What is Data Storage? Definition and Types

Today, most businesses store that information digitally on computers. The days of endless file cabinets and paper file folders are swiftly disappearing as modern organizations work toward digital transformation.

Every piece of information you gather in your business is potentially important. Whether it’s a database of customer accounts and their purchase histories, human resources records for every employee, financial information such as payroll or accounts receivable, or intellectual property such as specifications for your products, that information needs to be stored somewhere so you can access it as needed to operate your business.

Let’s take a closer look at what data storage is and highlight the main types of data storage solutions and devices.

Because today’s businesses run on data, finding reliable, efficient ways to store that information is a major priority for every organization. When it comes to types of storage, there is a wide variety of choices for every size of business and budget. So many choices can make it difficult to decide which types of data storage are ideal for your organization’s needs.

Forms of data storage

There are three types of data storage:

File storage

Also referred to as file-level or file-based storage, this type is presented as files that are stored in folders and subfolders in a directory. If you’ve used a PC and saved a document to the hard drive, for instance, you have experienced file storage. Files are accessible through a path that users must know. File storage is the most common type of storage on computer hard drives and network-attached storage (NAS) devices.

Block storage

Rather than storing data in a complete file, block storage breaks apart data and stores it in blocks that can hold 256 KB up to 4 MB. The blocks are then placed randomly on the storage device – which doesn’t hinder access speeds because each block is tagged with a unique identifier. When a user or application needs a file, the computer queries the block storage system, which rapidly identifies and collects all the needed blocks and reassembles them into a complete file. Block storage is ultra-efficient because it doesn’t use metadata, which takes up room on the storage device. Because it’s so fast, businesses tend to use block storage when they want to scale up quickly and when read/write performance is a critical priority.

Object storage

This type of data storage separates information into distinct objects with unique identifiers and metadata. It doesn’t form a hierarchy like file storage and is considered “flat.” Metadata is a critical component of object storage and each object can have quite a bit of metadata, such as information about the creator of the data and keywords, as well as policies for security, privacy, and access. Object storage works well with APIs so it’s simple to use with existing software and systems. It also scales very well. It could be spread across hundreds or thousands of devices and locations and still be super speedy because all the data is stored in one namespace. It’s the storage type of choice for public cloud providers, such as AWS, and organizations that deal with a lot of unstructured data such as video files, emails, IoT sensor data, social media content, and more.

Types of data storage solutions

There are two main types of digital data storage: Direct-attached storage and network-based storage. Each type can accommodate a range of devices, so we’ll look at the general types first and then delve more into specific data storage devices.

Direct-attached storage (DAS): Advantages and disadvantages

Sometimes referred to as direct-area storage, DAS is storage that is attached directly to a specific computer. It can mean the storage space on your computer’s installed hard drive or solid-state drive, or it can be a removable portable storage medium, such as an external hard drive, CD or DVD, USB drive, or flash drive.

Advantages of DAS include high availability, easy accessibility, easy backups and recovery, and no need for network equipment or setup. Scalability is also a breeze, as it simply requires getting a device with larger capacity. Downsides, however, are that it’s difficult to share data with another user. It requires physically giving someone else the storage drive. So, data is only accessible by one user at a time. Sharing among groups is virtually impossible, which means data is siloed.

Network-based storage: NAS and SAN

The other main type of data storage is network-based. That means it is a centralized repository of information that can be accessed by users on networked computers or other networked devices. Instead of being stored on media directly attached to a single computer, this data is usually stored on servers in a datacenter.

Network-based storage was created to solve the issue of multiple users accessing the data from remote locations. These storage types allow for easy data sharing and collaboration, and because they can be off-site, they are better than DAS for backups and disaster-recovery protection.

Within this type of data storage, there are two common setups: Network-attached storage (NAS) and storage-area network (SAN).

NAS

NAS is a single computer or server composed of redundant storage containers or a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) – such as multiple hard drives – that make data accessible to users over an internet connection. It’s usually inexpensive and simple to setup and deploy.

This type of data storage offers flexibility and easy scalability. Increasing capacity means simply adding another hard drive to the existing computer. But because NAS is usually a single machine, scalability isn’t infinite. NAS creates a single volume of stored data in a centralized location, so users can access it from anywhere if they can connect to the network.

Advantages of NAS include its relatively low cost, self-contained nature and administrative simplicity. Data is available anytime and resiliency is high because of the fault-tolerant multiple drives. If one drive fails, the rest of the system stays up and running.

