From Conventional to Future-proof: New Metrics for Data Storage Power

Qiu Fangjia

Marketing Expert of Huawei Data Storage

In the era of the intelligent economy, future-proof data storage power ensures efficient data storage and management and enhances processing capabilities, fueling the emergence of intelligence. As data continues to explode and grow in value, there is an increasing need to build future-proof data storage power. Building upon the existing 3-tier metrics system for data storage power, the Future-proof Data Storage Power white paper has refined these metrics to offer a clearer path toward a more advanced and robust future. The new metrics include:

1. Regional development-level metrics: These metrics can be used to assess the development status of future-proof data storage power across global economies. In the intelligent economy era, the global data factor market is rapidly developing, with data gradually evolving into a core asset of global economies. Therefore, the storage power metrics system now includes the data retention rate as a core indicator, recommending that regions strengthen their efforts in data exploration and retention. According to statistics, China's current data retention rate is only 2.8%, while the U.S. reaches 7.3%. This means that China still has significant room for improvement in data exploration compared to the U.S. and other countries and regions.

2. Data center-level metrics: These metrics can be used to assess the management and optimization levels of enterprises' data centers. In addition to the existing metrics system, four new indicators are added: data coverage rate, annual equipment replacement rate, storage-to-compute ratio in intelligent computing, and storage-compute decoupling architecture ratio.

(a) Data coverage rate: This metric measures the degree to which enterprises can comprehensively understand and manage all of their data assets, which enables unified management of data across single or multiple data centers within the enterprise. This ability is crucial for data governance, compliance, and security management. A high data coverage rate means that enterprises can effectively manage their data to improve operations efficiency and competitiveness.

(b) Annual equipment replacement rate: This metric, which focuses on the in-warranty equipment rate, enables enterprises to effectively monitor the health of their data storage assets. Typically, data storage equipment should be replaced after a maximum of five years of use, with periodic attention to asset health during this period. Equipment should not be used beyond its normal lifecycle and should definitely not be used "until it breaks down". Against the rapid development of the data factor market, where data becomes a new type of production factor and a tradable high-value asset, enterprises should avoid focusing solely on cost when building future-proof data storage power. Losing data means losing a core asset in the intelligent economy era, which directly undermines an enterprise's competitive edge.

(c) Storage-compute ratio in intelligent computing: This metric should also be prioritized by enterprises, because it serves as an important measure for assessing the alignment and efficiency of data storage with data processing computing power in intelligent scenarios. It is advised that enterprises comprehensively consider the impact of various factors to configure an appropriate ratio. These factors include hardware architecture (such as whether storage-compute decoupling is adopted), data types and scales, application scenarios, and others. For example, image and video data typically requires substantial storage capacity and rapid data processing capabilities.

(d) Storage-compute decoupling architecture ratio: This metric, as one of the major focuses in modern data center architecture design, is also worthy of attention. Improving this ratio can significantly enhance the utilization of regional ICT infrastructure. By increasing resource utilization and boosting diversified computing power, decoupled storage and compute effectively offset any shortages in computing power and offer strong support for the swift growth of the data factor market. Additionally, decoupled storage and compute enable enterprises to sustain their core competitiveness and innovation capabilities in the era of the intelligent economy.

3. Storage product–level metrics: The unit capacity price metric has been replaced with TCO per storage unit. This change acknowledges that TCO per storage unit better captures the rapid advancements in storage media and high-density disk enclosures, thereby driving the large-scale growth of the future-proof data storage industry.

The revised future-proof data storage power metrics system more accurately reflects the rapid expansion of the global data factor market. This updated system offers a more effective tool and set of guidelines for enterprises to manage, control, and evaluate their data assets comprehensively. By doing so, it enables enterprises to store and process data more efficiently, ensure data security and compliance, and optimize decision-making and operations. As a result, enterprises can stay ahead in a competitive market, continuously innovate their services, unlock the potential value of their data, and achieve sustainable, long-term success.

Download the Future-proof Data Storage Power white paper. For more information about the Data Storage Power, please click here.

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