Stop The Data Management Insanity: Follow Apple's Lead — Focus On Multi-Purpose Solutions

By David West, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development, CommVault

Apple got it right with the innovative iPhone as it empowers the highest degree of multitasking with a simple touch. It also gives new meaning to the word "productivity tool," since it enables people to do so much with a single device. As someone who never goes anywhere without a cell phone, PDA, laptop, Day Timer, camera, MP3 player and more, I wholeheartedly embrace the idea of a single device with all the information I need at my fingertips.

Access to information is a hot topic these days, especially as companies–big and small, public and private–struggle to optimize their electronically stored information (ESI) so it can be readily available. If you followed the advice in my last post and cleaned out your storage junk drawer, you've probably eased access to your critical data somewhat by getting rid of unwanted information while moving less important data onto less expensive storage.

Now that your house is in order in terms of what data is vital and where it should reside, let's add up all the times you save copies of that data and for what purpose. I'm sure you back up your data faithfully and even replicate the most important information, making real-time copies for elevated protection. You also probably create copies so you can archive it in accordance with corporate policies and/or regulatory compliance requirements. And, you might even have additional copies for eDiscovery. The total of all those copies most likely will surprise you.

I hear from IT managers all the time who are trying to cope with 50-percent annual increases in primary storage. Then when they factor in storing multiple copies of the same data for things like disaster recovery or litigation support, the amount is compounded 10 or 20 times. They're equally distressed that significant increases in administrative overhead can be traced to excessive time managing disparate products that don't talk to each other.

We should follow Apple's lead and ditch the point products in favor of a single platform with multi-purpose functionality. This way, a single copy of data can be managed from a single view and repurposed many times. In doing so, you create one highly optimized, highly efficient copy of data for multi-purpose use. The efficiency gains translate to direct savings in terms of dollars, storage space and administrative time.

Who wouldn't want to trade four or more different products for a common platform where you can leverage data copies for a multitude of purposes, including data protection, replication, disaster recovery, long-term archive and compliance? Common sense alone should prevail in the decision to choose a unified approach to optimizing your critical information. Add in all the savings and comparisons to Apple-like innovation and it becomes a no-brainer.

SOURCE: CommVault