Five Ways to Manage Your Data Storage - Industry Trend or Event

Health Management Technology, June, 2000 by Kristine Russell

Solve the problem of removing older data and easily retrieving that data when it is needed.

Expanding healthcare networks and the Internet are overloading traditional data storage methods. System administrators can't afford to throw any data away, but using traditional methods, they can't afford to keep it either. How much data are hospitals and healthcare facilities keeping? As files get old, they don't get looked at, but they keep occupying the storage area. It's the "garage syndrome" where stuff nobody looks at gets piled up. In the past year there has been a definite explosion in the need for data storage, driven mainly by the Internet. Everyone is connected, everyone is collecting data, and no one is deleting anything.

The active files that people access are usually in the 20 percent range. Realistically, clients don't trust that number and will want to keep 50 percent to 60 percent online and move the rest into storage. Because of the massive storage now available on servers, the back-up time has increased. There is no time for backup when data has to be available almost 24 hours, seven days a week. HMT has compiled a list of data storage options that can help streamline backup operations.

Common data backup and storage methods include backing up data to the server hard drive, and backing up to external devices such as DAT tape drives, external disk drives, read-writeable CDs, and ZIP cartridges. These traditional methods are time consuming, must be initiated by staff, and the backup timing is crucial--especially in a 24-hour data-intensive hospital environment. They also do not solve the problem of removing older data and easily retrieving that data when it is needed.

Newer methods of archiving include:

1 Jukeboxes. These devices allow easy server access to older data after this data has been removed from the server's hard drive. After data is backed up on conventional CDs or DVDs, the user may arrange them in data or content groups of up to 100 CDs/DVDs called magazines. You then load the magazine containing the archived data into the jukebox as needed to access it.

Network Attach Hard Disk Storage. NAS servers attach to the regular network, but the data is stored on the NAS instead of the general server. With a NAS server, users, generally in a group or department, share up to a terabyte of hard disk storage online. Consider NAS for data that is older but still accessed more frequently than historical data or for a hierarchal storage management storage device.

3 Optical Storage Devices. A type of disk drive that combines magnetic disk technologies with CD-ROM technologies. Like magnetic disks, Magneto Optical (MO) disks can be read and written to. And like floppy disks, they are removable. However, their storage capacity can be more than 200 megabytes, much greater than magnetic floppies. In terms of data access speed, they are faster than floppies but not as fast as hard disk drives. Optical disks and MO media are not susceptible to magnetic fields data destruction or deterioration, as are the more traditional backup mediums such as tapes, floppy disks and hard disks.

The MO disk is rated for up to 30 years, which makes it the only digital media considered by many to meet long-term archival standards that are common for patient records in the healthcare industry. (See Briefly article "Lost Records, Lost Dollars" on page 8.) Using a MO drive is similar to using a hard disk. It can be partitioned into logical disk drives, plus files and directories can be deleted at will anywhere on the disk.

4 ISP Online backup. These services are the latest in data storage. They are services that will automatically backup a user's computer system to a remote location via the Internet connection. The backup service software is placed on the network or PC. The user controls backup times and can customize all or part of the data being backed up. Files can be restored online at any time, and/or on a CD containing a user's complete system within 24 hours of the system backup.

All data is encrypted at the user site before transmission and access to all remote data is password protected. There is no labor required once the system is set up and no additional hardware investment is needed. Multiple accounts can be used for older data, it can be downloaded to CDs that are archived at the site.

5 Hierarchal Storage Management. Hierarchical storage management is based on rules that the client supplies, which will be unique to the facility size and needs, regarding the type, aging or location of files. This storage management solution moves away the aged files from the active online server to near-line. There is less to back up and therefore backups take less time. The user has the ability to fine-tune the system to a point where the system automatically, in the background, keeps moving files away from the main server storage near-line storage such as jukebox, MO or NAS devices.

For example, the user may determine that all files not accessed for more than 60 days will get moved off the main server hard drive. These archived files are moved to near-line storage (near-line meaning an additional storage device attached to the server but not part of the main server hard disk space). This allows the main server space to be available for "fresh" data. This near-line storage can then be archived elsewhere when the near-line device is full.