In this slidecast, David Cerf from the Active Archive Alliance describes five Big Data trends for 2014. "2013 has been a breakthrough year for active archive deployments, and with shrinking IT budgets, exponential data growth, and longer retention periods, there are no signs of slowing in 2014. In fact, the current climate is driving the need for more cost-effective long-term storage solutions more than ever. The market has matured to a point where accessibility and performance are essential to long-term data storage, making 2014 the year active archives will become a more mainstream best practice. Members of the Active Archive Alliance – including Crossroads, Fujifilm, QStar, SGI, and Spectra Logic - have compiled their top five predictions for data storage as it relates to active archives in the year to come." Learn more: http://www.activearchive.com/ Watch the video presentation: http://wp.me/p3RLEV-1HR

1. Rich Report Podcast
Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
David Cerf
Active Archive Alliance

2. Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
5. Active Archives Will Become Mainstream in Long-term Data
Storage Environments.
In 2013, the end user community gained a solid understanding of
the differences between archive and backup and the value
archives can bring to their storage strategies. With this
foundation set, in 2014, active archives will increasingly become
a top strategic purchasing intention of CIOs as they grapple with
implementing cost-effective methods to store, retain and
retrieve data.

3. Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
4. Increased Focus on Data Profiling.
The use of rudimentary data profiling will become increasingly
important for deploying effective storage management
strategies. Understanding baseline file attributes for large data
sets will be important for matching performance requirements
to storage options. This will allow storage administrators to
architect solutions that meet their specific storage requirements
and unlocks the inherent benefits of an active archive strategy
that results in real, hard dollar ROI.

4. Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
3. File-based Storage Solutions Will Remain at Center Stage.
In the midst of new technologies, established technologies such
as LTO-6 and LTFS (Linear Tape File System) will remain at the
core – allowing tape to be used as low-cost NAS. As a result,
tape's role in big data, cloud, HPC and other data intensive
applications will continue to grow, and there will be a significant
increase in archive solutions using LTFS and potentially the
adoption of LTFS as a standard for tape storage.

5. Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
2. New Storage Technologies will Expand Roles and Gain Ground.
In 2013, object storage established itself as the best new storage
architecture to address the scalability challenges faced by
industries in which storage is a major component of their business
model. In 2014, we'll see expanded software intelligence that
makes tape easier to manage, streamlined within the storage
environment. New appliances that front-end tape will make it
easier for customers to use low-cost tape, delivering the long-term
reliability, access and protection promised by an active archive.

6. Active Archive: Top Five Data Predictions
for 2014
1. Continued Growth of Unstructured Data.
Despite diminishing IT budgets, unstructured data will continue
to grow at an exponentially rapid rate. IDC has forecasted 80
Exabytes of storage needed for 2014, where 70 of these
Exabytes (almost 90 percent), is expected to come from
unstructured data. To meet this challenge, active archives and
data tape technologies will play an increasing role as
organizations seek innovative storage solutions that meet today’s
storage demands where older storage technologies come up
short.