Today the Active Archive Alliance announced the availability of a new report: “Active Archive and the State of the Industry,” which highlights data growth challenges facing the storage industry and the expanding role of active archives in the data management lifecycle.
The emergence of big data analytics from machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which allow organizations to tap the value of massive volumes of archival data, is putting pressure on data storage infrastructures. According to the report, “Archival data is piling up faster than ever as organizations are quickly learning the value of analyzing vast amounts of previously untapped digital data. The need to securely store, search for, retrieve and analyze massive volumes of archival content is fueling new and more effective advancements in archive solutions.”
Top external factors driving archival and long-term retention requirements include:
- Government compliance regulations
- Growing dependency on security and surveillance systems
- Advanced 3D and 4D video capabilities and rich content produced in the media and entertainment (M&E) sector
- Scientific research and data capture/analysis
- The growth of big data analytics and rapid emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and new use cases such as ML and AI
These factors are driving increased demand for active archives by organizations that need to effectively manage data from terabytes to exabytes across multiple storage pools throughout the lifecycle of the data.
Today’s organizations recognize the increasing value of data, but they are overwhelmed by the amount of data being created and by the need to effectively manage and store this data,” said Peter Faulhaber, Chairman of the Active Archive Alliance. “By moving inactive data to an active archive, organizations can lower storage costs while optimizing the performance of their systems.”
An active archive is a high-value storage architecture that gives the user access to data across a virtual file system and migrates data between one or more storage systems and media types based on user defined policies. Most active archive implementations use high capacity HDDs and tape or the cloud. The active archive supports file, block or object storage systems using advanced data management software to maintain accessibility to archival data.