Specifically, three major trends are forcing companies to re-evaluate storage strategies. First, more and more static data is being stored. For example, many companies now must archive e-mail or scan in all types of documents and store them electronically. Typically, these data items never change once stored. Second, the volume of stored data is increasing exponentially thanks to the increased use of digital images, and online audio and video presentations. To put this in perspective, analysts at the storage industry consultancy The Enterprise Storage Group, have reported that the average digital photo, at 750 KB, takes as much storage as 30 pages of plain digital text with 600 words per page. So, as far as storage measurements go, "a picture is worth 18,000 words." The third data trend is that many companies want all data to be available online rather than archived offline, which creates new challenges for storage management systems. This combination of increasing amounts of fixed content data, larger data files, and the need to have instant access to all data is prompting the creation of new storage strategies. I'll examine how a couple of new solutions are helping to streamline storage management. Easing the management load
To meet the latest storage requirements, many companies have simply thrown more hardware at the problem -- adding storage capacity to keep up with the demand. But this approach is not cost-effective in the long run. If companies don't determine more efficient ways to manage storage systems, the total cost of ownership will grow out of control. "We find ourselves putting in more time managing the storage process and systems," said Alexander Richardson, IS consultant at a California electronics manufacturing company. Richardson is looking for storage systems that have management software so he can automate manual tasks that now require costly staff time. A handful of partnering agreements between storage equipment vendors, including EMC and Hitachi Data Systems, and software developers highlights a growing trend in which application data, the management of that data, and storage centers are becoming more tightly integrated. The trend is driven by the idea of having data storage applications deal with much of the data management work -- such as tracking which network drive, folder, or volume contains a specific file. This automation approach, according to experts, holds promise for simplifying storage management. "As data-placement software becomes more sophisticated, applications and end users do not need to pay as much attention to the underlying architecture of the systems used," explained David Hill, managing director of storage and storage management at Aberdeen Group. One example of this new application strategy is EMC's introduction of a new storage system called Centera. Centera's approach takes data (a file, an image, a video clip, whatever) and associates it with a unique, location-independent identifier called a Content Address. The application required to view, search, or analyse the data then uses the identifier to retrieve the relevant files or items from storage.