Data Storage - Managing Massive Amounts of Data
Perhaps it is karma, but the more successful you become, the
more data you will have to deal with. Effectively managing
massive amounts of data often comes down to the issue of data
storage.
Data Overload
Mass data means large volumes of data or bulk data. Both in a
standalone PC as well as in a network environment, we generally
face the problem of managing data. The data grows day-by-day
thereby creating problems of data handling. No doubt there are
various techniques and devices that are capable of storing large
amount of data like hard drives, optical disks, tapes etc. Hard
drives are now available in almost all new computers. Data on a
hard drive is stored on it through magnetic material. CD-ROM
stores data on compact disks and it can store data up to about
600MB. Another relatively new device in competition to CD-ROM is
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) that has a capacity of 4.7 GB to
17GB and rate of data access from 600 Kbps to 1.3 Mbps. All of
these devices manage and store in different ways. If you are
working in network environment then these techniques are not
going to help you as much as others.
Most businesses need to store data in order to make it
accessible whenever required. NAS (network attached storage) is
a fairly new mechanism of managing data, which use special
devices that are connected directly to network equipments. These
devices are accessible to clients through a server; each client
has its own IP address. NAS is centralized storage technology.
If you want to store more data or want to expand the storage
then just add another device. Another technology that is quite
popular nowadays is SAN (Storage Area Network), which is a
network of storage devices. These storage devices are connected
to each other and to a server with the help of some special
switches. SAN takes the backup of data from your network without
affecting the standard network infrastructure.
For connecting SAN storage devices, you can use fiber channel, a
latest and most significant technology that interconnects
storage devices and allows them to communicate at very high
speeds and at greater distances than previously possible. It can
cover up to 6 miles.
Two techniques that are quite popular these days for data
storage are RAID and SCSI. Both are high speed and reliable
techniques in data storage. These techniques can be implemented
in most storage mechanisms like DAS, NAS and SAN. RAID is a
series of standards that improves performance and fault
tolerance by using a redundant array of inexpensive disks (hence
the acronym). This type of protection is required in all data
storages.
Three major factors that need consideration in any data
management technique or data storage device are capacity, speed
and security. Capacity means amount of data that can be stored.
Speed means rate at which data can be retrieved. Some common
interfaces for data storage are fiber channel, IEEE 1394, IDE,
SCSI controllers and USB.
Some advanced techniques for managing data on your computer are
DFS (Distributed File System) and EFS (Encrypting File System).
DFS helps in locating and managing data on network. DFS bonds
files on different computers and make them appear as single
"namespace". EFS are used to store encrypted files on NTFS
volumes. EFS prevent unauthorized user access.
According to your needs you can choose any of the techniques for
data management and data storage.