Current organisational storage structures are complex, particularly those resulting from mergers and acquisitions. Hence, business data is often stored on different storage silos.

Files can reside on NAS or can be archived; emails can be stored on separate storage, which can increase the difficulty of efficiently locating critical information. With unstructured file data growth of 65-200%, the ability to find information isn't getting any easier.

In addition to massive data growth, organisations face the challenge of converting data into useful information. Searching for the right information may be difficult and time-consuming and, in addition, may carry a heavy financial impact. For quite some time now, a routine part of litigation has been e-discovery, the search for, disclosure of, and dispute over email and other electronic records. Inability to present such evidence may lead to defeat in court or heavy penalties. Two major UK laws that a make the installation of an electronic communication archive and retrieval system essential, are the Data Protection Act 1998 - which applies to both public and private sector entities, and the Freedom of Information Act – which applies to public sector entities only, and was fully implemented from Jan 2005.

Several studies have shown that knowledge workers spend 15-30% percent of their work time searching for information, and many searches are not successful. Storing data on different subsystems with different user interfaces creates confusion and increases search time. This wasted time reduces productivity and may cause financial damage.

Common Search Interface
A common search interface across all storage tiers is required to effectively search for documents, presentations, email, email attachments, etc. Such tools help people be more productive, make better business decisions, and achieve greater business success.

Hitachi Data Systems provide solutions in this space. Their vision is to provide integrated infrastructure solutions to help manage and govern both structured and unstructured data. Users should be able to search and migrate across the boundaries of storage silos, which are seen as one integrated platform. File/content-aware management capabilities enable customers to manage all platforms using a single interface with policy-based data management, transparent data migration across tiers, and capacity optimisation across all tiers.