ST2403

STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

The UK’s number one in IT Storage 

March/April 2024 

Vol 24, Issue 2 

MODERN WARFARE: 

Cybersecurity vs malicious AI 

INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE: 

The future of flash 

RESEARCH: 

MANAGEMENT: 

Cloud sustainability 

Immutable storage 

COMMENT - RESEARCH - INTERVIEWS - CASE STUDIES - OPINIONS - PRODUCT REVIEWS

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Copyright © 2024 QNAP Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

The UK’s number one in IT Storage 

MODERN WARFARE: 

Cybersecurity vs malicious AI 

March/April 2024 

Vol 24, Issue 2 

CONTENTS 

STOR 

MAGAZINE 

STORAGE 

CONTENTS 

INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE: 

The future o flash 

RESEARCH: 

Immutable storage 

MANAGEMENT: 

Cloud sustainability 

COMMENT - RESEARCH - INTERVIEWS - CASE STUDIES - OPINIONS - PRODUCT REVIEWS 

COMMENT….....................................................................4 

Will AI accelerate the all-flash data centre? 

08 

MANAGEMENT: IT SKILLS …....................................…….6 

Eric Herzog, CMO, Infinidat, explains how to usher in a new 'set-it-and-forget-it' era 

for enterprise storage 

CASE STUDY: SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT…........……..8 

The data processing software behind the Sphere in Las Vegas is managing over 400 

gigabytes of throughput a second, with latency below 5 milliseconds 

EVENT: STORAGE AWARDS 2024……..................……10 

The full list of finalists for this year's Storage awards is right here - don't forget to cast 

your vote! 

24 

ROUNDTABLE: FLASH…….......................................……16 

Storage magazine gathers expert commentary from across the sector on the future of 

flash: the all-flash data centre, the flash technology curve, and the prospects for the 

next new solid-state memory 

STRATEGY: DATA INTEGRITY……….....................………22 

Jim McGann, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Index Engines, argues for a 

transformative shift in the way enterprise storage collaborates with security in order to 

battle ransomware threats 

26 

CASE STUDY: FLORIDA PANTHERS ………............……24 

Synchronised on-premise and cloud storage supports the busy production workflows 

generating content for Miami ice hockey team Florida Panthers 

ANALYSIS: CYBERSECURITY……….........................….26 

Daniel Hofmann, CEO of Hornetsecurity, examines the 'digital battlefield' of 

cybersecurity versus malicious AI 

32 

RESEARCH: IMMUTABLE STORAGE……................…..28 

New research findings from Scality suggest that more organisations should consider 

"true" immutability as part of their cybersecurity strategy 

MANAGEMENT: CLOUD STORAGE……….…............….30 

Simon Yeoman, CEO at Fasthosts, discusses how businesses can ensure their cloud 

storage is more sustainable 

STRATEGY: GENAI……….............................................…32 

Stewart Hunwick, Field CTO, Primary Storage, Dell Technologies UK, argues that the 

right data storage approach is critical to achieve GenAI success 

34 

CASE STUDY: GRUNDON………...............................……34 

Waste management company Grundon has been able to efficiently scale its storage 

systems since deploying Seagate solutions in an implementation that won the 'Storage 

Solution of the Year' trophy at the 2023 Storage Awards 

www.storagemagazine.co.uk @STMagAndAwards Mar/Apr 2024 

STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

03

COMMENT 

EDITOR: David Tyler 

david.tyler@btc.co.uk 

SUB EDITOR: Mark Lyward 

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk 

REVIEWS: Dave Mitchell 

PUBLISHER: John Jageurs 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

LAYOUT/DESIGN: Ian Collis 

ian.collis@btc.co.uk 

SALES/COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES: 

Lucy Gambazza 

lucy.gambazza@btc.co.uk 

Stuart Leigh 

stuart.leigh@btc.co.uk 

MANAGING DIRECTOR: John Jageurs 

john.jageurs@btc.co.uk 

DISTRIBUTION/SUBSCRIPTIONS: 

Christina Willis 

christina.willis@btc.co.uk 

PUBLISHED BY: Barrow & Thompkins 

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Single copies can be bought for £8.50 

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Published 6 times a year. 

