What is Tiered Storage? Back

The idea for ‘tiered storage’ originated in the early 1990s as a means of improving enterprise document storage economics. The concept belongs to the discipline of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). Tiered storage is typically based on an agreed policy to assign defined categories of data to defined storage media. The overall aim of formal tiered storage is to increase storage efficiency and costs.

Tiered storage considerations

The medium upon which data is assigned is typically based upon the below list of considerations:

• Cost
• Desired security
• Performance
• Availability
• Frequency of use

Why tiers denote importance

Tier 1 is typically the highest in importance and uses the most expensive form of storage. Tier 3 is typically the lowest level of importance and uses the cheapest form of storage (e.g. magnetic tapes or CD). Data typically begins its life in Tier 1 and works its way down tiers as time goes by. For instance data initially stored on a hard drive is commonly later archived on magnetic tapes for merely historical purposes.

The time factor

Tiered storage aims to eliminate clutter. As time goes by data becomes less important and therefore drops down in tiers. Old data is important merely for historical purposes and so it does not make sense to store this data on costly mediums such as cloud storage.

Tiered storage in practice

In practice a formal policy of tiered storage is rarely put in place. Many enterprises work off an ad-hoc policy where data is effectively stored in either one of two tiers: active storage and archived storage. Furthermore data often remains stored in a single location for the entire duration of its lifetime. This situation is largely due to a lack of automation.

About Secure Storage Services

Based in Liverpool and Wirral, Secure Storage Services provides document storage, scanning and shredding services nationwide.

Document storage and effective document management are increasingly becoming more important for businesses across the country. With the rental price of office spaces going up and data protection concerns increasing, high quality document management facilities are becoming more important to businesses in Liverpool and the surrounding areas.