Use shared file systems or storage to access common data

Implementing shared file systems or storage solutions minimizes data duplication and optimizes storage efficiency. By centralizing data access, organizations can streamline their infrastructure, significantly reduce resource consumption, and contribute to sustainability goals by lowering their environmental impact.

Best Practices

Leverage Shared File Systems for Efficient Data Management

• Implement Amazon FSx for shared file systems to centralize storage, reducing the need for multiple copies of the same data across different services. This minimizes storage costs and optimizes resource usage.
• Utilize Amazon S3 with lifecycle policies to manage data efficiently. Set up rules to transition older data to less expensive storage classes (e.g., S3 Infrequent Access) or delete data that is no longer needed, thereby reducing your storage footprint.
• Evaluate VPC peering or Transit Gateway options to optimize data transfer among different AWS accounts or services, minimizing latency and costs related to data duplication.
• Encourage a data governance strategy across your teams to ensure that data replication is minimized, and data is tagged and tracked for easy lifecycle management, aligning with sustainability goals.
• Regularly review and analyze storage usage to identify unnecessary data replication and swiftly address areas for improvement, reinforcing a commitment to efficient resource utilization.

Questions to ask your team

• Have you identified instances of data duplication in your storage systems?
• What shared file systems or storage solutions have you implemented to streamline data access?
• How do you monitor the efficiency of your data access and storage usage?
• Are there policies in place to regularly review and clean up unused data?
• Have you assessed the impact of shared storage solutions on your overall sustainability goals?

Who should be doing this?

Data Architect

• Design and implement data management policies to optimize storage usage.
• Evaluate and select shared file systems or storage solutions that promote data efficiency.
• Ensure data lifecycle management practices are in place to move less-used data to appropriate storage.

Cloud Engineer

• Deploy and configure shared storage solutions according to organizational standards.
• Monitor resource utilization to identify opportunities for reducing provisioned storage.
• Assist in automating data lifecycle policies for archiving and deleting unnecessary data.

Data Analyst

• Assess data usage patterns to inform decisions about data lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define data access needs and requirements.
• Provide insights into the business value of data to prioritize storage optimization efforts.

IT Operations Manager

• Oversee the implementation of data management practices across teams.
• Ensure compliance with sustainability goals through effective data policies.
• Facilitate training and awareness programs on the use of shared file systems and best practices.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Shared Storage Usage Policy: A formal policy explaining how to use shared file systems or storage for common data access. It covers procedures for data classification, access controls, and guidelines to minimize duplication and maintain efficiency.
• Shared Storage Architecture Diagram: A visual representation of how shared storage interacts with various systems and services. It illustrates how to centralize data access to reduce redundant copies and improve sustainability within the infrastructure.
• Shared Storage Efficiency Checklist: A step-by-step checklist for regularly auditing shared storage usage, verifying permissions, cleaning up stale data, and monitoring capacity. It helps ensure that data stays consolidated and resource use remains aligned with sustainability goals.

Cloud Services

AWS

• Amazon S3: Amazon S3 offers scalable object storage that can be used with lifecycle policies to transition data to less expensive and less performant storage classes over time.
• Amazon EFS: Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) provides a shared file system that allows multiple Amazon EC2 instances to access data concurrently, thus reducing data duplication.
• AWS Data Lifecycle Manager: AWS Data Lifecycle Manager helps automate the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS snapshots, helping manage data effectively across its lifecycle.

Azure

• Azure Blob Storage: Azure Blob Storage enables scalable object storage with the capability to set lifecycle management policies to transition data between access tiers.
• Azure Files: Azure Files offers fully managed file shares in the cloud that allow simultaneous access from multiple VMs, helping to reduce data duplication.
• Azure Data Lake Storage: Azure Data Lake Storage provides a scalable data lake solution, enabling management of data essential for analytics while optimizing storage and access.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Storage: Google Cloud Storage offers unified object storage with lifecycle management capabilities to automatically delete or transition data based on policies.
• Filestore: Filestore provides a fully managed file storage service for applications that require a shared file system, reducing data redundancy among instances.
• BigQuery: BigQuery is a fully managed, serverless data warehouse that allows for efficient big data analytics, optimizing resource usage and reducing costs.