Tiered Storage
Solve your Tiered Storage Challenges with Dell
Rapid data growth continues to create challenges for organizations of every size. As data volumes grow exponentially, IT managers are constantly scrambling to keep up with storage requirements while managing increased scrutiny of budgets and data center costs. Tiered storage technology offers long-term, sustainable solutions for the management of both active and inactive data.
The Cost and Complexity of Tiered Storage
There are different cycles of cost that accompanies data growth. A rapid rise in data volumes requires organizations to buy more storage, sometimes of different types, which can result in not only capital costs, but additive costs associated with backup, management, disaster recovery, energy requirements and more.
Tiering storage solutions can address these issues with automated storage tiering within a storage system or as part of a broader multicloud solution that can easily move data between on-premises storage systems and public/private clouds to provide the best cost for data at the different points in its life cycle.
The goal of either approach is to deliver the needed performance, at the lowest cost, with the most flexibility, and requiring the least human intervention.
Dell addresses these challenges with technologies that lets you build a tiered storage solution leveraging the advantages of both on-premises and the cloud. And it does so using powerful automated capabilities optimized for cost, capacity and durability.
Why Choose Dell for Tiered Storage?
For organizations seeking to reduce the cost and complexity of managing tiered storage, Dell tiered storage solutions provide advantages that include:
Simplicity:
Letting you store, manage and interact with your data anywhere.
Efficiency:
Providing the right capabilities, performance, and protection for data wherever it is in its life cycle.
Scalability:
Scale to whatever magnitude needed using the right technology be it on-premises, in the cloud, or a combination of both for a multicloud deployment.
Cost:
Leveraging all that Dell tiered storage solutions have to offer to deliver the best total cost of ownership.
Support for your Tiered Storage Solution
Dell’s enterprise support services for tiered storage solutions are built on a foundation of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics. They not only extends the reach of your IT team but enables you to resolve issues before they impact your business.
Dell portfolio of support services provide experts, tools, technologies and ease-of-use that deliver the enterprise-class support your organization requires. Our services include:
- 24x7x365 access to experts in hardware and software.
- Predictive analytics for issue prevention and automatic issue detection.
- Flexible levels of support to address needs based on the complexity and business-critical nature of specific systems.
Understanding Storage Tiering and its Significance
Storage tiering, often referred to as data storage tiering, is the process of categorizing and allocating data to different types of storage media based on its importance, frequency of access, and other factors. The primary objective of storage tiering is to optimize storage resources, ensuring that critical and frequently accessed data is stored on high-performance storage while less critical data is moved to more economical storage options.
Tier 0 Storage:
This is the fastest and most expensive type of storage, typically comprising high-performance SSDs. It's ideal for mission-critical applications and data that require rapid access.
Tier 1 Storage:
Often used for critical business applications, this tier offers a balance between performance and cost. It's faster than Tier 2 but not as rapid as Tier 0.
Tier 2 Storage:
This is a more economical storage option, suitable for data that doesn't need to be accessed as frequently. It might include slower SSDs or traditional HDDs.
The Mechanics of Tiered Management in Storage
Tiered management in storage revolves around the automated movement of data between different storage tiers, and often between different platforms. This movement is based on predefined policies and the changing value of the data to the organization. As data transitions from being frequently accessed to less active, tiered management systems automatically move it from higher-cost, high-performance tiers to more economical storage tiers.
Data Tiering: This process involves analyzing the access patterns of data and then moving it between tiers and systems accordingly. For instance, data that hasn't been accessed for a certain period might be moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2 storage.
Tiered Data Storage: This refers to the actual storage infrastructure that supports multiple tiers. It's the backbone of any tiered storage strategy, ensuring that data is stored on the most appropriate medium.
Tiering in Storage: This is the overarching strategy and set of practices that guide how data is categorized and moved between tiers.
Tiered Storage FAQs
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Tiered storage is a strategy for managing the cost of retaining and accessing data. A tiered storage solution enables organizations to move older, less important and infrequently accessed data to less expensive storage and solutions, while maintaining active and important data on high-performing storage media.
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As data volumes continue to rise at an increasing pace, organizations are faced with increasing costs for storage media and the expense of managing it, including the costs of staff time, power, cooling, and technology to effectively manage data. Depending on its value, maintaining all data on high-performing, tier 1 storage media is often impractical.
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Tiered storage solutions can reduce storage costs by enabling organizations to use cheaper storage media for data that does not need to be accessed as frequently or as quickly. Dell tiered storage solutions enables further cost savings by automating data retention and backup and enabling organizations to use on-premise systems, public or private cloud together in a multicloud deployment that delivers the best overall ROI.
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Storage tiering aims to optimize storage resources by ensuring that data is stored on the most appropriate storage medium based on its importance and access frequency. This approach helps in balancing performance needs with cost considerations.
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Data tiering refers to the process of moving data between different storage tiers based on its access patterns and importance. In contrast, tiered storage refers to the actual infrastructure that supports multiple storage tiers.
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Several factors can influence this decision, including the age of the data, how frequently it's accessed, its importance to the organization, and predefined policies set by the IT department.
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Tiered management allows businesses to optimize their storage infrastructure, ensuring that critical data is readily accessible while less important data is stored more economically. This approach not only saves costs but also enhances performance and efficiency.
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Some challenges include ensuring data integrity during movement between tiers, managing the complexity of multiple storage solutions, and ensuring that tiering policies align with business objectives.
Every customer’s requirements are unique, and the wealth of Dell Technologies storage solutions can be brought together in different combinations to deliver the best tiered storage needed:
Unified (Block & File):
Block:
Network Attached Storage (NAS/File):
HCI & CI:
Object Storage:
Data Protection:
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