|
The Simple Case for BLOB Offloading and Archiving
 There is nothing efficient about storing a document's data stream in a RDBMS table. The name we all give these database-bound streams of data is BLOB, for Binary Large Object.
They aren't relational in any way, you can't filter or sort on them, so why are they there?
BLOB I/O consumes a considerable amount of a SQL Server's CPU and Memory resources, leaving the SQL Engine with less resources to perform queries and transactional data operations.
Even if you could overcome the BLOB I/O challenges by investing more in SQL tier hardware, you're still left with the need to make incremental investments in often expensive tier 1 storage to store the content and/or address performance and/or disasater recoverability concerns. Offloading the BLOBs removes SQL Server from the BLOB I/O workflow and saves money if they are placed on a secondary, less expensive (i.e. NAS) storage tier.
While BLOB offloading does provide some level of cost savings, an exponentially larger cost savings can be acheived if BLOBs are archived to even less expensive tiers of storage as they age, become retained versions, or have their state changed. StoragePoint's Intelligent BLOB Archiving and Tiered Storage capabilities give SharePoint admins and storage architects the tools they need to save money on storage while keeping the content highly findable and retrievable within SharePoint. The content is not removed from SharePoint to some 3rd party repository. It remains managed in SharePoint, with only the BLOB moved to another tier of storage.
With well-defined rules in place, an organization can find themselves only making incremental investments in storage capacity in their least expensive tiers, which will obviously result in significant savings.
|