Software-defined storage allows organizations to access greater flexibility, efficiency, and scalability from their underlying hardware platform.
Before you can fully utilize the benefits of software-defined storage, you need to understand what it is and how your organization can benefit from it.
Software Defined Storage Meaning
Software-defined storage (SDS) is an architecture that separates storage from hardware. SDS makes it easier to replace, upgrade, or expand hardware without having to disrupt operations.
For example, if an organization has a handful of servers, each server may have a different storage capacity and require different kinds of software to work. Software-defined storage allows you to take the storage capacity from the hardware and put it somewhere where the capacity is flexible and scalable.
SDS is part of hyperconverged infrastructure — basically software-defined everything. SDS isn't a cloud; instead, SDS is a layer that feeds data into the cloud. While SDS has cloud storage features, they aren't as comprehensive as a cloud environment.
Software Defined Storage Examples
Like many IT terms, software-defined storage can be challenging to identify because it lacks a standard definition. In general, some examples of software-defined storage types include:
- Hypervisor-based
- Container-based
- Scaled-out storage
- Distributed file systems for object storage offload
- HCI software
Software-defined storage has various uses that can include
- Remote office. In this example, SDS takes the form of leveraging existing hardware to deploy a remote office.
- Hybrid cloud implementations. On-premise and hosted private clouds can be managed with the same data management platform.
What is the Purpose of Software-Defined Storage
Software-defined storage is increasing in popularity because, in general, it is more flexible than traditional storage hardware. Software-defined storage is also programmable, meaning that storage can rapidly and automatically adapt to new demands.
Software-defined storage helps mitigate hardware vendor lock-in since the storage isn't hardware reliant. It is also easy to scale up or down, making growth more efficient.
What is a Software-Defined Storage Solution in Data Centers
Besides software-defined storage, there are also software-defined data centers. A software-defined data center (SDDC) is a data storage facility in which the infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service.
The concept of SDDC is still relatively new but is gaining in popularity. There are three major building blocks of SDDC:
- Network virtualization. Network resources are split by the available bandwidth into independent channels that can be assigned and reassigned to servers and devices in real-time.
- Storage virtualization. Physical storage from multiple network storage devices is combined into what appears to be a single storage device.
- Server virtualization. Individual physical servers are masked from server users.
SDDC is expected to gain market share in the coming years as more companies adopt it.
Anteris Can Help
We're staying in front of the data storage trends. We've seen what is coming and built out our data center to meet the future needs of our Clients.
While we might have said that software-defined data centers are a newer idea, they are the core of what we do at Anteris. Our datacenter is entirely powered by SDDC.
We can combine hardware to create greater resilience. We can do this in various ways, such as linking onsite servers to our data center or installing edge servers on the same site so that if one fails, others are online. These solutions could easily cost up to $100,000, putting a significant strain on your bottom line. At Anteris, we've already made these investments—and more–allowing our Clients to access enterprise-level technology at a fraction of the cost.
That's the benefit of DCaaS: turning what would usually be a considerable capital expense into an operating expense.
If you're ready to talk about upgrading your IT setup or have more questions, we're here.
Let us make your technology freeing, not frustrating.
