When users access data sets on their storage devices they should be presented with an easy-to-understand overview of the most crucial characteristics. This is especially important for storage media that have unique features such as molecular storage media and upcoming new media that are under development. The ideal user interface would let the user visualize these properties with a variety of visual means and then display them in order of importance to the user.
For instance the capacity property is usually one of the most important properties for users when they use a traditional hard disk drive system. Early systems included tools that provided detailed information about the user’s storage device. However, they concentrated primarily on presenting its total capacity using bar graphs stacked and their variations (e.g. doughnut charts).
Modern systems, however, the capacity of a file is usually only one of the attributes that are presented to the user. Certain systems, for instance, display the file’s lifetime using a http://www.virtuadata.net/how-to-organize-the-data-room-ma graph, or a pie chart which also displays the number of segments accessed within the storage device. Additional information, like the likelihood of life will be displayed when the user hovers over stacks.
IT teams are now challenged to work with departments and users to provide more cost-efficient storage of data and faster access to secure and proper data sets needed for new projects and ideas. This shift requires IT departments to concentrate less on procurement of technology and management of configurations and more on empowering line-of business users to assist themselves with their own self-service needs.
