The Copy Data Problem
Are you tired of hearing about data growth? Are you even more tired of coping with it? The dirty little secret of this unabated/exponential/non-stop data growth is that it’s being driven by copy data. Copies could be anything from a snapshot, backup, replica or a copy made for test/dev, analytics or operations functions. According to IDC, up to 60% of storage capacity is dedicated to copy data today and it will cost business over $50B in 2018.
In fact, a recent study shows that 82% of businesses have at least 10 copies of any one production instance of data. So it’s no surprise that the vast majority of organizations expect to spend more on storage this year than last. What you probably don’t know is that the #1 reason that organizations expect to spend less this year is the use of effective copy data management. Unfortunately, that’s a small minority (20%) of businesses today, which is why we still can’t stop talking about or dealing with data growth. So what can you do about it?
The Answer
The copy data problem is too broad and complex to solve with a one size fits all approach. It requires a strategic approach that will ultimately drive down costs and curb storage growth.
First, you need to optimize your infrastructure efficiency to ensure you’re getting the most out of your storage and data protection assets. That requires storing the right number of copies on the right storage devices and ensuring that data is both protected and accessible. You will need to have a combination of all flash primary storage with incredibly efficient copy creation as well as protection storage, which minimizes storage requirements while ensuring recoverability.
Next, you need to balance the autonomy data owners crave with control of IT resources to streamline operations. This is especially critical because a major driver of copy sprawl is the move to self-service copy creation with data owners (database admins, storage admins, VM admins, etc.) all creating copies from their native UIs. However, without global oversight, this self-service model can massively proliferate copy sprawl.
Finally, you always need to meet service levels across the enterprise to minimize risk,– including data loss and downtime. In fact, IDC estimates that downtime costs customers a million dollars per hour and our Global Data Protection Index found this adds up to nearly a one trillion dollar loss globally. And this is expense that is totally avoidable by putting the right solution in place.
The EMC Copy Data Management Family
With the introduction of EMC Enterprise Copy Data Management today, EMC now offers a family of copy data management (CDM) solutions designed to complement our extremely efficient storage and protection technologies. EMC’s CDM solutions are designed to comprehensively address the copy data problem and include:
- Integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM) – entry level CDM that enables efficient copy creation and management on primary storage.
- Enterprise Copy Data Management (eCDM) – enterprise class CDM that enables global management and monitoring of copies across primary and protection storage.
- Enterprise Copy Data Analytics (eCDA) – enterprise class analytics that provide actionable insight across the entire global enterprise.
Don’t drown in a sea of copy data. Let EMC throw you a life preserver with EMC CDM solutions.
