A Solid Hybrid Data Strategy Best for Your Business

In the cloud, on premise, or both? Here is a look at combining data storage solutions.

By Ron Mente On Feb 15, 2019

A global survey by Frost & Sullivan indicates that 54 percent of CEOs see data and analytics as critical to driving innovation and growth.

With data being used to drive business decisions in more ways than ever before, it is imperative that companies treat that data as a strategic asset. With data so important to business success, having a plan that solves for the performance, reliability, utilization and growth of that data needs to be viewed strategically. This includes the environments where the data will reside.

The Need for Infrastructure: To support the ever-increasing amounts of information being stored, businesses need to have the proper infrastructure in place. Finding the right mix of platforms that fits your business requirements is key. Many solutions turn that requirement on its head, instead wanting you to change your business to meet their tooling. The right storage solution can meet your needs while increasing value to the business.

When IT within an organization considers its infrastructure, it should be more than a simple line item called ‘storage’ in the budget.

Instead, the architecture of the storage environment – and what it hopes to accomplish – should align with the goals of the business. Questions to ask include: How will the business deal with significant data growth? Where is the right place for the data – the cloud, on premise, or both? Does all the data the company will use reside in its own systems or will this data be mixed in with data from other sources? Who needs to access the data – and how will they access it?

Since one size definitely doesn’t fit all when it comes to a company’s storage needs, a personalized hybrid strategy often makes the most sense. This type of approach offers flexibility, scalability, performance and security. Often, an initial implementation begins with the freshest data, with the highest performance requirements being maintained on premise in traditional in-house systems while cooler data is tiered off to the cloud. In a well-built environment, the business can then manage storage across multiple systems and deployment models while having the ability to move or share data and workload among environments.

Businesses are increasingly leveraging vast amounts of data to fuel insight, decision making and action. It is clear that a hybrid data storage strategy can help them do this by supporting virtually limitless growth and targeted performance while allowing for the global management, security and governance of data of any kind, anywhere – in the cloud and on premise. This type of approach turns data storage into a competitive advantage, helping drive the business’ ability to derive value from its data.

About Author: As the Director of Cloud and Emerging Technologies, Ron Mente is responsible for driving new innovations both within Micro Strategies and for its clients. 

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