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At Fortuna Data we have over 50 years’ experience in designing, installing and maintaining all forms of IT equipment. We offer a data storage consultancy service to help organisations design, optimise, and protect storage so that data is always available, compliant, and cost‑effective. It directly tackles storage bottlenecks, backup and archiving gaps, configuration issues, cyber threats, and network performance problems that undermine day‑to‑day operations.
We provide a data storage consultancy service to assesses how an organisation stores, protects, and moves data, then designs improvements in architecture, processes, and tooling. Typical engagements span on‑premises arrays, NAS, SAN, cloud storage, and hybrid environments, cyber protection, network performance, along with backup, archiving and disaster recovery platforms.
Our consultants translate business requirements such as RPO/RTO, compliance, and growth forecasts into a storage strategy that aligns capacity, performance, security, and cost. They also create roadmaps so that storage can scale with data growth without causing performance degradation or spiraling spend.
Storage bottlenecks arise when throughput or IOPS cannot keep up with application demand, causing slow batch jobs, latency in databases, or time‑outs in virtual environments. In many environments, legacy NAS protocols and backup approaches were designed for much smaller datasets and become a major choke‑point with modern unstructured data volumes.
Consultants identify whether the bottleneck is in disk performance, controller CPU, cache, network links, or backup jobs competing for the same resources. They then recommend measures such as tiering hot data onto faster media, optimising RAID and caching policies, or offloading backup and analytics workloads to separate platforms.
Poorly designed backup strategies often result in failed jobs, missed RPOs, and backups that are impossible to restore within required SLAs. Common root causes include misconfigured schedules, lack of storage space, network connectivity problems, and errors in backup software settings. A consultancy reviews policies, retention, and infrastructure to ensure backups complete reliably and restorations are tested.
Choosing between full, differential, and incremental backups is also a frequent pain point. Full backups are comprehensive but resource‑intensive and can significantly impact server performance and network utilisation. Differential and incremental backups reduce load but complicate restore chains if not designed carefully. Consultants help design patterns that minimise backup windows while preserving fast, predictable recovery.
Archiving is often neglected until primary storage fills up, at which point performance drops and unstructured data becomes unmanageable. Consultants design data lifecycle management policies so that inactive data is moved to cost‑optimised tiers or dedicated archive platforms without breaking user access or compliance rules.
A well‑defined retention policies state how long backups and archives should be kept and when they can be safely deleted, balancing regulatory obligations against storage cost. Techniques such as deduplication and compression are introduced to reduce footprint while keeping data searchable and restorable when needed.
Storage systems have become prime targets for cyber attackers using malware, ransomware, and data exfiltration techniques. Misconfigurations, weak access controls, and unencrypted backups expose sensitive data and can lead to breaches or destructive attacks. Consultants assess storage security posture across on‑premises and cloud environments, focusing on access control, encryption, and monitoring.
Unsecured backup copies are a particular risk because they often contain complete datasets that are attractive to attackers if left unencrypted or stored in insecure locations. Consultancy services typically recommend strong encryption, hardened backup repositories, network segmentation, and regular audits of backup and archive locations to close these gaps.
Network performance is tightly coupled with storage performance, particularly for NAS, iSCSI, object storage, and remote backup traffic. Congested or misconfigured networks increase latency and reduce throughput, leading to slow backups, delayed replication, and poor user experience when accessing files or databases over the network.
Consultants analyse network paths used for backup, replication, and primary storage access, looking for bandwidth constraints and configuration errors. They may recommend QoS policies to prioritise storage traffic, redesign backup windows around peak usage, or segment traffic so that backup operations do not compete with production workloads.
A typical engagement starts with discovery and assessment, including an inventory of storage platforms, backup systems, and network topologies, along with performance and failure history. This is followed by workshops with stakeholders to understand business‑critical applications, RPO/RTO targets, regulatory drivers, and future projects that will change data profiles.
From there, consultants produce a target architecture and a phased implementation plan. This usually covers storage tiering strategy, backup and recovery redesign, archive implementation, and security hardening measures, along with operational runbooks and training for in‑house teams.
An effective data storage consultancy reduces risk, improves performance, and can significantly lower total cost of ownership by eliminating waste and unplanned downtime. Organisations gain predictability in backup and recovery, clearer visibility into data growth, and the confidence that storage will not become a blocker for digital initiatives.
By addressing bottlenecks, misconfigurations, cyber threats, and network performance issues in a holistic way, consultancy ensures that storage infrastructure supports business goals instead of constraining them. This makes it easier to adopt new technologies, meet compliance requirements, and deliver consistently fast services to users and customers.
