The importance of secondary storage solutions for enterprises

Being an enterprise data manager has never been easy, but the job is getting tougher. Data volumes continue to grow, from an estimated 147 zettabytes in 2024 to 181 zettabytes expected this year. At the same time, threats against enterprises remain serious, with nearly 7 out of 10 organizations being affected by ransomware attacks. A cyber resilience strategy has become non-negotiable. To that end, smart enterprises are embracing secondary storage to protect data from breaches while cutting costs. This article discusses secondary storage and its importance for enterprise data security and cyber resilience. 

What is secondary storage?

Secondary storage, sometimes referred to as auxiliary storage, encompasses long-term storage for non-critical data that does not have to be accessed as often—or with the same storage performance—as data held on primary storage. Secondary storage typically relies on non-volatile storage media, e.g., hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs).

Historical context: the evolution of secondary storage technologies

In the earliest days of computers, information was stored on paper punch cards and magnetic drums. There was no primary or secondary storage, just a single data storage tier. By the 1950s, computers were storing data on magnetic tapes. IBM invented the first hard disk drive in 1956. Over the ensuing decades, HDDs became radically faster, smaller, and less expensive. SSDs originated in the 1970s but became commercially viable in the last 20 years. As storage technologies proliferated and became more diverse, storage managers took advantage of lower-cost storage to create secondary storage capabilities.

From tapes to cloud storage

Tapes used to predominate in secondary storage. The technology offered many attractive qualities for the secondary storage mission. It is relatively inexpensive and enables secure off-site storage, providing resiliency during a disaster. Tape also creates a true “air gap” that protects data from malicious actors. Tapes have their issues, however. Moving and storing them is a cumbersome process. Store them the wrong way, e.g., in a hot place, and you risk data loss.

Cloud computing platforms provide a new, arguably better method for secondary storage. Cloud storage platforms offer essentially infinite secondary storage capacity on demand, with all the same off-site resiliency benefits as tape.

Secondary storage vs. primary storage: a comparative analysis

To understand secondary storage, it helps to compare it to primary storage. Primary storage is almost always higher performing, e.g., with faster inputs-outputs per second (IOPs), and therefore more expensive than secondary storage options. Primary storage may also comprise volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM) that holds data in a computer as long as it’s powered on.

The following points of comparison are useful in differentiating between primary and secondary storage:

• Performance: Primary storage is quite fast, with data retrieval measured in milliseconds or microseconds, vs. secondary storage, which is often dramatically slower

• Data availability: Primary storage features high data availability, vs. secondary storage, where availability depends on storage media and workload

• Storage technology: Primary storage typically uses flash SSDs or high-performing HDDs, vs. secondary storage, which may use tape, HDDs, or optical disks

Enterprises need both primary and secondary storage. Production servers, such as those running enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, need the performance characteristics available with primary storage. However, paying for costly primary storage devices for data that isn’t required moment-by-moment in production makes little sense. Secondary storage offers an economical way to store data of secondary priority. It also provides a scalable solution that enables disaster recovery (DR) and long-term retention, often required for regulatory compliance.

The critical role of secondary storage for enterprise data security

Secondary storage can and should play a critical role in enterprise data security. Protecting data from loss and unauthorized modification is a core principle of data security. Secondary storage provides a reliable, cost-effective way to realize that principle.

Enhancing data recovery with robust backup solutions

Backup, a subset of secondary storage, offers enterprises a robust data recovery solution. A backup creates a secondary copy of critical data and makes it available for restoration if lost or damaged. To that end, secondary storage supports the popular “3-2-1” rule for data protection, which recommends making three copies of a dataset and storing them in two locations, one of which is off-site.

Data recovery is evolving with the increasing adoption of cloud backup and recovery. Offerings such as those from Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage even make it possible to close the performance gap between primary and secondary storage. With Wasabi, enterprises can enjoy the same storage performance from primary and secondary instances, enabling quick and reliable data recovery at a one simple price point.

Mitigating risks: how secondary storage shields against data loss

Secondary storage helps mitigate risks of data loss. This is relevant today as data assets face loss from cyber threats, hardware failures, and natural disasters. Cloud backup, for example, can preserve a second copy of data for restoration in the event of a ransomware attack that encrypts data on primary storage. However, the backed-up data must also be protected from ransomware for this countermeasure to work. Cyber criminals often target backups, given the potential for a backup to foil their ransomware plans.

Types of secondary storage

Storage managers have options when it comes to secondary storage. Here are some of the most common choices:

Magnetic storage: a traditional approach with modern applications

Magnetic storage, in the form of tapes and disks, is traditional but still has many modern uses. Tapes, for example, offer a compact and cost-effective way to store large volumes of data in a completely air-gapped form factor. A Linear Tape Open (LTO) version 9 tape, which is about 19 square inches and costs less than $100, can hold up to 18 TBs of data.

Optical storage devices: reliability meets accessibility

Optical storage devices offer a reliable and economical method for secondary storage. DVDs, for example, can last far longer than magnetic storage media. They also have the advantage of enabling a permanent data write that cannot be erased or changed. A DVD can store 4.7 GBs, so it may not be the best method for large amounts of data. However, it is possible to place DVDs in arrays that enable rapid access. They’re also quite inexpensive, so DVDs are a good choice for situations where it’s necessary to store data for the long term without spending too much money, e.g., archiving tax records for possible audits.

