A Study on Storage Tiers & their benefits

Organizing data is becoming a vital activity for the purposes of employing the optimal data solution to store, tier and protect data throughout its lifetime.

Developing a data classification methodology for a business involves launching criteria for classes of data or application based on its value to the business. Four distinct levels of classifying data or applications are commonly used:

• Mission-critical
• Vital data
• Sensitive
• Non-critical

Determining these levels takes some cooperative effort within the business and when completed, enables the most cost-effective storage and data protection solutions to be implemented. Data classification levels also identify which backup and recovery or business resumption solution is best suited for each level to meet the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) requirements. While very important, RTO & RPO are not the only parameters used to classify data. Other considerations include availability, length of data retention, service levels and performance requirements, and overall costs.

Computers in a distributed system are often connected in a tiered architecture. Each tier refers to a group or layer of computers that perform a particular task. Any tiered system, regardless of the number of tiers, is often referred to as an N-tier system. An enterprise accounting system could, for example, be based on three-tier architecture.

In a tiered computer system, each tier consists of one or more computers. Web based applications are multitier applications. Multitier applications divide functionality into separate tiers. Although tiers can be located on the same computers, tiers of web based applications typically reside on separate computers. In the accounting system example, the bussiness logic tier consists of one server that processes invoices and other server that process payroll.

In contrast, the data storage tier consists of a single computer that runs database server software. The user interface tier consists of computers for employees who access the system. Each tier in a distributed system can interact with one or more of the other tiers. For example, the user interface tier interacts only with the bussiness logic tier, but the bussiness logic tier interacts with both the user interface and data storage tiers.

Tiered Storage Model
Tier 1 – Enterprise Storage
o SANAT Megastor 1080
o SANAT Megastor 4800
Tier 2 – Midrange Storage
o SANAT Maxstor 2400
o SANAT Maxstor 1600
Tier 3 – Content/Archive
o SANAT Instor 1200
o SANAT Instor 800
Tier 4 – Tape - Backups/Archive

With tiered storage, companies can reduce total storage costs by assigning different data sets to different storage mediums. Tiered storage enables organizations to create categories based on performance needs, frequency of use, amount of protection required, and other organizational concerns.

SANAT Technologies helps companies define the most appropriate tiered storage approach to effectively support and manage disparate data based on type, amount, and location. We can also determine the smoothest tiered storage migration plan and recommend the best tiered storage solution.