From Bulky to Brilliant: The Miniaturisation of Data Storage
Since the early days of IT, storage capacities have skyrocketed while physical footprints have plummeted. The rush to the cloud dominated the last decade, offering scalability, flexibility and data management cost efficiencies. Data centres shrank, often transforming into office spaces and IT teams were downsized.
Data Storage in 2024
Fast forward to today, and businesses heavily rely on the cloud. Storage has become far more efficient: in 2010, a petabyte of storage required 66U of rack space, 333 drives, consumed 9.3kW/hr, and cost £315,000. In 2024, the same capacity fits into 5U of rack space, uses just 940W/hr and costs £75,000, including maintenance—representing a massive reduction in space, energy and cost.
Future Data Centres
With ongoing advancements, tomorrow’s data centres could fit into a broom cupboard. Combining higher storage densities and improved performance makes localised data centres increasingly viable. Accessing local data eliminates latency and network congestion, providing unparalleled speed compared to cloud-based services.
System Reliability
Storage miniaturisation has also improved reliability. Technologies like Seagate’s ADAPT enable faster rebuilds and enhanced data protection, surpassing traditional RAID systems.
Rethinking Cloud Usage
The cloud excels in file sharing and document collaboration, but its costs are unpredictable and can be astronomical. Many businesses now adopt “cloud smart” or hybrid strategies, keeping critical data local while using the cloud selectively, saving significant amounts annually.
Falling Storage Costs
The price per megabyte has plummeted—from $7.50 in 1990 to $0.004 in 2024. This exponential drop underscores the benefits of miniaturised, efficient storage.
Performance and Productivity
Hosting data locally ensures faster access compared to the cloud, preventing productivity loss from delays. Local backups also enable significantly faster recovery in disaster scenarios.
The Future of Storage
By 2030, storage capacities will increase up to fivefold, with breakthroughs like 120TB SSDs and LTO tape offering 90TB compressed capacities. Businesses are re-evaluating the cloud’s long-term cost-effectiveness, driving renewed interest in local solutions.
Let us help you navigate this evolving landscape with tailored solutions for data management, cloud alternatives and high-performance local systems.
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DataCore SANsymphony
DataCore SANsymphony is an advanced software-defined storage solution designed to optimise, manage, and accelerate data storage infrastructure. It functions as a comprehensive storage virtualisation platform, enabling organisations to consolidate and control diverse storage devices, whether they are traditional SANs, NAS devices, or cloud storage resources. By decoupling the storage services from the underlying hardware, SANsymphony maximises the performance, availability, and efficiency of storage resources.
One of its key features is the ability to provide high availability and disaster recovery through synchronous mirroring and asynchronous replication across different locations. This ensures that data remains protected and accessible even during outages or hardware failures. SANsymphony also offers intelligent caching, auto-tiering, and dynamic storage provisioning, allowing it to balance performance and capacity while reducing costs.
Its universal storage management console provides a single pane of glass to monitor and manage the entire storage infrastructure, simplifying complex environments. With support for a wide range of hardware and integrations, SANsymphony is highly adaptable, making it a preferred choice for organisations seeking to modernise their storage architecture, reduce downtime, and enhance application performance without vendor lock-in.
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StorCycle
Spectra StorCycle is a storage lifecycle management software designed to address the challenges of handling large volumes of data in an era where data growth is exponential. This software provides a solution for managing data throughout its lifecycle, from creation to deletion, by automating the process of moving data to the most cost-effective storage tiers. This overview will delve into the features, benefits, architecture, and use cases of Spectra StorCycle, providing a comprehensive understanding of its capabilities and how it can be leveraged by organisations to optimise their data storage strategies.
Features
Spectra StorCycle is equipped with a range of features designed to streamline the data management process. One of its core functionalities is the ability to identify inactive data that is no longer frequently accessed but still needs to be retained. Once identified, this data can be automatically migrated to more cost-effective storage solutions, such as cloud storage, object storage, or tape storage, depending on the organisation's preferences and requirements.
Another key feature is the software's transparent move technology, which ensures that data is moved without disrupting user access. Files and data moved by StorCycle remain accessible through stub files or symbolic links, ensuring that users can still access their data seamlessly, even if it has been moved to a different storage tier.
StorCycle also supports a wide range of storage types, including NAS, SAN, cloud storage, and Spectra's BlackPearl Converged Storage System. This flexibility allows organisations to choose the most appropriate storage solutions for their needs, optimising costs and performance.
Benefits
The primary benefit of Spectra StorCycle is cost savings. By automatically moving less frequently accessed data to lower-cost storage tiers, organisations can significantly reduce their storage costs without sacrificing data accessibility. This approach also optimises the use of high-performance storage, which can be reserved for data that requires fast access, thereby improving overall system performance.
Data protection and compliance are additional benefits. StorCycle's automated lifecycle management ensures that data is stored in compliance with organisational policies and regulatory requirements. By automating the movement of data to secure storage locations, organisations can enhance their data protection strategies and reduce the risk of data loss or breaches.
Architecture
Spectra StorCycle is designed to be highly scalable and flexible, capable of managing data across different storage platforms and environments. Its architecture is built to integrate seamlessly with existing storage infrastructures, allowing for easy deployment and minimal disruption to current operations.
The software operates by scanning file systems and other data sources to identify inactive data based on user-defined policies. Once identified, this data is then moved to the selected storage tier, with stub files or symbolic links left in place to ensure continued access. The process is fully automated, running according to schedules set by the organisation.
Use Cases
Spectra StorCycle can be utilised across various industries and applications, wherever large volumes of data need to be efficiently managed. In the media and entertainment industry, for example, StorCycle can manage the lifecycle of digital assets, moving completed projects to cost-effective storage while keeping active projects on high-performance storage.
In scientific research and healthcare, StorCycle can manage data generated from experiments and patient records, ensuring that critical data is preserved and accessible over the long term while optimising storage costs.
For government and educational institutions, StorCycle can help manage the vast amounts of data generated by administrative processes, research activities, and archival needs, ensuring data is stored securely and cost-effectively.
Conclusion
Spectra StorCycle represents a sophisticated solution for managing the lifecycle of data across various storage tiers. Its ability to automate the identification and migration of inactive data helps organisations optimise their storage costs while ensuring data remains accessible and secure. With its flexible architecture and support for a wide range of storage types, StorCycle can be tailored to meet the specific needs of any organisation, making it a valuable tool in the modern data management landscape. Whether for cost savings, compliance, or data protection, Spectra StorCycle offers a comprehensive solution that addresses the challenges of managing large volumes of data in today's digital world.
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