In the past year, the challenge of handling information overload has been made far more complicated thanks to the ongoing economic crisis.

Managing ever-growing demands for more storage and data management without busting ever-tightening budgets has forced IT staff to get creative. Forrester Research senior analyst Andrew Reichman told V3.co.uk that much like other areas of life, IT managers have been looking for ways to stretch their money as far as possible.

Reichman said that in particular, the recession has forced companies to pay far greater attention to how data is managed and where it is being stored. He noted that while adding storage used to be seen as an unpleasant necessity for companies, it is now rarely even contemplated.

"It has been a problem for some time. Data growth is very high and budgets are flat," he explained.

"This has been a trend for some time now, but I would say it just got more urgent."

To manage more data with the same volume of storage, companies are having to make better use of existing systems. Reichmann said that use of reporting tools to better analyse storage utilisation has increased, and many companies are re-assessing their policies on storing and backing up data.

One area in particular where companies can save storage space is backing up systems. Rather than filling up storage systems with multiple full backups, Reichmann said that many firms are opting to use smaller "snapshot" backup images.

"It can allow you to have the copies that you need without taking up space," he explained.

"Because most of the consumption of storage is for derivative copies, you can use those space-efficient copies for the right purpose."

One of the most popular solutions for saving money and space in recent years has been virtualisation. While vendors have increasingly sought to offer virtualised storage platforms, Reichmann said that take-up has lagged behind that of server virtualisation offerings.

"When you look at storage virtualisation it is a bit more hit or miss, but those who are using it are able to solve some tactical problems, specifically for data migration," he said.