Making Big Data Possible:

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1 Making Big Data Possible: Evaluating New Ways of Storing Data on a Massive Scale A Storiant-commissioned survey of CIOs

2 Cost Divide Remains Between the Cloud & the Cloud Nots Overview Big data relies on a key foundation: having access to as much data as possible, retained over the longest period of time. But there s something holding companies back from the promise of big data the cost to keep all that data. IDG predicts organizations will see data volumes increase 76% within the next months. And while the amount of data businesses are storing continues to increase exponentially, the way(s) they store that data has remained relatively unchanged. Consider this: 85 percent of business data is made up of cold data that is accessed infrequently. Yet many companies store it on the same high-cost systems used for data requiring millisecond response time. This highlights a disconnect between the way today s businesses are storing and accessing their data and the way they could be doing so. The potential is clear: Cold data can be an invaluable piece to a company s big data puzzle. But the research shows that currently, many companies are spending much more than they need to in order to take advantage of the promise of big data. 2 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

3 Facebook: A Perfect Case Study According to IDC s report on cold storage, Facebook faced this exact conundrum. After some analysis, the company found that there was a fairly substantial demand drop-off for photo access as a photo ages. In other words, Facebook was paying a substantial premium to have the 92% of the photos infrequently accessed on the same storage as the 8% of the photos that are frequently accessed. As a result, Facebook designed and deployed a proprietary cold storage solution named Open Vault, which allows the company to have access to their cold or longterm data while maintaining it at a far lower price point. To investigate the changing dynamics of data storage and to explore whether Facebook s approach could be a model for other companies facing similar challenges, Storiant commissioned independent research firm Research Now to survey 100 CIOs in the United States. This report presents the findings of this study and the takeaways for businesses looking to leverage big data analytics for competitive advantage. Key Findings 60% of CIOs say data will outpace their company s storage solution in 12 months or less 37% of CIOs are currently storing between 500,000 and 1 million gigabytes of data Almost 1 in 5 CIOs (19%) are currently storing between 1 million and 499 million gigabytes of data In 2 years, 21% of CIOs will be storing between 1 million and 499 million gigabytes of data, and 1 out of every 10 (11%) will be storing between 500 million and 999 million gigabytes of data 46 percent of CIOs retain data for 6-10 years due to regulatory and compliance needs 1 out of 3 CIOs pay between $.21 and $.30 per gigabyte/month to store cold data (at 1,000,000 gigabytes and $.26 per gigabyte, that s $260,000 per month and $3.12 million annually) 3 out of 4 CIOs say they only have access to 50 percent or less of their data in 30 seconds or less Assuming that budgets remain flat, 46% of CIOs say they will have to be selective about which data to keep if they maintain their current storage solution 3 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

4 The reality: Research revealed that the storage solutions businesses have in place today are not enough to support the exponential growth of data that those same businesses are seeing. In one year or less, 60% of CIOs say data will outpace their company s current storage solution. What this means for companies looking to leverage big data analytics is that they need to identify new storage technology that allows them to store data on a massive scale, at a fraction of historical costs. 4 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

5 Big data isn t the only driver of data retention For many companies today, data is both a competitive asset and a part of the business that must be preserved to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. While many businesses and industries are taking advantage of the low costs and scalability of the public cloud, for many others it not a viable alternative. Specifically, 1 out of every 3 CIOs surveyed claim public cloud storage is not an option due to security, control and compliance needs. But that means those businesses are at a significant cost disadvantage. Consider this: The average cost for cold data storage is $.01/gigabyte per month in the public cloud. A private cloud? The costs can be times higher. While that may not seem like a lot, when looking at the cumulative costs to store the huge amounts of data businesses are storing today, it can be quite massive. 5 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

6 Do the Math: 30 percent of CIOs pay $.21 $.30 per gigabyte per month to store archive data, averaging out to $.26 per gigabyte per month for secure storage. All data is not created equal In any business, there are multiple kinds of data data that needs to be accessible immediately; data that needs to be accessed within a few seconds or minutes; and data that is accessed infrequently. While these types of data play different roles within an organization, each is valuable. After all, the main theme of the big data movement is that the more data you have and the longer you keep it the more valuable it becomes. These different types of data require different kinds of storage solutions. For example, cold (or infrequently accessed) data does not require a premium storage solution that allows a business to access it immediately. Rather, like Facebook, cold data can be stored in a way that allows businesses access, but at a much lower price point. 6 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

7 Unfortunately, for many businesses today, their current storage solutions do not allow them reliable, quick access to their cold data, which can impact the ways they are able to leverage and derive value from that information. The emergence of unstructured data The number of devices that collect and produce data is also increasing, with much of the new data in unstructured form including photos, video and audio. Because traditional data storage was not designed to handle unstructured data in a cost efficient and scalable way, the trend demands new types of storage capable of accommodating both structured and unstructured data. Unstructured data can be prohibitively expensive to store on traditional file systems. And today s CIOs know this: 50 percent claim that they will start using object storage within the next year, which allows businesses to store large volumes of structured and unstructured data on a common platform. 7 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

8 Storiant s Advice When choosing a cold data storage solution for your organization, your top considerations should be ultra-low cost, exabyte scalability, ready access to archive data and optimization for emerging, unstructured data types. Is your storage solution designed for today s needs? Find out by checking the options that apply to you: Cost: My costs for storing cold/archive data is more than $.01/GB/month My costs are the same for storing hot (frequently accessed) data and cold (infrequently accessed) data Scalability: My current storage solution does not cost-effectively scale at the rate my data is growing My current solution is not designed for the increasing volume of unstructured data that my company is managing Accessibility: I do not have quick, online access to all of my cold/archive data for analytics and other needs My cold storage solution does not have continuous data checking to ensure that it will be accessible when I need it Type: I am storing an increasing amount of image, photo, video and other unstructured data I do not have an object storage solution that makes it easy and inexpensive to store and analyze unstructured data If you checked any of the boxes above, it might be time to think about a next-generation cold storage solution. 8 Storiant Making Big Data Possible

9 Methodology Storiant commissioned independent research firm Research Now to survey 100 CIOs. The study was conducted between March 31 April 7, About Storiant Founded in 2012, Storiant is the leading provider of cold data storage software. The company enables private data centers to retain petabyte-scale data at 90 percent lower cost than traditional alternatives, rivaling the cost efficiencies and scalability of the public cloud without the need to sacrifice security and control. Storiant is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit storiant.com 9 Storiant Making Big Data Possible