Intelligent Data Centres Issue 32 | Page 62

TIERING AND CACHING BOTH MOVE THE MAJORITY OF DATA FROM ON-PREMISES STORAGE TO THE CLOUD WHILE MAINTAINING LOCAL ACCESS , BUT THIS IS WHERE THE RESEMBLANCES END .
Aron Brand , CTO , CTERA , discusses in detail two different approaches – caching and tiering – to managing data migration across numerous Edge and cloud locations . We hear about the benefits of both strategies and how they differ .
loud caching and tiering are not synonymous . These two

C commonly misunderstood terms are both data management techniques that combine the advantages of local and cloud storage . Tiering and caching both move the majority of data from on-premises storage to the cloud while maintaining local access , but this is where the resemblances end .

As organisations increasingly adopt a hybrid cloud approach , IT administrators must understand how the two technologies differ in order to ensure their chosen data management solutions meet their requirements . Read on for the key differences between caching and tiering .
Copying vs . moving data
Data is transferred between the local , on-premises storage tier and the cloud storage tier with both caching and tiering , but in different ways : caching copies data between tiers , whereas tiering moves it .
Edge-centric vs cloudcentric approach
Tiering is a technique that focuses on the Edge . In this scenario , portions of locally-stored data are migrated , according to pre-established criteria , from the Edge to a slower and cheaper tier , such as the cloud , and retrieved on demand . The cloud is where cold data is archived at a lower cost , with local storage acting as the primary storage . At any one time , data is stored in a single tier .
Caching , on the other hand , is a cloudcentric strategy in which the cloud stores a ‘ gold copy ’ of all data . For rapid and efficient access , on-premises caching devices keep a local copy of frequently accessed data .
Let ’ s look at how caching and tiering stack up against four use cases for

TIERING AND CACHING BOTH MOVE THE MAJORITY OF DATA FROM ON-PREMISES STORAGE TO THE CLOUD WHILE MAINTAINING LOCAL ACCESS , BUT THIS IS WHERE THE RESEMBLANCES END .

The key differences between caching and tiering

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