Previous page:Staggering surge in digital information
Steinhardt said to effectively manage data, IT managers should adopt the following best practices:
- classify data according to importance, need for access, relevance to business operations and compliance;
- create defined policies for storage, access and eventual destruction of data; and
- choose the appropriate software and hardware to accomplish data management goals.
Reinsel suggested IT managers could look to server consolidation and virtualization tools to increase data storage capacity.
He said various strategies could be used to streamline data management processes.
These include "de-duplicating" software that actively guards against replication of saved data, as well as using applications that associate access policies with documents.
While the cost of storage technology has gone down, the cost of data management continues to rise, according to Parag Suri, category manager, StorageWorks division, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., based in Mississauga, Ont.
"Data management and operation could actually cost twice as much as technology by 2008," said Suri.
For instance, a typical bank could be dealing with at least 2,000 terabytes of data, he said. The same organization might have to dedicate at least one IT personnel for every 40 terabytes of data.
"There is a growing drive to reduce the number of people managing the storage environment."
One of the key solutions, Suri said, would be to consolidate technology and to resort to virtualization.
Like Reinsel and Steinhardt, he recommends the setting up of data protection and retention policies. This he said should be accompanied by an enterprise-wide information and training campaign.
"What good is a policy if people are not aware of it or not applying it?"
Suri also said IT managers should "view data storage as a utility."
Storage - like utility services - has seasonal characteristics, he noted. There would be periods when storage was at peak or low demand.
"Recognizing these service peaks and valleys will enable IT managers to plan data storage allocation and reduce cost."
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