Business resilience management is key to survival in the face of rapidly changing IT, cyber threat and regulatory environments. While the capacity to collect, use and store data is now practically limitless, sound data hygiene policies must include how data is treated in backup and recovery systems.
The last year was undoubtedly unprecedented as it brought along multiple challenges threatening the very survival of many enterprises across the globe.
The disruption by a pandemic is not a normal course of threat businesses face. However, natural and man-made disasters, security threats and outages are a reality that every enterprise is vulnerable to.
In this uniquely challenging environment, how can you make your business more resilient?
Business resilience at all times
With the explosion of data from different sources, businesses are increasingly recognizing its value as an asset. Every company needs to have ability to respond with agility and flexibility to preserve operational performance and competitive strength in the wake of a serious disruption. When one link in the chain breaks or is under attack, the impact can ripple throughout the business.
In such an environment, a full-proof business continuity plan combined with a smart and effective data management system holds the key to survive and thrive with smooth data backup, recovery and continuity of its operations. This ensures that operations keep running, sales growing, and customer needs are met during all times.
Data hygiene: The new panacea
While the capacity to collect, use and store customer data is now practically limitless, the reality is that the more data an organization persists in holding, the bigger the management headache – and compliance risk – it becomes.
Today, commercial success is not based on how much data you have, but what you do with it: how you access, manage and store it and how you delete it once it is no longer relevant. Sound data hygiene policies must include how data is treated in backup and recovery systems.
The security and management of data is a strategic issue that is intrinsically linked with business agility and continuity. It needs to percolate through all strata of infrastructure in order to fully integrate with the firm’s operational environment.
The ever-increasing flow of data in enterprises has established the need for dynamic storage solutions that can help enterprises meet their next-generation storage needs within the confines of current infrastructure capabilities.
Western Digital: Driving data management
Western Digital has been working hard to reduce big data pressures on IT managers by offering enterprises a cost-effective and scalable backup and recovery solution for on-premise and hybrid cloud environments.
For example, a range of complementary technology innovations are featured in its Ultrastar® DC HC650, including the industry’s first energy-assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) implementation, the industry’s first triple-stage actuator, and the fifth generation of HelioSeal technology. HelioSeal integrated in Western Digital’s Ultrastar HDDs enable higher performance, lower power and higher capacity.
Western Digital’s OpenFlex™ Data24 NVMe-oF™ Storage Platform extends the high performance of NVMe™ flash to shared storage. It provides low-latency sharing of NVMe SSDs over a high-performance network.
Another offering, Ultrastar®Data60 is a key element of next-generation disaggregated storage and software-defined storage systems, delivering high density and the flexibility to balance performance with cost, and ensuring continuous reliable operations.
The Data60 incorporates IsoVibe™ that protects storage devices by using precise cuts in the system baseboard by functioning as a suspension layer. It also has ArcticFlow™, an innovative Thermal Zone Cooling Technology that divides the chassis into two separate cooling zones to take advantage of data center hot and cold aisles.
Western Digital is also helping enterprises conquer massive data growth with Zoned Storage. For instance, Ultrastar® DC ZN540 ZNS NVMe SSD is augmenting the evolution of next generation storage and system architectures by delivering higher throughput, better Quality of Service (QoS) and lowering the system TCO at-scale.
Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) HDDs from the company are also an integral part of Zoned Storage, an open-source initiative building upon the synergies of SMR HDDs and Zoned Namespace (ZNS) SSDs that enables data centers to scale efficiently and achieve higher storage capacities.
Other solutions like the Ultrastar® Data60 and Data102 JBOD/JBOF storage platforms help customers expand existing capacities or build tailored HDD and SSD combinations to balance performance and reduce costs.
In addition, Western Digital has been collaborating with CEPH-based and other open source SDS solution providers to ensure that their devices are compatible to offer the right kind of solution for the enterprises.
As data becomes one of the most sought-after capital of the 21st century, enterprises must focus on a data management driven approach to business continuity for success. Having a streamlined plan and collaboration with the right players in the data storage management space is a recipe for guaranteed success.
