Contemporary Storage Infrastructures Require Smart Data Management Tools

 

Many business owners wonder if the value of their data is really “worth it” to invest in and care for so diligently. After all, stale and old data can come off as being a money-pit, causing the question of value to be perpetuated again and again. It is important that IT departments get educated and use wisdom regarding their business approaches in relation to the data they have stored away. A good question to ask is, “how can this data work towards benefitting our business?” It is easy to say that you want a Big Data system to be incorporated into your business model, but it is quite another to actually act on it.

 

There have been lots of failed implementations of a data management system despite the expense of investing in these particular resources. Why does this happen? Why do companies say on thing and do another with respect to data management?  Other than the fact things are “easier said than done,” another likely reason is because of the amount of data out there. Just the sheer size of one company’s data can be intimidating and overwhelming to even consider, let alone manage.

 

In terms of data management, lots of administrators wonder about the cloud’s ability to efficiently handle their company’s load of information. Others wonder about virtualization. The fact is, both the cloud and virtualization are excellent places to house data, but can only go so far with respect to excellent management of data. Essentially, the most helpful thing would be a tool that is able to organize the vast amounts of data into the proper categories, which will in turn, make the company’s data worth that much more. 

 

The attitude is wrong which views stored data as nothing more than a money-hog. We must be aware of our natural tendencies, and in this regard, many people get tired of the old data and want new projects to focus on. The old and stale data is often viewed as being overly needy, requiring an abundance of backups and archiving, and is always seemingly needing lots of attention. Many corporations lose sight of the fact that this data -the very data they criticize- is their proverbial bread and butter. 

 

In other words, the heart of the company lies within this data, and not to mention, it also generates some income. If people would keep this essential point in their minds when they think of their data, it would be likely that the poor practices that are commonly occurring in the realm of data management would NOT be happening so readily. One thing is obvious: the amount of data out there to manage can surely be overwhelming, and for many, the job is just too much to handle, or at least it appears that way initially. 

 

What administrators must reflect upon is the fact that there are various resources out there that are specifically designed to deal with the huge and weighty job of data management. In fact, these tools are able to aid in the classification and organization of data, something most of us are glad we DON’T have to do by hand! These tools, combined with a sharp business understanding, make the process of successful management much easier. If you use the same logic you would use to sort and organize a pack of colored needles from a haystack, things will be quite a bit easier. Let me give you an example. 

 

Let’s pretend you are trying to scope out every chemical engineer on the planet. What steps would you take in order to narrow down your search, knowing that there are over 7 billion people on the earth? Would you go about profiling every human on the globe? Absolutely NOT. This would be a complete waste of time!  In order to make things easier, you would probably research and filter through groups of people and organize them according to profession. Perhaps you may also look into who graduated from engineering school. These basic and simple steps explain the way most people organize various things in their daily life everyday. Intelligence and a comprehensive understanding of business approaches and models will set the stage for a better handle on corporate data. This will ultimately affect the efficiency and success of the data management system within any given organization.

 

The tools that have been developed today to assist with the management of data truly give administrators a clearer and more comprehensive view of their data spheres. Modern day management tools also help to empower administrators to have a confidence when it comes to charting the sometimes scary territory of change within the vast world of IT. A good example would be changes with data types and volumes. With these developmental tools, companies almost immediately notice much less of a need for storage capacity, less money spent on backup and recovery and a clean bill of compliance. Ultimately, companies will be able to rest easy knowing that they are meeting the standards laid out in today’s regulatory compliance rules. 

 

In essence, IT departments need to make wise choices when it comes to EVERYTHING within their vast environments, but especially with their data and the management of it. Those within these spheres cannot and should not even try to depend only on the tools within the storage industry to get them through the waves of the IT world. The appropriate take on data -and how beneficial its integrity is to company health- should go hand in hand with the proper tools to help care for the data. What customers must look for is tools that are able to help track and easily classify and organize systems of files over their entire lifecycle.

 

Using intelligence and the right tools will get company much farther than likely expected. Clients can rest assured knowing data is being managed well and that the health and well-being of their foundation is in good hands. It certainly sounds like a win-win situation!

 

Jason Zhang is the product marketing person for Rocket Software's Backup, Storage, and Cloud solutions.

 

Tags: data management tools

<< Back