Data Reduction: Doing More With Less

Compression technology was developed to address two computing problems: extremely limited network bandwidth and limited storage capacity. In today’s corporate environment, data compression technology still offers advantages in terms of network constraints and storage expense.

However, data reduction has taken on a whole new significance in connection with the cloud. When dealing with cloud storage providers, for instance, the ROI from using data compression technology is obvious and measurable: the less space data files take up, the less money an organization will have to pay to a storage service provider. But there’s more. Storage providers also charge transfer fees to upload data into their cloud, and in some cases charge for downloading as well.

That means savings from using data reduction technology, both in terms of storage and network transfer costs, can be considerable. For example, to store 50 TB of data with Amazon storage services, the annual cost savings from leveraging a compression solution like PKWARE would be $43,008. And that doesn’t include any transfer cost savings.

So it’s easy to see how the cost savings connected with data reduction and the robust security connected with file-level encryption might work well in tandem. Combining data reduction and data security isn’t only practical; in the new data landscape, it’s strategic.

The logic, especially in terms of the cloud, is simple: If an IT organization wants to be sure that data turned over to a cloud service provider is adequately and effectively encrypted, it has to do so on its own. The same is true if an organization wants to ensure cost savings connected with data reduction in the cloud.