The concepts of primary storage, data, and workloads have radically changed over the past few years. Mission- and business-critical functions in enterprise organizations used to be concentrated in a few monolithic applications based on traditional relational databases. In that 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 low 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, improved automation, and deeper Kubernetes integration. In addition, the prevalence of cyberthreats such as ransomware attacks require organizations to implement a multilayered defense strategy that encompasses secure storage. To prevent downtime and data loss, protecting data assets at the source (in production and on primary storage systems) becomes a key aspect of any security strategy.

Furthermore, the thirst for performance is still strong, which means support for new storage types—including emerging compute express link (CXL)-compatible persistent memory types and non-volatile memory express (NVMe) transport protocols—are now being looked at with more interest.

Moreover, organizations have not lost their appetite for cost optimization. When it comes to total cost of ownership (TCO) and flexibility, the emergence of storage as a service (STaaS) means that cloud consumption models are increasingly being sought.

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 more freedom in system design. Fibre Channel remains a core component in many storage infrastructures for legacy reasons only. At the same time, enterprises are working to align storage with broader infrastructure strategies, which address issues such as:

• Better infrastructure agility for speeding 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.
• Better overall energy efficiency enabling achievement of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) objectives and reduction of energy bills, especially when operating at scale.

These efforts have contributed to the increasing number of solutions as startups and established vendors move to address these needs. Traditional high-end and midrange 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 primary storage solution doesn’t exist.

For this evaluation, we have two Radar reports: one on primary storage for large enterprises and the other on primary storage for midsize businesses.

Table 1 shows the vendors and primary storage systems covered in each report.

Table 1. Primary Storage Solutions for Midsize and Large Enterprises

This is our fourth year evaluating the primary storage space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Radar report examines 15 of the top primary storage solutions for midsize businesses in the market and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and non-functional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the category and its underlying technology, identify leading primary storage offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

The post GigaOm Radar for Primary Storage for Midsize Businesses appeared first on Gigaom.

The concepts of primary storage, data, and workloads have radically changed over the past few years. Mission- and business-critical functions in enterprise organizations used to be concentrated in a few monolithic applications based on traditional relational databases. In that 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 low 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, improved automation, and deeper Kubernetes integration. In addition, the prevalence of cyberthreats such as ransomware attacks require organizations to implement a multilayered defense strategy that encompasses secure storage. To prevent downtime and data loss, protecting data assets at the source (in production and on primary storage systems) becomes a key aspect of any security strategy.

Furthermore, the thirst for performance is still strong, which means support for new storage types—including emerging compute express link (CXL)-compatible persistent memory types and non-volatile memory express (NVMe) transport protocols—are now being looked at with more interest.

Moreover, organizations have not lost their appetite for cost optimization. When it comes to total cost of ownership (TCO) and flexibility, the emergence of storage as a service (STaaS) means that cloud consumption models are increasingly being sought.

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 more freedom in system design. Fibre Channel remains a core component in many storage infrastructures for legacy reasons only. At the same time, enterprises are working to align storage with broader infrastructure strategies, which address issues such as:

• Better infrastructure agility for speeding 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.
• Better overall energy efficiency enabling achievement of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) objectives and reduction of energy bills, especially when operating at scale.

These efforts have contributed to the increasing number of solutions as startups and established vendors move to address these needs. Traditional high-end and midrange 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 primary storage solution doesn’t exist.

For this evaluation, we have two Radar reports: one on primary storage for large enterprises and the other on primary storage for midsize businesses.

Table 1 shows the vendors and primary storage systems covered in each report.

Table 1. Primary Storage Solutions for Midsize and Large Enterprises

This is our fourth year evaluating the primary storage space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Radar report examines 11 of the top primary storage solutions for large enterprises in the market and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and non-functional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the category and its underlying technology, identify leading primary storage offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

The post GigaOm Radar for Primary Storage for Large Enterprises appeared first on Gigaom.

When it comes to modern storage in general and block storage in particular, flash memory and high-speed ethernet networks have commoditized performance and reduced costs, allowing for greater flexibility in system design. At the same time, enterprise organizations want to align storage with the rest of their infrastructure strategy, based on pressing requirements, including:

• A more agile infrastructure that can respond quickly to business needs.
• Improved data mobility and integration with the cloud.
• Support for larger numbers of applications and workloads concurrently on the same system.
• Overall infrastructure simplification.
• Automation and orchestration that speed up and scale operations.
• Better infrastructure performance that is reflected in user or customer experience.
• Drastic reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO), along with a significant increase in the capacity under management per systems administrator.
• Cloud-like consumption models.

Many of these points are crucial to the realization of modern IT infrastructures and strategies and have contributed to the increasing number of storage solutions available from both startups and established vendors. Traditional high-end and mid-range storage arrays have been joined by software-defined and specialized solutions serving similar market segments but are differentiated by their focus on specific requirements. A one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t exist.

Business Imperative
Agility, flexibility, and data mobility are key drivers of most enterprise infrastructure strategies today, and that goes for storage as well. Vendors are working to make their storage systems more open, easier to integrate, and better to operate across different environments. Thus, enterprise storage vendors are designing new products and platforms to present data management and advanced data services as core elements of their offerings, enabling users to take advantage of end-to-end solutions that work seamlessly across on-premises and cloud infrastructures.

Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value of a primary storage solution deployment to the business, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the primary storage sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of primary storage, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) for primary storage of 4 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that primary storage is a credible candidate for deployment and worth thoughtful consideration.

The factors contributing to the Sector Adoption Score for primary storage are explained in more detail in the Sector Brief section that follows.