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©Copyright 2024 

Barrow & Thompkins Connexions Ltd 

Articles published reflect the opinions 

of the authors and are not necessarily those 

of the publisher or of BTC employees. While 

every reasonable effort is made to ensure 

that the contents of articles, editorial and 

advertising are accurate no responsibility 

can be accepted by the publisher or BTC for 

errors, misrepresentations or any 

resulting effects 

WILL AI ACCELERATE THE 

ALL-FLASH DATA CENTRE? 

BY DAVID TYLER 

EDITOR 

Welcome to the March/April issue of Storage magazine, which features a 

broad spectrum of content from research findings to case studies, from 

bylined opinions to industry roundtables. It is this variety and breadth of 

subject matter than continues to keep Storage several steps ahead in the competitive 

world of IT media. 

Case studies include the extraordinary Las Vegas Sphere, perhaps most famous at the 

moment for the viral videos of it 'watching' and judging local golf players' efforts - if 

you haven't seen these clips, they're well worth seeking out! The storage subsystems 

behind the Sphere are capable of handling over 400 gigabytes a second of 

throughput at sub 5 milliseconds of latency. 

Elsewhere we have another of our cross-industry roundtable features, discussing the 

future of flash technologies, from the all-flash data centre to thoughts on what the next 

generation of solid state memory might look like. As you might imagine, the growth of 

AI is generally agreed to be a likely driver for flash in the data centre, but equally 

there are arguments in the feature that 'old' tech such as HDD and even tape are not 

going to make way for all-flash any time soon. 

"Another consideration is the trend to extend the life of IT equipment as part of an 

environmental sustainability and cost saving strategy," says Roy Illsley of Omdia in the 

piece. "Therefore, customers are now less willing to rip a perceived old technology out 

and replace it with a shiny new one. The impact on data centres will be the running of 

a mixture of technologies that could be as old as seven years in some cases, which 

means the arrival of all flash data centres is not an immediate prospect." 

Peter Donnelly of ATTO agrees: "Companies need access to massive storage pools 

for machine learning training, but once that is complete that data needs to be 

offloaded to more cost-effective storage technologies. So, while it may be counterintuitive, 

a strong argument can be made that emerging AI applications actually 

increase the need for second and third-tier storage systems like disk and even tape." 

Last but most certainly not least in this issue is the full list of finalists for this year's 

Storage Awards, which can be found on page 10. The Awards ceremony itself takes 

place on June 6th in London; voting opens March 25th and closes May 24th, so you 

now have a couple of months in which to make your voice heard - so why not head to 

www.storage-awards.com now! 

04 STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

Mar/Apr 2024 

@STMagAndAwards 

www.storagemagazine.co.uk

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MANAGEMENT: IT SKILLS 

PLUGGING THE IT SKILLS GAP 

ERIC HERZOG, CMO, 

INFINIDAT, EXPLAINS HOW TO 

USHER IN A NEW 'SET-IT-AND- 

FORGET-IT' ERA FOR 

ENTERPRISE STORAGE 

Day-after-day we hear reports about the 

'IT Skills Gap'. Hitting all aspects of IT, 

the hunt for valuable human resources 

to execute IT plans of CIOs, CTOs, CISOs 

and other IT hiring managers has become 

incredibly onerous. The IT Skills Gap is 

widening at such an accelerated pace that 

many enterprises are falling, regrettably, into 

a "fret it and can't forget it" mindset. With 

fewer and fewer qualified personnel 

and potential candidates for open 

positions, this gap is creating 

real challenges to manage 

data infrastructure, 

encompassing all aspects of 

IT from cybersecurity, 

networks, and servers to 

containerised applications 

and enterprise storage. 

