How to Evaluate and Choose the Perfect Storage Solution

When choosing a storage system, there are many aspects to consider, including capacity, speed, types of drives used, and data protection. All of these elements need to combine into one solution that meets the unique requirements of your application.

Photo: Martin Muggee is marketing communications manager, Sonnett Technologies

1.) Determine Your Speed and Capacity Needs
To choose the best storage system for your workflow, you must first determine how much content is being generated and how much capacity and speed are required to accommodate that volume. A storage system should be fast enough, and have the capacity to handle video ranging from SD to uncompressed HD. With today’s high capacity drives and depending on the application, two-drive to five-drive systems may be sufficient. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that your needs will change over time. For example, you may not be recording in HD now, but you most likely will be in the future. When this happens, your needs may quickly outgrow the capabilities of your system, and it is more expensive to add online capacity further down the line. You can save money by purchasing a larger system than you initially need, such as eight- and 16-drive systems, in order to accommodate future growth.
2.) Don’t underestimate the long-term value of RAID drives.
When setting up your system, it is best to incorporate RAID/Enterprise edition drives whenever possible. In order to save money, some facilities will purchase an enclosure without preformatted RAID drives, allowing them to buy cheaper hard drives off the shelf. However, RAID/Enterprise edition drives are intended for heavy use and offer a higher level of reliability. Off-the-shelf drives tend to be intended for use as internal drives for desktop computers, and may not be suitable for a facility’s recording needs. RAID drives are engineered to operate in multi-drive enclosures to compensate for vibration that’s encountered. And while desktop drives typically offer a warranty of three years, RAID/Enterprise edition drives feature a five-year warranty.

3.) Balance reliability against performance.
Selection of a RAID configuration depends on the balance of reliability and performance you desire. RAID 0 configurations provide the best performance, but do not offer any data protection. RAID 1 configurations provide fully mirrored data protection, with a 1:1 ratio of data to backup data. More common, and often preconfigured by the vendor, is RAID 5 storage, which maintains backup data on three or more drives to guard against data loss if any one drive fails, while still providing excellent speed.

4.) Don’t cut corners in the formatting process.
Complete storage systems from manufacturers often come preformatted for use, so it’s just a matter of installing the software and adapter card, and connecting the enclosure to get up and running. If you are formatting the system’s drives on your own, it’s important that you allow the storage system to go through its complete set up, in which the software goes through all the blocks on the hard drives to map out any bad areas. This can take quite a bit of time, especially on larger systems, such as a 16-drive system using a RAID controller. It’s tempting to cut the process short, but if you allow the software to properly set up, in the long run there is less chance for data loss, a drive going bad, or files needing to be rebuilt.

5.) Do your homework.
In hard economic times, everyone needs to save money. Simply going for the cheapest storage system, however, can be a big mistake. Do the research and find a quality solution that offers optimal performance and protection for your application. Read reviews and user comments and take a close look at the manufacturers. There are many companies out there with similar solutions, but not all of them offer complete storage solutions, including one-stop support. These shops can save you time by providing one resource for support on enclosures, drives, controller cards, and anything else you may need.

Once you’ve selected your storage system, the hard work is done. After that, it’s simply a matter of following directions. Allow the system to go through its complete set up, make sure the drives are secure, and, of course, read the instruction manual.

Martin Muggee is the marketing communications manager for Sonnett Technologies