2015 Trends in Storage and Archiving

As predicted at the end of last year by the Active Archive Alliance, active archives became a more mainstream best practice in 2014.

Businesses and organizations are recognizing the value of active archives in addressing their overall long-term storage needs.

As we begin 2015, Active Archive Alliance members shared their predictions for storage as it relates to active archives in the coming year.

Here’s a look at what’s to come according to some of the industry’s top storage experts:

Advanced Data Tape Will Carry More of the Storage Load
With all th innovation occurring in the tape market, the pieces are in place for tape solutions to expand their presence in the data center and carry more of the storage load in 2015. The timing could not be better as users struggle with increasing data loads and limited budgets. Innovations like LTFS, barium ferrite, tape NAS, Flape (flash + tape), tape in the cloud, high capacity formats and extended roadmaps are coming together to provide solutions for data protection and active archiving.

There Will Be Increased Adoption of Storage Tiers
The need for large-scale data capacity is driving the implementation of an increasing number of tiers of storage across a growing number of organizations. There will be an increase in tier 0 with a tidal wave of flash adoption for the fastest form of storage as well as a multi-tier approach to long-term data, with the rapid adoption of public cloud and an anticipated swift increase in private cloud creation. Combinations of flash, disk and tape are being used in both public and private clouds to meet custom requirements. An increasingly complex storage environment will become the norm, with specific data being placed on specific storage technologies for specific periods of time with automated ‘data fluidity’ systems controlling the life-cycle process.

Greater Intelligence Between Applications and Storage
Will Simplify Active Archive Deployments
Applications that can be integrated with storage will improve overall storage management by removing complexity and helping organizations to better utilize active archive solutions. Solutions will use intelligence to deliver the right storage to meet application performance while driving efficiencies that help keep storage costs within targeted budget requirements.

There Will Be a Move to Object Storage as an Archive
There is a movement in the industry towards object storage as an archive. Object storage is attractive for several reasons: 1) it is massively scalable; 2) it is cost effective; and 3) it is able to also act as a cloud infrastructure for collaboration. The trend is being accelerated because there are many ways to access an object based archive these days, including NFS, CIFS, mobile OSs.

As the demand for more cost-effective, long-term storage options continues, active archives will proliferate.

The Active Archive Alliance will support technology expansion and innovation to address the newest advancements in storage.

Alliance members Crossroads Systems, DataDirect Networks, Fujifilm, and QStar contributed to this blog.