Archiving and storage management technology has changed significantly in the last few years as a result of both the increase in the quantity of data and the rapid deployment of new storage and network technologies to host it. There are a number of core capabilities that storage management solutions will therefore be required to deliver more and more:

Multi-copy, multi-media archiving

Enterprise media management

Integrated storage management

Multi-tier architecture for enterprise scalability

Application integration

Block-level business continuity services

BridgeHead Software delivers technology that fully addresses these storage management needs, and continues to design leading-edge systems to address all new values as the industry continues to develop.

The following answers to 10 Frequestly Asked Questions about archiving and data storage management address the benefits of an archiving solution. Contact us to discuss further.

1.   Why do I need archiving software? 
Archiving is one of the best ways to manage uncontrollable data growth because it will help you identify which files are no longer active within your organization and thus not required on your primary storage tier.  The requirements of your data (value to the organization, access time, security, etc) will change over time so both the media and location of this data should also change accordingly in order to more cost effectively meet those requirements.  Archiving software helps you achieve this.

2.   I’m still not convinced, so what are five operational reasons why I need to deploy an archiving solution?

• To help you locate your data – Flat files (spreadsheets, word docs, PowerPoint’s, PDFs) are the currency of today’s business but do you know where all this data is?  Once your data is in an archive, it’s classified, indexed and searchable – all of it.  You and your users now have a powerful, fully searchable, repository of information.

• To bring your backup window back to a manageable level - What was once a 6 hour process has now stretched to 10, 12 or even 24 hours as your primary store has grown over time.  Yet much of that data is static and not often accessed.  With 2 copies safely in an archive, backup of that data is no longer necessary, freeing primary storage space, reducing backup media costs, and simplifying overall data management.  Note: Studies show that you may have as many as 11 copies of the same static file on various backup tapes within your organization! 
• You want to put IT back in control of your data – Too much important corporate data still resides within the user community on local workstations and laptops, outside the easy reach of the IT department.  You need to harness this data and bring it back under your control – an effective archiving strategy can help you do this. 
• You want an easier way to restore single files – Your users lose their files – it happens.  Sifting through backup tapes to restore individual files is not a good use of anyone’s time.  Archiving allows very granular access to data, allowing user access without IT intervention.    
• You need a compliant storage management tool – New government and regulatory agency requirements mean you absolutely need greater control of your data.

3.  Why not keep all my data on my primary storage tier, so it has both high performance and high availability? 
Most organizations have recognized that data has different values to the business at different times – current files need the availability and performance benefits that come from your primary storage layer.  Files that are no longer active, or accessed, on the other hand, end up clogging up your primary storage layer by placing an unnecessary management overhead on this infrastructure – more files to manage, more to back up, more to index / search, etc.

4.  Hardware is not expensive these days so why bother with archiving? 
Don’t believe the hype – actual hardware costs may be dropping, but the real cost of storing data is actually rising due to the overhead associated with managing that data.  Deploying an archive solution not only helps reduce the amount of data on your primary storage layer but also helps reduce your backup windows by moving files that do not need to be backed up from that primary layer.  Archiving also provides a searchable information store and a management platform for addressing compliancy requirements.  At its core, archiving software is a data management solution that provides many more benefits than simply throwing more hardware at the problem.

5.  OK, I see some benefits to archiving, so how do I identify which files should be moved off the primary storage layer? 
BridgeHead Software's HT FileStore archiving solution can analyze your file system and report back on the status of your files (last access date, last modify date, file creation date, file type, groups using the file, etc.).  We can locate and indentify those files that are candidates for archiving and show you the benefit and return on investment of moving them to a lower cost storage layer.  Before you buy more storage capacity for your SAN, you really ought to look at HT FileStore. 

6.  Won’t my user community revolt if I try to archive their data?
Not at all. Files can be archived transparently allowing users to access the data just as they always have.  Furthermore, we can archive their files in such a way that it appears their files are still there – they simply click on the file and it will come back. The file in fact comes back from the archive instead of their primary storage layer.  Access times provided by secondary storage are fully under your control based on what type of platform you have, or make available, based on the needs of the users and the data.   The key is YOU are in control!

7.  Will deploying an archiving solution deliver any advantages to my user community?  Certainly – a BridgeHead Software archiving solution provides a powerful search capability using an industry standard search engine through either Windows Explorer or a browser interface, making it much easier for the user community to find the data they need.  This also means they can retrieve lost or deleted files directly from the archive without having to involve the IT community, which they would if retrieving lost data from a backup tape.

8.  If I buy an archiving solution from BridgeHead Software, am I locked into a proprietary solution?
Not at all.  In fact the benefit of using BridgeHead Software as your archiving provider is that we are storage vendor and platform agnostic.  We work with the prevalent disk, tape and optical vendors to ensure that you can deploy your choice of storage hardware.  We also enable you to repurpose your existing storage assets in an effort to minimize the cost associated with deploying an archiving solution.  Some of our customers have even commented that our software provides them greater leverage with their hardware vendors because now they have more options and greater control.

9.  I already have backup software so why do I need an archiving solution?
Backup and archive solve different IT problems.  Backup is intended to provide the ability to fully recover all or major parts of an IT operation in the event of a significant problem or disaster.  Archiving on the other hand provides value via a more granular, file level approach – offering easy user access to individual files, enhancing compliance and disaster recovery capabilities, and reducing overall storage costs. 

10.   I want to learn more, so what do I do now? 
Contact BridgeHead Software on info@bridgeheadsoftware.com and an archiving specialist will help you evaluate your storage environment and show you the benefits of deploying an archiving solution.