High performance and lowest TCO aren’t mutually exclusive goals: Quantum

Sonal Desai

MUMBAI, INDIA: Advent of big data to manage unstructured text has put a lot of stress on storage. But wise investments into the technology will certainly yield high performance at a lower TCO, says Sanjay Hasija, Country Head, Quantum, in an interview with CIOL.

What are the specific trends with regards to the new developments in the storage industry?

Companies are struggling to manage the massive growth of unstructured data and maximize the value of their digital content.  The traditional way of backing up data is expensive (up to $2,500/TB when hardware and software are included) and strains the network.

Also CIOs are looking at re-monetizing various forms of data like training and corporate video which is helping HR and marketing respectively; this could be HD, 4K or even 8k resolution. Along with this, surveillance is being used to manage quality of product/production/inventory management and transport/delivery of goods.

Traditionally, enterprises have been backing up data in a batch format for decades, and it is now necessary to educate them that there is now a better approach.  Once the awareness is created, they will understand that it is easy to optimize their back-up.

What are the challenges?

The main challenge is education.  There is an old adage, “If it isn’t broken then don’t fix it.”  But what if it is broken?  In the case of batch back-up, especially in relation to unstructured data, new developments mean that there are better ways, so it is time to fix it.

CIOs are keen on consolidation and want to create an effective workflow to manage and re-monetize the data. The challenge now is to integrate surveillance, corporate and training video, CAD and PACS data for meaningful usage. Having done this, the question is how to store.

How does Quantum fit the bill?

Quantum takes a different approach.  It starts with the principle that high performance and lowest TCO aren’t mutually exclusive goals. Our innovations combine these values to maximize the value of data over its life.

We advocate the right technology at the right time which is in tune with company's unique workflow. This is managed as a consolidated platform by an intelligent, policy-based software layer that we call StorNext 5.

Can you name some customers and the specific business outcomes after deploying the storage systems?

While NDAs do not permit us to make public names of customers in India, we have more than 50 customers including the largest broadcaster for Stornext in media and entertainment vertical.

StorNext is helping India’s largest space organization manage more than 4 PB of data which is growing by more than 1 PB a year.

For long term back-up and archival, we have the largest Central Government organization, and have also serviced more than 100 customers including two of the largest telecom providers, the largest hospital Chain and 4 of the Top 10 banks in India/

Globally, customers like Bend Memorial Clinic have seen a 35 percent lower TCO, faster back-up and restore, and powerful data management and de-duplication capabilities with our solutions.

We enabled the Biola University to cut storage costs by minimizing the need for disk; delivered back-up and archiving in a single package. This also saved IT time by allowing self-managed file storage which is integrated with existing network and tape libraries.

For the Hawaii State Department of Health, de-duplication reduced disk and bandwidth needs by more than 95 percent, providing 12-month retention on disk and replication over WAN.

You have a large presence in the M&E industry. What is your advice to the CIOs?

The industry is in the process of tremendous change.  Time to market is key so there is a need for a high-performance workflow; one in which multiple clients can ingest, edit, and preserve content in real time.

Similarly, to aid in the editing of content the production unit must have fast access to a large amount of data on a moment’s notice. This can support breaking news or help monetize archived assets.

There is a trend of needing to transcode content in many different formats for playout such as TV, Web, mobile, etc.  This process needs to occur quickly without impeding upon the other editing under way.

Finally, M&E organizations are just starting to make the move to 4K or in some cases, 8K.  This is putting tremendous burdens on the workflow from ingest, to editing, to play-out to preservation.