Big data is everywhere these days. Everyone’s talking about using data to make better decisions. According to most, big data is the answer to everything (although I’ve argued that big data isn’t the answer).
Many organizations from large to small are trying to find ways to collect and analyze data to make business decisions.
Additionally, some organizations are looking for ways to collect even more data than they currently do because the current thinking is that ‘more data’ equates to ‘more insight’. More doesn’t always equal better, it just means more work and more data to sift through.
One aspect of the big data frenzy that I don’t see enough people talking about is the storage space to hold all this data. Where are organizations storing data? In the cloud? Internally? Big data can get really big if you let it, and with the mindset that ‘more is better’, data storage volumes are growing exponentially.
With this storage growth, companies are looking for ways to reliably and cost-effectively store their data. This storage needs to be accessible and efficient in order to be able to use the data for analysis. In addition to storage for data that is ‘in-use’, organizations must find storage for the backups of that data. While this storage doesn’t have to be as robust as real-time storage, it does need to be accessible and reliable.
While most large organizations have no problem finding the right storage to hold their data and backups, many small and midsized businesses struggle to find the requisite storage to hold their data for analytics and data for backups. This struggle is due in part to budget, but also partly due to many organizations having fewer resources (people, systems, solutions, etc) to draw upon to ensure data is stored and backed up appropriately.
Big data is here to stay. While many small and medium sized organizations are trying to understand and use big data in their businesses, they are often forgetting about how this new approach to collecting and using data will affect their storage and backup/recovery budget.
Has your organization thought about storage for data as well as storage for backup/recovery for all the data you are now (or will be) collecting? If so, I’d like to hear about your current approaches.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
