Dealing with data
There have been a lot of concerns raised in the last couple of years about big data and cloud computing, specifically how backup tape management can be improved to deal with these dilemmas. Increasing daily data usage coupled with additional media outlets has created an infrastructure in which IT personnel are constantly challenged to make due with what they have, especially as the recession still weighs heavily on some institutions. What are they to do?
Schools have seen some of the biggest problems regarding these issues, as they receive public funding and rely on student fees to pad their coffers and offer them money to tide them over through the next academic year. Still, layoffs are not unheard of, and as mobile devices like smartphones and tablets make use of in-house solutions, they present more threats that IT data centers will have to handle.
“Data storage is 40 to 50 percent of your budget,” NetApp’s VP, Regina Kunkle, told Campus Technology. “And [it’s] growing anywhere from 50 to 100 percent a year.”
Technology and networking are seeing increased usage in everything from organizing daily lectures to managing meal plans, and most of a student’s academic profile is monitored, maintained and passed through computer systems. To combat incoming data threats and protect the files these attacks target, improving business continuity will require advanced tape management tools.
JD Supra wrote that legacy systems and on-site IT are some of the areas that schools especially may want to focus on, as these solutions have been in place for a long time and existing personnel in these departments may not be well-versed in how to prepare for new innovations. Using outside companies to help verify quality and thoroughness of new solutions can help make sure that colleges are starting from the right place. Moving forward, training in these systems will need to be the new focus. A state-of-the-art media management interface can go awry if used improperly.
As big data changes the way that companies of all kinds make, use and interact with computers and other technology, it’s important to remember that staying abreast of the situation will be essential. Compliance guidelines, new device rollouts and other innovations will require that companies remain ready to roll with the punches, or else risk a continuity disaster by being ill-prepared for major shifts in business technology.