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Where and how to store our future huge data?

August 18, 2016

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Technology nowadays evolves in the direction of reducing consumption, in all aspects. From space saving towards cost saving, next generation tech implements viable cost-effective solutions that enable super-performance and allow enterprises to focus on the actual object of their activity instead of being concerned on how they could better resolve their infrastructure issues.

While virtualization and storage-defined components serve in reducing the physical complexity of networks and various system components, there are some elements that cannot be further perfected via this method (yet). Data storage solutions adopted software-defined concepts; however this method is just gaining traction and currently lacks the necessary coherence and centralized definitions. See here how SDS solutions in data storage looks like in the vision of a provider that deems this emerging technology as being the “leading edge of storage solutions”.

Next generation data storage nevertheless permeates the industry, since it is clear how the immediate future will see an even stronger pressure coming onto data centers, in terms of data amount, data flow, as well as in flexibility, with both storage and retrieval requests rocketing. All these while environmentally friendly solutions are on the mind of many tech giants, as long as these also come in cost-friendly, sustainable formulas.

Thought-shifting alternatives in data storage

Thought shifting translates into less of an innovation and more of a re-configuration of already existing answers; different strategies and prioritization determine internal resources to be allotted differently, or simply allows companies to employ as-a-Service external resources.

  • Cloud storage serves in costs and quantity containment; off-premises systems can be flexible, on-demand, self-service, hybrid, depending on each organization’s needs; it also responds to the necessity of intelligently storing data, and it is likely to do this even more with all the specifically designed tools cloud storage companies introduce continually, in view of their business class clients;
  • Object storage (or object-based storage) helps in cost-containing, especially in big data environments; it has to do with software architecture, where this time data distributes in objects instead of files; in this configuration each object does not exist as part of hierarchy, but lies in a flat address space (storage pool), being characterized by extended metadata and by the possibility of object retrieving with the help of its unique identifier, without needing to know the information’s physical location;
  • All-flash storage arrays also penetrated the enterprise storage market, with attempts of proving that this expensive technology (at first glance) is actually cost effective “on a $/IOP (n.a. operations per second) basis”; multiple flash memory drives are gaining momentum against spinning hard-disk drives because of their compatibility with SSDs, as well as their capacity of being erased and reprogrammed.
  • Blu-Ray storage or cold storage is currently tested by Facebook, as we showed here in one of our previous articles; although a bit controversial, it re-purposes the already existing Blu-ray tech that otherwise faces its extinction due to on-demand and streaming videos;

Other emerging technologies that are somehow more creative (thought-shifting) than innovative would be automated tier storage, hybrid array and SMR (shingled magnetic recording, where overlapping tracks during the data writing process allows obtaining a higher capacity on hard drives than in traditional storage.

Automated tiered storage allows data to receive the most appropriate storage, based on some preloaded data value judgments – this has been around for a while, but it just adds up more types of drives once they are adopted.

Innovations in data storage

Full-on innovations are represented by solutions that completely change the hardware support or the way data is stored or retrieved – new storage environments and different memory architecture make futuristic, distant future storage solutions seem closer.

  • Not too long ago, the glass storage disk made the news again after its breakthrough press coverage from 2013. Storing data in 5D nanostructured glass is now prototype-d, and you may review here the special features and qualities of this truly innovative technology. The downside? It is still very expensive.
  • Another similarly astonishing, yet extremely expensive, storage solution would be liquid storage, or, if you prefer a more resonant denomination, the liquid hard drive. Its potential is huge due to the compatibility with various organic data processors (synthetic biology, biometrics, digital enhancements for humans), making it possible one day to upload cyber data into organic systems.
  • The queen of all current innovative storage methods would be DNA storage, which also tops the most expensive data storage list, since encoding 83 kilobytes came at a cost of £1000.
  • Helium drives are also included in the category of futuristic technologies; this technology employs helium instead of air and thus the drives consume less power to spin the disks, the environment is cooler and allows for more disks to be packed in; this solution is also expensive for the moment, with a high expectancy of becoming more cost-affordable, and therefore more commercially available;

Of course, one of the most anticipated next generation storage technology is quantum storage. Although currently incapable of storing more than tiny amounts of data for extremely short amounts of time (less than a day, according to the above-mentioned source), its potential raises a lot of interest, especially that it would be able to bring to reality data syncing due to quantum-entangled pairs of points, regardless of their space positioning.