How software ushered in a new age of data storage (Part 2)
Author : Federica Monsone, A3 Communications
29 February 2024
Here, we continue to explore the drivers behind the evolution of software, its game-changing capabilities, its challenges, and how far along organisations are in realising the full potential of software over hardware in the data storage industry. We asked a number of industry influencers and vendors for their views, culminating in a future outlook of software in data storage.
‘Game-changing’ data storage capabilities of a software-led approach
In exploring the capabilities of a software-led approach that have the greatest industry impact, Sergei Serdyuk, VP of Product Management at NAKIVO, eulogises the performance potential enabled by software, “The most ground-breaking capability is perhaps the ability to optimise performance – both by using a logical layer for inter-operable hardware for data movement and processing, and an additional ‘intelligent abstraction’ of AI-managed storage provisioning and management. In combination, these two capabilities show the greatest potential for enabling cost-efficient operations.”
Sergei Serdyuk, VP of Product Management, NAKIVO
Cubbit’s Signoretti tells us about the importance of “visibility across environments with a single domain approach”. He adds, “On the other hand, you want flexibility (multiple tiers) for better data placement and cost optimisation.”
Enrico Signoretti, VP of Product and Partnerships, Cubbit
Paul Speciale, Chief Marketing Officer, Scality, highlights another attribute: “Initially, the major game changer in software-defined storage was the ability to deliver enterprise levels of data durability and high-availability, but way below the multi-million dollar price points required for custom-built legacy systems. This made it possible to deploy systems at cloud-scale that could be trusted with enterprise and user data.”
Paul Speciale, Chief Marketing Officer, Scality
Pure Storage’s Lherault agrees, “All storage needs the ability to work in a hybrid and multi cloud manner. For vendors, this allows them to release new software faster and adopt new generations of hardware faster. It’s important to make the distinction that software-defined doesn’t necessarily mean software only with commodity hardware. Modern storage arrays are defined and driven by their software capabilities but leverage hardware innovation to enhance the software and deliver greater efficiency.”
Tim Klein, President, CEO, and Co-founder, ATTO Technology
Indeed, software has taken data storage capabilities to another level. As Tim Klein, President, CEO, and Co-founder, at ATTO Technology states, “Without a doubt the two game-changing ‘characteristics’, would be cost and flexibility. The cost savings with software-defined storage versus hardware platforms speaks for itself. With flexibility, we’re talking about the ability to take relatively any storage platform and define what it is and how it can be used – virtually or otherwise.”
Shawn Meyers, Field CTO, Tintri
And there is yet another key advantage, as Shawn Meyers, Field CTO at Tintri, highlights the value of software to gather data insights: “A software-led approach can provide valuable insight into each managed object and each I/O to help to determine the best way to service these with the available hardware.”
Roy Illsley, Chief Analyst, Omdia
However, when it comes to software’s potential in data storage, there is still much more yet to be explored and realised, as Roy Illsley, Chief Analyst at Omdia reminds us, “In a software-defined world the potential is for storage to be deployed where it is needed to meet the customer demand. The real ‘game changer’ would be if this was universal and could support any technology and include with it the ability to find and secure all data.”
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