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Storage is dead: Long live storage
In an age where we have more information than we can cope with and where
data is growing at an exponential rate, how can storage be dead? Asks
ECTIVES
Dr. Guy Bunker, Chief Scientist, Symantec Corporation.
ERSP
Well, it’s not, of course it isn’t, new services available on the 100x. Now, if you think you
however it is changing and in web we expect to see the def- are paying by the gigabyte
a few years time we’ll look inition of ‘small’ rising from per month, then 100x reduc-
back and ask how we coped 100-250 people to 5000+! tion is a sizeable saving.
with it all. The reason... cloud Before delving into the cloud, But... before you all rush off
OUD COMPUTING P computing, or the grid, or let’s just step back and talk and start backing up all your
CL software as a service, or about ‘data’ versus ‘informa- information over the internet
whatever we will call it next tion’. Data is the raw material a few words of warning. Well,
week. Yes, we will be using from which you get informa- it’s more like things you
more and more storage, but tion. should ask the service
we won’t be looking after it – providers BEFORE you trust
someone else will. If we suffer from information your most precious asset,
Storage has come down in overload (which we do), then your information, to them.
price, the first gigabyte capac- we are drowning in data.
ity drive appeared in 1980, Multiple copies of the same Who can see my information?
weighed in at 250Kg and cost thing held at multiple points We live in an age where data
$40,000, even 10 years ago in the network and copies of loss is a fact of life and unfor-
the average disk drive was copies on laptops (presenta- tunately 43% of all incidents
only five or six gigabytes, tions are particularly bad – are by third party providers.
nowadays you can buy a ter- with copies on email to every So, you need to know
abyte drive for a few hundred man and his dog, saved in whether the service provider,
dollars! Of course the data email, saved on the laptop who is the administrator of
you collect just expands to fill and saved on the server – just the system can see your data.
all the space available and in case – and that’s for every In regular IT, the administrator
one of the biggest questions, person out there!). is all powerful and so is able
“how do I back this up” often to read data from backups, or
gets ignored – until a disaster Increases in bandwidth make through applications – is this
strikes and by then it is too it possible to efficiently back something you can live with
late. So, along comes ‘the this up over the internet to a when your information is with
cloud’. service provider and new the third party?
technology can reduce the
The idea is simple, you have a quantity of data that needs to What would happen if the
lot of data and it needs to be be stored. The new technolo- service provider lost some of
protected. You don’t have the gy is called ‘Single Instance your information?
time or the expertise, so if Storage’. In essence, when Perhaps they lost a backup
someone else can do this for you are backing something up tape, or maybe their systems
you it would be a big help. and if it already has a copy, have been compromised and
This is just as much for the then it doesn’t bother to copy your customer information
individual as it is for the small it again. We have seen this has been leaked. You need to
to medium business. With reduce the quantity of data by ask the service provider what
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