Disaster Recovery Journal Winter 2025

availability, the systems include multiple redundant components to address and overcome common hardware failures. The immutable feature found on many storage systems prohibits making modifications or deletions to stored data. Storing data in an immutable format protects it from many internal and external threats. These include cyber and ransomware attacks as well as human errors. 4. Snapshots . Many storage systems offer snapshot functionality that creates point-in-time copies of data. Readily available on many storage systems, snapshot options do vary by storage system and manufacturer. Some only take snapshots 3. Immutable storage . on a schedule (every 15 minutes or hour). Others continuously copy data changes as they occur. The snapshot frequency impacts the RPO the storage system can offer. Snapshots can provide short RTOs, in some cases allowing organizations to restore in minutes. 5. Storage tiering . Many storage systems support multiple storage tiers, enabling organizations to balance performance and cost. They can store more active data on solid state drives (SSDs) and less active data on hard disk drives (HDDs) or cloud storage.

Many organizations will informs them how to proceed with protecting their unstructured data. Some organizations may still utilize backup software to protect this data. However, many more will opt to use data protection features provided by available storage systems. Some may find the features they need in their existing storage systems, while others may require new, modern storage solutions. Approach #2: Utilize Existing Storage System Data Protection Features Organizations may find their current storage system possesses the core data protection capabilities they need. Five data protection features available on many existing storage systems include: 1. Erasure coding . Available on some storage systems, erasure coding breaks data into fragments and expands it with redundant data pieces. It then distributes these pieces across different storage nodes or locations. find cataloging This architecture permits losing one or more nodes or locations while the data remains available. Should one or more nodes or locations become unavailable, the system can reconstruct the data from the existing pieces. 2. High availability . Providers of storage systems purposely design their systems with high levels of availability. To deliver high

specific storage requirements. In this way, organizations can keep more unstructured data both accessible and protected while controlling their costs. Burgeoning Unstructured Data Stores Demand Organizations Tackle Data Protection Differently Organizations that hope or plan to protect their unstructured data in the same way they have in the past will often experience disappointment. The amount of unstructured data already under management, coupled with its rapid growth, makes this impractical. Rather, they must embrace data protection methods specifically designed for unstructured data. For many organizations, this begins with cataloging their unstructured data to understand it and prioritize next steps. Once catalogued, some organizations may find traditional backup methodologies will suffice. Still others will find they need to use latent data protection features in their existing storage systems. However, a growing number will need to embrace modern storage platforms that deliver the robust set of data protection features today’s hybrid IT environments now demand. v

Approach #3: Obtain a Modern Storage Platform with Advanced Capabilities Unfortunately, many storage systems have limitations that AI workloads reveal. In these situations, organizations may require a modern storage platform that possesses capabilities specifically designed for protecting data at scale. For example, quickly searching unstructured data to satisfy search requests may take on increased importance in some organizations. Some modern storage platforms optimize the indexing of data stored on them to accelerate searches and expedite data retrievals. In some cases, the differences between storage systems to complete searches and retrieve data can be significant. Existing storage systems may take hours or days to finish a search, while newer storage platforms can complete the same search in seconds or minutes. Most organizations now manage hybrid environments with operations hosted both in the cloud and on-premises. As a result, they need modern storage platforms that align with this new IT reality. Modern storage platforms also offer hybrid architectures that utilize storage both in the cloud and on-premises. They may also support multiple forms of storage media, to include optical and tape. Further, some storage platforms scale compute and storage separately to meet

Jerome Wendt, an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, is the president and founder of DCIG, LLC., a technology analyst firm. DCIG,

LLC., focuses on providing competitive intelligence for the enterprise data protection, data storage, disaster recovery, and cloud technology markets.

28 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | WINTER 2025