File Based Storage Migrations
– Piyush Mehta, CEO of Data Dynamics, says:
Enterprises today have thousands of file shares with large amounts of unstructured file data on hundreds of file servers and NAS devices across their IT infrastructure. The proliferation of application files and user-generated documents continually drives the expansion of network storage resources and leads to mounting data migration and consolidation projects. In today’s enterprise data centers, data migration and consolidation projects are not just one-time occurrences they are an ongoing IT challenge. As user demand grows, file data rises, storage systems age, hardware leases expire, and technology refresh cycles materialize, organizations require a solution to plan and execute migrations with minimal complexity and exposure to downtime.
The historical approach to migration has involved manually intensive processes that locked down IT staff and technology resources. As a direct response to this, modern migration enablers provide an automated approach that is much more seamless and facilitates migration, consolidation, and archiving of file data simply and easily. Through automation and the integration of data movers, new techniques and software reduce time to deployment of new storage resources or transition of data significantly – up to 50% in many cases when compared to limited point solutions or manual processes. An automated approach to file migration and consolidation gives storage professionals the tools needed to manage file data to improve storage resource utilization and simplify file data management. It also allows for the reallocation of resources and time for strategic initiatives. Examples of capabilities that were once manual considerations for IT professionals include granular source/target planning, execution and monitoring and more.
Automating migration, consolidation and archiving processes puts greater control into the hands of storage administrators when moving large sets of file data by reducing the incredible amount of time typically required for bulk processes. Advanced technologies accomplish this by using rules-based techniques to analyze mappings and apply user-defined actions at a fine-drawn level. The result is a dramatic simplification that transitions storage management policies automatically and programmatically as required.
Piyush Mehta is CEO of New Jersey-based Data Dynamics, Inc., a leader in solutions for the discovery, reporting, migration and management of file-based storage.
