File servers continue to proliferate, and email has moved from a basic tool for exchanging documents to an inherent part of an organization’s communication and collaboration portfolio. With such ad-hoc information sources now being a mission critical function, the need for data management and archival is becoming critical.
QUOCIRCA INSIGHT REPORT April 2007 Ad-hoc Information and Contacts: Intellectual Property Clive Longbottom Quocirca Ltd The need for management and archival Tel +44 118 948 3360 Clive.Longbottom@quocirca.com File servers continue to proliferate, and email has moved from a basic tool for exchanging documents to an inherent part of an organisation's communication Fiona Moon and collaboration portfolio. With such ad-hoc information sources now being a CommVault mission critical function, the need for data management and archival is becoming Tel: +44 118 951 6500 critical. Fiona.Moon@commvault.com The growth of ad-hoc information within organisations continues to grow Organisations are creating more and more information, the majority of which will never hit a formal storage system. Simply managing the growth of file server and email storage systems is taxing the majority of organisations. Effectively mining the value of such information is proving even harder. The corporate importance of email and file storage is growing exponentially Most organisations find that email is now being utilised as a form of information back up for many employees. Although the stateless capabilities of email servers means that this is technically an effective approach, the impact on storage volumes of having multiple copies of documents held on file servers and across multiple email storage systems is immense. Both legal and organisational compliance needs are driving a requirement for better ad-hoc information management Legal needs for process auditing, information tracking and disclosure are growing and changing constantly. Without the capability to keep track of ad-hoc information, an organisation's capabilities to demonstrate compliance will be effectively lost. Organisational decision making is essentially impossible where the majority of information cannot be easily accessed Making decisions against a sub-set of information is dangerous, yet most organisations can only effectively report against information held in formalised storage systems, such as databases and document management systems. REPORT NOTE: In the majority of cases, storage resources are woefully under utilised This article has been written Having dedicated storage systems for specific applications can lead to utilisation levels independently by Quocirca of less than 30% on storage systems. Ltd to provide an overview of Tooling is required that creates a virtualised storage resource pool the issues facing By choosing the right storage management environment, storage can be virtualised and organisations in ensuring logically partitioned to provide a highly flexible environment that is far more responsive adequate management of their basic file and email to the organisation's needs and can provide more efficient means of utilising storage environments. The report resources. draws on Quocirca's Flexibility and usability are key requirements extensive knowledge of the The tooling chosen must be easy to implement, must be inclusive in its support of technology and business existing and future storage hardware and must provide interfaces that are easy to use for arenas, and provides advice both end users and technical staff alike. on the approach that organisations should take to create a more effective and Conclusions efficient environment for Ad-hoc information stores have historically been overlooked by organisations which have future growth. regarded simple back up and restore capabilities as being sufficient for business' needs. However, both internal and external pressures have been growing to make it that such stores have inherent value to the company, and that control must be exercised over the stores so that the full commercial value can be more easily uncovered and made available to enable better decision making. An independent report by Quocirca Ltd. www.quocirca.com Commissioned by CommVault Ad-hoc Information and Intellectual Property Page 2
1. Introduction Organisations started to store files centrally to get around the also seen the growth of regulation on a world-wide basis, and problem of unreliable client devices losing information on this has meant that email has to be more controlled and has to failure. By centrali... [download for more]
