» Growth of File Sizes and Digital Data

Many corporations today have seen the growth of digital data within their organisations. In today's technology driven world this is may come as no surprise. However what may be more surprising is the growth in size of the files that make up that data. With these two problems going hand in hand, the storage and communication of digital data for many organisations is spiralling out of control.

•  Data Storage / Management Costs
  
  With file sizes on the up and the growth of digital data ever increasing, it is no surprise that organisations are struggling with storage requirements.

  The common assumption is that the storage is cheap; in actual fact although the cost of the physical storage itself may be cheap, the associated management costs are extremely high and are estimated at 3 to 4 times the actual cost of the storage itself.

  The traditional response to growing storage requirements is to increase the physical storage capacity by purchasing more hardware. This approach may be fine in the short term but it does not address the root of the problem; the increasing size of the files and the number of files being produced. There is only so much disk space that can be purchased before the associated management costs become simply too expensive to justify.

•  Communication
  
  The routine exchange of digital information has become the life-blood of many organisations. It is no surprise that the amount of information communicated around local networks and the internet is increasing dramatically. Unfortunately it is not just the amount of digital data being transferred that is the problem; it is the size of the files that is the huge issue. IT Departments often respond to email storage problems by establishing mailbox size limits and limiting the size of email attachments. However this solution is not viable for today's modern world where often attachment files sizes exceed 10 Mb.

» The Solution - File Optimisation

File Optimisation is based on the concept that often files are much larger in size than they need to be. This is mainly due to the fact that they have not been created in the most efficient way. File Optimisation works by applying specific algorithms that understand the structure of certain file types and can optimise their content, reducing their total size. Although the size of the file is being reduced, it still remains visually identical compared to the original and often users are completely unaware optimisation has occurred. As the file has not been compressed, no decompression is required, allowing it to be accessed instantly.

File Optimisation addresses the core problem of growing file sizes. This type of solution will not only alleviate the problems associated with digital storage, but will finally allow the communication of files that were previously too large in size.

The File Server Optimiser and MailPackIT products from I-Logik Software allow file optimisation to be used at a corporate level on both servers and workstations. This solution can put an end to spiraling management costs by establishing a scalable, sustainable and affordable solution.