For as long as there has been data there has been a quest to consolidate that data onto a single, consolidated storage system, but that quest seems to never be satisfied. The problem is that there are essentially two types of data; active and archive. Active data typically needs fast I/O response time at a reasonable cost. Archive needs to be very cost effective with reasonable response times. Storage systems that try to meet both of these needs in a single system often end up doing neither particularly well. This has led to the purchase of data and/or environment specific storage systems and storage system sprawl.
The enterprise cannot afford the storage system sprawl that it is currently experiencing but at the same time they can’t afford to compromise either performance or cost efficiency. It is time for enterprises to move to a two-tier storage architecture that provides a best of breed storage experience for both types of data, active and archive. The emergence of two storage technologies, flash and object storage, is making the two-tier storage architecture a reality. It is also becoming easier for IT to get these two storage environments to interact with each other.
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