INTRODUCTION TO

INFORMATION
STORAGE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE
 Introduction to Information Storage

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Table of Contents

Introduction to Information Storage ............................................................................ 4

Data Storage: Ever Changing and Ever Growing .................................................................5
Why Information Storage and Management .........................................................................6
Data and Information ...........................................................................................................7
Information Storage .............................................................................................................9
Data Center .......................................................................................................................10
Key Characteristics of a Modern Data Center ....................................................................11
Digital Transformation ........................................................................................................13
Business Drivers of Digital Transformation.........................................................................14

Knowledge Check .................................................................................................... 15

Knowledge Check ..............................................................................................................16
Knowledge Check ..............................................................................................................17

Introduction to Information Storage

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 Introduction to Information Storage

Introduction to Information Storage

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Introduction to Information Storage

Introduction to Information Storage

Introduction to Information Storage

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 Introduction to Information Storage

Data Storage: Ever Changing and Ever Growing

• Digital universe is created and defined by software.

− Digital data is continuously generated, collected, stored, and analyzed
through software.
• IDC report predicts worldwide data creation grows to an enormous 175
zettabytes (ZB) by 2025.
• Technologies driving digital transformation add to data growth.

Data growth prediction by IDC (Click image to enlarge)

Notes:

We live in a digital universe where a massive amount of digital data is continuously

generated, collected, stored, and analyzed through software.

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Introduction to Information Storage

Why Information Storage and Management

• Organizations have become increasingly

information-dependent in the 21st century, and
information must be available whenever and
wherever it is required.
• Organizations seek to store, protect, process,
manage, and use information.
• Businesses can leverage this data to:

− Identify new customers.

− Retain existing customers.

− Improve customer service.

Notes:

It is critical for users and applications to have continuous, fast, reliable, and secure
access to information for business operations to run as required.

Data is the lifeblood of a rapidly growing digital existence, opening new

opportunities for businesses, and gain a competitive edge.

Overall, data helps business leaders make smarter decisions about where to take
their companies.

It is essential for organizations to store, protect, process, and manage information

in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Legal, regulatory, and contractual
obligations regarding the availability, retention, and protection of data further add to
the challenges of storing and managing information.

To meet all these requirements, organizations are increasingly undertaking digital

transformation initiatives and implement intelligent storage solutions. These
solutions enable efficient and optimized storage and management of information.
The solutions also enable extraction of value from information to derive new
business opportunities, gain a competitive advantage, and create sources of
revenue.

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 Introduction to Information Storage

Data and Information

Laptop
Video

Digital Data

Desktop Text

Storage

Tablet/Mobile Photos

Storing digital data (Click image to enlarge)

Digital data is transmitted and stored in electronic form, and processed through
software.

• Devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and electronic

sensors generate digital data.
• Two types of data are structured 1 and unstructured 2 data.

• Information is processed data that enables useful interpretation and decision-

making.

− Example: Annual sales data processed into a sales report

Notes:

1 Structured data is organized in fixed fields within a record or file. To structure the
data, you require a data model. A data model specifies the format for organizing
data, and also specifies how different data elements are related to each other. For
example, in a relational database, data is organized in rows and columns within
named tables.
2 Unstructured data does not have a data model and is not organized in any

particular format. Some examples of unstructured data include text documents,

PDF files, email messages, presentations, images, and videos.

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Introduction to Information Storage

A generic definition of data is that it is a collection of facts, typically collected for

analysis or reference. Data can exist in various forms such as facts stored in a
person's mind, photographs, a bank ledger, and tabled results of a scientific survey.

Devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and electronic sensors
generate digital data. Digital data is stored as strings of binary values on a storage
medium. Examples of digital data are electronic documents, text files, email
messages, ebooks, digital images, digital audio, and digital video.

Information is processed data to enable useful interpretation and decision-making.

