Data Management Glossary
High Performance Storage
What is High Performance Storage?
High performance storage is a type of storage management system designed for moving large files and large amounts of data around a network. High performance storage is especially valuable for moving around large amounts of complex data or unstructured data like large video files across the network.
Used with both direct-connected and network-attached storage, high performance storage supports data transfer rates greater than one gigabyte per second and is designed for enterprises handling large quantities of data – in the petabyte range.
High performance storage supports a variety of methods for accessing and creating data, including FTP, parallel FTP, VFS (Linux), as well as a robust client API with support for parallel I/O.
High performance storage is useful to manage hot or active data, but can be very expensive for cold/inactive data. Since over 60 to 90% of data in an organization is typically inactive/cold within months of creation, this data should be moved off high performance storage to get the best TCO of storage without sacrificing performance.
High-performance storage systems are engineered to deliver very fast access to data with low latency, high throughput, and high reliability. These systems are commonly built using all-flash arrays, NVMe, parallel file systems, scale-out NAS, and high-speed object storage to support demanding workloads such as AI, analytics, databases, media rendering, and high-performance computing (HPC).
High-performance storage is designed for workloads where speed directly impacts business outcomes, user experience, or time-to-insight.
Why High-Performance Storage Matters
Modern organizations need storage that can keep pace with:
- AI model training and inferencing
- GPU-intensive workloads
- Real-time analytics
- Large-scale file collaboration
- Video and media production
- Research and life sciences computing
- Fast backup and recovery
As data volumes grow, slow storage can create bottlenecks that delay innovation and increase data storage costs.
The Challenge: Not All Data Needs Premium Performance
Many organizations place too much data on expensive high-performance storage.
Industry estimates often show that 60% to 80% of enterprise file data becomes inactive or cold over time, yet it remains on premium storage tiers consuming valuable capacity. This drives unnecessary spending and can force early storage upgrades.
Common issues include:
1. Rising Flash and NVMe Costs
Premium storage delivers speed, but at a significantly higher cost than lower-cost object or cloud storage.
2. Capacity Pressure
Cold data competes with active workloads for expensive primary storage capacity. Unstructured data management policies ensures that data is always stored in the appropriate environment according to its usage, age, value and business priority to maximize data storage performance and data storage costs.
Read: The Need for Policies to Corral Your Unstructured Data
3. AI Growth
AI projects increase demand for high-performance infrastructure, making storage efficiency more important.
4. Data Sprawl
Unstructured data across NAS, cloud, and SaaS can be hard to identify, classify, and optimize.
The real challenge is deciding which data truly needs high-performance storage and which data does not.
Why Unstructured Data Management Matters
Most enterprise data growth comes from unstructured data, including:
- Files
- Documents
- Images
- Video
- Genomics data
- Research data
- Logs
- Engineering content
Without visibility into file age, usage, owners, duplicates, and business value, organizations often overpay by keeping low-value data on premium storage.
Unstructured data management helps ensure:
- Hot data stays on fast storage
- Cold data moves to lower-cost tiers
- AI workflows access the right data
- Storage upgrades are delayed or avoided
- Costs align with business value
How Komprise Helps Optimize High-Performance Storage
Komprise helps organizations maximize the value of high-performance storage by identifying what data belongs there, and what does not.
Analytics-Driven Tiering
Komprise analyzes file usage, growth, and age to identify cold data and transparently move it to lower-cost storage.
Flash Stretch
Komprise recently introduced Flash Stretch to help organizations reclaim expensive primary storage capacity and delay costly upgrades.
Transparent Move Technology (TMT)
Moved files remain transparently accessible to users and applications without disruption. Learn more.
Global Metadatabase
Gain visibility across unstructured data silos to make smarter placement decisions. Learn more.
AI Data Readiness
Ensure high-value data is available for AI pipelines while eliminating noise and waste.
Why This Matters
The goal is not to eliminate high-performance storage. It is to use it strategically. Komprise helps organizations move from premium storage filled with inactive data to high-performance storage reserved for active workloads, AI, and innovation
What technologies are used in high-performance storage?
Common technologies include flash, NVMe, scale-out NAS, parallel file systems, and high-speed object storage.
Why is high-performance storage expensive?
It uses premium hardware optimized for speed, resilience, and low latency, which increases cost per TB.
How can organizations lower high-performance storage costs?
By identifying inactive data and tiering it to lower-cost storage while keeping active data on fast tiers.
How does Komprise help with high-performance storage?
Komprise analyzes unstructured data usage, reclaims premium capacity, tiers cold data transparently, and helps ensure the right data stays on the right storage tier. Learn more.