Unified storage consolidates multiple data types into a single system, simplifying management and improving efficiency. It can be set up as a hybrid system, in the cloud, or on-premises.
It can also support both file and block data, allowing applications designed for one type of storage to work with both. This is especially useful for legacy applications.
Simplified Management
Unified storage offers an opportunity to simplify data storage management by combining both file and block-level solutions into a single system. This can minimize the number of hardware systems deployed in your organization and lead to less time spent on data management tasks.
In addition, your organization’s reduced number of storage devices can lower operational costs by reducing the floor space, power, cooling, and management resources needed to support these hardware systems. Additionally, a unified storage platform typically offers improved accessibility of data. This streamlined access helps improve collaboration and productivity for your business.
The flexibility offered by a unified storage solution also makes it easier to accommodate changing data needs in the future without needing to perform complex and time-consuming data migrations. Unified storage can scale vertically and horizontally to accommodate increasing data volumes and support various workloads.
Additionally, unified storage is protocol-agnostic. It can support diverse data access protocols and will work seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure. This can be a precious feature for enterprises that need to store and access data across multiple applications, platforms, and devices. Similarly, the ability to read and write data in both file and block formats can also be highly beneficial for many organizations.
Increased Scalability
Unified storage allows businesses to expand storage capabilities quickly as data demands grow. It reduces hardware requirements by combining multiple storage systems, such as file-based NAS and block-based SAN, into a single solution. Additionally, it enables businesses to use storage optimization techniques like tiered storage and thin provisioning to ensure that the best possible performance is being delivered to users.
With unified storage, business workloads can be supported on a single platform with a simple management interface. The simplification of storage processes can help businesses save time and money while increasing productivity. Unified storage can also provide cost savings by assisting organizations to reduce the number of physical systems they need to deploy and maintain in their data center.
Another benefit of unified storage is that it helps to increase data access speed. This is because unified storage platforms are designed to support various storage protocols, allowing them to accommodate data access needs from multiple applications and devices.
Unified storage solutions can help organizations maximize storage capacity utilization by providing features like zero suppression and deduplication, erasure coding, and other data efficiency tools. This translates into more data being stored in the same amount of physical storage space, which can significantly save hardware and operational costs for businesses.
Better Data Accessibility
Unified storage systems allow businesses to access data across platforms, increasing accessibility and improving productivity. This also allows quicker data access and reduces latency compared to traditional storage solutions.
Additionally, unified storage systems often provide advanced data protection features to help protect against cyber-attacks and natural disasters. These features help businesses recover from disasters more quickly and reduce data loss.
Lastly, unified storage offers business flexibility and scalability. By combining multiple storage systems into a single solution, businesses can save on hardware and maintenance costs. They can also scale their storage capabilities without complex and time-consuming data migrations.
Unified Storage Tip:
Dell storage appliances like PowerMax, PowerStore, and Unity XT combine block and file data storage capabilities into a single array, simplifying management and reducing cost. These systems support file-based protocols such as CIFS and NFS and block-based storage protocols such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI. This multiprotocol approach makes these systems well-suited for unified storage environments and allows businesses to choose their preferred protocol. This flexibility also extends the lifespan of applications initially written to work with only one type of storage, eliminating the need for recoding.
Lower Costs
Unified storage can reduce the hardware footprint in your data center by consolidating separate storage platforms like NAS for file-based data and disk arrays for block-based data into a single device. This means less equipment is deployed, saving floor space, power, and cooling costs and freeing staff to focus on more strategic endeavors. This type of storage can also minimize maintenance needs by integrating various features like automated adjustments to capacity based on daily usage and performance metrics.
Another cost benefit of unified storage is the ability to plan overall storage capacity consumption, eliminating the guesswork involved when planning block and file data access. This allows businesses to increase utilization without worrying about stranded capacity.
Finally, unified storage provides increased security by eliminating the need for organizations to deploy multiple separate platforms and management tools for different types of data. This can improve the organization’s resilience against cyber-attacks and natural disasters. Additionally, it can help businesses protect sensitive data against ransomware and other forms of malware. By allowing enterprises to replicate offline data easily, unified storage can make it easier to recover from disasters and get back up and running quickly. This is especially important for businesses that comply with stringent regulatory and industry requirements such as GDPR and PCI-DSS.
