations to deal with outlying data management use cases.

The case for independent data management

Today, many organisations are turning to independent data management solutions that can help them by automatically analysing, understanding, and moving data to the most appropriate tier – no matter if the storage is a mix of vendor technologies or cloud-based systems.

These solutions are described as Data Management rather than Storage Management. They orchestrate your data across all storage classes – and they intelligently choose the most appropriate storage system for each piece of data.

Modern Data Management Solutions such as those offered by Komprise enable data to move in the background without changing the availability or access to that data for users, applications, and systems. Additionally, the technology allows the data to be directly accessible within the cloud – without requiring access through the original file structure. This approach speeds data access and frees it from proprietary storage technology – while giving access to the full compute power and elasticity of the cloud alongside native services and applications.

Freedom to access data independent of its storage silo

The Komprise solution also gives organisations transparent access to tiering that teams can control with user-defined policies. It allows ‘cold’ data to be automatically moved to cheaper or slower storage – while ‘hot’ data is retained in faster storage for rapid access.

All of this smart data management means that users and applications alike see no change in the file structure. Their data is right where they expect it to be – yet the organisation saves considerable resources by leveraging the most efficient storage architectures.

The Komprise solution manages to move data, leaving behind an industry-standard symbolic link that is dynamic and resilient. These links appear the same as the original data file and retain the same permissions and attributes. Users and applications can open and access the moved files from their original location precisely as before, without any changes.

Data back-ups are minimised as the Komprise system retains only the ‘hot’ or essential data on your primary storage – dramatically shrinking the data footprint.

Access to cloud data without additional complexity

Unlike data virtualisation, storage tiering or global file storage gateways, the Komprise solution doesn’t move data in a proprietary format, and it will not get in front of hot data. This unique approach frees organisations from expensive licensing requirements for cloud access, allows cloud-native data analytics tools – and speeds up the delivery of hot data.

How Pfizer saved 75 per cent on storage and cloud migration costs

One organisation that deployed the Komprise solution with significant effect is leading pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which operates a global heterogeneous NAS environment.

The Pfizer system had 5 petabytes of cold and unstructured data alone, of which 64 per cent had not been accessed in over two years. Pfizer’s team needed to move the data while maintaining visibility, an ongoing strategy for applying business rules for analytics, and better insight into the data it was hosting.

“What sets Komprise apart compared with other solutions is the end-to-end process of analysing and moving data,” said Caitlyn Possehl, Global Strategic Alliance Leader at Komprise. “You can use Komprise to scan all your data, analyse costs and create business rules and then Komprise will act automatically against those rules.”

Pfizer saved over 75 per cent on storage and cloud migration costs with the Komprise solution. Cost savings came from removing manual data management and having Komprise intelligently and automatically move cold data from high-priced, on-premises storage to more cost-effective storage on Amazon S3. Pfizer can still directly access the data in AWS as S3 objects natively without lock-in or fees.  Read the full case study here.

Learn more about the Komprise solution

Komprise is a cloud data management-as-a-service that frees you to quickly analyse, mobilise, and access the correct file and object data across clouds without shackling it to any vendor.

In the UK, Komprise is working in partnership with Tech Data to help organisations evaluate the technology.

Channel Partnerships can set up a meaningful and tailored demonstration that will show the Komprise solution working for a real-world evaluation.

Contact Channel Partnerships directly by calling: 01923 618099

Or email: info@channel-tools.biz

https://channel-partnerships.com