However, there are solid 

answers on the storage front to 

address the IT skills gap - 

things you won't hear anywhere 

else. But first, it's important to 

define and understand the 

underlying problems that are 

exacerbating this gap. 

Look at the 

numbers. 

75% of IT decision-makers have reported gaps 

in the skill sets of their IT staff - and this is a 

145% increase over the past seven years, 

according to Skillsoft Research. The 

Computing Technology Industry Association 

(CompTIA) reported that six out of 10 large 

enterprises face a skills gap. Globally, at the 

end of 2023 the shortage of qualified IT 

professionals was estimated at 3.5 million 

people, as cited by AG5 software, a skills gap 

expert organisation. The cybersecurity skills 

gap is particularly concerning. As CompTIA 

mentioned, eight in 10 IT and business 

executives are at least somewhat concerned 

with the IT skills gap at their companies. Onequarter 

(25%) are very concerned. 

For those of you trapped in the "fret it and 

can't forget it" approach to the IT skills gap, 

some very effective solutions are available. 

Our company recommends a different 

approach, coupled with a set of strategies on 

how to bridge the gap. We believe the answers 

to the questions about professional IT skills 

involve a mix of system-level solutions, smart 

data centre consolidation, the right software 

and new training approaches. 

THE TECHNOLOGY BRIDGE 

One effective strategy is to deploy 

autonomous automation into your storage 

infrastructure, reducing the level of complexity 

and decreasing the dependence on 

specialised IT skills that are becoming harder 

and harder to find. With the power of 

autonomous automation, an admin 

can multiple PBs of storage 

easily and cost effectively. 

For example, one of our 

global Fortune 500 

customers in Europe 

went from 15 people 

managing >75PBs of 

storage to only four 

people responsible 

for managing 

storage. In fact, 

06 STORAGE Mar/Apr 2024 


www.storagemagazine.co.uk 

MAGAZINE

MANAGEMENT: IT SKILLS 

"Thanks to the use of advanced and patented Neural Cache capabilities, we have several 

public references who report not having touched their storage systems in three or four years. 

The system can automatically configure itself. It automatically adjusts to changes in 

performance and new apps. Performance levels are optimised on an ongoing basis 

autonomously and the storage admin doesn't even need to click a button." 

their capacity has actually grown to almost 

100PB - still with only four storage 

administrators, while the other 11 were 

assigned to other important IT projects. 

Thanks to the use of advanced and patented 

Neural Cache capabilities, we have several 

public references who report not having 

touched their storage systems in three or four 

years. The system can automatically configure 

itself. It automatically adjusts to changes in 

performance and new apps. Performance 

levels are optimised on an ongoing basis 

autonomously and the storage admin doesn't 

even need to click a button. 

ADDING AN AIOPS LAYER 

A complementary strategy is to automate the 

technical support process through Artificial 

Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps). AIOps 

supports scalable, multi-petabyte storage-as-aservice 

(STaaS) solutions, enabling enterprises 

to simplify and centralise their IT operations 

and improve cost management. 

The flexibility of capacity and workloads are 

better managed, powering an increased pace 

of innovation and supporting digital 

transformation. AIOps is a dynamic way to 

simplify IT operations, reduce administrative 

overhead, and add a predictive layer onto 

the data infrastructure ? all without disruption 

or compromise. 

Neural Cache is a great example of AIOps 

technology, which provides deep learning 

capabilities. The longer the Neural Cache 

runs, the smarter it gets about its current and 

new workloads. It's as if Neural Cache can be 

your newest contributor to IT operations. It 

redefines and reshapes "IT skills." Over time, 

the simplicity that this level of system operation 

brings means enterprises can redeploy their 

resources to more productive IT activities. 

