| Reducing Your Storage
Requirements...
Archiving Data Issues...
Archiving data is an important consideration when managing your
information systems, however archiving itself can present a slew
of other problems. The additional storage space required
to archive every piece of data in your environment can be
staggering, moreover, once the data has been archived it becomes
more difficult for users to gain access to it.
So what's
the solution?
Although archiving is essential, is it really necessary to
archive the same data over and over and over again? The
cost involved in having your online and archive storage will
only increase. According to one ZDNet's article "With
storage growing more than 60 to 80 percent compounded annually
through 2005/06, 4 TB systems in 2002 will grow to 16 TB-23 TB
systems by 2005.", the cost is growing. So how do you get around this?
Start with one simple step - Stop
archiving duplicate data!
Where do I have duplicate data?
E-mail of course!
Summed up nicely by ZDNet, "E-mail has recently become a
favorite candidate for archive technology. Although overall
e-mail data growth is lower than overall data growth (40 percent
CAGR vs. 60 to 80 percent CAGR), e-mail is more an easily
targeted application than others. We all "know" that users keep
obsolete data and inappropriate files, and are generally pack
rats. Although there is some truth to this anecdote, ITOs must
be cautious about turning a financial decision into a moral
crusade for disk cleanup. For example, ITOs may set a quota on
email file sizes of, say, 500 MB. At current disk prices, this
consumes $10-$15 of disk space. Doubling the user space would
obviously double this cost. However, offline archival tools may
cost even more. Quota tools (e.g., Precise StorageCentral) can
be useful, but should target abusers--not simple pack rats." (ZDNet
Report).
So how do I reduce the reliance on quotas
and archiving?
User's sent items will contain files that already exist
somewhere either locally or on the network. (After all, the
attachments had to come from somewhere.) Reducing copies
of files in your user's sent items is one of the fastest ways to
reduce user's mailbox sizes and also reduce your backup and
archiving space requirements not to mention time. Attachment
Executive Server Side can easily be set to run on user's
mailboxes and delete those attachments out of a user's sent
items, while leaving reference to the fact that the attachment
(file) was originally sent in the e-mail. You may even
want to set up a corporate policy whereby attachments in user's
sent items are automatically deleted after 14 or 30 days.
We encourage you to take a look at Attachment Executive
Server Side and try out the demo. If you set up some "Analysis Rules"
you will be able to see just how much space you can save! (Note: Analysis Rules
only examine mailboxes and provide a report, no actual data is
moved. Process Rules or Real Time Rules will move or delete attachments.) |
