Data volumes are in fact growing faster than the price/performance ratios of disk storage technology. Furthermore, there are many more factors involved in managing data environments than simple disk storage capacity. Consider the following facts:
- In order to meet agreed service levels for data availability, integrity and performance, multiple copies of the data are typically maintained on mirrored devices, off-site disaster recovery facilities and development systems
- Storage devices for industrial use require rugged and/or redundant components, with far greater performance and reliability than is typically provided by low-cost drives
- Large amounts of expensive cache memory are required to get adequate performance from large storage arrays
- Significant processing power is required to perform I/O operations and processes to ensure data availability (backups, for example)
- Storage farms and the associated processors require expenditures on energy, space and other environmental factors. This includes both the cost of managing the stored data itself and the associated expenses for air conditioning, sophisticated Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) equipment, and so on.
- Offsite “hot sites” require network bandwidth to maintain data currency.
- Considerable administrative work (for example, index building) is involved in retrieving data and making it ready for analysis.
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