14 January 2016
The future of storage in the data centre according to respondents in ActualTech Media and Atlantis Computing’s survey.
There has been accelerated growth of hyperconverged infrastructure and software-defined storage in data centres, according to research conducted by ActualTech Media in partnership with Atlantis Computing.
As part of their Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and Software-Defined Storage (SDS) 2016 Survey, the two companies polled 1,267 data centre leaders from 53 countries. Their aim was to provide unique insight on how IT organisations are building modern data centres in 2016 and beyond.
The research reveals that 71 per cent either already use or are considering adoption of HCI or SDS. While 75 per cent of organisations currently use disk-based storage, only 44 per cent have it as part of their future infrastructure plans.
Further, 19 per cent of respondents expect to decommission disk-based SAN entirely in favour of either HCI or SDS. When asked about their key decision criteria for adoption of SDS and HCI, organisations cited performance (72 per cent), high availability (68 per cent), and cost (68 per cent) as top requirements.
Continued data growth was also a key driver for change, with median annual data growth rates of 20 per cent reported by respondents. Atlantis says most IT organisations must support these growth rates with flat or decreasing budgets, making the efficiency of data centre infrastructure increasingly important for businesses.
The company adds that as as IT budgets shrink, IT demands increase, and data centre technology becomes more complex, both SDS and HCI have emerged as solutions to solve traditional storage problems.
“They have entered the market mainstream as forceful options for consideration,” writes report author and ActualTech Media partner Scott D. Lowe. “Both bring
unheard of levels of simplicity while also helping to turn the data centre economic picture on its head. hitherto
“Rather than buying three to five years’ worth of storage, data centre administrators can take more of a ‘just in time’ approach to storage thanks to the easy scalability opportunities that present themselves with these architectural options.”
