Database Storage

Understand data compliance

As new data volumes continue to increase, an organization must implement a  data retention policy which is a set of rules that highlight what type of data should be stored or archived and for how long. It helps the organization determine how to search and access the data. Once the data retention period is over, an organization may delete or remove historical data or store it in tertiary storage based on its needs which can help reduce storage space and cost. For instance, the Canadian federal government has highlighted rules and policies that can help a company implement data management practices in Canada. The policy covers where to store data and how to obtain information to destroy it. Each jurisdiction has its own data management regulations to ensure compliance and storage methods are being used.

Advantages data storage management

Both privacy and data protection policy govern the digital economy landscape, and there are legislative policies that protect users in a data-driven economy. For organisations, proper data management strategies can protect against data loss and ensure that data is kept safe from external threats, human error, and system failures. A company's data protection strategy should also include proper backup and disaster recovery and sufficient data storage users. The advantage of maintaining data protection policies is that storage management teams can oversee and monitor various incoming data, leading to reduced cost, as admins can better organise data resources.

Disadvantages and challenges of data storage

As we saw in the previous section, enterprise data storage is as it helps enterprises store, manage and scale their data. It seems very easy in practice, but new technology makes data storage challenges more prominent. Here are some of the critical challenges of effective data management:

• Enhance data security practices as ransomware attacks are on the rise;
• Scalability as the organisation's data records grow and storage; solutions are constantly required;
• Accessibility in a case of a ransomware attack or a power outage is essential to ensure that data can be recovered and returned to regular day-to-day business.
• Data Protection ensures that users
  

These data storage challenges illustrate the importance of implementing a comprehensive plan; enterprises should also ensure that data is protected against security breaches and ransomware attacks. The lack of compliance could result in hefty fines; for example, The Canadian government proposed new legislation that includes heft fines for companies up to $25M or 5% of revenue for a data breach.

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A look at data storage management strategies

When implementing data storage practices keep the following things in mind:

• Don’t neglect unstructured data;
• Understand compliance requirements;
• Establish a data retention policy;
• Look for a solution that fits your data;
• Data storage is expensive, don’t let upfront costs dictate your decision;
• Use a tiered storage approach;
• Know your clouds;
• Choose storage providers carefully;
• Never store redundant data;
• Have a data disaster recovery plan;
• Find the stored data easily;
• Avoid cloning data;
• And always ensure that data is secure and protected against threats.
  

The Storage Management Initiative versus  Intelligent Platform Management Interface

Company’s also have the option to incorporate standards that are based on storage management interfaces such as The Storage Management Initiative and the Intelligent Platform Management Interface. The Storage Management Initiative was designed to manage a company’s data on a storage area network (SAN), that can encompass multiple vendors. The system is often incorporated to provide broad interoperability and heterogenous storage vendor systems, which allows new devices to be added to the SAN. Admins can access and control all aspects of a network from any remote location. In addition to SAN, Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), is an open-standard hardware management interface that encourages equipment vendors and IT managers to promote modern systems that will enhance security, scalability, and implement features to existing data centres. Information is exchanged through baseboard management controllers that are embedded in the IPIM’s hardware components. The IPIM comes with several benefits: first, it allows for out-of-band server management, and second, there it offers an ease of transporting system status data.

What is object, block and file storage

Another criteria that an enterprise has to consider is to choose among object, block and file storage. Block storage is a default type for HDDs and SSDs and is well known for its performance capabilities. File storage is a simple method to store files in a secure place, and object storage organises unstructured data at a low cost.

During the covid-19 pandemic as more employees worked from remote locations, data security and breach became an ongoing challenge for most organisations. The ‘work from home’ policy increased security complications which include the following risks:

• Less data security at home offices;
• Use of personal devices for work;  
• Misuse of applications;  
• Less formal work habits;  
• And more opportunities for malicious threats.
  

An enterprise has to ensure that endpoint security, encryption and access controls are in place to protect against data breach and security concerns. The future of data storage is an ever evolving field, cloud storage has skyrocketed since the pandemic began and admins are constantly being trained on multi-cloud, hybrid-cloud, and native cloud data protection. A trend that is likely to increase for years to come.

The Deskree Advantage

Deskree’s data storage capabilities help store vast amounts of data to keep up with the demand for data management. Easily create a database with virtually unlimited number of tables and columns. Search, filter, and sorting included by default! Automatically upload data to storage from Base64 or url. Deskree automatically generates API documentation as a Postman Collection for every database table you create and every integration you activate.

References:

IBM, Data Storage Defined: “What is data storage”: https://www.ibm.com/topics/data-storage

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