STREAMLINE VIA CONSOLIDATION 

A third strategy for shortening the gap is 

through storage consolidation. Consider this 

example, of a £17 billion enterprise customer 

that went from 27 storage arrays from three 

different vendors to only four arrays. A 

Fortune 100 customer also reduced their 

storage infrastructure from 450 floor tiles to 

only 50 floor tiles, running all the same 

applications and workloads. This 

consolidation had many benefits, but one of 

the key ones was reducing the need for IT 

manpower. You don't need such high-level 

skills with years of experience when the need 

for IT resources has been streamlined. 

Simultaneously, you can reduce IT 

expenditures - both CAPEX and OPEX. This 

money can then be redirected to other things, 

such as AI development projects or training 

existing IT staff on new skills that will be in 

demand in the near-term and long-term future. 

In addition, having larger capacity in the same 

physical footprint of an enterprise storage 

system reduces the administrative burden. The 

implication is that you can do more with fewer 

IT professionals. Your ROI on the IT 

infrastructure will shoot up. 

According to a study conducted by IDC and 

published in a recent white paper, the average 

productivity of storage infrastructure teams 

increased 48% along with 51% more efficient 

overall storage management teams. This 

quantification highlights the key value 

proposition: simplified management. 

Participants in the study reported that storage 

infrastructure teams were able to take 

advantage of streamlined and user-friendly 

storage management features to improve 

productivity. These improvements translated 

into average annual salary savings in excess of 

£200,000 for each organisation. 

THE HUMAN FACTOR 

Channel partners are in an ideal position to 

help fill the gap for enterprises because they 

have the high levels of IT skills that enterprise 

customers are seeking. Furthermore, cloud 

service provider partners, managed service 

provider partners, and managed hosting 

provider partners have essential skills that are 

packaged as easy-to-buy services. Enterprises 

should outsource certain functions and tasks to 

these external partners. All IT skills don't have 

to be in-house any more, it is possible to 

harness the skills of local integrators, 

consultants, and technical experts. 

All that has been outlined in this article can 

help you to optimise the way your organisation 

manages enterprise storage. By finding ways to 

make the most of IT resources you can change 

the equation for IT skills going forward. Rather 

than struggle with a "fret it and can't forget it" 

mindset, why not adopt a more relaxed, "set it 

and forget it" approach, taking advantage of 

advanced solutions available today. 

More info: www.infinidat.com 


@STMagAndAwards Mar/Apr 2024 

STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

07

CASE STUDY: 

CASE STUDY: SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT 

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS… 

THE DATA PROCESSING SOFTWARE BEHIND THE SPHERE IN LAS VEGAS IS MANAGING OVER 400 

GIGABYTES OF THROUGHPUT A SECOND, WITH LATENCY BELOW 5 MILLISECONDS 

Sphere Entertainment and Hitachi 

Vantara have revealed new details on 

how the two companies are leveraging 

Hitachi Vantara's data processing software 

to help power the LED screens at Sphere, a 

next-generation entertainment medium in 

Las Vegas. 

Both Sphere's 160,000 square-foot interior 

LED display plane and 580,000 square-foot 

fully programmable LED exterior - the 

Exosphere - utilise Hitachi Vantara's software 

as a key tool to stream high-resolution 

immersive content. 

Sphere Entertainment describes the Sphere 

concept as 'redefining the future of live 

entertainment - a venue where the foremost 

artists, creators, and technologists create 

extraordinary experiences that take storytelling 

to a new level and transport audiences to 

places both real and imagined'. 

The venue hosts original Sphere Experiences 

from leading Hollywood directors; concerts 

and residencies from the world's biggest 

artists; and premier marquee events. The first 

Sphere venue opened in Las Vegas in 

September 2023, and is a new Las Vegas 

landmark, powered by cutting-edge 

technologies that ignite the senses and enable 

audiences to share experiences at a neverbefore-seen 

scale. 

"Sphere is home to many firsts, one 

of which is streaming immersive, 

high-resolution video content on 

a scale that has never been 

done before," said Alex 

Luthwaite, SVP, Show 

Systems Technology, 

Sphere Entertainment. 

