Tehnology rises to the occasion
The good news for CIOs who grapple with these issues is that thanks to technology advancements, tackling one’s data management challenges in a structured and proactive manner needn’t remain apipe dream. Tiered storage solutions and archiving capabilities for instance, can assist organisations to better manage their information and keep a lid on data growth rates. More importantly, these technologies enable them to control the cost construct in this growing data storage world, by allocating the lion’s share of their storage euro to the most business-critical data elements. For example, data that is mission-critical and time-sensitive can and should be stored on the most expensive storage arrays, whereas data that has aged, which may need to be retained for a certain period of time but is not accessed regularly, may be placed in a less-expensive tier and potentially even moved to an archive facility, which will be considerably easier on the pocket.
Cottingham cautions, however, that decisions around when and where to leverage the technologies available should not be made in the dark.
“ Many organisations lack the insights on where to invest – and are thin on the ground in terms of resources required to effectively implement technologies and processes.”And the situation doesn’t show signs of changing anytime soon.
According to a recent IDC report, although the amount of worldwide data will grow by a factor of 44, and the number of files will grow by a factor of 67 from 2009 to 2020, the number of IT professionals in the world will grow only by a factor of 1.4. This should make it clear to CIOs and business executives that much of the next 10 years of their careers will be spent dealing with the challenge of the mismatch of these growth rates. This ‘manage-morewith-less’situation will put ever-increasing strain on IT organisations. Those that manage this pressure better than their competitors will have an advantage.
For these reasons, it’s not uncommon for companies to turn to systems integrators to help them garner the insights they need to confidently move forward with their data management strategies.