Data is growing at explosive rates in today's businesses. Big Data is increasing storage demands in a way that could only be imagined just a few short years ago. A typical data record has tripled if not quadrupled in size in just the last five years, however this data now has many forms including structured, semi-structured, and non-structured. In fact, according to a recent IBM® study, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are written every day and 90% of global data has been created in the last two years alone. It is glaringly apparent that the size of databases is growing exponentially.
Aside from a company's human resources, data has become the most valuable corporate asset both tangibly and intangibly. How to effectively store, access, protect, and manage critical data is a new challenge facing IT departments.