| How Are Changing Laws And Technology Impacting Storage For Small Businesses? |
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How Are Changing Laws And Technology Impacting Storage For Small Businesses?Apr 12, 2006 06:11
It's a new world as the data levels explode, legal mandates multiply and platform complexity takes off. How Are Changing Laws And Technology Impacting Storage For Small Businesses?
Data is often the most critical non-human asset a company has, and if data is lost or becomes unavailable it can prove devastating for a business. Related, data security is fast becoming one of the biggest IT challenges facing businesses and recent state and federal government regulations are not only affecting larger companies, but highlighting the importance of a sound data backup, recovery and archive process for small companies as well. Laws such as California SB 1386 mandate businesses, government agencies and nonprofit entities, regardless of size, to publicly disclose when there has been a security breach of certain unencrypted confidential customer information. Tape-based backup remains the most affordable and portable data protection option for small businesses, especially when capacity and cost per gigabyte are considered, and many companies, particularly those with a dedicated IT person, continue to use this option. New security features are emerging that allow small businesses to meet regulatory requirements for data confidentiality and integrity with their tape backup solutions, for example by employing WORM (Write Once, Read Many) tape media or through electronic key technology such as Quantum's DLTSage Tape Security technology. Tape also allows portability and long-term archive benefits not as readily available in other backup options. But what about a small companies that doesn't have a dedicated IT person? These "do IT yourself" businesses juggle the responsibilities of data protection along with the daily demands of business management or ownership. For these individuals, tape backup can be cumbersome and recovery of data from tape can be complex. This segment often looks for alternative backup technologies such as optical (CD or DVD) or disk-based options which allow faster data backup and recovery. Unfortunately, optical options provide lower capacities and are not extremely durable, and most external hard drives, while somewhat portable, are vulnerable to drops and are not designed for long term archive. However, very recent technology advancements, such as Quantum's GoVault removable drive, are leading to new customer backup options which combine the best attributes of both disk and tape. —Mark O'Malley, Manager, Product Strategy, Quantum Corp. The primary technology change that is affecting storage for small business is the ever-growing pervasiveness of IT in day-to-day operations. Functions like sales, personnel, finance and customer service all use and depend on IT systems more and more. The result is that businesses generate more data than ever – and this data is more important to the business than ever. The primary regulatory change that is affecting storage for small business is the stricter requirements for both retaining data and ensuring its privacy. Small businesses can no longer decide for themselves what their retention and security policies will be. They have to conform to new legislative mandates that are designed to protect customers and facilitate accounting forensics, should they be required. This combination of growing data volume, greater data value, longer data retention and improved data security is putting a real strain on small businesses' storage management resources. In fact, most small businesses today aren't equipped to fully comply with regulatory mandates – given the large amount of data they have to manage and the proportionally small resources they can allocate to performing that management. That's why it's critical for small businesses to acquire more intelligent and automated storage management solutions and implement proven storage management best practices. It's no longer enough to simply perform conventional daily or weekly backups of key servers. Small businesses must invest in more sophisticated storage capabilities so that they can both cope with their rapidly exploding volume of high-value business data and fulfill today's increasingly stringent legal requirements. —David Luft, Senior Vice President of SMB Product Development, CA. Businesses large and small are being asked to store data longer, accessing it more often and archiving it later. New laws are requiring that enterprises keep data longer (HIPPA, Securities Exchange Act, Sarbanes-Oxley), including transactions, electronic information and communications. Traditionally businesses have stored all their data online on SCSI or Fibre channel hard drives. By using SATA drives such as Maxtor MaXLine drives for fixed-content, non-transactional data, IT professionals can take advantage of higher capacities and lower costs. The data is instantly accessible for data mining purposes, audits and periodic reference. Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is a strategy that when implemented with the appropriate storage can reduce storage costs and increase flexibility. Within ILM, understanding two principles are important. Transfer data to different storage resources as it ages and access needs change and assign data to the least expensive storage possible without compromising service. Matching a given application with the most appropriate hard drive based on cost, capacity and performance needs will help IT managers maximize their investment. With the new compliance laws, SATA drives offer the best cost per gigabyte ratio for small businesses to archive large amounts of data they may need to keep for compliance purposes. —Neil Salamack, Product Marketing Manager, Enterprise Products Group, Maxtor Corporation. Today's small businesses are managing ever-growing amounts of customer data, much of which is digital in nature. Simply put, data is the lifeblood of small businesses. Whether it's a small law firm or a graphic arts house, if the data is irretrievably lost or damaged, that business could be compromised to the point of dissolution. In industries like healthcare, legislation calls for patient files to be kept in digital form. Depending on the small business, protecting data means managing digital files on multiple computers or locations. Data redundancy using network-attached storage is often the approach of choice for growing data needs. A sound backup plan that uses an established schedule to ensure data is backed up on a dependable storage device or removable media like Iomega's REV drives and disks, and stored in a secure location, is a must for small businesses that need to know that in the case of computer failure or some other catastrophic event, their data will always be available to them. Today's small business often needs the kind of data management and protection that was once the domain of enterprise level organizations. The good news is that today's storage solutions for SMBs can provide that protection and peace-of-mind. —Chris Romoser, Spokesperson, Iomega Corporation.
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