The senior researcher at IT analysts Butler Group puts the case for
storage policies
As organisations struggle to cope with data volumes that are
doubling each year, so it becomes increasingly important that data
storage policies are put in place. Before entering into a
discussion as to why it is important to have a data storage policy,
it is first necessary to establish what one is.
Put simply, a data storage policy is a set of procedures that are
implemented to control and manage data within the organisation.
These can range from policies that determine how data is collected
and stored, to a set of applications that manage all aspects of
data. It is not just internal data that should be covered by data
storage policies; Web content also needs to be included.
A good starting point for a data storage policy is how the data
should be stored, ie on-line, near-line, or off-line, as effective
archiving can dramatically reduce the size of daily back-ups. In
general terms, data that needs to be edited or updated should be
stored on-line, that is on devices that are part of the normal
storage infrastructure, either directly attached storage, Storage
Area Network (SAN), or Network Attached Storage (NAS). Data items
that may need to be accessed but not updated can be stored
near-line, either on disk or tape. Finally, data that is unlikely
to be required but needs to be kept for legal reasons, for example
financial information, can be stored off-line, on tape, and kept
either on or off-site.
As a guide to developing a data storage policy Butler Group has
established five steps. These are:
- Establish a data storage budget
- Assess data availability requirements
- Measure security levels
- Assess legal and governmental requirements
- Implement data policy corporate-wide
Why is it important to have a data storage policy? It is now widely
accepted that the growth in data is making it increasingly
difficult for administrators to manage routine maintenance tasks,
such as back-ups and disaster recovery provision. This is made more
acute by shrinking windows for these tasks.
There are many sources of data, and these need to be examined and
included in any policies. It is easy for employees to download
files from the Internet. However, the shelf life of Web documents
is incredibly short - we believe that much of the information is
out of date after as little as one month. Once downloaded, many of
these documents will never be accessed again. Instead of
downloading a document, why not just store its URL? Some companies
go further and prevent employees from downloading documents at
all.
What information?
Most organisations do not know what
information they have. If you don't know of the existence of a
document, how can you use it? With an appropriate data storage
policy in place, and the appropriate software, we believe that it
should be possible to catalogue all unstructured data.
Although unstructured data is the major beneficiary of data storage
policies, it is also vital that structured data - mainly stored in
databases - is also included. Although it is easier to manage
structured data, it still needs to be incorporated into a data
storage policy if databases are not to grow exponentially and
become unmanageable. Simple procedures, such as archiving completed
orders are relatively simple to implement, and can often be
triggered automatically.
Is a data storage policy appropriate for your company? In our
opinion it is sensible for every company to have some form of data
storage policy, regardless of size. For small companies, this may
simply involve managing the lifecycle of documents. For a large
enterprise it will involve making an assessment of how data is
collected and stored, and this is where we advice using Butler
Group's five steps. In general terms the larger the company the
greater the need for formalised policies.
The right policy?
How do you know you have the right
data storage policy? The answer to this question is relatively
simple. You know you have the right policy when you feel you are in
control of the influx of data, your back-ups are a manageable size,
and you are able to ensure that your employees have access to the
correct data in the right format at the appropriate time. This will
involve managing content downloaded from the Web, managing the
lifecycle of documents and Web content, and archiving data that is
no longer active - both structured and unstructured.
The pay off for adopting a data storage policy in our opinion is
competitive advantage. The price for failing to manage data is a
gradual slowdown in the flow of information throughout the company,
which if left unchecked could eventually affect the viability of
the organisation.