"Hitachi Vantara worked with our team to 

develop a solution that's fast, reliable, and 

efficient. Through their expertise and 

technology, Sphere's displays deliver content 

that is captivating audiences not only in the 

venue in Las Vegas, but also 

around the world on 

social media." 




MAGAZINE

CASE STUDY: 

CASE STUDY: SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT 

With the world's highest resolution LED 

screen inside the venue and the largest LED 

screen on the exterior, Sphere leaned on 

Hitachi Vantara to deliver solutions to 

stream video content on an unprecedented 

scope. For its original immersive film, 

Darren Aronofsky's 'Postcard from Earth', the 

system handles over 400 gigabytes a 

second of throughput at sub 5 milliseconds 

of latency and a 12-bit colour display at a 

444 subsampling. Hitachi Vantara utilised 

its storage platform Hitachi 

Content 

Software 

for 

File, a high-performance, software-defined, 

distributed parallel filesystem storage 

solution. 

The Hitachi Content Software for File 

system consists of 27 nodes, with 4PB of 

flash storage for playback within Sphere 

and streamed in real-time to 7thSense 

media servers, each streaming 4K video at 

60 frames per second - a world-first in 

terms of technology capability at this scale. 

Hitachi Vantara's technology enables 

Sphere to deliver extremely low latency and 

high throughput, creating an unforgettable 

experience for audiences during Postcard 

from Earth. 

Hitachi Vantara also partnered with 

Sphere to produce the same 

reliable capabilities at Sphere 

Studios' Big Dome, a 28,000 

square-foot, 100-foot-high 

custom geodesic dome 

in Burbank, 

California, with a 

quarter-sized 

version of the 

screen at Sphere in Las Vegas. Big Dome 

serves as a specialised screening, 

production facility, and lab for the Sphere 

Studios team to develop original content 

exclusively for Sphere. 

"Sphere represents a new, completely 

immersive and visually powerful 

entertainment experience," said Octavian 

Tanase, Chief Product Officer, Hitachi 

Vantara. "To make sure that the technology 

behind it was ready to meet the challenge, 

Hitachi Vantara worked closely with the 

Sphere team to test, measure, and 

enhance how the data is processed, 

streamed, and projected. Quality-wise, the 

resolution and colour are second to none, 

and this project has exceeded our already 

high expectations." 

More info: www.hitachivantara.com 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

09

EVENT: 

EVENT: STORAGE AWARDS 2024 

THE CLOCK IS TICKING… 

THE 21ST STORAGE AWARDS CEREMONY IS FAST APPROACHING - 

SEE BELOW FOR THE FULL LIST OF FINALISTS AND DETAILS ON 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD 

This year's Storage awards ceremony 

takes place in London on June 6th - 

and in this case, D-Day stands for 

Decision-Day. If you haven't yet cast your 

votes in the storage industry's biggest and 

longest established awards process, time is 

running out. 

The key dates for your calendar are: 

Nominations close - March 18 

Finalists announced, voting opens - 

March 25 

Voting closes - May 24 

Ceremony date - June 6 

There are still some sponsorship 

opportunities available at the time of 

publication, so if your organisation wants 

to take advantage of the marketing 

opportunities that being involved with the 

awards can bring, don't leave it too late to 

get in touch: email Stuart 

(stuart.leigh@btc.co.uk) or Lucy 

(lucy.gambazza@btc.co.uk) now. 

Remember you don't have to vote in every 

category, just select the ones relevant to 

you and your organisation - as ever, the 

winners of the Editor's Choice awards are, 

as the name suggests, chosen by Storage 

magazine editor David Tyler, so not open 

to voting. 

As always, it's shaping up to be an 

amazing night of networking, socialising 

and of course trophy-collecting for the 

lucky winners. There are still places 

available on the night if you've left it late to 

decide you want to attend. Again, see the 

website below for full details. 

