Store more data to unlock its potential

The survey, which assessed attitudes to data storage and data value among CIOs and IT decision makers, highlights that while 87 per cent of respondents believe all data generated has value, but only if an organization can store, access and analyse it effectively and optimally. However, only 50 per cent are doing so. Twenty-one per cent of CIOs and IT decision-makers in Europe felt that they did not have the right storage solutions in place to be able to adequately collect, store and process all of the data that they need. With the amount of data generated across EMEA growing exponentially, organisations are running the risk of not being able to gain deeper understandings, drive predictions, and make real time decisions, which gives businesses the ultimate competitive edge.

IT Demand for Data Drives IT Spending
The research highlights a gap between the amount of data being produced and the ability of companies to store that data. Seventy three per cent of respondents assert that the Internet of Things, Big Data and mobility are all driving a need to change the way data is dealt with. Three quarters (75 per cent) agree that having better analytics and storage tools would improve the efficiency of their business. Yet 21 per cent admit that their organisation does not have the right mix of structured, unstructured and semi-structured data storage to optimally analyse what data they do have. Unsurprising, respondents cited storage as the primary driver of IT investment, especially in France (67 per cent) and Germany (66 percent).

Data security and governance were also cited as the largest concern when it comes to data for respondents (36 per cent in France, 34 per cent in the UK, 27 per cent in Germany).

“Data has become the currency of the new economy and the ability to extract value from data is the ultimate competitive edge,” explained Mike Cordano, president of HGST, A Western Digital Company. “Smart organisations are harnessing the power of data to gain understanding, drive predictions and offer new insights. The challenges of storing, retaining, accessing and transforming this massive volume of data has put storage at the heart of the data centre.”

Active Archive Greenfield
Cordano continued: “As the volume, velocity and variety of data grows, organisations must work hard to extract extra business value from stored data. Active Archive, a sub-segment of the Cold Storage category, is emerging to address the changing dynamics as data archiving is no longer limited to offline storage with the mindset of “write once” and likely “read never.”

Those polled pointed to long-term storage (93 per cent) and data protection (96 per cent) as drivers of innovation and investment to address the issue of volume, velocity and variety of data growth. Fifty-six per cent of those surveyed say their companies are planning, or already implementing Active Archive solutions to address longer-term storage needs.

Need for Performance and Efficiency Driving Solid State Drive (SSD) and Software Adoption
Among those currently involved in a data centre project, performance/reliability (44 per cent) and cost/operational efficiency (21 per cent) were selected as the most important considerations for their business, and investments in SSDs and total cost of ownership (TCO) initiatives are thriving. Today, a majority of IT decision makers surveyed (66 per cent) are investing in SSDs to accelerate or extend the life of hardware investments, especially in, Germany (75 per cent) and France (72 per cent), while the UK lags behind with only half (52 per cent) of businesses investing. At the same time, 61 per cent of respondents are planning or engaged in a TCO-related project, the highest level of activity for any initiative tested.

In all countries sampled globally, the survey found that application acceleration software is commonly used to increase performance at larger firms (63 per cent), but still not used widely in small and mid-sized companies (49 per cent). Among all respondents, scalability (89 per cent) and application acceleration (86 per cent) were citied among the top four drivers of innovation in data storage.

Cloud Storage to Quadruple
Data accessibility is also a growing concern, and cloud storage was identified as the top discipline for active investment. Public cloud storage growth is expected to quadruple in the next year. Today, only 8 per cent of respondents in Europe keep more than 50 per cent of their data in the cloud, however, 32 per cent expect to keep at least 50 per cent of their data in the cloud a year from now.