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New Survey Finds Majority of Organizations Use Expensive Storage for Infrequently Accessed Data(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NATICK, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/25/14 -- TwinStrata, an innovator in cloud-integrated storage solutions, today announced the results of its "Industry Trends: 2014 State of Storage" survey. Analysis reveals that the majority of organizations continue to use expensive primary storage systems to store infrequently accessed data. As a result, respondents engaging in this practice spend significantly more of their annual IT budget on storage than their peers. Conducted in May 2014, the survey collected responses from 254 IT professionals involved in their organization's storage strategy. The full report and accompanying infographic can be downloaded at: www.twinstrata.com/storage-survey-2014. Managing inactive dataManagement of inactive data (as defined by being unused for six months or more) proved to be an area where the greatest improvements can be made. Specifically, the survey found: The majority of organizations estimate that at least half of all data stored is inactive. One in five state that at least 75% of their data is inactive.Fifty-three percent of all respondents store inactive data on storage area networks (SANs). Eight-one percent of organizations who use SANs and network-attached storage (NAS) in their environment store inactive data on them. Twenty-one percent keep inactive data exclusively on SANs or NAS devices.Organizations using public cloud storage to store inactive data have a comparatively lower storage budget than those that do not: Sixty-two percent of organizations that store inactive data solely on SANs or NAS spend more than 10 percent of their IT budget on storage. In contrast, only 39 percent of organizations using public cloud storage to store at least part of their inactive data say the same.Capacity and storage managementThe survey also asked general questions regarding the continued maintenance and management of storage infrastructure and found: Three out of five organizations replace their storage systems within five years. When asked the top reasons for storage system replacement, growing capacity needs (54 percent), manufacturer end of life (49 percent), new technology (38 percent), and high maintenance costs (30 percent) were most cited. Increased capacity requirements lead to: Two-thirds (68 percent) of organizations purchasing additional capacity on an annual or bi-annual basis. More than half (52 percent) deleting old data to free up capacity. Forty percent replacing entire storage systems to create additional capacity.QuotesNicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata, said: "Our survey brings to light an unspoken truth: Companies waste money storing their least important data on their most expensive systems. Today's IT teams struggle under the weight of traditional storage tactics, leading to wasted budget and storage management inefficiencies. By intelligently incorporating cloud storage into its strategy, an organization can redeploy both budget and staff resources to higher-value initiatives."About TwinStrataTwinStrata's cloud-integrated storage makes data storage straightforward, affordable and maintenance-free by enabling organizations to scale their storage area networks (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) with on-demand cloud capacity. Customers use CloudArray to support primary, secondary, backup and archive storage needs. More information is available at twinstrata.com. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2624862 Rachel Vitale [email protected] Source: TwinStrata |