More info: www.storage-awards.com 

THE STORRIES XXI 




MAGAZINE

EVENT: 


STORAGE AWARDS 2024 FINALISTS IN FULL - VOTE NOW 

STORAGE INNOVATORS OF THE YEAR 

Arcserve 

Arcitecta 

Boston 

Cloudian 

Cohesity 

CTERA 

Dell EMC 

Hitachi Vantara 

HPE 

Hornetsecurity 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Lenovo 

Nasuni 

NetApp 

Object First 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Rubrik 

Seagate 

SoftIron 

Spectra Logic 

Stormagic 

Storpool 

Tintri 

Vast Data 

Veeam 

Veritas 

ZaveIT 

ONE TO WATCH - VENDOR 

Arcitecta 

Assured Data Protection 

Boston 

Datadobi 

Hammerspace 



Infinidat 

Keepit 

Nasuni 

Nexsan 

Object First 

Panzura 

Quest 

Qumulo 

Scale Computing 

Scality 

SoftIron 

StorMagic 

Storpool 

Storetec Services 

Storware 

Tintri 

Vast Data 

Wasabi 

ZaveIT 

ONE TO WATCH - CHANNEL 

101 Data Solutions 

CDS 

Climb Channel Solutions 

Coolspirit 

Ethos Technology 

Insurgo 

iSystems 

Logicalis 

M2M 

N2S 

Nexstor 

Oriium 

Primesys 

Procurri 

Relltek 

Ultra Support 

Westcoast 

ZaveIT 

IMMUTABLE STORAGE COMPANY 

OF THE YEAR 

Acronis 

Arcserve 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

Datto 

ExaGrid 


HPE 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Komprise 

Object First 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Rubrik 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Synology 

