Enterprise storage has historically been a market that is slow to change, but a number of factors are making this an interesting space to watch right now. It is expected to see a unique set of dynamics play out in enterprise storage over the coming years. Here are the top five things we believe will have a major influence on the enterprise storage market during this year:
– New data models will drive the need for new storage technologies. Storage systems designed for traditional applications may not be the best fit for new data-intensive workloads such as intelligent edge computing and big data analytics. These new workloads are driving the need for new technologies, products and business models.
– We expect to see additional tactics from traditional enterprise storage vendors to combat the threat of public cloud such as increased availability of pay-as-you-go storage consumption models. Enterprise IT organizations will also look to more broadly deploy cloud-to-cloud backup capabilities to reduce risk and protect data.
– Server-based storage will be used for bigger projects. With the rise in software-defined storage, IT organizations are combining commodity server hardware with software-defined storage stacks for their private cloud infrastructure to lower costs and streamline operations. Also, it is expected to see more software-defined storage products hitting the market designed for a wider range of use cases.
– Flash will continue to pick up steam. As the cost of flash media declines, the capacity of flash increases and more advanced data reduction technologies become available, hybrid and all-flash arrays are beginning to take hold beyond high-performance computing and big data analytics workloads. The speed of flash is also likely to drive adoption of faster Fibre Channel and Ethernet storage networking protocols. Over the next 5 years, some estimates indicate that half of all datacenters will deploy all-flash arrays.
There are many moving parts in the enterprise storage market right now, as traditional vendors and new entrants battle for IT budget dollars. What do you think the next trend or strategic move will be?
We would love to hear your opinion!