Moshe Yanai, founder of Infinidat, shares an overview of the trends that he believes will impact the storage sector over the coming year and beyond
Recently the world has endured a tumult of disruptions, but we entered 2021 with lessons learned, new insights and a better understanding of the evolution of the storage market toward a post-pandemic future. Here we look at some of the top storage trends that will enable IT decision makers to effectively and economically archive data, automate it, secure it, instantly access and monetise it.
Big Data and the need for near continuous availability has changed the way businesses approach their storage needs. According to IDC's 2020 study Global DataSphere, the amount of data created over the next three years will be more than all the data created over the past 30 years and businesses are facing daunting storage challenges as never before.
REAL WORLD DATA PROTECTION When faced with constant change and rapid response to changing regulatory landscapes too many IT departments use rigid solutions or make instinctive choices driven only by costs. However, the evolution of company data storage policy is set to continue as the data privacy landscape changes through this period and businesses without longer term plans or relevant infrastructure in place to ensure a customer's data privacy will be left behind.
"With the cost of acquisition now driving most IT leaders' business decisions there is a pressing need to have secure data solutions alongside flexible storage payment options. De-risking any initial expenditure allows businesses to adjust successfully during periods of unexpected change. Without knowing what the next disruption could be, companies demand a self-managed solution to meet growing capacity requirements while budgets will continue being cut. Installing storage systems within a 'pay as you grow' structure seems obvious to drive down costs."
Data encryption and software innovation will become a key pillar for data storage services, as well as a differentiator, as the number of aggressive cyber-attacks from hackers that target backup and archive data is set to increase steeply in the next decade. Best practices will include multiple copies on different technologies and destinations, and a call to establish proper assessments of an organisation's vulnerabilities. Intelligent investment in preventative and remediation type technologies, such as data storage backup, immutable snapshots, and/or active-active replication will mean systems are protected from data unavailability as well as from increased cybersecurity risks.
AI AT THE FOUNDATION In the coming years AI is set to become more than a set of demanding workloads and more a foundational technology in the building of intelligent cloud hybrid infrastructures. If data is at the core of most companies' competitive edge, operating this data cost-efficiently and with high performance is the new business imperative.
Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of learning algorithms can help organisations improve data performance and mitigate the increasing cost of storing vast and ever-growing volumes of data. While some companies promote their automation capabilities as AI, at the end of the day that's all it is - automation. What differentiates automation and AI is the real intelligence behind it. AI-driven learning algorithms can revolutionise the way businesses manage data storage. These algorithms respond in real time to dynamically changing workloads, supplying non-stop performance optimisation for your data.
With budgets now reduced due to economic challenges, there is an increased emphasis on efficiency, performance and cost effectiveness. Storage tools such as AI and 'Deep Learning' will have a huge impact on our industry in areas like performance, agility and data protection. Technology leaders will need to look for solutions rooted in AI to provide the required intelligence to achieve tangible business goals and reduce their overall spend.
FOCUS ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY As we move forward through 2021, organisations will need to refocus on prioritising technology investments and projects that will keep their businesses moving with little or no human intervention in case of unforeseen emergencies or situations. Longer term strategic investments such as digital transformation and larger scale data analytics will be forced to one side as focus returns to remediation type technology like data storage backups and active-active replication. British businesses will need to engage fully in protecting their systems from data unavailability as well as the discussed growth in cyberattacks.
With the cost of acquisition now driving most IT leaders' business decisions there is a pressing need to have secure data solutions alongside flexible storage payment options. De-risking any initial expenditure allows businesses to adjust successfully during periods of unexpected change. Without knowing what the next disruption could be, companies demand a self-managed solution to meet growing capacity requirements while budgets will continue being cut.
Installing storage systems within a 'pay as you grow' structure seems obvious to drive down costs. With much more scrutiny being placed on purchasing decisions and higher pricing criteria for technology, a key element is to build in more than you require at the start, so that smart scalability is at your fingertips and customers are not exposed to any potential shortfall.
No business has had the year that they expected - and those who weren't agile or had under-invested in technology solutions paid the ultimate price. There has never been a more potent drive towards cost effective flexible storage options, and if 2020 has taught us anything it has been that the next business disruptor is always just around the corner.
Prepare now and prepare well, invest intelligently and build in scalability.
More info: www.infinidat.com
