File Data Management Experts Offer 5 Tips on Getting Control of Your Data

NASHUA, N.H., Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The proliferation of information generated by businesses worldwide continues to be the source of some of the biggest organizational challenges, expenditures and risks faced by companies today. The solution many have adopted to overcome this data deluge has been to add increasing amounts of storage resources on an on-going basis. However, the capital and operational expense, exponential complexity, and management headaches of this approach make it a no-win game. For those looking to gain active control of all aspects of their file data, experts at NTP Software^®, the worldwide leader in File Data Management, offer these five tips:

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• Understand what is happening in your environment – Critical insights for more efficient storage use come from learning how your storage is being consumed, where your problem areas are, and what can be done to optimize storage usage. Examining your organization's use of storage resources through an in-depth file assessment will reveal critical details that will show you how to create a plan for better managing your data.
• Implement automatic, system-enforced policies to ensure each file resides on its appropriate storage tier – Once you understand how your organization is using storage resources, you can categorize your data and ensure that it resides on the appropriate storage tier to reduce costs, address compliance issues, and enable you to properly perform e-discovery. Less-frequently used data will move automatically to a more appropriate storage tier, giving you better control of your file data while optimizing storage resources and reducing long-term costs.
• Control how much primary disk space users consume and what they place on the network – Primary disk is your network's most valuable and probably most expensive resource. Industry analysts tell us that as much as 40% of it is routinely wasted. By establishing appropriate usage policies, you can control how expensive space is used and what can be put there to preserve system performance and availability across the board. Implementing quotas, blocking the storage of unwanted files and providing tools to users that help them understand and clean up unneeded information is a cost-effective and easy way to control file data costs across the entire enterprise.
• Ensure secure access to vital files regardless of where they reside – Once you have aligned your storage resources and policies as to what users can and cannot store on the network, your employees need to be able to securely access their existing files regardless of where they reside. Implement technology that helps you connect and control how and when users access data on the most common storage hosts, cloud or object stores as allowed by their current permissions. This gives you more value from your file data while enabling the reduced storage costs of a tiered architecture.
• Protect data from unauthorized use or access – In the increasingly mobile workplace, providing access to an organization's file data from any Internet-connected device or cell phone provides worker flexibility but also opens up the possibility that sensitive information is out of your control. Rather than turning to an external cloud file system or consumer-oriented "sync and share" product, control corporate data with an end-to-end enterprise solution that provides users with the ability to create and interact safely with your organization's file data without violating federal data regulations or having it reside on their own device. This ensures that any intellectual property generated by employees is fully secured and treated the same whether it originates in the office, at home or on the road.

"Many organizations are so overwhelmed by the amount of file data they need to manage that they haven't been able to actually do anything with that data to benefit the company or their users," said Bruce Backa, CEO of NTP Software. "By developing a plan and utilizing available tools that help them control, manage and protect their business-critical information, these organizations can effectively change storage from a liability into the asset that it needs to be. Implementing the above five tips will ensure that organizations are well on their way to reducing cost and gaining control of their file data today, and well into the future."

About NTP Software
Founded in 1994, NTP Software is the worldwide leader in the management and control of unstructured data. Every day, more than 20 million users work with storage resources managed by NTP Software's technology. NTP Software gives organizations control of their file data by providing the solutions needed to understand, manage, move, and secure file data completely. NTP Software delivers a single, cross-platform solution across a customer's entire file data storage environment: from managing individual files and users to an entire global enterprise with hundreds of systems and dozens of sites. For more information please see http://www.ntpsoftware.com.

Contact Agency:
Dan Miller
JPR Communications
818-884-8282, ext. 13
[email protected]

SOURCE NTP Software