Automated Tiered Storage Coming to Desktops?

roj3 writes "Tiered storage has been the scourge of administrators because the vendors tell us to hold meetings with all departments and then classify data to storage tier based on its type or relative importance. eWeek has a story about a new approach to tiered storage — sorting it all by usage patterns. Regularly used data goes on high-performance storage, idle data goes on slower/cheaper storage. Volumes and files even span several types of drives or RAID levels. Is automated tiered storage headed to desktops?"

Comments

Networks, sure.

[celardore]

I can see the usefulness of this technology over a busy network with multiple users and masses of files and storage... I just can't see needing anything more than a mirror&stripe RAID array on a PC with only one user. Even that could be considered excessive.

Great Idea

[Jazz-Masta]

This is exactly what everyone is looking for. People defrag their hard drives in the hopes to increase performance. There is no reason why storage that is accessed more shouldn't be on the high performance drives. Or at least some sort of class rating that defines what storage may need high performance. For example, automatically installing and saving 3D Max to a RAID 0 media, and saving word documents to the lesser-performing drives.

I try to follow this idea all the time with my system. Fast stuff goes on RAID 0, slow stuff, and backup stuff goes on the ole' 200 GB backup drive.

Oh....good..

[JerBear0]

"idle data goes on slower/cheaper storage"

So that special little something that you need once a year, but when you need it, you need it RIGHT NOW is tied to the foot of a pigeon fluttering around the warehouse somewhere. Frequency of use does NOT denote importance.

IDE Neutrality?

[sseaman]

From its beginnings, the Hard Drive has leveled the playing field for all files. Everday files can have their content read by thousands, even millions of processes.

The Coalition of Unused Files believes that the desktop is a crucial engine for personal and economic growth. They are working together to urge System Admins to preserve IDE Neutrality, the First Amendment for the Desktop Hard Drive that ensures that the Desktop remains open to innovation and progress.

Just like my kitchen

[Red Flayer]

Cheetos go in the easy-to-reach cabinet next to the fridge.

Beer goes in the fornt on the top shelf of the fridge, milk (eventually cheese, typically) goes on the bottom shelf in the back.

This is automated, since I simply shove things onto the shelves when I get home from the supermarket. Anything I consume and replace ends up at the front. Anything I buy because I 'should' be eating it (like fiber biscuits, or whatever) ends up pushed to the back.

It's automated via metatag, too. Anything tagged 'ice cream' goes in the door of the freezer, anything tagged 'vegetable' gets relegated somewhere in the back, where it quickly develops an inch of ice crystals, to slowly dry out to a freezer-burnt state of suspended animation until I buy a new fridge unit.

This costs no more than regular kitchen storage space, but if you'd like a custom design for you and your loved ones, my consulting fee is $75/hr, or a bag of chips and a six-pack.