Storage Solutions Flashcards

Which storage characteristic is most critical when selecting a system for real-time document retrieval in a high-traffic enterprise environment?

Answer: Low latency and high IOPS

Real-time retrieval in high-traffic environments demands low access latency and high IOPS to ensure users receive documents quickly without queuing delays.

What is 'storage virtualization' in the context of an enterprise document management system?

Answer: Abstracting physical storage resources into a single logical pool manageable as one unit

Storage virtualization abstracts heterogeneous physical storage hardware into a unified logical pool, simplifying management and enabling seamless capacity expansion.

For long-term digital preservation of archival documents, which file format and storage combination is generally recommended?

Answer: PDF/A on WORM-compliant storage with checksum validation

PDF/A is the ISO-standardized archival format, and pairing it with WORM storage and checksum validation ensures both format integrity and protection against alteration.

What is 'storage replication' and how does it differ from backup in a document imaging system?

Answer: Replication continuously mirrors live data to another location; backup creates periodic point-in-time copies

Replication provides continuous or near-real-time synchronization of live data to a secondary site, while backup captures periodic snapshots that may lag behind current state.

A company stores 50 million document images that are accessed less than once per year on average. Which storage approach is most cost-effective?

Answer: Tiered cold/archive storage such as tape or cloud glacier-class storage

Cold or archive storage tiers like tape or cloud glacier-class services offer the lowest cost per GB for rarely accessed data where retrieval speed is not critical.

In a document imaging RFP, a vendor claims their system offers 'five nines' availability. What does this mean?

Answer: The system guarantees 99.999% uptime, allowing approximately 5 minutes of downtime per year

'Five nines' (99.999%) availability translates to approximately 5.26 minutes of allowed downtime per year, representing an extremely high reliability standard.

Which storage technology is best suited for near-line storage in a document imaging system where retrieval times of 30-90 seconds are acceptable?

Answer: Automated tape library (ATL)

Automated tape libraries provide robotic retrieval of tape cartridges within 30-90 seconds, making them ideal near-line storage where cost savings outweigh the need for instant access.