Data volumes are constantly increasing. But storage infrastructures are no longer able to respond precisely to business needs. Software-defined storage is emerging as an attractive alternative.
Data is exploding! According to an IBM study, 90% of the world's stored data has been created in the last two years. With the exception of major accounts, the majority of companies are unable to keep up with this pace and manage the backup of their files in-house.
In addition to the investment in hard disks, supplemented by the acquisition of SAN or NAS storage bays, this storage generates other significant and more or less hidden costs:
- Lifecycle management, sometimes involving several generations of equipment;
- Manage licenses for new functions;
- In-house hardware and software maintenance, which quickly becomes complex when several file systems and different proprietary technologies are involved;
- Electricity bill ;
- IT and physical security (of the room where the storage infrastructure is located)...
Faced with this growing challenge, companies are starting to migrate part of their data to the cloud, or are considering doing so.
Among the options under consideration is Software Defined Storage (SDL). In recent years, it has been growing faster than conventional solutions.
Features of Software-Defined Storage
Classic storage can be likened to a warehouse. As you put more and more files into it, you get closer to its roof, and therefore to its limit. Software-defined storage is also a warehouse... but it doesn't have a roof.
The other arguments in its favor are similar to those for cloud hosting. These include high availability, on-demand scalability, hardware flexibility, etc. This last argument in particular enables companies to combine and mix different generations of hardware (the storage software part is in fact dissociated from the hardware layer) and different suppliers for greater freedom and more competitive costs.
SDL has some major differences from conventional storage:
- Management via an API (or other easily configurable interface). This interaction simplifies the management of LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers), which are often oversized to anticipate additional needs, resulting in a significant waste of resources.
API functionality
The use of an API also reduces the attack surface of the storage system, as the only vector available is the HTTP/HTTPS API and the service providing the API functionality.
- Use of a flat structure: objects are in containers, rather than in a nested tree structure. Some cloud providers also include three types of container in their offering (public, private and Web Static).
- Different access: the SDL is not directly accessible by the operating system. It is not considered a local or remote file system. It is designed to be consumed by your application.
- Storage virtualization: you can virtualize storage by grouping SSDs and HDDs into storage pools and administer file shares on virtual disks. But it's also possible to emulate a directory structure to give the illusion of a hierarchy.
The need for expertise
This approach is particularly attractive to SMEs (especially those with multiple sites). It considerably reduces the level of expertise and training required to deploy and support the infrastructure. Disk replacement is simple, since the Objet storage system automatically redistributes data on the fly.
The various migrations (according to last access date, file type, file size, etc.) can be based on rules to simplify and automate the process.
Ultimately, Object Storage represents a relevant solution for the storage of unstructured data (images, music, video, Web content...). But also for archiving structured and semi-structured data such as databases, sensor data and logs.
But like any solution, SDL isn't perfect. It has a number of limitations that should be taken into account when planning projects:
- POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) modes do not work directly with object storage. It is not a ;
- Lower performance than block storage: standard hardware is designed for hard disk storage...
Whichever option you choose, it needs to be tailored to your needs. However, not all SMEs have the in-house expertise to manage storage in an optimized way, by mixing traditional solutions with SDL. The same applies to managing the various threats (business continuity, disaster recovery, etc.) and comparing the many software-defined storage suppliers!
It's a wise decision to be accompanied by specialists.
