Transformation of Storage Technology Industry: Digital Trends and their Impact

Transcription

1 A Poit of View Trasformatio of Storage Techology Idustry: Digital Treds ad their Impact The Evolvig Storage Idustry Ladscape With limitless possibilities throw ope by the Digital Five Forces Big Data ad aalytics, mobility ad pervasive computig, social media, cloud computig, ad artificial itelligece (AI) ad robotics customer requiremets have icreased maifold for the storage idustry. Depedig o their requiremets, customers ow have the optio to do busiess with comprehesive portfolio storage compaies, cloud storage compaies, or iche product startups. To meet competitive pressures ad drive customer loyalty, leadig storage compaies are mullig over how to icrease sales, esure delivery of quality products, ad cotiue to iovate, while optimizig the costs ivolved. The icreasig competitio from cloud storage compaies, hyper-coverged ifrastructure firms, ad other iche players has further augmeted the complexity of the overall sceario. Icumbet storage idustry players are cotemplatig whether to ivest i developig i-house capabilities to create ew product lies ad capture ew markets, or acquire iche compaies to ehace their product ad service portfolios. I this article, we discuss the areas the storage idustry eeds to focus o, to meet the risig expectatios of the customer. We also talk about how storage compaies ca eable their customers to respod to chagig market eeds i the face of digitizatio. The Digital Impact The widespread adoptio of digital techologies has created a host of opportuities for storage idustry compaies. Here are the four mai dimesios where ext-geeratio techologies are drivig visible chages: Busiess models Cloud computig: Cosiderig the ucertai ad upredictable log-term idustry requiremets, orgaizatios are optig for istat ifrastructure availability ad payas-you-grow cloud-based models istead of procurig bulk storage. Products ad services Aalytics: The IT departmets of eterprises are focusig o value-based activities ivolvig aalytics-based automatio to reduce istaces of maual itervetio. Storage compaies are performig aalytics o data geerated by appliaces deployed at ed customers data ceters. This is facilitatig the gradual shift from providig reactive support services to offerig prescriptive aalytics-based issue idetificatio ad auto-resolutio. Big Data: To drive profitability, eterprises are demadig aytime, aywhere access to the expoetially growig data volumes to equip their employees with the right iformatio at the right time. To this effect, complex data silos are beig replaced with uified storage products that have parallel processig, ad are horizotally ad vertically scalable. Mobility: Eterprises are optig for advaced mobile applicatios for roud-the-clock moitorig of their ifrastructure, which will eable admiistrators to take busiess-critical decisios o the go. Applicatios will be able to predict failures o time, ad suggest istat remediatio, without admiistrators havig to wait to get back to their workstatios ad system cosoles. This will be particularly useful i esurig busiess cotiuity. Customer segmets Social media ad cloud computig: While storage compaies primarily catered to oly busiess to busiess (B2B) customers earlier, they also cater to the busiess to cosumer (B2C) segmet ow. B2C customers have varied requiremets pertaiig to the storage ad retrieval of social media-related data such as videos ad images. Therefore, cloud storage solutios ad Big Data platforms are eeded to store differet types of data sets with differet applicatio workloads.

