Survey: Organizations Use Expensive Storage for Inactive Data

A new study reveals an expensive problem for the majority of organizations: They’re spending a little too much on primary storage systems to store infrequently accessed data.

TwinStrata conducted a survey in March 2014 to learn more about storage strategies across organizations. The Natick, Massachusetts-based data storage company, a division of EMC (EMC) since July 2014, received responses from 254 professionals involved in their organizations’ IT strategy.

Out of respondents surveyed, 53 percent say their organization uses storage area networks (SANs) to store inactive data. Additionally, 81 percent of organizations who use SANs and network-attached storage (NAS) in their environment store inactive data on them; and 21 percent keep inactive data exclusively on SANs or NAS devices.

Many organizations using public cloud storage to store inactive data have smaller storage budgets. For example, 62 percent of organizations that store inactive data solely on SANs or NAS spend more than 10 percent of their IT budget. On the other hand, 39 percent of organizations using public cloud storage to store at least part of their inactive data say the same.

When it comes to storage system replacement, top reasons include growing capacity needs (54 percent), manufacturer end of life (49 percent), new technology (38 percent), and high maintenance costs (30 percent).

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above.