What is StrongLink, and What Problems Does It Solve?

With the explosion of data being generated in most organizations today, and the complexity of distributing data between on-premises and cloud-based data centers, optimizing storage resources for maximum efficiency is becoming more challenging. Storage optimization has two dimensions: capacity allocation efficiency and capacity utilization efficiency. Capacity allocation efficiency refers to the allocation of the storage resource to workloads that need to use it for their data read/write activity. Inefficient capacity allocation impairs the agility of an organization by creating delays in the delivery of IT services; capacity allocation inefficiency also tends to drive up storage costs by encouraging the acquisition of extra capacity and storage resources as a hedge against allocation delay.

Capacity utilization efficiency involves the placement of the right data on the right storage at the right time. Data that is accessed and updated frequently needs the most accessible and high performance storage, while data that is rarely accessed or updated belongs in a lower cost platform or archival repository. By placing data correctly, aka increasing the efficiency of storage utilization, overall storage costs can be significantly reduced. In some cases, simply migrating data to appropriate storage can reclaim 70% or more of the high performance storage you already own. That can bend the cost curve of storage by reducing the need to acquire more expensive storage to give your data more “elbow room.” In the absence of storage optimization, there is also a tendency for data to become silo’ed and less accessible for shared use. Inconsistent access leads to inefficient workflows. Needed is some means to automate the optimization of storage so that files are moved to where they need to go in the background via automated policy-based management. That’s where StrongLink comes in.

StrongLink provides intelligent data management, powered by StrongLink Autonomous Engines technology, that continuously optimizes storage allocation and utilization. With StrongLink, your policies for data lifecycle management are meshed automatically with real-time storage resource management capabilities to migrate data continuously and with integrated auditability assurance. With StrongLink storage optimization;

• Storage allocation efficiency is assured through a global approach to managing data distribution, migration, and replication across all storage infrastructure elements automatically and in accordance with data management policies.
• Storage utilization efficiency is achieved by optimization of data placement and the automation of preferred tiering and archiving strategies using StrongLink’s metadata driven policy engines.
• Data storage silos are effectively eliminated and heterogeneous storage infrastructure is managed under a common global namespace and administrative platform.
• Data is always online and synchronized, so it can be used by multiple, concurrent workflows as needed.
• Data insights are available with a few mouse-clicks to provide at-a-glance information on capacity usage rates and other factors that enable proactive planning for on-premises and cloud resources and for storage optimization.
• Policy-driven data management becomes a reality, improving data integrity and business continuity.

To the Storage Administrator, StrongLink makes IT tasks much easier. It works with any data type and multi-vendor storage platforms. Policies are easy to define and implement with metadata typically available within file and object systems, or custom metadata that may be created on the fly by users. Policies can be extended to new data readily and actions (such as data moves) can be refined when needed or when new storage technologies are added, with minimal interruption to users.
StrongLink isn’t artificial intelligence, it is augmented intelligence – working to automate time-consuming and routine data management tasks that consume an inordinate amount of administrator time if performed manually. Organizations begin realizing benefits immediately from the creation of a Global Namespace, describing and indexing all data hosted on all storage whether on-premises or in clouds, and a Dynamic Data Mover that uses your data lifecycle policies to constantly rationalize and optimize data placement based on your priorities.

Once deployed, StrongLink optimizes the utilization of storage resources according to your priorities and the business value of data as it moves through the stages of its lifecycle. Significantly greater return on investment derives from this method versus tactical approaches involving data reduction and manual data placement and migration, a fact that becomes important as capacity requirements continue to grow rapidly. With your data and storage infrastructure under StrongLink management, you can bend the storage capacity cost curve downward to the delight of budget hawks in the front office.

Perhaps more importantly, the result of improved storage optimization is greater data availability. With StrongLink, your data will be placed on infrastructure in a manner that not only optimizes storage cost efficiency but also the availability and agility of the data itself. Data will no longer be silo’ed or isolated from primary and secondary workflows that give it its value. Storage optimization, delivered by StrongLink, can help you to position data where its value can be unlocked and used by analytics and other workflows.

Contact MTMP to schedule a free demo today to get answers to all of your questions and to see, first hand, why StrongLink has captured the interest of organizations and enterprises large and small.