Now that Network Appliance has rolled out its proprietary A-SIS (Advanced Single Instance Storage) sub-file data de-duplication technology, a NetApp filer running SnapLock can one-up the CAS vendor's single instance storage, eliminating not just duplicate files but also duplicate data within files, ensuring that those five corporate positioning slides that appear in almost every PowerPoint presentation will be stored only once.
Compared with CAS systems, locked NAS does lack a mechanism for storing metadata about objects. How big a problem that is depends on how good your archiving software is. CAS systems provide an XML interface for storing file metadata, but organizations selecting locked NAS as their compliance stores will need to look to their archiving software or enterprise content management systems as a metadata store.
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SIDEBAR: Send It Out: Storage As A Service
It used to be that IT groups resisted using external services for their compliance archives, concerned that putting valuable data in someone else's hands heightens the risk of exposure, loss and availability lapses. Online archive providers including big players IBM Global Services, EDS, EMC, Sun and Network Appliance have gone to great lengths to address these fears by hosting their archive infrastructures in state of the art data centers with redundant power and Internet providers. The investment has paid off: In 2006, the worldwide storage service market was worth about $25 billion, according to Gartner, which says that should grow to $33 billion by 2010.
Our take: When you must retrieve data fast -- and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure now require that parties to a lawsuit produce evidence much more quickly than in the past -- having access to a staff that lives and breathes archiving day in and day out is worth its weight in subpoenas. Applications that generate revenue, or helpdesk calls, get in-house admins' attention first.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