For example, when you process the annual sales data into a sales report, it
provides useful information. The information can be the average sales for a product
(indicating product demand and popularity), and a comparison of the actual sales to
the projected sales.

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 Introduction to Information Storage

Information Storage

Different storage devices

• Information is stored on a choice of non-volatile media such as:

− Magnetic storage devices (Hard disk drive and magnetic tape drive).
− Optical storage devices (Blu-ray, DVD, and CD).
− Flash-based storage devices: Solid-state drive (SSD), memory card, and
USB thumb drive.
• Storage devices are assembled within a storage system or “array”.

• Storage systems along with other IT infrastructure are housed in a data center.

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Introduction to Information Storage

Data Center

• A data center typically consists of:

− Facility: The building and floor space where the data center is constructed.
− IT equipment: Compute system, storage, and network components.
− Support infrastructure: Power supply, fire detection, HVAC, and security
systems
• A data center may be constructed in-house (located in an organization’s own
facility).

− The data center may also be outsourced, with equipment being at a third-
party site.

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Key Characteristics of a Modern Data Center

Data centers are designed and built to fulfill the key characteristics as shown in the
figure.

Click each characteristic for more information.

6 2

5 3

1: A data center should ensure 24x7x365 availability of resources to provide

anytime, anywhere data access.

2: A data center should adopt the IT resource delivery as a service paradigm. It

enables the IT department of an organization to become a utility to the business.
Also, delivers IT resources as services for convenient consumption by business
units. IT services are maintained in a service catalog which enables users to
provision resources in a self-service manner.

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Introduction to Information Storage

3: It is the process of abstracting physical resources, such as compute, storage,

and network, and creating virtual resources from them. A virtualized data center
provides the flexibility to create and reclaim virtual resources dynamically.

4: The data center IT infrastructure should be designed for scalable computing. It

enables the IT resources to scale-up, and down quickly as the demand for
resources grows and shrinks.

5: Multiple layers of security help in mitigating the risk of security threats in case
one layer is compromised. An attacker must breach each layer to be successful.
This approach provides additional time to detect and respond to an attack.

6: A software-defined data center supports software-centric control of data center

resources. A controller software that is decoupled from hardware sends instructions
to the hardware components to perform the required operations.

7: Orchestration of management operations helps in improving business agility.

Orchestration enables automated arrangement and coordination of various
component functions that is based on a predefined workflow.

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Digital Transformation

Today, people live in a digital world, and organizations must deliver exceptional
customer experiences with their products and services to meet their customers’
expectations.

To meet the needs of the customers and be competitive in the market place,
organizations have to adopt digital transformation.

Digital Transformation can be achieved using smarter products, data analytics, and
continuous improvement of products and services using software. For businesses,
it is now critical to digitally transform to meet the demands of their customers.

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Business Drivers of Digital Transformation

• In this digital world, organizations must develop new applications using agile
processes and new tools to achieve rapid time-to-market. Simultaneously, the
organizations still expect IT to operate and manage the traditional applications
that provide revenue.

Big Data

Cloud Computing

IoT

5G Technology
Machine Learning

Edge Computing

Key technologies to enable digital transformation

• Organizations are also under pressure to manage the enormous growth of

digital data and derive new values from the data. To survive, the organization
must transform and adopt modern technologies to support the digital
transformation.
• Some of the key technologies that enable digital transformation are:

− Cloud Computing
− Big Data
− Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
− Internet of Things (IoT)
− Edge Computing
− 5G

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Knowledge Check

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Knowledge Check

1. Which modern data center characteristic helps in improving business agility by

automated arrangement and coordination of various component functions that
is based on a predefined workflow?
a. Continuous availability
b. On-demand scalability
c. Orchestrated management
d. Virtualization

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Knowledge Check

2. Why are businesses undergoing digital transformation?

a. To eliminate security threats
b. To meet regulatory requirements
c. To innovate more quickly
d. To eliminate management costs

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