New Technologies in Data Storage
By Lorrie Delk Walker
The hunter/gatherer role has been replaced by many other roles played by humans throughout time, and it appears that within the past 20 years or so, we have become a race of electronic data gatherers.
The advent of technology has created a need for us to horde information. In the home, we save thousands of digital photos, songs, homework assignments and family videos. So just imagine what is required of businesses when it comes to data storage. Businesses must save data and rely on data storage for more than posterity. Today data is intellectual capital, critical customer and support information about products and services, competitive marketing information, human resources data and much more, says Hamid Hashemi, president and chief executive officer of Micro Depot, Inc. in Norcross, Ga. In many cases, data storage the law.
Developing better, faster, more reliable and environmentally friendly data storage solutions at a competitive price has become a priority for companies such as MDI, a builder of enterprise computing solutions, Storage Area Network and Network-Attached Storage systems and custom industrial computing platforms.
“The bottom line is if you look at what is happening currently in the market with security cameras, video streaming, voice and internet data, all result in information that businesses need to keep for compliance or for internal usage reasons, ” Hashemi says. “You can imagine the impact of data storage on businesses as they gather, access and archive business data.” Data storage requirements differ, but this data needs to be kept accessible and safe for different business uses, he says.
Because of where companies are, in terms of the rapid increase in volume, coupled with the requirement to comply with government mandates regarding data storage, an environment has been created where most companies large and small have to keep track of data and make sure they can move it in the event of an emergency or as businesses shift and consolidate through mergers, acquisitions or restructuring. “That data has become valuable,” Hashemi says.
To address the data storage needs of companies throughout the world, MDI created a “very unique solution,” he says. The company designed a family of iSCSI data storage products called Teras®. MDI has developed Portable SAN and NAS data storage systems equipped with a built-in monitor, keyboard and mouse in the event that the stored data must be accessed in the field.
This Portable SANand NAS data storage system provides flexible input/output, Hashemi says, adding, “It literally supports any I/O that is out there.”
Why is that so important?
“Most IT environments are very heterogeneous,” he says. “There are different kinds of platforms, types of systems and different types of operating systems and networks. Basically, you have a mix of different kinds of technology.”
The portable Teras data storage systems provide capabilities that allow the IT professional to access those environments directly, making use of its broad I/O support. The primary uses of the portable SAN/NAS system is in data consolidation, data migration, disaster recovery, data center consolidation and relocation for markets such as defense, government, telecom, financial and law enforcement to name a few examples. “It can literally be used anywhere,” Hashemi says. “Because of where we are in terms of the rapid increase in volume and government regulations regarding keeping track of data, companies need to take necessary measures that will ensure they can move the data in the event of an emergency and it can be recalled when needed.
Data can be migrated over a network, but a high volume of data cannot be moved from one place to another quickly and cost-effectively because of the lack of bandwidth, data security or integrity issues, Hashemi says. Data migration over a network can be time-consuming, costly and it can be difficult to retrieve the data.
“Traditionally, when a company wanted to move data from one place to another or had multiple data centers they wanted to consolidate, the difficulty was in making sure that once everything was moved it all worked the way it used to,” he says. “The question always has been how to deal with those risks and uncertainties.”
The Teras Portable SAN was designed taking those and other types of challenges into consideration. This new data storage method creates cost efficiency and improved speed of transfer, he says. Now businesses can load all of their data onto the portable SAN data storage and ship it easily, if needed. This can be done via two methods. The portable Teras can be shipped to the destination site, where it can be directly attached to the environment, or just the drives can be sent. Once there, the drives can be installed into a second Teras Portable or a Data Docking Station on site. Data encryption, software key and hardware security are provided to keep the data safe and reliable for use at the destination site.
For example, if a New York business has a data center in London and it wants to move 10 terabytes of data from New York to London, the current and traditional way of doing so was with tape. With systems like this, Hashemi says, “you gather and load the data very rapidly.” The hard drives are removable from the portable storage system and can then be secured in a rugged carrying case. That case is approved as a carry-on by the Federal Aviation Administration. This way, the drives can travel with an individual from New York to London, for example, without leaving their side. “An employee can simply store the case in the overhead compartment or under the seat on the plane,” he says. It also can be shipped to the destination site.
Micro Depot, Inc. also engineered a data docking station. To continue with the example, Hashemi says, the company could have a docking station in London and once the drives arrive, they can be plugged into the docking station and the data can be quickly retrieved.
In scenarios where the portable Teras has been shipped, IT personnel can make use of the built-in keyboard and console to access the data at the destination site.
“Sometimes it can take weeks for a specific file or folder to be retrieved,” Hashemi says. As the cost decreases and the capacity of this type of storage systems grows, “we believe that in the future, all data will be stored and relocated using this type of portable SAN/NAS technology. We feel that the tape technology eventually will go away.”
The portable Teras data storage uses Serial Attached Storage (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives or a combination of both if needed. Because of capacity and cost, the primary drives are SATA, but if the capacity is not an issue and speed is of greater importance, SAS is the recommended drive for these data storage systems, he says.
As long as the Internet and the need for data storage continue to grow, and data capacity stays ahead of the pipeline bandwidth, there will be a need for solutions such as portable Teras.
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