CW+ Premium Content/Computer Weekly

Enterprises want to consolidate data storage, extend its useful life and control costs. But what we often see are silos of storage tied to specific applications, workflows and suppliers. These systems may perform well, but they are not always the most efficient or flexible. Software-defined storage (SDS) is an increasingly viable alternative that can bring numerous efficiencies and ways to cut costs. In this article, the first article in a two-part series, we look at the definition of software-defined storage and the key variants we find in the marketplace. Defining software-defined storage Software-defined storage separates the software that carries out core storage operations from physical hardware. “It is storage controller software that is abstracted from the underlying hardware, so it can run on any hardware, any hypervisor, or on any cloud,” says Gartner analyst Chandra Mukhyala. Typically, software-defined storage operates on x86-based servers, and turns those servers into storage devices. The hardware can be a standard ...