Users should be able to quickly comprehend the most important click now properties of a file when they access their data from their storage devices. This is especially important for storage media with distinctive features, such as molecular storage media, or new media that are still in development. The ideal user interface permits users to see the properties by a variety of means and present them in order of importance to the user.
When using a hard disk drive, for instance, people often find the capacity property to be the most crucial. Early systems offered built-in tools that gave specific information about a user’s storage device. However they were primarily focused on displaying the total capacity of the device using bar charts stacked and their variants (e.g., doughnut charts).
With the advent of more modern technology, however, the capacity of a particular file is only one of the attributes that are displayed to the user. For instance certain systems display the duration of a file using either a pie or graph chart that also lists the number of segments that have been accessed within the storage device and other information, such as life expectancy is displayed when the user hovers over stacks.
The issue is that IT teams must now work with departments and end-users to provide cost-effective storage and faster and more secure access to the appropriate data sets to help support new projects and ideas. This change requires IT teams to concentrate less on procurement of technology managing configuration and spending and more on empowering line-of-business users to assist them with their own self-service issues.
