Introduction
Data is an important element in organizations today. There is a need to ensure that data storage systems are designed to bring the best out of the data that is stored in the company. Data storage design strategy will give the company optimal access to information. With the data storage system, security will be given the focus, and design that it requires. This paper will focus on the design of data storage system for a data collection and analysis system.
SEV is a web analytic company that deals with collection and analysis of customer data. The company was formed to leverage data collection and analysis after realization that the web derives lots of data that when analyzed could be beneficial to business people. The founder of the company realized that there is a need to develop to utilize large amounts of customer data to derive trends and insights into business processes. Technology has made it possible to leverage big data derived from business systems and fine tune it to produce powerful metrics. Today’s enterprises have realized the need for justified investment in every line of business they engage.
Currently, the company is located in Louisiana and has been in operation for the last two years. It recorded a turnover of $10 million dollars in the previous year. It expects that, in the next one or two years, it will experience growth of up to 60% and, thus, require massive storage abilities. As the CIO, I endear to come up with a new storage system plan to accommodate the expected growth. I will design and implement a new storage system for the company to be in line with its growth projection.
The company collects data from the web and integrates it with operational data from the clients to come up with powerful insights on the state of a particular market segment. Data obtained in the mining process is analyzed, transformed and aggregated at diverse abstraction levels. Content derived is of high concern to e-commerce sites and passes on the relationship to the data user. The data analyzed by this company include graphic and texts obtained from HTML/XML pages and scripts, social networks, attribute descriptive keywords, among other diverse sources. The content of the data is always semantic or structural metadata.
Goals
The company aspires to be the leader in provision of analytic services using its custom made tools to help small start-ups and leading businesses. It uses web analytics to create easy-to-use dashboards that track key business metrics and better exploit business opportunities. The company aggregates raw data in the form of web page visits, web log files, JavaScript and PHP page tags as well as financial, business related and operational systems to create useful identifiers such as metric overviews, and summaries. Storage space is traditionally a limiting factor and as such, the company looks to implement a new storage system that provides unlimited space for data storage and analysis.
Thus, specifically, this project aims to deliberate on a new storage system that is economical, easy to use and scalable. The new system should suit the needs of SEV in terms of costs and scalability. The company data growth is exponential as it divulges into new markets, and signs up new businesses.
Second, this plan aims to create the best security practices that can be applied to the storage facility to diminish any probabilities of data compromise. SEV handles lots of proprietary customer data which when exposed may drag the company to financial and social complications. As such, the desired storage system should guard the company’s systems against internal and external unauthorized access or attacks.
Deliverables
SEV looks forward to a stand-alone cloud-based storage system for its storage services. The cloud solution is propitious because it provides scalability, reduce on software and hardware management costs, and provide unlimited scalability. The cloud computing experience distributes performances to many virtual machines on the cloud eliminating compatibility issues.
The best cloud-based solution to suit SEV is sought considering pricing models, SLA’s, deployment model, security and experience of the service providers. A cloud solution customized to meet the needs of the organization is key SEV’s success.
Cost
Management of cloud storage systems is not complicated for users. Two technical personnel are required for configuration and troubleshooting. Two technicians are required to oversee the general operation of SEV networks. Their roles include support of all web application practices such as system troubleshooting and diagnosis, upgrades and patching. The overall cost of the personnel is approximated at $500,000.
The cost of a cloud solution is affordable for most businesses. Google Cloud provides a value for money pricing model. It charges a standard storage fee of $0.085 per GB and $0.076 for the next 9TB and $0.067 for the next 90TB. Its durable reduced availability storage price per GB is $0.063, for between zero and 10 TB, $0.054, $0.049, $0.045, $0.042 for the next, 9TB, 90TB, 400TB and 4500TB consecutively. Considering the data range required for storage in SEV, the company need to make an initial annual investment of $400,000. Other charges include network and operations charges averaging $0.1 standard and $0.17 network egress, and $0.01 for class A operations (Google Pricing Models).
Advantages of the solution to the business
Data presents numerous opportunities for businesses. Technology has made it possible to leverage big data derived from business systems and fine tune it to produce powerful metrics. Today’s enterprises have realized the need for justified investment in every line of business they are engaged. Justified investment can, however, not be attained without studying and u8nderstanding the user behaviour. User behaviour is important in streamlining business practices to arrive at the best solution that justify the investment.
Object storage systems have replaced file-based and block-based systems in private and public cloud storage infrastructures. Object storage systems relieve the problems associated with traditional systems such as limited scalability and metadata which are hierarchically structured hence slowing down on capacity optimization and introducing security issues. Object storage provides an indexed file structure ideal for unstructured data, and allows for files to be dispersed over wide geographical locations for a performance resilience, optimization, and data security.
Providers
Cloud storage providers include Microsoft, Rackspace, Google, SavvisDirect and Earthlink. Microsoft Azure offers flexibility, security, and enhanced accessibility taking into account the existing infrastructure. Rackspace is a popular cloud provision solution with ease of use, flexibility and security. It serves some of the big brands in the world, with its secure, and highly reliable systems. Google Cloud provides fastest cloud storage service and bases their cost on bandwidth. Savvisdirect is well known in the cloud industry for providing the high level of technical and customer support to its clients. In addition, its custom made solutions to suit all businesses as well as world class data encryption provides maximum security. Finally, Earth Link is a favourable option for cutting on costs while maintaining the high level of data security. Its standard service includes redundant back-ups for all business data. A choice of these storage providers is based on the needs of the company, pricing model and other determinants such as SLAs. Google Cloud is a recommended option in this case because it provides fastest cloud access functionalities that suites the need of analytic company such as SEV.
References
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