Solid-state drives (SSDs): speed and efficiency in data handling

SSDs are suitable for secondary storage workloads that require faster data access than is possible with HDDs, tape, and optical storage. The tradeoff is cost. While SSDs have come down in price, they are still more expensive than magnetic and optical alternatives.

Hard disk drives (HHDs): balancing capacity and cost

HDDs offer high capacity and economy for secondary storage workloads, especially if they are of the “non-spinning” variety, meaning they only start to spin when someone requests access to their data. At other times, they are not moving, using relatively little power. They are generally cost-effective for bulk storage, such as storing large volumes of media files that are seldom used, if ever.

Implementing secondary storage in cloud environments

Secondary storage in cloud environments can be an effective cyber resilience solution. Here are a few issues to remember if you plan to implement secondary storage in the cloud.

The synergy between cloud storage and secondary storage strategies

Cloud-based secondary storage offers several compelling advantages over on-premises or co-location approaches. The cloud is an easy and convenient way to store data off-site and protect it against loss, cyber attacks, or natural disasters. It is also endlessly scalable. And, you avoid capital expenses (CapEx) associated with building secondary storage in your own facilities.

However, cloud platforms can potentially create unexpected costs and drags on storage performance. They may also be more exposed to threats than you imagine. Wasabi offers a cloud-based secondary storage solution that delivers the best of the cloud’s capabilities without the cost, performance, and security problems that tend to come with public cloud storage options.

Wasabi offers cloud object storage, suitable for secondary storage, in a single, uniformly-priced tier. Wasabi’s performance is at the S3 standard, but at a significantly lower cost than even many hyperscalers’ lower service tiers. The service offers intelligent storage and rich searchability. Furthermore, while most cloud platforms charge for data egress, a practice that results in unpredictable costs for secondary storage, Wasabi has no egress or API request fees. The total cost of ownership for cloud-based secondary storage is consistent and comparatively low with Wasabi.

Wasabi also offers several distinctive security features for cloud-based secondary storage. These include Multi-User Authentication–a unique feature that protects your account or buckets from being accidentally or maliciously deleted–along with immutable backups. Provided through Wasabi’s free Object Lock, immutable backups prevent cyber attackers from encrypting data.

Case study: how an engineering firm successfully deployed secondary storage in the cloud

DLZ, an architectural, engineering, and surveying consultancy, maintained secondary storage for 8 TB of LiDAR scan data and other industrial engineering data on two mirrored on-premises storage appliances. This approach was risky because the appliances, stored in the same location, were vulnerable to power failures and natural disasters. The company’s Office 365 data, which they had to retain for the long term for compliance reasons, was not easily recoverable. Additionally, with 40% data growth in five years, it became clear that DLZ’s on-premises storage would not work as a long-term solution.

The solution for DLZ was to replace the appliances and implement Ctera’s AI-based edge cloud services with Wasabi for cloud data storage. The cloud-based approach enables DLZ to create a cold archive in the cloud using Wasabi. DLZ utilized Veeam for Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint backup. They also set up Wasabi as a secondary mirror for DLZ’s primary project data. Cloud mirroring with Wasabi creates cyber resilience for DLZ.

Best practices for managing secondary storage in enterprises

What does it take to succeed with secondary storage? A further question might be, “What defines success with secondary storage?” Answers will vary based on your organizational requirements, but in general, effective secondary storage will efficiently store data that needs to be there and meet service level agreements for availability. It will also limit storage capacity used for long-term archiving by deleting data that no longer needs to be retained. Otherwise, the storage instance will become bloated and incur unnecessary expenditures on capacity growth. Getting to this state of success means adhering to a few best practices.

Data lifecycle management: when to store, archive, or delete

Effective secondary storage comes from careful data lifecycle management. In fact, it’s probably not a good idea even to contemplate setting up secondary storage unless you have a well-thought-out data lifecycle management program in place. This means having policies that cover migrating data from primary to secondary storage and then deleting it when it no longer needs to be retained. For example, certain types of financial data might have to be stored for seven years and then deleted.

Specialized archive management tools can operationalize these policies. Adhering to a data lifecycle framework may also make sense. The Microsoft Data Lifecycle Framework, for example, provides a way to create and enforce policies that cover the plan-manage-use-share-close out data lifecycle.

Wasabi supports the efficient data archiving and deletion that a data lifecycle management framework recommends. The Wasabi cloud integrates with archiving management tools and can execute policies for migrating data from primary storage and deleting data that is no longer needed.

Regular audits and updates: keeping your storage solutions optimal

Secondary storage instances comprise a constantly changing mix of data types, with evolving capacity utilization and loads on storage devices. It takes regular audits and updates to keep your storage solutions optimal. Periodic audits can reveal where your secondary storage is under- or over-utilized and point to places where you need to rebalance the load. Storage monitoring tools help make this happen by tracking latency, throughput, IOPS, available capacity, and more.

Making secondary storage count

Secondary storage is essential for maintaining data availability and integrity in today’s threat-filled environment. Secondary storage protects data assets and enables cyber resilience. It also makes data storage more economical by moving less critical data out of costly primary storage. The cloud has emerged as an effective platform for secondary storage, with its limitless capacity and built-in off-site presence. Not all cloud storage solutions are the same, however. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage provides secondary storage that’s high-performing and predictably-priced.