Disadvantages have mostly to do with performance and scalability. The more users trying to access data, the slower the system will be. Because it runs over Ethernet, there could also be issues with in-transit packet loss or mis-ordering, which also slows performance because data isn’t available until all packets arrive and are reassembled correctly within the system. These performance issues aren’t typically a problem when files are small. But a user working with very large files, such as video footage, could see significant slowdowns and disruptions in production.

SAN

A SAN is made up of a network of multiple devices, such as solid-state drives (SSDs), flash storage and cloud storage. It’s usually costlier and more complex to setup than NAS. The SAN uses Fibre Channel instead of Ethernet to network servers and storage devices, which can be an array of interconnected components. To users, SAN storage looks like local drives on their computers or other devices.

The advantages of SAN storage are that it’s designed for many more users than NAS. It tends to deliver faster speeds and lower latency than NAS systems and it’s highly scalable with a variety of device options and configurations to choose from.

Disadvantages are as mentioned above: It’s more expensive than NAS and more difficult to setup and manage.

The importance of data storage

Every year, the amount of business data grows. Advanced technologies such as data analytics, the internet-of-things, and AI generate and use massive volumes of data. That means data storage is more critical than ever to the success of every organization. Your data storage solutions are the key to how easily and efficiently you can organize, manage, access, share, and use this vital information.

Besides being so much faster and more reliable than paper-based storage systems, digital data storage has many other benefits:

• Long-lasting preservation of data – Digital data storage makes it easy to pool large volumes of information for long periods of time. 

• Easier accessibility – Everyone can get the information they need, right from their desktop computers instead of having to physically go to a room full of file cabinets.

• More efficient data recovery – Stored data is easily backed up by making copies, so recovery is faster and simpler if a file gets lost or corrupted. 

• Smaller physical footprint and easier scalability – There’s no need for physical file cabinets, which take up lots of room over time, and adding more digital capacity is simple.

• Potentially increased security – For very sensitive data, there are many more ways to secure and protect that information digitally using today’s advanced security tools and features.

• Easier collaboration across teams – Centrally stored data is accessible to every authorized user and can be accessed and shared among teams as they work together. 

• More efficient document management – It’s easier to categorize and organize data digitally, and it can be done from a computer desktop or other connected device. 

• Enhanced productivity and workflows – Saving data digitally takes less time than printing out physical pages and creating files, which must be stored in file cabinets. 

How does data storage work?

When you store data on a computer, the digital information is saved to a device, where it remains until deleted. Storage differs from computer memory in a major way: While you can access information quickly from your computer’s RAM, that data is only available in RAM until your computer is turned off. Data storage, however, retains data whether the computer is powered on or off. That’s how it can store data long-term.

Saving data on a computer storage device lets you access that information when you need it. For example, the accounting department can retrieve stored data about employee work hours and use it to carry out bimonthly payroll tasks. A sales rep can pull up information about a customer before a sales call to see recent orders and go over the last visit to remind them of the issues they discussed.

Storage solutions are ways to save or archive computer data in electromagnetic, optical, digital or other formats. Data may be stored on premises, on external drives, on remote devices, on removable media, or online (in the cloud). For large amounts of data, businesses often use storage area networks (SANs), network-attached storage (NAS) devices, software-defined storage (SDS), or cloud-based storage.

A SAN is a dedicated network that connects storage devices with servers. SANs provide block-level storage, typically via a Fibre Channel connection. A NAS device can be a purpose-built storage appliance or a general-purpose server running Windows or Linux. NAS devices provide file-level storage via a standard Ethernet connection. SDS is a virtualized network of storage resources that can use commodity hardware. Software-defined storage resources may be spread across multiple servers and pooled or shared as if they reside on one physical device. Cloud-based storage provides storage-as-a-service to multiple customers on demand.

SAN and NAS storage solutions require proprietary hardware, making them more expensive to scale than SDS or cloud-based solutions. Organizations that need to store large amounts of unstructured data (such as email messages, presentations, documents, graphics and media files) often use a software-defined storage solution to scale out storage capacity as needed. An SDS solution like SUSE Enterprise Storage provides unlimited scalability. It can run on Linux and in a virtual machine, on premises or in the cloud, using off-the-shelf hardware. This solution lowers both the initial capital expense as well as the cost of managing, scaling and upgrading data storage over time.