Data storage has been a hot topic for decades, despite the improvements to technology and changes to the market we have undergone. From improvements to hard drives and physical storage to the transition to the Cloud, companies have seen available storage space boost to new heights. At the same time, storage volume has also increased with increased digitization. This brings us back to the old topic of data storage and its costs.
Improvements to different storage methods continue to be made, with various experimental options being floated and worked on. For the most part, however, the greatest driver of improvements is no longer improvements on hardware but the general offloading onto the Cloud.
Cloud storage – buying shares of storage space in large centralized data centers – sidesteps much of the expense associated with setting up your own on-site hardware solutions. Instead, it allows smaller companies to leverage the Cloud provider’s advantages of scale. The Cloud provides establishes large centralized data centers and then provides access to it for a fee.
Cloud-driven digitalization
The development of the Cloud has dovetailed with increasing digitalization generally. According to FortuneBusinessInsights, data storage industry can grow 18% annually and is expected to reach $778 billion by 2030. One of the main reasons for the increase of data storage industries is AI and telecommunications which is increasing the value of data and needs bigger storage online.
The adoption of AI has driven a data center building craze in the USA, with Cloud providers assuming that the current data volume spike will not only continue but accelerate going forward. In combination with other sources of data increase, like the shift towards increased use of Teams and Slack, the smart money is on data volume for organizations to skyrocket before the end of the decade.
Data Storage and its costs
The complication this presents for organizations is that with increasing digitalization, competition for Cloud storage will drive prices up over time. The appeal of using the Cloud had been reducing the initial cost for storage, sideloading it onto a provider who would give storage space as a service. But the recurring costs associated with this model are slowly growing to the point that they may present a complication.
What’s the solution?
The first step to get data storage costs lower is to understand where the data load is coming from. Without this information, it’s impossible to address increasing data load and reduce the costs your organization incurs.
For this, we recommend TECH-ARROW’s unique Storage Optimizer tool. Using this, it is possible to get detailed information on your storage structure on SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Teams – where data is being stored, what formats it is in, which are taking the most room, and more.
Using this information, it is possible to plan your next step for how to get your data under control. The simplest way is to begin removing data from your storage system to reduce the volume and bring your costs back down to a manageable level. This can either be done laboriously by hand, or by using Storage Optimizer PRO’s automated cleanup feature.
At the same time, this step does still involve full on data deletion; while it will reduce your data volume and overhead costs, it has the possibility of exposing your organization to risk stemming from losing access to key information which has been deleted – for good.
Archiving as a cost-saving measure
Archiving may seem like a strange way to address data storage and its costs, but in the long run it remains one of the best methods to balance costs and risks. Archives can be significantly cheaper to maintain than other storage systems – after all, they need to retain data for the long term.
By offloading data from live servers onto an archive, organizations can reduce their effective data load by reducing the per-terabyte cost of keeping that data around. It also ensures that the data remains recoverable, unlike the nuclear option of fully deleting it to free up space.
In this regard, TECH-ARROW’s contentACCESS remains a top choice. By providing a full-text search option in combination with end-user access, contentACCESS makes finding and accessing data in the archive simple – allowing even data which is still in intermittent use to be offloaded from the live system. contentACCESS can archive your full spectrum of source systems, from Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive and file servers – all in one archive, accessible through one entry system.
Interested in learning more about what our solutions can do for you and your data? Contact us! Our team of experts will be glad to schedule a call and go over your options.
Your Data In Your Hands – With TECH-ARROW
