My second report for GigaOm is now online. This document paper is available for free to all GigaOm subscribers or purchase as a single report at $299.00.
My next report, which focuses on alternatives to Amazon AWS S3, is in the works and will be out soon…
Abstract
Most organizations face a growing number of data storage challenges. The number of applications and services IT departments support are increasing; with users accessing data from everywhere, at any time, and from different devices. The variety of workloads are increasing as well, with applications competing for resources from the same infrastructure. The cost of traditional infrastructure is incompatible with the exponential growth of unstructured data, big data workloads, or Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The traditional classifications of primary and secondary data, that correlate primary with structured data/databases and secondary with unstructured files, are no longer valid. With data becoming one of the most important assets for organizations, structured and unstructured data are now equally important, and they should be protected and treated accordingly. A new primary/secondary classification has emerged and is based on the value of data, with data indexation and classification. Coupling this new classification with a two-tier storage infrastructure can help reduce costs and simplify the process, especially if the two tiers are integrated and data can move seamlessly between them.
Modern applications can now be divided into two families: latency-sensitive or capacity-driven. The first group needs data as close as possible to the processing engines (e.g. CPU, GPU, etc.) while the latter usually requires easily accessible data spanning multiple devices across the network. New infrastructure designs must take this division into account to cope quickly with new and ever-evolving business requirements.
In this report we analyze several aspects of the two-tier storage strategy including:
- Why a two tier-storage strategy
- Different types of tier integration
- How to manage file-based storage in a two-tier storage strategy
- Automated tiering and application-based profiling
- Security considerations about two-tier storage strategy
- Key players
- First steps for adopting a two-tier storage strategy and improving overall infrastructure TCO
Key findings include:
- A two-tier storage policy is easy to adopt and saves money while optimizing infrastructure resources.
- This approach enables improved ROI on infrastructure, and makes future investments necessary only where and when they are required, as opposed to months or years in advance.
- The infrastructure layout is highly simplified and optimized to take advantage of the cloud and seamlessly integrate it with the rest of the infrastructure. This also helps to simplify and redistribute budget resources from CAPEX to OPEX.
Well, as someone who has followed your blogging at JUKU.IT and occasionally engaged with you on storage topics of interest, I find this business of hawking high-priced Gigaom reports disappointing. If your reports were priced like a technical e-book maybe I’d have a different impression, but $299.00 US for a report seems excessive for an analysis that is likely to be outdated in twelve months. Maybe the Gigaom corporate strategy is to promote these reports to people not inclined to do their own research. I’d appreciate hearing your rationale for your self-promotion of these reports to people who have appreciated your commentary and blogging on data storage. No disrespect indented and I think you need to hear from people who have some interest in your work and don’t like the salesmanship angle you have injected in your blog.
Hi Tim,
GigaOm business model is not to sell the single report but an enterprise subscriptions to get access to the entire library. And yes, the reports are targeted to people who can’t, or don’t want to, do their own research (mostly CxOs).
I won’t stop writing on my blog and I’ll be adding a new podcast with them that is free too download among other things. So there will be plenty of content on which we will be able to talk and express our respective opinions. 😉
Best,
E
I have a different take on this. Enrico wrote the report and was making his audience aware of it. If he didn’t put the price up then people might be upset that he was trying to pull a fast one on them – the ol’ bait and switch. The blog itself has a lot of great data and insights for free. In any case, I personally have no issue with how the report was presented and I feel that there were some real value from reading the blog.
Well, Enrico did reply with a more complete explanation, which I appreciated. I still enjoy his blog entries and podcasts. It is important to be clear when promoting something you are being paid to do and it costs money to access. I do agree that he was not trying to “pull a fast one” on his readership.