Advantages & Disadvantages: Cloud Archiving & Tape Archiving |
Posted: November 30, 2017 |
Archival data makes up a huge portion of an enterprise data. Efficient data management of this huge chunk of data can potentially ensure cost effectiveness for the enterprise. There are two major ways of enterprise data archiving: cloud archiving and tape archiving. For tape storage, the global standard is LTO (Linear Tape Open) while there are several cloud archiving solutions available.
Before we indulge into the storage solution for archival data, let’s first briefly discuss it. Data is classified into three basic types: Hot data, Cold data and Archival data. Hot data is the type of data that’s crucial to operations and is frequently accessed. Cold data, as the name suggests, is infrequently accessed data and mission critical operations can continue without it. Archival data is the data that needs to retained, mostly for compliance reasons and sometimes for future reference. Archival data has little to no significance pertaining to enterprise operations. Tape Archiving & its PerksTape archiving has been considered cost effective for decades and that is one of the reasons why enterprises are still using it. Initially though, tape was one of a kind and there were no viable alternatives. Now, there are several solutions facilitating efficient data storage. Just like any technology, tape archiving too has advantages and disadvantages. The initial advantage of tape is now a disadvantage as it incurs an upfront cost while the competition: cloud storage, does not. Tape archiving does not consume continuous power or cooling resources unlike conventional on-premises infrastructure. It can be kept in the office and can be stored on offsite locations. When compared to other storage solutions such as storage appliances, this is cost effective as it does not incur equivalent dynamic costs. However when we consider maintenance costs and the storage renewal cost after lifetime expiry, then tape simply isn’t as cost effective either. The biggest advantage associated with tape archiving is that it can efficiently archive large chunks of data with exceptionally reduced latency. For instance, LTO-7 can support up to 15TB per cartridge, assuming a 2.5:1 compression rate. Cloud Archiving & its PerksFundamental difference between tape and cloud archiving is that there’s no hardware involved with the cloud. And another major difference is that the cloud doesn’t charge any upfront fee. Enterprises only have to pay for the storage space they use. This makes cloud archiving far more economical than tape archiving. Services like Amazon Glacier effectively reduce the overall cost of long term data retention. This is why experts suggest to backup to AWS for archiving. Cloud archiving is secured with SSL encryption as the data is archived and at rest it is protected with AES 256-bit encryption. The latency of the cloud however, is higher than tape archiving. This is why solution providers such as Amazon provide services like Amazon Snowball. This service basically comprises of using hardware to store all your data locally and then sending the device back to Amazon where they upload it to their servers and enable accessibility to the client. This is a feasible solution when an enterprise needs to archive their entire data (greater than 10TB or more). This does incur additional costs but overtime, due to the cost effective nature of the cloud, the enterprise can recover in the long run. Additionally, unlike tape storage, the cloud facilitates data analytics and indexing of the data. In tape storage, data management is a bigger challenge while the cloud simplifies the process. ConclusionData management can improve an enterprise’s operations and cost effectiveness of data storage if done right. Archival data makes up most of an enterprise data. By effectively reducing the cost of archival data storage, enterprises can optimize their budgets and redirect them. As Amazon provides the most cost effective archival solution: Glacier; enterprises should consider backing up to AWS for archival data retention and storage.
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