Posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 in Storage, Storage Hardware, Cloud Storage
In what will be no surprise to CTOs, research published by software firm Suse has found that storage continues to be a major headache for businesses.
According to the report, data volumes in the UK are increasing by 27 percent every year, and an inability to deploy sufficient capacity is delaying all-important digital transformation projects.
Among the problems reported by CTOs were concerns about overall cost (83 percent) and the inability to support innovation (74 percent). In order to bring projects on track, most UK firms were looking to simplify storage (58 percent) and reduce their storage operating costs (55 percent).
Cloud – the default (but not necessarily correct) storage solution
Obviously, many industry commentators are suggesting the solution is to facilitate a move to cloud storage alternatives as soon as possible – and in some cases this may be a smart move. But public cloud services are not suitable in every situation, nor do they necessarily fit with current IT strategy.
Where cost is the main consideration, CTOs will find that moving to third party support and maintenance will significantly reduce annual spend, freeing up cash for investment in other infrastructure projects. Or for purchasing additional capacity to keep up with demand.
When it comes to the question of increased flexibility, traditional storage strategies are unable to cope. The on-demand nature of cloud platforms is one solution, although similar flexibility can be achieved on site using software defined storage.
SDS creates a cloud-like infrastructure that delivers much-needed flexibility – and significant service enhancements. Features like data encryption, compression, tiering, and thin provisioning help builds a platform on which you can deliver digital transformation securely.
Important, SDS operates independently of storage hardware and potentially other encryption protocols too – the kind of flexibility that’s not available in any vendor-supplied solution. And to further reduce costs, SDS fits into new, existing, homogeneous, or heterogeneous storage environments.
Cost and flexibility – onsite
Combining SDS with third party services allows businesses to redeploy post warranty assets, thereby adding capacity and flexibility in one go. In reality, British CTOs may have the answer to storage headaches sitting in their data centers already.
Next steps
To learn more about SDS, post warranty hardware support and how to reduce your annual storage costs, please get in touch.
– See more at: https://www.cds.net/blog/2017/03/costs-flexibility-capacity-storage/#sthash.DZjTs3ZE.dpuf