Everything You Need to Know About Entry Level Storage Solutions - Prashanth GJ, CEO, Technobind
Everything You Need to Know About Entry Level Storage Solutions
Today, every business aspires to become data-driven and data-empowered. Irrespective of how big or small the organization is, being data-driven is a matter of survival in the new digital economy. Data is at the core of creating & delivering new customer experiences, improving top lines & profitability and innovating continuously. Storing data in the right way is critical as ever, so that it can be accessed and analysed to drive informed decisions. But are storage requirements of all organizations the same? Certainly not. Storage approach for an SME definitely cannot be same as its large enterprise counterpart.
Here, we delve deep into why SMEs should have a more strategic approach towards storage and why entry-level storage solutions can be their best fit option.
What is an entry-level storage solution?
The data storage journey of small and medium businesses starts small and gets complicated as they grow. Most of them start with seemingly simple and straightforward storage needs. A significant number of them do not have an internal IT staff, dedicated budget or the basic infrastructure to start with. Most of them start by leveraging SaaS-based storage options because their storage needs, at that point, seem quite manageable. But before they can predict, their storage needs start to grow exponentially, making SaaS no more a viable or cost-effective option. That’s when the idea of having an in-house data center emerges.
Once again, the data storage requirements seem well under control as they invest on one or two servers and run one or two applications on them. But data is a hard beast to tame! Before an SME could realize that their storage requirements are much bigger than they initially anticipated, they would have added a greater number of servers and applications. They will have already created silos of internal storage causing inefficiencies in cost, performance and scalability.
There are several entry-level storage solutions that SMEs can leverage as a more sustainable option—something that allows them to start small and scale as they grow without sacrificing on security or performance.
Benefits of an entry – level storage solution for SMEs
The primary benefit of an entry level storage system for a small growing business is that of consolidation of internal server and end point storage in a single external shared storage resource, giving rise to increase in efficiency in terms of capacity and performance.
However, there are other benefits too. In the digital era when employee experience and productivity are considered factors that drive overall business growth, entry-level flash storage systems offer seamless and secure access to data almost in real-time, contributing to improved user experience.
Not to mention the increased storage efficiency and cost reduction.
It also enables the IT organization to focus on new business initiatives by leveraging emerging technologies such as cloud, AI, ML and deep learning. Moreover, with an entry-level storage solution at the foundation, SMEs can build on a consolidated data protection and recovery, which in turn delivers business continuity during times of crisis.
Use-cases of entry level storage solutions
There are several use cases that SMEs can explore when it comes to entry level storage. Some common uses cases for entry-level storage include:
• Enterprise applications for both file and block workloads.
• File storage and sharing.
• Video Surveillance
• Virtualization: virtual machines, including virtual desktops
• AI, ML, DL workloads
• Long term archival
• Data protection and recovery through SLAs
What to look for in an entry level storage solution?
There are a number of criteria that SMEs must consider while going for an entry-level storage solution. Quite naturally, value for money is certainly a key priority for SMEs. At the same time, the ongoing maintenance and support often turn out to be a costly affair as time goes by. This is another aspect that SMEs must factor in.
The cost barrier however should not impact the scalability in terms of either capacity or performance or the functionalities that come with the storage system.
Another key factor that SMEs should consider is to choose a storage system with ‘dual functionality’ –a storage system that can take care of both direct attach storage and shared storage needs of the SMEs. This is particularly important to avoid costly upgrades in the future and also for the success of virtualization initiatives that the organization may embark on.
Some other key features to consider include:
• Modular file, block, and object storage solutions that scale as you grow.
• Capacity scalability vertically with an ability to take advantage of latest high-capacity drives.
• The performance scalability of storage as the business scales, i.e., ability to have an SSD/Flash tier as an option for future.
• A built-in storage management system for streamlined customer experience.
• In built data protection and disaster recovery solution in terms of Snapshots and replication.
• Auto-Tiering capability, ability to use different media types for the appropriate workloads based on capacity and performance.
How does Technobind deliver on these parameters?
Technobind has over two decades of experience in providing various data-related solutions of enterprises of all sizes and industries. We have been addressing the varying storage requirements of SMEs and large enterprises through our partnership with storage vendors who are at the forefront of innovation. Entry-level storage is thus a strong area for Technobind.
We understand that SMEs come with a low entry point and affordability. But that doesn’t really mean that they don’t need the right kind of experience or functionalities. Our approach towards entry level storage is to provide a public cloud like service to drive storage as a utility even when it’s deployed on premise. That’s exactly what today’s SMEs—dealing with a host of requirements of the digital economy—must go for. Besides, the integrated unified storage functionality in our entry-level storage systems enables it to handle all kinds of workloads and use cases.
Often the deficiencies of underlying storage infrastructure restrict SMEs from innovating and focusing on true business priorities. With the right entry-level storage solution, SMEs can continue to focus on factors that really matter and prep themselves to thrive in today’s dynamic market space.