Tintri 

Veritas 

Wasabi 

STORAGE INDUSTRY CHAMPION - 

COMMERCIAL 

101 Data Solutions - Brett Edgecombe 

Barracuda - Chris Ross 

CDS - Ian Burton 

Climb Channel Solutions - Yvonne Prest 

DataCore - Nicola Houghton 

Epaton - Tom Gibson 

Exagrid - Belinda Fairon 

Hitachi Vantara - Paul Jassies 

Infinidat - Sapna Capoor 

iSystems - Mick Cooper 

Logicalis - Andy Griffiths 

M2M - Ged Mitchell 

Nexstor - Russ Sampson 

Scale Computing - Gary Lynch 

Stormagic - Elliot Goodman 

Tintri - Mark Walsh 

Titan Data Solutions - Jade Easton 

Ultra Support - Richard Morgans 

Veeam - Sarah Quennell 

Veritas - Simon Jelley 


TECHNICAL 

Arcserve - Carl Green 

Climb Channel Solutions - Gary Morris 

Epaton - Pete Aspinall 

Exagrid - Graham Woods 

Exertis Enterprise - Simon Regan 

Hammerspace - Mark Lucas 

Nexsan - Richard Hornsby 

Titan Data Solutions - Stefan Ferrari 

Vast Data - Ross Cooper-Smith 

Wasabi - Neale "Nelly" Simpkins 


MARKETING 

Arcserve - Bradina Freedman 

Barracuda - Tilly Tavers 

Boston - Miodrag Relic 

ExaGrid - Mary Domenichelli 

HPE - Adam Jennings 

Infinidat - Eric Herzog 

Nexstor - Catherine Osborne 

Pure Storage - Julie Murray 

Quantum - Tom Hassall 

Seagate - Cassie Newman 

StorMagic - Leigh Grainger 

Tintri - Ken Man 

Titan Data Solutions - Harry Berner 

Veeam - Clare Angood 

Veritas - Varun Verma 

CHANNEL EXCELLENCE AWARD 

Arrow ECS - William "Billy" Bond 

Assured Data Protection - Ron Mackle 

Barracuda - Giovanni Goduti 

Cameo - Luke Walker 

CDS - Chris Gregory 

CDS - Ricky Patel 

Climb Channel Solutions - Peter De Lange 

DataCore - Craig Hatter 

Epaton - Jonathan Lassman 

Hammerspace - Giada Ligato 

Infinidat - James Lewis 

M2M - Patrick Mitchell 

Nasuni - Kenz Mroue 

Nexstor - Troy Platts 

Pure Storage - David Lewis 

Pure Storage - Geoff Greenlaw 

Quantum - Robert Clark 

Seagate - Andy Palmer 

SoftIron - Philip Crocker 

Spectra Logic - Iain Hamilton 

StorMagic - Brian Grainger 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

11

EVENT: 


Titan Data Security - Steve Low 

Veritas - Toby Keen 

CYBER RESILIENT STORAGE COMPANY OF 

THE YEAR 

Acronis 

Arcserve 


Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

DataCore 

Datto 

ExaGrid 


IBM 

Infinidat 

Komprise 

Nasuni 

Object First 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Rubrik 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Synology 

Vast Data 

Veeam 

Veritas 

Wasabi 

CLOUD BACKUP COMPANY OF THE YEAR 

Acronis 

Arcserve 

Asigra 

Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

Datto 


HPE 

IBM 

NetApp 

Rubrik 

Scality 

SpectraLogic 

Veeam 

Veritas 

Wasabi 

DATA PROTECTION COMPANY OF THE 

YEAR 

Arcserve 

Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

Exagrid 


HPE 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Object First 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Rubrik 

Spectra Logic 

Tintri 

Vast Data 

Veeam 

Veritas 

ZaveIT 

ENTERPRISE BACKUP HARDWARE VENDOR 

OF THE YEAR 

Boston 

Cloudian 

Dell EMC 

Exagrid 

HPE 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Lenovo 

NetApp 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Rubrik 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Tintri 

DATA MANAGEMENT & MONITORING 

VENDOR OF THE YEAR 


Cirrus Data Solutions 

DataCore 

DataDobi 

Hammerspace 


HPE 

IBM 

Komprise 

Nagios 

NetApp 

Paessler 

Park Place Technologies 

Pure Storage 

Solarwinds 

Splunk 

StorMagic 


Veeam 

Veritas 

ZaveIT 

OBJECT STORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR 

Cloudian 

Datacore 


HPE 

IBM 

MinIO 

NetApp 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Scality 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Wasabi 

HYPER-CONVERGENCE VENDOR OF THE 

YEAR 

Boston 

DataCore 

Dell EMC 

HPE 

Lenovo 

Nutanix 

Open-E 

Scale Computing 

StarWind 

Stormagic 

Storpool 

Supermicro 

Synology 

Virtuozzo 

'AS A SERVICE' PLATFORM OF THE YEAR 

Acronis 

Arcserve 

Carbonite 

Cirrus Data Solutions 

Cohesity 

Crashplan 



HPE 

Infinidat 

Komprise 

MinIO 

NetApp 

Nexstor 

Nutanix 

Pure Storage 

Rubrik 

Storpool 


Titan Data Solutions 

Veritas 

Wasabi 

Zadara 

ZaveIT 

FLASH STORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR 

Accelstor 

Dell EMC 


HPE 

Huawei 

IBM 

Infinidat 

NetApp 

Nexsan 

Panasas 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Seagate 




MAGAZINE

EVENT: STORAGE EVENT: 

AWARDS 2024 

Tintri 

Toshiba 

Vast Data 

PERFORMANCE STORAGE VENDOR 

OF THE YEAR 

Accelstor 

Dell EMC 


HPE 

Huawei 

IBM 

Infinidat 

MinIO 

NetApp 

Nexsan 

Panasas 

Panzura 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Seagate 

SoftIron 

Tintri 

Toshiba 

Vast Data 

CLOUD ENABLER OF THE YEAR 

Acronis 

Arcserve 

Asigra 

Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Datacore 

IBM 

NetApp 

Pure Storage 

Spectra Logic 

Veeam 

Veritas 

Virtuozzo 

Wasabi 

SOFTWARE DEFINED STORAGE (SDS) 

