Storage virtualization & thin provisioning
Not nearly as high-impact as server virtualization, these features bring the benefit of better storage utilization, ease of backup, and simplified maintenance and provisioning. They also bring complexities, including performance management. Often, they require redesigning major processes in a data center.
Tiered storage can take advantage of ultra-high-capacity SATA devices and match device characteristics with data access frequency and availability requirements. But its not always easy to tell business users that their data is being moved to "tier 2" (a.k.a. Youre not moving my data off tier 1). Also, restoration times on large-capacity devices are exceedingly long, often necessitating power-hungry replication infrastructures which defeats the purpose.
Data de-duplication
As applied to backup or online archiving, data de-dupe can demonstrate disk reduction ratios of 10x to 15x for backup or 2x to 3x for online storage. However, disk-based backup using de-duplication is designed to replace tapes, which are the greenest of technologies (notwithstanding transportation impacts and the rising price of gasoline).
MAID/spindown
Techniques that idle drives for inactive data are an effective approach, but increasingly, organizations are wide-striping data across multiple disks for performance and resilience. This means all devices are always active and cant be idled, so spindown infrastructures should be isolated from high-performance storage.
NAND & Flash
These technologies are making inroads into conventional disk drives and if you can cost-justify the technology it will save on power relative to spinning media. Durability and maintenance impacts remain key concerns.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
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