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Spring Cleaning Your File servers

Jessica Bakkers – Waterford Technologies Spring is in air and warmer weather is just around the corner which means the tradition of

Jessica Bakkers – Waterford Technologies

Spring is in air and warmer weather is just around the corner which means the tradition of spring cleaning is almost upon us! While you are following the tradition of deep cleaning your homes, cars and offices, you can certainly add your file servers to the list too.

While it can certainly be a challenge to find the time to address server storage issues, there are some real benefits to adding this task to your list.

Why a spring clean is necessary

File servers can often fill up quicker than expected and before you know it your server is bursting at the seams with duplicate and obsolete files. In fact, it is estimated that after just three years, around 50% of the files stored on your server are no longer accessed at all.

Of the data stored on your server, as much as 80% of it may be redundant and duplicate files could account for 20% of overall storage.

Imagine renting a storage space. When you first rent your storage unit, it is room, well organized and easy to maneuver around. Over the next few years, more and more items are added and the storage space becomes less and less organized.

After some time, your storage unit is bursting at the seams, there is no space for new items and anything stored at the back cannot be easily retrieved. Ideally, rather than renting a second storage unit, you would go through the existing unit, reorganize it and clean out the junk.

Your approach to your file servers should be no different.

The problem with storing obsolete data

The general solution that is often employed is to simply buy more storage when the existing servers can no longer cope with the amount of data. However, this approach lacks efficiency and can end up costing more money in the long run as the cycle of overfilled storage will repeat itself.

Eventually, you will end up with outrageous storage costs due to the large amount of obsolete, redundant and duplicate data retained. Storing large amounts of unneeded data could also end up being detrimental to business operations and your organization’s infrastructure.

This will also impact on your backup costs and times and you are needlessly creating backups of unnecessary data.

File archiving is the solution

The good news is that there is a way to break the cycle and save your business time and money in the long run. A file archiving solution is one of the best ways to manage your company’s files easily and efficiently and take back control of your file storage system.

As much as 90% of the total space consumed on your file server is from old, duplicate and obsolete files that will rarely be accessed again. These files should not take up space on expensive tier 1 storage and in the case of duplicate data should be deleted entirely.

With a policy based file archiving solution, you can choose which files are moved to the archive and when. Old files can be automatically written to cheap disk storage leaving behind a 1k shortcut stub. The best part: the end-user’s experience is seamless.

Archived files are compressed, encrypted, deduplicated and stored for automatic and quick retrieval with no impact on operations.

Try our file archiving solution for free

Not convinced of the benefits of a file archiving solution? Download a copy of File Analyzer Lite for free today and gain an insight into how your storage is being used and how much space you could save by using archiving software.

For more information on FileArchiver from Waterford Technologies, get in touch with the team today to organize a free demonstration and learn how file archiving could help your business by clicking here.