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Software-defined enterprise era beckons

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 26 Jan 2015
Software-defined storage is witnessing significant market traction, says EMC's Servaas Venter.
Software-defined storage is witnessing significant market traction, says EMC's Servaas Venter.

One of the fastest-growing trends in IT today is software-defined everything, where various components in an IT infrastructure - like servers, networks and storage - are virtualised and delivered as a service through the cloud.

This is according to Servaas Venter, country manager at EMC Southern Africa who notes the software-defined enterprise is entering an era in which all IT resources will be managed, provisioned and stored virtually.

Using software-defined storage, companies are able to deliver storage-as-a-service, says Venter. Massive data growth and the changing nature of applications are driving software-defined storage uptake, he adds.

IDC refers to software-defined storage as platforms that deliver the full suite of storage services via a software stack that uses (but is not dependent on) commodity hardware built with off-the-shelf components.

According to Warren Olivier, regional manager at Veeam Software Southern Africa, software-defined storage gives IT managers a great deal more choice and ability to scale.

"The cost of new hardware is often a real constraint on growth. Now organisations can mix and match different hardware brands, and use old building blocks for the modern data centre (like virtualisation, modern or agnostic storage and cloud) in new configurations. This expands the space of possibilities."

Olivier believes it's now software, not hardware that dictates what companies can do in the data centre. Therefore, companies need to upgrade their tools because they can't run the modern data centre properly with tools designed for an early age.

According to Venter, business transformation through IT transformation would need to be embraced as traditional IT organisations lack the structure, strategic vision, roles and collaboration required for successful software-defined storage.

A new approach would need to be embraced when organisations want to leverage software-defined storage technologies. This new approach would be service provider-driven, he adds.

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