Block-level Tiering vs File-level Tiering

What’s the difference?

Published January 2020

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As data grows, storage costs are escalating. It is easy to think the solution is more efficient storage. But the real cause of storage costs is poor data management. Over 70% of data is cold and has not been accessed in months, yet it sits on expensive storage and consumes the same backup resources as hot data. As a result, storage costs are rising, backups are slow, recovery is unreliable, and the sheer bulk of this data makes it difficult to leverage new options like Flash and Cloud. Sounds familiar?

Since the bulk of data is cold, finding and tiering cold data can save millions, since it offloads cold data from expensive storage and backups. Tiering has been a solution for years, but has disrupted end users and applications. Tiering needs to be frictionless with no disruption to users and applications. Even after data is moved, it needs to be accessed by users and applications exactly the same way as before the move.

Did you know that the way tiering is done can significantly change your actual savings and affect your options to access the cold data? Cold data can be tiered at the block level or at the file level, and there are many significant differences between these two approaches.