Solving Mass Data Fragmentation: How software-defined storage supports the modernisation of IT

From virtualisation to containerisation, automation to the hybrid cloud, CIOs and IT leaders are adopting new technologies to transform their business through IT. IDC has predicted that, through 2023, 65% of enterprises will aggressively modernise their legacy systems through extensive new technology platform investments. IDG’s 2020 State of the CIO report shows that CIOs and IT leaders are focused on leading change efforts and redesigning their existing business processes.

So much of this transformation is fuelled by data – by the explosion in data being generated by the business and its customers, and by the ability of the enterprise to unlock the value in it through analytics and AI. At times, the data domain feels like it’s becoming a ‘wild west’, where new technologies emerge and regulations evolve, but the need for total access is always paramount.

Yet here enterprises face a major challenge: mass data fragmentation. When data is siloed in separate, often proprietary storage and technology stacks – or scattered across different locations – it grows harder to release its business value. In the words of Zeus Kerravala, writing in Network World, ‘if bad data leads to bad insights, then fragmented data will lead to fragmented insights, which can lead to bad business decisions.’ In addition, fragmentation complicates management, security and governance, often impacting operations down the line.

This is why enterprises need storage that’s fit for purpose; that can take the data siloed on on-premise hardware, third-party datacentres and the cloud, consolidate it and render it accessible. Beating fragmentation takes storage that can meet a diverse set of requirements and provide a unified experience across the whole estate.

The SDS advantage

This means software-defined storage (SDS): a data storage and management solution where the storage resources are abstracted from the physical hardware, making it more flexible, adaptable and scalable. SDS solves the core problems of mass data fragmentation. By providing a single storage infrastructure that can serve on-premise hardware and hybrid & multi cloud, SDS enables organisations to consolidate and unify their storage, banishing technology siloes and making location a non-issue. By unifying the management experience, it can also simplify operations while provide the ability to expand elastically and meet changing demands.

In the Hedvig Distributed Storage Platform, organisations can find an SDS solution that does all this in a more cost-efficient platform, built not on expensive, proprietary technology, but on commodity x86 and ARM server hardware. Hedvig’s hyperscale infrastructure transforms x86 and ARM servers and their existing storage assets – SSD, flash media and hard disk – into storage clusters that can scale from a few nodes to thousands. These can deploy across on-premise infrastructure, third-party datacentres or the public cloud delivering a single presentation layer that is supported with a distributed solution.  

Hedvig’s strength is its adaptability. It natively supports block, file and object storage, and combines with a complete RESTful API for orchestration and automation. It works with vSphere, Docker (via Kubernetes and via OpenShift) and OpenStack technologies, while also incorporating a full set of enterprise storage services, including deduplication, snapshotting, cloning, replication, and self-healing. What’s more, through its hyperscale architecture, the Hedvig Distributed Storage Platform can scale out across multiple sites and multiple nodes, supporting cloud initiatives and helping enterprises meet their disaster recovery requirements. Meanwhile, the platform’s scope for automation and unified management improve agility and reduce operating costs.

Of course, most businesses have existing storage investments and aren’t in a position to replace them wholesale. Yet the great thing about SDS – and particularly Hedvig – is that you can start small and scale outwards. Begin with backup refresh or consolidation projects, and you can start building the platform and expertise for private cloud or containerisation initiatives to follow. You can measure TCO and ROI, then see where you want to go from there.

Click to find out more about the Hedvig Distributed Storage Platform and explore what SDS could do for your organisation.