Copan Corrals Persistent Data

April 25, 2008: According to storage specialist Copan Systems, data is continuously being stored in the wrong place and adding fuel to the myriad of problem hot spots cropping up as the explosive growth in data continues.

Copan focuses on storage solutions dealing with the protection and management of persistent data, and it is using this experience in its newly launched consulting service, design to help its customers take control of their storage back and managing their data more effectively.

Copan says the current explosive growth in data levels is different to what we have seen in the past, as it is more file and media-based, plus businesses want and are required to keep it longer.

Copan is focussing on “Persistent Data”, that is data that is written once, rarely changed and infrequently accessed, and according to researchers at The Info Pro, typical enterprises will see their data storage needs grow by up to 230 percent by 2010, creating much more persistent data, and many more problems if it isn’t handled correctly.

The Enterprise Storage Group (ESG) estimates that between 60% to 85% of the data sitting on primary systems is non-transactional or post-transactional — half of which is a replicate of non-transactional data.

According to ESG’s Steve Duplessie, the costs of keeping this type of persistent data on primary storage systems can be huge.

“Primary disk is more expensive to acquire, manage, maintain and power. By moving data off expensive primary storage systems and onto lower-cost SATA-based secondary storage systems, organisations can significantly reduce capital and operational costs while continuing to ensure high availability, security and quick access to data,” said Duplessie.

Copan says its new Persistent Data Assessment Service aims to help customers understand where their most frequently accessed files reside, how much persistent data they have and what kind of medium it resides on.

When this is complete, Copan says it can then migrate the data to one of its Enterprise MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disk) platforms to improves storage utilisation, service levels and reduce administration workload.

The company adds that by taking persistent data offline there are also many energy-saving benefits, with power consumption, cooling costs and overall footprint being reduced by as much as 85 percent.

Comment on this story