ST2401

ROUNDTABLE: SOFTWARE
"Prior to the adoption of software-defined
storage, we saw fewer new vendors entering the
market. The engineering and development of
storage hardware is more complex and costly
than that of software-defined storage. The shift
has motivated many hardware-centric vendors
to modernise their offerings by focusing on a
software-led approach." - Deanna Hoover, Spectra Logic
motivated many hardware-centric vendors to
modernise their offerings by focusing on a
software-led approach. The adoption of
software-defined storage has enabled more
vendors to enter the storage market. The
increase in storage vendors is raising the bar
for competition and driving innovation."
Jimmy Tam, CEO of Peer Software, shares
other advantages, "Decoupling hardware and
software has enabled freedom and flexibility for
customers adopting software-defined storage
technologies. Included in these benefits are
independence from proprietary systems from a
single vendor, enhanced scalability, and
increased data mobility across arrays locally as
well as geographically dispersed."
Molly Presley, Head of Global Marketing,
Hammerspace, raises an important point: "The
advent of the cloud meant that hybrid
environments were inevitable. Economies of
scale are different, hardware was
commoditised faster. Then supply chains
became constrained and customers no longer
can be certain they can get hardware from
preferred vendors. All of these trends have led
to an increased importance in software being
the strategic differentiator in how a data
strategy is architected. No longer are most new
architecture initiatives storage hardware centric
and designed around storage features. There is
an expectation the software above the storage
will provide the required data services across
more than one vendor's storage."
The shift has also resulted in a balancing act
for vendors between offering freedom of choice
vs. complexity for customers, as Scality's
Speciale clarifies: "For vendors, it does force
some choices in the degree of hardware
freedom. The more degrees of freedom
offered, the higher the complexity in software
development and testing. Customers ultimately
value freedom of choice, not only for the initial
deployments - but to be able to buy the most
cost effective hardware at any later time when
scaling out the system, or to be able to get
preferential pricing from other platform
vendors."
ATTO Technology's Klein takes a broader view
and sees the transition as opening up
opportunities for vendors and customers alike,
"It's like any other aspect of technology -
vendors and customers adapt. For vendors it
presents a path to create and develop new
products. For customers it presents new
solutions that potentially work better for them
and at lower cost."
SOFTWARE CHALLENGES
It is clear that the journey from data storage
hardware to software is not an entirely smooth
one, as it means choices need to be made on
the part of customers as to how much
complexity they wish to manage in exchange
for the freedom of choice inherent in software.
Here, we delve further into this conundrum,
and other issues that the transition presents.
According to Whitaker at Panasas, "The
impacts will be felt the strongest across
reliability, performance, and supportability.
The challenge with software-defined is with
performance. Being abstracted from the
underlying hardware means there are
limitations on how that hardware can be
utilised."
Acronis' Ivanyuk shares further pain points:
"Software is also more prone to vulnerabilities,
so theoretically software-defined storage is
more vulnerable to cyberattacks. This is
something to look for, but not a showstopper."
Scality's Speciale raises the importance of
staff knowledge during the transition from
hardware to software, "Mainly, there is a shift
in skill sets in going from legacy and
proprietary systems management to newer
26 STORAGE Jan/Feb 2024
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