When users access data sets on their storage devices, they should be presented with a simple view of the file’s most crucial properties. This is particularly true for storage media that have unique features, like molecular storage media and new media that are under development. The ideal user interface will allow the user to visualize these properties with a variety of visual means and, ideally, display them in order of importance to the user.

For instance the capacity property is typically one of the most important properties for users when they use the traditional hard http://virtuadata.net/best-internet-security-suites-with-beneficial-conditions/ disk drive system. Early systems provided built-in tools that provided precise information about a user’s storage device. However, they primarily focused on showing the total capacity of the device using bar charts stacked in their variations (e.g., doughnut charts).

With more modern systems however, the capacity of a particular file is only one of the many aspects that are presented to the user. Certain systems, for instance, display the file’s lifetime using a graph, or a pie chart, that also displays the number of segments that are accessed in the storage device. Additional information, like a lifetime prediction, is displayed when the user hovers the stacks.

IT teams are now challenged to collaborate with users and departments to provide more cost-efficient data storage and quicker, secure access to the correct data sets for new ideas and projects. This change requires IT teams to concentrate less on procurement of technology and management of configurations and more on helping line-of-business users to assist themselves with their own self-service requirements.