Before reaching the stage where you’re ready to optimize your storage for Big Data analytics, there are five initial steps to consider first:
Escape from Component-Based Architecture: You know you’re stuck in the components stage if you’re purchasing equipment in a reactive mode without aligning those purchases to a business plan or outlining how they fit into a CapEx vs. OpEx financial model.
Implement Storage Services: If you can’t define your future storage needs, you’re headed toward a roadblock. Additionally, if your disaster recovery relies on tape backups, and if your team puts too much effort into managing multiple storage platforms, you may be in need of enhanced storage services.
Take Control of Your Files: Your servers are bulging with older files, but users have no time or incentive to clean them out! Establish retention rules along with tools to archive older data. By implementing a chargeback plan, you encourage staff to remove old files and free up existing storage space.
Make it Easier to Find the Information You Need: Unexamined, unindexed, unstructured data can be both a liability and a lost opportunity. You also may not know which files are useful or potentially damaging to the organization.
Integrate Systems: When different kinds of data are siloed, confusion abounds. If you realize the validity of your data is questionable and there’s no process for updating systems periodically, reporting and visualization across systems becomes tough, if not impossible.
After progressing through these five challenges, your storage systems are likely operating well overall. But you may find data analysis is a bit slow. And unless analysts ask questions in just the right way, the information that comes back may not be hitting the mark.
You could likely benefit at this point from a Big Data analytics solution that yields immediate value for your organization based on its unique data-crunching needs. To find out what shape your storage is in, take our brief quiz to discover your strengths and identify areas that could be improved at www.logicalisdatastorage.com.