Private cloud storage
In addition to the public cloud, companies
also have the option of building their own internal, private clouds. For
instance, Ruth says, many companies are building “scale-out, white box
storage,” which is essentially a group of direct-attached disks connected via
nodes that create a “very resilient, scalable storage environment.” And one of
the best aspects of the private cloud is you use software to control the
system, so you can build it on “inexpensive commodity storage,” says Ruth.
Private
clouds also offer companies much more control over their data
Matchett agrees that private cloud storage,
in addition to storage in public and hybrid environments, is a great solution
for providing “good, distributed access for mobile devices, so that no matter
where somebody is they can access their file or folder.” Private clouds also
offer companies much more control over their data, because even though data
appears to be in the cloud, it is still readily accessible on-site or at a
company-owned facility.
Flash storage
Another type of storage you might
frequently hear about is lash storage, employed in SSDs (solid state drives).
Flash storage is lauded for its high capacity, high speed, and overall
excellent performance relative to other physical media, but it’s also much more
expensive on a capacity basis. For that reason, some solutions are built as
all-lash arrays and in server-attached forms, but lash isn’t typically seen as
a pure replacement for spinning disks or HDDs. Flash storage is commonly used
for caching or auto-tiering purposes.
Flash
storage is lauded for its high capacity, high speed, and overall excellent
performance relative to other physical media
“Some vendors offer SSDs as a tier of
storage in an array in combination with automatic tiering capabilities that
move hot data from spinning disk up to lash and cold data back to spinning
disk,” says O’Connor. “Others use SSDs or other lash devices as a cache to
maintain a copy of that data on fast storage while a primary copy of the data
is maintained on disk. From a buyer’s perspective, these are really just
different approaches to the same problem. At the end of the day, there are some
advantages of each approach, but both will meet the needs of most
organizations.”
Peters has witnessed this same mindset
shift in the technology world and says that when companies move some active
input/output to flash, “you may well get an economic benefit for the entire
system.” Companies are also sidestepping the need for additional spinning disks
and using solid state for extra bandwidth instead. In the end, it’s important
to learn up front what uses are best for solid state in order to get the best
ROI.
Mainstays & future innovations
If there’s one thing most storage analysts
agree on, it’s that the price of flash storage will drop, and flash density
will continue to increase. However, according to O’Connor, “flash will not
replace spinning disk.” The reason for this, he says, is because “current and
projected data growth exceeds current projected decreases in the price of
flash.” That’s why it’s important not to jump on trends too quickly and
overcommit to new, unproven technologies. Still, there are now other storage
technologies and approaches companies should at least be aware of.
However,
according to O’Connor, “flash will not replace spinning disk.”
One storage solution that is growing in
popularity, according to McClure, is storage delivered by SaaS (software as a
service), which also uses the abbreviation SaaS (storage as a service). This
space consists of file-sharing sites and services that most consumers are
already familiar with. These solutions allow users to upload files to a central
cloud-based hub and have “access to data anywhere, anytime, from any device,”
she says. However, McClure warns that companies need to be more aware of how
employees use these services and ensure sensitive company data isn’t shared
without authorization.
Another new approach, dubbed SDS
(software-defined storage), is part of the emerging trend of giving almost
anything in IT involving software (including networking) the “software-defined”
label. Peters describes SDS as the “reintegration across all of IT” where
companies are now following a convergence path rather than trying to keep
everything separate. With SDS, companies can “keep the distributed consumption
of material and the local and mobile ability to use data,” but also make sure
that the data center is properly consolidated. “We’re putting the data and
processing back together,” says Peters. “We just create it, consume it, and use
it locally.”
One
storage solution that is growing in popularity, is storage delivered by SaaS
(software as a service)
Perhaps one of the most promising new
enterprise storage options for companies that need scalable storage is
converged infrastructures. These are modular building blocks where the server,
enterprise-class storage, and Hypervisor are bundled together and are available
in multiple configurations, depending on your needs. But the best part about
converged infrastructure solutions is that they scale out quickly and easily
without requiring additional capacity purchases.
“You can simply add more boxes to your
environment as it grows, and this underlying storage layer will expand
automatically,” says Matchett. “The storage layer in these solutions also
expands out as you add to it. One of the nice things about these solutions is
that they tend to reduplicate internally and, by doing that, you can reduce
your external costs for WAN optimization, backup, and for a host of other
ancillary stuff you might have to do.”
Matchett adds, “It creates a LEGO building
block, and these things are so simple and bring so much value to the table. And
because they’re so wrapped up, your support, staffing, and all your other costs
really come down.”
