Choosing the Best Data Storage Solution

All businesses have a growing need these days for more data storage space. Here's how to decide which option is right for you.

Sooner or later, your business will need more space for data storage. Information in the form of e-mails, documents, presentations, databases, graphics audio files and spreadsheets is the lifeblood of most companies, and the applications that run and protect your business require a lot of disk space. In addition, a number of trends are fueling our growing hunger for storage:

• Recent government regulations, require businesses to maintain and back up a variety of data they might have otherwise deleted.
  
  
• For legal reasons, many small businesses are now archiving e-mail messages dating back five or more years.
  
  
• The pervasiveness of viruses and spyware requires ever-more vigilant backups--which requires ever-more storage capacity.
  
  
• Each new version of a software application or operating system demands more hard-drive real estate than its predecessor.
  
  
• The growing need to store large media files, such as video, and make them available to users on a network is generating demand for more sophisticated storage solutions.
  
  
• Fast backup speed requirement that match the allotted backup window without adversely affecting network band-width.
  
  
• Flexibility and requirement to connect and share remote devices and servers.
  
  
• Scalability to expand the storage infrastructure without rebuilding and requirements for interoperability between disparate systems.
  
  
• Centralized management requirement to lower the overall total cost of ownership.
  

Storing information and managing its storage isImproved scalability to expand the storage infrastructure without rebuilding. critical to a company's behind-the-scenes success. Fortunately, there are many options available to small businesses for both the actual storage and the location of that storage. Often, the best solution is a combination of different storage options. So how do you decide what's best for you? First, you'll want to consider your storage needs in terms of both capacity and physical location. Then you should look at the storage options that best fit those needs. Lastly, you need to develop a plan for implementing your chosen storage solutions.

What are Your Storage Needs

• Which applications generate the largest amount of files?
  
  
• Which applications run on which servers?
  
  
• How old is the data?
  
  
• How much of it is duplicate or stale?
  
  
• How much is not business related?
  
  
• How quickly do you need to be able to access that data?
  
  
• From what locations do you need to access which data?

Consider Your Storage Options