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Disruptive tech hits storage sector

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 12 Dec 2014
The days of buying storage array hardware and then being pressured into buying mandatory bolt-on software are now disappearing, says X-IO.
The days of buying storage array hardware and then being pressured into buying mandatory bolt-on software are now disappearing, says X-IO.

The most significant trend during 2014 has been the move from dedicated storage teams to a merging of the virtualisation admin and storage admin roles.

So says Gavin McLaughlin, VP of global marketing at storage solutions provider X-IO Technologies, who notes, through a combination of simplified management tools and the move towards software-defined storage, the need for dedicated operational staff purely to manage storage is reducing.

"The days of buying storage array hardware and then being pressured into buying mandatory bolt-on software, with costly maintenance charges, are now disappearing, and higher-level data management functions are moving up to the storage hypervisor," says McLaughlin.

Like many other parts of the IT industry, he notes, the storage sector had its fair share of disruptive technologies in 2014.

The latest is flash and all-flash arrays being used for workloads such as virtual desktop infrastructure, he says, adding flash is a new media technology and it certainly has its place; however, it's not going to take over the storage world.

According to McLaughlin, flash is a great tool to help solve some storage issues, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution.

"Organisations need to make sure they are not swept up by the hype surrounding flash. The reality is, there is still plenty of mileage left in hard disk drives."

He believes another key change in the industry will be the customer's attitude to storage. "In 2015, there will be a realisation of the marketing hype and, quite frankly, the misdirection and lies used in the storage industry."

For too many years, he says, there's been an increase in the number of over-inflated claims by storage vendors with regards to performance and efficiency - such as compression and de-duplication figures. "The car industry has been forced to evolve from 'best-case' kilometres-per-litre statistics and use more real-world 'urban' figures; it's time for the storage industry to do the same.

"In the next few years, we will start to see vendors waking up to the fact that customers know what they want."

McLaughlin points out next year won't be about the latest trend and the quickest solution; it will become about each individual environment.

"Whether you're implementing a whole system refresh or adding to your existing infrastructure, the trick is to ignore the hype, look at your business needs and make a decision based on cost, risk and anticipated growth."

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