Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2016
For several years, cloud technologies have been touted as the answer to all your business’ problems. The promise of unlimited storage and processing capacity billed on a pay per use basis is incredibly attractive. But this optimism relies on ignoring major problem.
Cloud latency in the age of instant access
The speed at which you can access and analyze data is a key competitive advantage (or disadvantage). No matter how fast your internet connection may be, by moving data off-site you immediately increase the time it takes to access it. Which presents a problem.
Local storage remains the ideal scenario in terms of performance then – but it’s also a lot more expensive. The falling cost of storage may be helpful, but the secondary costs – support, maintenance, redundancy – are not decreasing at the same rate. At least as far as OEMs are concerned.
Even in a hybrid cloud scenario where archive data is off-loaded to the cloud, a higher degree of manual management is required. Decision must be made about which data is stored where, and how the transfer between sites is to be managed.
Eventually the administrative overheads begin eating into your savings.
SDS and automated storage allocation
Much of the current focus on SDS is about commoditizing on-site storage, redeploying post-warranty or generic hardware to provide a scalable storage infrastructure. But it can also be used to assist with hybrid cloud management.
SDS management software can automatically analyze data usage in your data center, prioritizing data based on how frequently you access it. When connected to a suitable service (Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure), “cold” data can be moved offsite into cheaper cloud storage.
This approach frees up space in your more expensive on-site data stores for use in high priority, speed-critical processing. And by using SDS to manage the process automatically, you reduce the administrative overheads typically associated with manual data transfer in a hybrid cloud environment.
SDS could be the ultimate cost control measure for your data storage future.
To learn more about how your business can get started with SDS, hybrid cloud and hardware redeployment, please get in touch.
– See more at: http://www.cds.net/blog/2016/09/sds-storage-costs/#sthash.8fjye7IQ.dpuf