2 Parter Network Cloud computig: Customers are demadig istat availability to eterprise storage products through public ad hybrid clouds. Comprehesive portfolio storage compaies have already started offerig, ad will further icrease availability of their storage products through the public cloud storage ifrastructure. Hece, the overall supply chael is expected to udergo a radical chage due to the direct iteractio betwee storage compaies ad cloud storage providers. Mobility: To esure a agile parter etwork that is equipped to meet the dyamic marketplace demads, storage compaies eed to ehace the coectivity with their parters through mobile applicatios. These mobile applicatios ca focus o providig documet search results, product iformatio, tech support, iformatio o parter cofereces, compay ews, pricig quotes, ad order status. Trasformatio i the Storage Idustry Value Chai The last few years have see tremedous growth of cloud storage compaies ad iche storage product startups a clear idicator that the storage idustry is trasformig, ad dyamics are chagig for comprehesive portfolio storage compaies. I the wake of the chagig dyamics, the idustry value chai is boud to chage as well. Figure 1 highlights some areas of the storage idustry value chai where boudaries have started to blur. ISVs (Eterprise Software ad Operatig System Compaies) Networkig Switch Compaies Material Compaies Equipmet Maufacturers Compoet Maufacturers Storage Techology Compaies Niche Storage Techology Compaies Cloud Storage Compaies Stadard Bodies / Ope Source Commuity Sales ad Field Service Storage Compaies System Itegrator Compaies Cloud Storage Compaies Assembly Flextroics Foxco Ed Customer B2B B2C Distributio Compaies Figure 1: Trasformed Storage Idustry Value Chai due to the Digital Five Forces Impact I our egagemets with idustry players, we have observed that the followig areas are at the forefrot of this value chai trasformatio: Compoet maufacturig: Compaies eed to iovate cotiuously i this space to icrease their market share i ew areas. For example, leadig hard disk drive compaies are acquirig solid state drive compaies (cliet or eterprise based SSD, SSD cotroller products, eterprise flash accelerator card, SAS SSD maufacturers) to stay ahead of the competitio. This has led to a cosolidatio of the SSD market. The global SSD market (both cliet ad eterprise) is expadig at a CAGR of 40.7%, ad is expected to reach USD $229.5 billio 1 by Networkig compaies are also focusig o pursuig storage etworkig iovatios to eable ehaced SSD adoptio i the idustry. These iovatios iclude the Ge 6 Fibre Chael ad 400 Gb/s Etheret speed. Comprehesive portfolio storage: Aother oteworthy tred is the icrease i collaboratio betwee eterprise software, platform, etwork, ad storage compaies. This is resultig i the creatio of itegrated solutios (for example, coverged ifrastructure solutios, hyper coverged ifrastructure solutios) which will udoubtedly score better with customers. Hece, compaies are lookig to offer edto-ed solutios to customers through acquisitios ad alliaces. The growth of the storage hardware ad software market i terms of reveue is expected to go through challegig times. [1] Trasparecy Market Research, Global Solid State Drive Market to Post Expoetial CAGR of 40.7% till 2022, Asia Pacific to be most Lucrative Regio, September 18, 2015, 2

3 Niche techologies: Compaies are focused o creatig products such as all flash array, hyper coverged storage, cloud storage to meet the emergig requiremets of customers. Cloud storage: Compaies i this space are from multiple categories, for example, ew etrats to the storage idustry, existig compoet maufacturers, comprehesive portfolio storage firms, or idepedet software vedors (ISVs). The pay-as-you-grow model is ot oly drivig sales but also chagig the dyamics of the idustry. Several compaies offer cloud storage services either i partership with storage compaies or by developig their ow products. The compaies offerig cloud storage ifrastructure services are cosiderably impactig the cost optimizatio ad scalability aspects, sice they use commodity hardware ad self-developed storage software to provide services to ed customers (B2B or B2C). With the capability to store eormous data volumes, private ad public cloud storage models are expected to grow i popularity. Techology Treds Drivig the Chage Some techologies that are drivig the chage i the storage techology space are described below: Solid state drives ad hard disk drives: The eed for improved respose time ad greater storage capacity is ecouragig storage compoet maufacturers to develop iovative products. For example, SSDs with 3D NAND flash techology ad HDDs with shigled magetic recordig ability are beig lauched to offer icreased storage with better performace. Storage appliaces ad software: Orgaizatios are demadig simpler methods to provisio, allocate, use, ad de-allocate compute, storage, ad etworkig ifrastructure, which is creatig the demad for ew techologies. Here are some examples: Compoet maufacturig compaies ad comprehesive portfolio storage compaies are acquirig ew busiesses to directly serve B2B ad B2C customers by offerig storage appliaces ad cloud software. This has resulted i the blurrig of boudaries betwee the segmets i the storage idustry value chai. Software-defied storage: Decouplig of storage hardware ad software is the way forward, where the storage operatig system (OS) ad proprietary hardware will ot be tightly boud with each other, ad commodity hardware will be stadardized for compatibility with storage OS. SDS will eable admiistrators to meet their requiremets while brigig cost optimizatios. Ed-to-ed itegrated ifrastructure (platform, etwork, ad storage): Coverged ad hyper-coverged ifrastructure (icludig SSD-based) of eterprise products that package server, storage, ad etworkig architectures together, are gaiig tractio i the market. This will help customers improve ifrastructure deploymet ad maagemet efficiecy. Data protectio ad storage maagemet software: Data protectio software should be able to back up, archive, ad recover ew type of data sets such as machie-geerated data ad social media feeds itegrated through traditioal ad cloud-based systems. This will provide a sigle source of truth for simpler backup ad archival maagemet. For storage maagemet software ad tools compaies, the curret focus is o predictive aalytics. The move toward prescriptive aalytics will help admiistrators resolve issues proactively i a cost- ad time-effective maer. Cloud storage: Give the rapid growth of digital data, due to social media ad Iteret of Thigs (IoT)-eabled operatios, the operatioal cost of maitaiig high-growth traditioal storage ifrastructures is drivig compaies to opt for cloud storage adoptio. There has bee a icrease i the adoptio of hybrid cloud ad private cloud frameworks. Compaies are adoptig proprietary ad ope commuity TM stadards such as OpeStack ad the Cloud Data Maagemet Iterface (CDMI ) to address iteroperability challeges betwee cloud storage providers so that ed customers ca be served seamlessly ad effectively. Fially, futuristic techologies such as iput or output optimizatio, copy data maagemet, ope source storage, ad eterprise file sychroizatio ad sharig will play a key role i improvig performace, reducig data, ad optimizig capital expediture costs, thus ehacig operatios i ext-geeratio data ceters ad fially improvig customer experiece. 3

