https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Primary storage systems for large enterprises have adapted quickly to new needs and business requirements, with data ...
Primary storage systems for large enterprises have adapted quickly to new needs and business requirements, with data now accessed from both on-premises and cloud applications. We’re in a transition phase from storage systems designed to be deployed in data centers to hybrid and multi-cloud solutions, with similar functionalities provided on physical or virtual appliances as well as through managed services.
The concept of primary storage, data, and workloads has radically changed over the past few years. Mission- and business-critical functions in enterprise organizations were concentrated on a few monolithic applications based on traditional relational databases. In this scenario, block storage was often synonymous with primary storage, and performance, availability, and resiliency were prioritized, usually at the expense of flexibility, ease of use, and cost.
Now, after the virtualization wave and the exponential growth of microservices and container-based applications, organizations are shifting their focus to AI-based analytics, self-driven storage, and improved automation as well as deeper Kubernetes integration. Moreover, the thirst for performance is still high; support for new storage types and NVMe transport protocols is now becoming the golden standard.
Finally, organizations have not abandoned their appetite for cost optimization. In this context, when it comes to total cost of ownership (TCO) and flexibility, the emergence of storage-as-a-service (STaaS) provides cloud consumption models that increasingly are being sought after.
When it comes to modern storage, and block storage in particular, flash memory and high-speed Ethernet networks have commoditized performance and reduced costs, allowing for more liberty in system design. Fibre Channel remains a core component in many storage infrastructures, for legacy reasons only. At the same time, enterprise organizations are working to align storage with broader infrastructure strategies, which address issues such as:
- Better infrastructure agility to speed up response to business needs
- Improved data mobility and integration with the cloud
- Support for a larger number of concurrent applications and workloads on a single system
- Simplified infrastructure
- Automation and orchestration to speed up and scale operations
- Drastic reduction of TCO along with a significant increase in the capacity per sysadmin under management
These efforts have contributed to the growth in the number of solutions, as startups and established vendors alike move to address these needs. Traditional high-end and mid-range storage arrays have been joined by software-defined and specialized solutions all aimed at serving similar market segments but differentiated by the focus they place on the various points described above. A one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t exist. In this report, we will analyze several aspects and important features of modern storage systems to better understand how they impact the metrics for evaluating block storage systems, especially in relation to the needs of each IT organization.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.
The post GigaOm Radar for Primary Storage for Large Enterprises appeared first on Gigaom.
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