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Finding a new definition of storage

Balancing cost, performance and reliability has always been storage's biggest challenge - but a software-defined approach can overcome this.


Johannesburg, 16 Mar 2018
Hayden Sadler, Country Manager, INFINIDAT.
Hayden Sadler, Country Manager, INFINIDAT.

The exponential growth of data means that today, storage is more important than ever, since in a digitally transformed world, data is now the lifeblood of business. The challenge facing many enterprises is that they are often unable to take advantage of the data they own, due to the high costs of storage, which leads to the implementation of poorly architected storage solutions.

When it comes to addressing the management and analytical requirements around big data and enabling access to multiple databases and sources, not to mention managing high volumes of data and virtualised data centre and cloud storage, businesses usually have to compromise between cost, performance and reliability.

It is this compromise, says Hayden Sadler, country manager at INFINIDAT, that's the main reason most organisations end up with multiple storage platforms, all focused on different tiers of data. While this approach has worked for a long time, the growing need to be able to utilise corporate data in multiple ways, such as analysing for trends or improving customer service, means that this fragmented approach to storage is outdated.

"At present, most companies use flash for their high performance requirements, but this comes at a high cost as well. On the other hand, if they have high capacity requirements, costs for this will need to be kept as low as possible, thereby impacting on performance. In other words, balancing the cost-performance-reliability triangle is very difficult indeed," he says.

Moreover, having various data stored across different tiers of storage makes it virtually impossible to obtain the full benefits of big data and analytics. Therefore, organisations need to adopt a new way of thinking about information storage."

The answer, says Sadler, lies in adopting a new storage architecture that is fundamentally different from earlier legacy enterprise storage systems. What is needed is a storage system that, instead of relying on flash hardware for performance, utilises a software-optimised approach instead.

"It is possible to use machine-learning algorithms to extract high performance and reliability out of low-cost hardware. A software-defined system not only eliminates the need for multiple storage arrays - and the complexity that goes along with this, such as having multiple copies of the same data stored in different places - but is also able to deliver a single data repository at the required cost point and level of performance."

Sadler adds that INFINIDAT is well-positioned to speak authoritatively on this matter, since its chairman and CEO, Moshe Yanai, has been instrumental in the development of some of the most advanced and successful storage technologies in the industry. This includes building IBM-compatible mainframe storage, based on minicomputer disks, developing high-end storage systems for Nixdorf, and leading the EMC team that developed Symmetrix.

"Basically, we have enormous experience in this field, and we are saying is that organisations needn't compromise between cost, reliability and performance. Instead, they should look to balance the cost-reliability-performance triangle by moving the focus away from specific hardware solutions, like flash, disk or DRAM."

What they need to do, adds Sadler, is recognise that media-reliant storage solutions will ultimately fail to meet their real-world performance requirements. Instead, they should consider a software-defined architecture that will deliver the adaptability and flexibility to optimise the performance of any media type - present and future.

"Perhaps most crucially of all, while a software-defined approach to storage offers enormous reliability and better performance at a lower cost, it also ensures that enterprises are ready for a future that will increasingly rely on data to drive the business forward," he concludes.

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