ST Nov-Dec 2023

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Spectra 18.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:59 AM Page 2 STRATEGY: TAPE STORAGE THE RESURGENCE OF TAPE MATT NINESLING, SENIOR DIRECTOR TAPE PORTFOLIO, SPECTRA LOGIC, SHARES THREE CURRENT USE CASES THAT ARE DRIVING ORGANISATIONS TO TAKE A SECOND LOOK AT TAPE TECHNOLOGY af As every aspect of our world becomes more digitised, data storage has been elevated from an "afterthought" to a primary enabler of business, research, social and financial progress. And as the role of data storage changes, the technology behind storage has advanced significantly. Nowhere is this more evident than in the advancement of tape technology. The inherent characteristics of tape - density, affordability, removability - have always made tape a top consideration for archiving, compliance and data protection goals. When combining these attributes with new technology, such as S3-compatible object storage, tape becomes a game changer in addressing the critical challenges facing modern businesses and organisations today. Too often, the discussion has focused on "either/or" scenarios for storage - disk or tape, on-premises or cloud. By front-ending disk, tape and cloud with an object interface, the conversation can now focus on the attributes required of storage for any particular job. And that's driving organisations to take a second look at tape technology. ARCHIVES: THE VISION FOR AI WILL REQUIRE TAPE ACCESS AI and associated machine learning models require massive amounts of data in order to "train" and provide improvements in everything from research algorithms to line manufacturing to self-driving cars. Depending on the level of automation, selfdriving cars will generate between 1.4 and 19 terabytes (TB) of data per hour, as presented by autonomous driving technology Systems Architect Stephan Heinrich at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit. A single car could produce anywhere between 380 TB to 5.1 petabytes (PB) of data in a single year. This is just one example of the massive amounts of data created by and used by AI. Because AI is driving virtually every aspect of business, research, and development, multipetabyte archives are becoming organisational standards. Recent lawsuits over the use of copyrighted materials for the training of AI models, as well as defamation litigation responding to false information generated by AI chatbots, only highlight the need for this training data to be preserved for the long term. These archives must be accessible and searchable. The introduction of S3-compatible object-based tape makes today's tape technology the ideal building block for such archives. Object-based tape is highly scalable, searchable and can even be tagged for future retrieval. Combined with new developments in tape density, which enable a native storage capacity of 50TB on a single cartridge, tape not only maintains its cost-competitive edge against other storage approaches such as disk and cloud, it is the unequivocal dominant leader in affordability. Additionally, modern tape offerings provide much greater data integrity and reliability, incorporating error correction codes and automated data integrity verification checks to minimise the risk of data degradation over time. In the event of catastrophic data loss or corruption, having archived AI training data on tape provides a reliable means of data recovery as the tape is stored offline, presumably securely, and is less susceptible to accidental deletions. Archiving AI training data 18 STORAGE Nov/Dec 2023 @STMagAndAwards www.storagemagazine.co.uk MAGAZINE
Spectra 18.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:59 AM Page 3 STRATEGY: TAPE STORAGE "Object-based tape is highly scalable, searchable and can even be tagged for future retrieval. Combined with new developments in tape density, which enable a native storage capacity of 50TB on a single cartridge, tape not only maintains its costcompetitive edge against other storage approaches such as disk and cloud, it is the unequivocal dominant leader in affordability. Additionally, modern tape offerings provide much greater data integrity and reliability, incorporating error correction codes and automated data integrity verification checks to minimise the risk of data degradation over time." on tape ensures that the data remains intact and can be successfully retrieved if and when it is needed. COMPLIANCE: WITH OPPORTUNITY COMES RESPONSIBILITY The new digitised world comes with tremendous opportunity for advancements in virtually every sector of every market. It also comes with possible liabilities and vulnerabilities. Most industries and organisations have specific compliance and regulatory requirements regarding data retention and archiving. The geopolitical preservation of records is a critical aspect of national and international security, historical documentation, and governance. Records, ranging from government documents and historical archives to sensitive intelligence data, are mission critical in preserving a nation's history, ensuring accountability, and safeguarding sensitive information. Tape is the ideal choice for ensuring compliance with stringent regulatory requirements. Write-Once-Read-Multiple (WORM) tape media allows organisations to not only preserve data but also prove chain of command. Tape technology can be a valuable tool in this context for the archival and longterm preservation of records. Due to the low cost and density of tape storage, multiple copies of data can be stored on separate tapes, in separate locations, ensuring that historical versions are readily available for recovery in the event of natural disasters, fires, or other catastrophic events. Tape technology can help governments and organisations subject to legal requirements regarding the preservation of records meet compliance obligations by providing a secure and tamper-proof archiving solution. DATA PROTECTION: THE ULTIMATE LAST LINE OF DEFENCE Meeting all compliance and regulatory requirements becomes meaningless if an organisation's data is compromised by ransomware. In today's world of storage, this is the ultimate vulnerability. The third quarter of 2023 set a new record with 1420 cases of ransomware reported in a single quarter, according to cyber threat intelligence solutions provider Cyberint. No industry is exempt: business services, manufacturing, retail, finance, insurance, real estate, healthcare and critical infrastructure have all been attacked. There are many ways to protect online data, but even with the most ardent of approaches, if data is electronically accessible, a ransomware virus is capable of infecting it. This was recently demonstrated by the attack on cloud provider, CloudNordic. Ransomware succeeded in encrypting the disks on all servers, including their primary and secondary backup servers. The majority of its customers lost all data hosted with the company. Tape is the ultimate last line of defence against ransomware attack. Once a tape is ejected, it is completely offline, creating what is referred to as an "air gap." Without an electronic connection, data can't be hacked, deleted, or encrypted. A successful ransomware attack is virtually impossible when tape is employed. Even if an organisation's storage systems are compromised, including their online or cloud backups, offline tape backups are immune to ransomware. TAKE ANOTHER LOOK Tape has long been the single most costeffective solution for long-term storage of large data sets and archives. Continued research and development spanning several decades has delivered key advancements in data accessibility, transfer speeds, and storage capacity. In an era marked by burgeoning data sets, evolving data governance standards, and increasing cybersecurity threats, tape's ability to facilitate secure, rapid storage and retrieval of petabytes to exabytes of data makes it shine as a dependable and cost-effective option for meeting these pressing needs. More info: www.spectralogic.com www.storagemagazine.co.uk @STMagAndAwards Nov/Dec 2023 STORAGE MAGAZINE 19
Page 1 and 2: Front Cover 1.qxd 30-Nov-23 12:35 P
Page 3 and 4: ST Contents NovDec.qxd 01-Dec-23 10
Page 5 and 6: DON’T SaaSSS GET YOUR KICKED! ! T
Page 7 and 8: CAE 6.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:53 AM Page 3
Page 9 and 10: Veeam 09.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:54 AM Pag
Page 11 and 12: Quantum 10.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:55 AM P
Page 13 and 14: DCIG 12.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:56 AM Page
Page 15 and 16: Infinidat 14.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:57 AM
Page 17: Dremio 16.qxd 01-Dec-23 10:58 AM Pa
Page 21 and 22: The future is here. Tiered Backup S
Page 23 and 24: Hornetsecurity 22.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:
Page 25 and 26: Roundtable 24.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:02 A
Page 27 and 28: Roundtable 24.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:02 A
Page 29 and 30: Adsignal 28.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:05 AM
Page 31 and 32: Syniti 30.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:06 AM Pa
Page 33 and 34: 11-11 32.qxd 01-Dec-23 11:07 AM Pag
Page 35 and 36: Advancing EPYC Performance and Dens

ST Nov-Dec 2023

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?