Enterprise data storage is the foundation of any successful company in today’s data-driven world. Everything is kept in this digital vault, including financial transactions, marketing initiatives, and intellectual property.
Yet, because of data’s ever-increasing volume and complexity, even well-meaning companies can make serious mistakes regarding their enterprise data storage strategy.
These errors can have extensive ramifications, affecting anything from catastrophe recovery and general business continuity to operational effectiveness and compliance.
We’ll look at eight typical mistakes businesses make when it comes to storing company data here:
Typical Mistakes to Avoid for Enterprise Data Storage
Mistake 1. Absence of a Well-Defined Data Storage Plan
Many businesses make the mistake of only increasing storage capacity in response to increased data volume—a practice known as reactive data storage.
It can become challenging to locate, manage, and safeguard information due to this reactive approach’s tendency toward disorganized and inefficient data sprawl.
Resolution: Formulate a Complete Data Storage Plan
Your organization’s data storage server solutions needs, objectives, and priorities are outlined in a well-defined data storage plan, which serves as a roadmap. Data types, budgetary restrictions, disaster recovery plans, and compliance requirements should all be considered.
Here are some key considerations for crafting a robust data storage strategy:
- Data Classification
The process of classifying data involves determining its level of sensitivity, compliance with regulations, and accessibility requirements. This aids in identifying the primary, secondary, or archive storage tier that is best for a certain type of data.
- Storage Tiering
Use a combination of storage technologies, such as cloud storage for scalability and disaster recovery, object storage for archival data that is less expensive, and high-performance storage for data that is used often, to create a tiered storage architecture.
- Information Governance
Assign ownership of data, restrict access to it, set retention periods, and provide disposal instructions under well-defined rules and procedures.
Mistake 2. Neglecting Data Protection
Businesses with inadequate security procedures are easy pickings for data breaches, which are a persistent concern. Even one data breach can have disastrous effects, including monetary losses, harm to one’s reputation, and fines from the government.
Solution: Give data security priority
A key component of any organizational data storage plan should be data security. The following are some crucial security precautions to take:
- Encryption: To protect sensitive information even if it ends up in the wrong hands, encrypt data both in transit and at rest.
- Access Control: Apply strong access controls based on the least privilege principle to restrict access to data.
- Frequent Backups: To guarantee data recovery in the event of a disaster or cyberattack, keep regular backups of your data offsite in a secure location.
Mistake 3. Rejecting Cloud Storage
Scalability, affordability, and enhanced accessibility are just a few benefits that cloud storage has over conventional on-premises storage options. Nonetheless, a few businesses are still reluctant to move their data to the cloud because of security worries or a lack of knowledge about available cloud storage solutions.
Utilize Cloud Storage’s Power as a Solution
A cloud storage solution might be a great addition to your business data storage plan. Using its advantages can be done as follows:
- Hybrid Cloud Storage: Take into account a hybrid cloud storage strategy that combines cloud storage for scalable and affordable storage of less important data with on-premises storage for sensitive data.
- Select the Appropriate Cloud provider: Choose a cloud provider that has a solid reputation for security and compliance.
- Taking Data Residency into Account: Recognize the cloud storage locations for your data and confirm that the applicable data privacy laws are being followed.
Mistake 4. Data Lifecycle Management Ignored
Data is always changing—new information is produced, outdated information is rendered obsolete, and certain information must be retained for legal or regulatory purposes.
Your storage infrastructure can get clogged with obsolete or inactive data without adequate data lifecycle management, which will reduce storage effectiveness and raise management complexity.
Resolution. Use efficient data lifecycle management as a solution
You can safely dispose of outdated information while preserving important data with the support of a strong data lifecycle management methodology. The following are some crucial actions:
- Classification of Data: To identify the best storage tiers and retention durations, categorize data according to its lifecycle state (active, inactive, or archival).
- Data archiving: Save inactive data to an affordable secondary storage level so that it can be accessed later on for legal or historical requirements.
- Data Deletion: Safely remove outdated information in compliance with legal and organizational data retention guidelines.
Mistake 5. Underestimating the Needs for Disaster Recovery
Cyberattacks, hardware issues, and natural disasters can all have an impact on your data storage infrastructure, potentially causing data loss and business disruption.
In the event of a disaster, having a strong disaster recovery strategy is crucial to guaranteeing the availability and accessibility of your data.
Resolution: Create an All-Inclusive Disaster Recovery Strategy
The actions your company will take to recover from a disaster and get back to business as soon as feasible are outlined in a disaster recovery plan. The following are some essential components of a corporate data storage disaster recovery plan:
- Backups of data: Make regular backups of your data to a safe offsite place to ensure data recovery in the event of an emergency.
- Data Replication: To ensure prompt failover in the event of a primary site failure, think about replicating important data to a backup site.
- Testing and Training: Make sure your disaster recovery plan is working by testing it regularly. Also, make sure your staff members are trained on what to do in case of an emergency.
Mistake 6. Ignoring the Needs for Data Compliance
Strict data privacy laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), apply to many businesses. Heavy fines and harm to one’s reputation may arise from breaking these rules.
Resolution: Make sure the data is compliant
- Data compliance regulations should be included in your company’s storage plan. Here’s how to get people to comply:
- Data Mapping: Locate and classify the data kinds that must comply with rules.
Use access controls to limit access to sensitive information by regulatory regulations.
- Data Retention and Destruction: To abide by requirements, set up schedules for data retention and put safe data destruction practices in place.
The Final Thoughts
You can develop a safe, effective, and compliant data storage plan for your business by avoiding these typical data storage errors and putting the suggested fixes into practice.
You may guarantee the accessibility, accuracy, and security of your priceless digital assets by proactively taking care of your data storage needs. This will enable your business to make data-driven decisions and accomplish its strategic objectives.