How to get the most storage value on your SMB network: Tips and advice.
You have two choices when you run low on storage space in your server: upgrade your server disks, or buy network storage that does not connect directly to your server. If you upgrade your server, you can add disks or replace existing disks with larger disks. Adding disks includes less hassle than replacing your disks.
Home and small office users can quickly get up to speed on various storage options by reading Bit Buckets . Aimed at home users, this article covers a variety of storage options and explains who will benefit by using them.
Data Backup
Nag, nag, nag, but for good reason. The majority of individuals and small businesses do NOT backup their data files adequately. Best compliance I’ve seen in a backup survey is about 40 percent, meaning three of five small to medium sized companies will suffer serious financial harm when something happens to their data. And something always happens to your data, sooner or later.
Micro-businesses use individual backup products at first. As the number of computers grows, however, individual products no longer work well for company data. Some readers (and vendors) got their feelings hurt when reading Are the New USB Drives Good for Backup? Not Really .
Backups must include three features to be successful:
They must be automatic
They must be reliable
They must include offsite storage
Why must backups be automatic? People won’t do them reliably. Some won’t do them at all. You can’t trust people to backup their own data, no matter how much you beg or threaten.
Why must backups be reliable? To save your digital bacon.
Why must backups be stored offsite? Because disasters small and large will include your servers with the original data and the backup devices sitting right beside them. You don’t need a hurricane to suffer water damage, as mentioned in Computers and Water Don’t Mix . If you backup data from one server only to the server beside it, you’re protected against hard drive failure but not against thieves who take both servers.
Now owned by SonicWALL , a small company named Lasso Logic used their own appliance to backup locally and offsite in Startup Takes Fresh Approach to Backups . This approach is similar, but more client-centric, than RocketVault , introduced in A New Way To Backup . I nominated RocketVault for backup product of the year, and they still deserve a serious look if you’re interested in really saving your data.
Some prefer to do away with hardware altogether and rely on fast data connections to place backups far offsite. In Online Backups Win Converts you can read about online backup services and see if they make sense for you.
Keep up to date on network storage and backup trends by bookmarking the Network Storage page in the Small and Medium Business Research Center section. Those stories update automatically, and the freshest ones lead the list. A quick glance now and then will keep you up to date.
Network Attached Storage
NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices connect to your network rather than directly to your server(s). These stand-alone boxes include hard disk space (sometimes a terabyte or more), a rudimentary network operating system to control user access to the files, and one Ethernet port for network connection.
My most recent roundup of NAS devices came out in October 2005, titled Storage Options Abound in SMB-based NAS Market . One box that makes great sense for those with a small budget but big storage needs, the Buffalo TeraStation , was reviewed separately.
Buffalo, a consumer-oriented company, broke the price barrier by selling a terabyte of disk space (1,000 gigabytes) for $1000. Well, the disk capacity only totaled 925 gigabytes, but discounts have priced the TeraStation as low as $799. They, and their competitors like Infrant Technologies (who won the NAS roundup) have increased storage capacity to 1.6 terabytes. When the new 500 gigabyte drives drop enough in price, you will see 2 terabyte disk units for under $2000, or maybe even $1600.
Warning: never buy network hardware storage hardware until you know how to backup the data stored there. Otherwise you run the risk of losing critical information. Users love new storage because it tends to be faster, and they will put their most used files on the new appliance. If that appliance crashes, many users will be screaming at you to fix it immediately.
One of the products mentioned in the four-unit roundup, Iomega, included their REV removable hard disk in their NAS unit. I wrote a column about them called Iomega and Removable Storage . They tend toward the high end of the price scale, but their removable hard drive offers great flexibility.
One of the sponsors of our Small Business Technology Tour in the summer of 2005 was EMC (.com). Although small and medium businesses don’t normally buy EMC products, the EMC people are moving into the small and medium business market space. They have some good advice about storage, and I wrote a column called Rethinking Storage to explain their ideas.
Specialty NAS boxes delve into niches, and I’m surprised there aren’t more of them. I wrote about one company’s interesting unit in Tritton Debuts First Wireless NAS and thought it interesting and valuable to a small group of potential users.
Storage Area Networks
Top of the storage hierarchy, a SAN (Storage Area Network) separates storage into a different network from the users, and manages that storage through the gateway server that connects the two networks. These products tend to be big, expensive, and complicated.
Yet many SAN vendors believe small and medium businesses (or at least the medium-sized ones) can afford and benefit from a SAN. I wrote about a private school that upgraded to a SAN in Storage Vendors Target SMBs. Frankly, I didn’t see why the school in question needed a SAN, but that’s their business, not mine. If you want a SAN, feel free to get one. They’re easier than ever to install and maintain.
We will always need more storage to the point that our demand will rise as storage equipment costs plummet. I doubt we’ll ever get to the point that storage expenses drop per year because we constantly magnify the bloat in our applications and data formats. If you think HTML e-mail wastes space over text e-mail because of the fonts and images, wait until everyone decides to start sending video e-mails. Our disk drives will fill with more drivel than ever before, and our storage needs will continue going up and up and up.
