In relation to protecting business critical data, the biggest challenges facing a typical datacentre today include:
Storage growth
Data growth is typically not linear. Analysts such as IDC predicts storage requirements will double roughly every two years. As such, on premise costs can explode if not tiered and managed correctly, whilst adding additional trays of disks can be an expensive exercise.
Backup and disaster recovery
Availability and recoverability of critical business services and associated data should be aligned with continuity plans and is usually a pain point for every IT department. The costs associated with establishing an alternative site for DR are also way out of kilter with the likelihood of the risk occurring, and is offsite DR is therefore frequently deemed cost prohibitive.
Data archiving and retention
Internal policies or legislated governance may require your organisation to retain point-in-time backups for years. This has traditionally been delivered through storing tapes at offsite locations. Selecting a technology mix to cover all of these pressure points has historically been an arduous process. Vendors may offer some or most of the requirements, but few have been able to tick every box to deliver an end to end solution.
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