Not all storage demand, however, requires the same storage infrastructure. The shift in storage demand from block-based data to file-based data—a shift leading industry analysts see as only accelerating and becoming more pronounced going forward—opens up new possibilities that extend far beyond storage as usual. These new possibilities give organizations for the first time a realistic hope that they can accommodate growth in storage demand without a corresponding increase in storage complexity and cost.
The new possibilities hinge on the fact that file-based data, accessed at the file level through file systems can be managed by intelligent systems. They enable the bridging of the worlds of applications and file resources by making the resources transparent to the application through the use of services. Four components combine to deliver these possibilities: metadata, virtualization, intelligent file area networks, and namespace.
• File area network (FAN)—uses automated intelligence to apply business-level controls to file-based data through a federated global namespace. Although conceptually similar to the storage area network (SAN) applied to block-based data, the FAN is distinguished by its ability to tap the power of file-based metadata to deliver a level of network-based automation and control not possible with a SAN.
• Metadata—consists of information about the file-based data and its usage. As a higher level of data abstraction, files make it possible to convey information about the data as well as the data itself. Through the use of metadata attached to files, intelligent systems can identify and manage the data based on business values, such as age of the data, frequency of use, and ownership of the data.
• Virtualization—enables the simplification of the storage infrastructure by masking the underlying complexity of the storage device and the specific location of the data. It makes it possible to move, access, and manage data without regard to its actual physical storage. In the process, virtualization reduces the cost of owning and managing the data and the storage infrastructure.
• Namespace—provides the ability to organize, present, and store file-based data. With these abilities, especially organizing and presenting, the namespace, in effect, becomes the heart of the FAN, where its key functions are performed.
Organizations are adopting the FAN as a non-disruptive complement to the existing storage infrastructure. It allows them to massively scale and centrally manage their file-based storage. The FAN coexists easily with SANs, handling data type (files) and metadata that are not part of the SAN design. Thus, the FAN becomes an essential enabler for information lifecycle management (ILM), enterprise content management (ECM), content-addressable storage (CAS). Virtualization ensures that the actual physical location of the data and the specifics of the storage device are of no consequence.
The FAN, through the use of metadata, also enables the development of intelligent services for file-based data. Through the FAN, organizations can deploy, automate, and manage policy-based services that provide access controls, move or replicate data, implement storage tiering, and balance loads.
Ultimately, as the FAN vision is realized, the FAN’s intelligent services will finally bridge the worlds of applications and file resources, bringing about long awaited possibilities:
• Massive global scalability
• Transparent and secure global access to data
• Efficient, centralized global data and storage management
• Seamless, fully meshed FAN/SAN infrastructure.
resolving the storage infrastructure paradox
In a recent survey, the Taneja Group found that 62% of IT decision-makers identified file data growth and file management as two of their top priorities. File-based data is all that unstructured data that sits outside of databases—office documents, presentations, email, reports, records, audio and video content, images—yet are stored and accessed by systems.
Previously, IT focused on structured data, the core transaction operational data that sits at the heart of the enterprise. It has become apparent, however, that structured data isn’t the problem now and it will be less of the problem going forward. The problem, as the respondents to Taneja’s survey made clear, is unstructured, file-based data. As it turns out, 85% of all data is stored as unstructured data (Butler Group) and 80% of business is conducted with unstructured information (Gartner Group).
Furthermore, unstructured data, according to Gartner, is growing at an unprecedented rate, doubling every three months. This incessant growth leads to what is referred to as the storage paradox: the need to store increasing amounts of data only complicates the storage infrastructure, adding to its complexity and cost.
Fortunately, unstructured or file-based data is different from structured or block-based data. File data can be handled at a higher level of abstraction, which simplifies how the data is stored, accessed, and managed. By taking advantage of the differences between file and block data, organizations can effectively resolve the storage paradox.
In effect, organization can store increasingly greater amounts of file-based data without increasing the complexity of the storage infrastructure or the cost of managing that data, which is the largest cost associated with data storage. Resolving the storage paradox opens up a wealth of new possibilities.
R S S feed
