Blog / More Look at all this STUFF! – We’re becoming a society of digital hoarders – Part 2

In the last article, I made the bold statement that we are becoming a society of digital hoarders, based on industry trends that show the volume of digital file storage is ballooning at an ever-increasing rate. Digital content (and storage) is being created over 1000x faster than analog content, and that rate is increasing. Hard drives are filling up, servers are becoming overloaded, and cloud storage systems are starting to cost serious money, all in an effort to keep this information on-tap and ready for instant access.

If you haven’t noticed this trend in both your personal and business practices, you haven’t been paying attention. New applications like Microsoft Teams are prime motivators in digitizing many old-school processes and data storage systems. There are definitely huge benefits to digital transformation, but here we’re trying to explore the impact these new systems have on your storage requirements.

I also mentioned three possible storage venues (two cloud-based and one in-house) and a possible dark side of increased cyber security risk. But I also promised some tips to get this particular digital tiger under control. While by no means a complete road map, here is a good overview to start:

How much do you really have?

The first step is performing a high-level inventory of your current storage. I suggest starting by identifying where the information is, whether it’s on shared in-house storage drives, cloud storage drives, or maybe even individual desktops (your IT provider can assist you with locating the major storage areas). While you can ignore system operating and configuration files, you will need to count databases; specialized applications often use database storage containers (such as SQL Server). You may be surprised by where your information is stored.

Start a spreadsheet that lists the major locations and two key numbers: the total number of files and total storage size (in gigabytes) in each location. These are easy numbers to obtain from most systems. Next, add a column to the sheet that lists the types of files in each location by business unit or application. For example, you could create columns for accounting documents, administration files, public works, templates, company policies, etc., (but don’t worry if there is some overlap). Finally, add a column that lists the business units or individuals that need access to the files, including management, administration users, field workers, and so on. Total up the file number and storage space columns. It shouldn’t take more than a day or two to complete this high-level step, and when you’re done you’ll likely gain an appreciation for the magnitude of your current digital storage.

Plan for the future.

The next step is harder. You need to understand where your organization’s business operations are headed. This could be a simple statement like “grow our operations by 3% each year while maintaining service levels”, or it could be vastly more complex, like “we plan to aggressively grow our operations at an annual rate of 20% by expanding to multiple locations and/or acquiring competitors, subsidiaries and new services.” In this forward-looking statement, you should identify any significant changes to your business operations specific to IT and data storage. For example, “we plan to migrate all data storage to a cloud environment” or “we plan to implement a corporate-wide professional services application.” This information will give you an appreciation of future storage requirements.

Analyze, Purge, and Archive.

The third step is to understand the relevance of your digital content to your business operations. This may be driven by legislation or requirements from a professional association. Regardless, knowing the relevance of your files gives you the ability to purge or archive your active file storage system of unnecessary files, so let’s define the terms “purge” and “archive” before heading on.

• Purge means delete; the content has no useful purpose and can be completely eliminated without affecting your business operations. Simple examples might be budget forecasts from 10 years ago, letters to clients who are out of business, and internal corporate staff newsletters more than three years old.
• Archive means retain for future reference; the files may be needed in the future, but lack relevance in current day-to-day activities. Corporate tax returns from previous years, five year-old HR records, and client files from years ago may be candidates for archiving. Archiving content usually means moving files to a storage system that is cheaper and less accessible, such as portable hard drives stored in a secure location, an in-house dedicated archive server, or a specialized cloud storage system designed for archive use.

The easiest place to start your content analysis is by examining file dates. In some organizations, operational data older than five years is of little or no importance, and are easy candidates for file archiving (setting your practical retention periods will vary by function or department). Another refinement is to understand the need for instant file access versus tolerating a slight delay. A few examples might include employment records for former staff which may only be required occasionally and are rarely needed immediately, or marketing campaigns from four years ago have little relevance to current work. These records would be good candidates for offsite archive storage or perhaps outright purging. Using some simple parameters, you can go back to your current storage locations and determine the amount of current, relevant, and important (active) data versus data that can be archived or purged. I would add three more category columns to the spreadsheet: Current, Archive, and Purge data. As before, total the number of files and the size for each category.

Final thoughts.

Lastly, I will leave you with these generalizations. Based on the approximate size of your digital hoard, you may be able to simplify, organize, and reduce the size of your storage requirements with your internal resources, or you may need professional help. Based loosely on the count and size of your active data files from step 3:

• If your data store is less than 1000 GB (1.0 terabytes) and comprised of 100,000 files or less, you can most likely perform the re-organization with internal staff resources, but it will take a dedicated effort and may span several months.
• If your data store is between one and three TB and comprised of between 100,000 and 250,000 files, you most likely will need a consulting service to assist you with the re-organization and investigating, planning and executing the plan with the help of some internal resources.
• If your data store is larger, you may need both a qualified consultant and a specialized content  management system designed to sustain a complex content and permissions hierarchy. These can include document metadata (summaries, retention criteria, and version control), file access permissions and logging, and automatic archive and purge capabilities. Some of these advanced features are starting to be included in common applications like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.

We’ve presented some sweeping generalizations, but remember there are many variables that can impact your process. Organizations with aggressive growth plans or multiple locations will need professional help, while highly technical or specialized applications used in your organization can complicate the process of discovering and categorizing data storage files; AutoCAD, GIS, and programs used by health care, accounting and legal professionals are some common examples. Complex permissions structures to limit access and ensure data integrity can also play a vital role in maintaining control of your digital hoard.

If you’d like more information about data storage and organization for your firm or want to book an appointment to chat about it, please contact me or your TRINUS Account Manager.

Thanks.

Dave White

TRINUS

stress-free IT