4 The Way Forward Storage compaies eed to shift their focus to digital trasformatio if they are to effectively address emergig idustry treds. They eed to develop products usig futuristic techologies; for example, erasure codig feature, which offers better data protectio capabilities to address the icreasig disk capacity sizes. Aother example is prescriptive aalytics-based auto remediatio of storage ifrastructure to meet service level agreemets, thus ehacig customer satisfactio. Compaies ca icrease product agility ad improve cost optimizatio by sellig software ad o-proprietary hardware separately, which should, however, be tested for compatibility. Also, with storage software providig seamless itegratio of multi-data storage ifrastructure tiers, the demad for software-based platforms for storage is icreasig. Lastly, compaies ca adopt ew busiess models to icrease market share ad drive profitability. For example, they ca either offer cloud storage or provide solutios that itegrate with applicatio software, server, ad etwork product compaies referred to as vertical covergece. We believe that reorietig busiess ad operatig models, ad explorig ew markets ad product lies are some aspects that storage compaies must focus o for a well-rouded growth strategy i the times to come. About the Authors Udaya Sigh Udaya Sigh is part of the Software Product Egieerig Services group withi the High Tech busiess uit at Tata Cosultacy Services (TCS). With over 14 years of experiece, he leads the Storage, Platform, ad Maageability team, focusig o developig solutios ad services for storage ad platform egieerig compaies. I his previous roles, Sigh has led the Iovatio Maagemet Group for the High Tech busiess uit, as well as developed advaced techology solutios for telecom ad storage compaies. He is a regioal affiliate of the Storage Networkig Idustry Associatio (SNIA) Idia at SNIA US Techical Coucil ad chairs SNIA's Idia chapter. Sigh has a Bachelor's degree i Techology from the Idia Istitute of Techology (IIT), Varaasi, Idia. Gajaa Kamble Gajaa Kamble heads the Software Product Egieerig Services group withi TCS' High Tech busiess uit. He has bee with TCS for 18 years, havig played key roles i product developmet, pre-sales, busiess developmet, ad customer relatioship maagemet. Kamble works closely with global techology compaies to eable them to outsource i the software product egieerig space. He has also worked with TCS' research labs ad various product developmet teams. Kamble has a Bachelor's degree i Computer Sciece Egieerig from the Govermet College of Egieerig, Amaravati, Idia. 4

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