Real Time Compression: The Secret to Storage Optimization

Storage, storage, and more storage. What would a data center be without storage? While 2013 saw the expansion in businesses and technologies, what was most important for the data center was the expansion of storage. Storage needs grew exponentially, with big data and real-time analytics being the latest market trends. Data centers and storage products were aligned to this trend by innovating with the latest in storage technology – real time compression. As per IBM, one of the leaders in storage products, the goal was to introduce products that can store 80% more data with the same server footprint. A report by IDC claims that an astonishing 90% of the data used by the world currently, has been created only in the last couple of years. The growth and usage of data has been truly exponential, and storage budgets have hit new highs.

Enterprise Strategy Group Lab has reported that enterprise storage, SAN and NAS technologies included, has grown at a rate of 40% annually. This unprecedented growth has led to inefficient management systems and increasing operational costs. Forrester Consulting conducted a study to record the benefits of real-time compression solutions. The case study included users of IBM’s Storwize product, and the results have been note worthy. Respondents that participated in the study happily validated the multiple benefits of the solution – lower operational costs, lower down time, ease of performance tuning, and increased efficiency in getting the storage online. The organizations claimed a massive return on investment (ROI) of 150% over a period of 15 months. The financial savings by the 11 organizations that participated in the study were in the range of $631,154 over a 3 year period.

The real-time compression product from IBM is reported to enhance performance three-fold, and can deliver five times more storage in the same space. It also is 47% easier to manage, and storage growth is lowered by an incredible 30%.

For gearing up to the new storage optimization using real-time compression and other similar technologies, do contact the experts in data center storage solutions at www.lifelinedatacenters.com.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.