VENDOR OF THE YEAR 

DataCore 

Hammerspace 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Lightbits 

NetApp 

Open-e 

Pure Storage 

Scality 

SoftIron 

StarWind 

Stormagic 

Storpool 

Veritas 

STORAGE OPTIMISATION COMPANY OF 

THE YEAR 

Arcitecta 

Cloudian 

Exagrid 

Hammerspace 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Komprise 

Nasuni 

NetApp 

Panzura 


Pure Storage 

Qumulo 

Scality 

Storpool 

Vast Data 

Veeam 

Veritas 

ELECTRONIC DATA WAREHOUSING 


Creative ITC 

Databricks 

Google 

HPE 

IBM Netezza 

Natrinsic 

Oracle 

Rimini Street 

Snowflake 

Support Revolution 

Terradata 

CAPACITY STORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR 

Boston 

Cloudian 

Dell EMC 

Exagrid 

HPE 

Huawei 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Lenovo 

NetApp 

Nexsan 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Seagate 

Scality 

Spectra Logic 

Supermicro 

Toshiba 

Veritas 

CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAM OF THE YEAR 

Arcserve 

Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Datacore 

Exagrid 

Infinidat 

Lenovo 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Stormagic 

Veeam 

Veritas 

MULTI-VENDOR SERVICE PROVIDER 

OF THE YEAR 

Cameo 

CDS 

Centerprise 

Logicalis 


Procurri 

Service Express 

SL3 Technologies 

Stortrec (a Jiliti company) 

Ultra Support 

STORAGE REPAIR CENTRE AND BROKER 

OF THE YEAR 

Evernex 

Gentronics 

Intec Microsystems 


Procurri 

SL3 Technologies 

Sprague Europe 

Ultratec 

SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR 

Base IT 

Cameo 

CDS 

Gentronics 

N2S 


Procurri 

Relltek 

Restyle Systems 

Service Express 

Stone Group 

Ultra Support 

ITAD COMPANY OF THE YEAR 

Base IT 

Computacenter 

Iron Mountain 

N2S 


Procurri 

Relltek 

Restyle Systems 

Stone Group 

Techbuyer 

SECURITY STORAGE RESELLER OF THE YEAR 

Cognitive Network Solutions 

CoolSpirit 

ITEC Group UK - A Xerox Company 

Logicalis 

www.storagemagazine.co.uk @STMagAndAwards Mar/Apr 2024 

STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

13

EVENT: 


MTI Technology - A Ricoh Company 

Nexstor 

NGS 

Primesys 

SHI International 

Telefonica Tech 

TruStack 

SPECIALIST STORAGE RESELLER OF THE YEAR 

101 Data Solutions 

CoolSpirit 

Cristie Data - An IOmart Company 

Epaton 

iSYSTEMS - An Ekco Company 

ITPS 

Logicalis 

NAS UK Ltd 

Nexstor 

Primesys 

Vespertec 

Virtual Effect 

ENTERPRISE STORAGE RESELLER 

OF THE YEAR 

Academia 

Bytes 

CDW 

Computacenter 

Insight 

Logicalis 

Nexstor 

Phoenix Software 

SCC 

Softcat 

Stone Group 

Trustmarque 

MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER (MSP) 

OF THE YEAR 

Aspire Technology Solutions 

Autodata 

BCN Group 

Capita Plc 

Daisy Corporate Services 

DataVita 

IONOS UK 

ITEC Group UK - A Xerox Company 

Keepit 

Nexstor 

Node4 

Redcentric 

Softcat 

Trustmarque 

SPECIALIST STORAGE DISTRIBUTOR 

OF THE YEAR 


CMS Distribution 

Ethos Technology 

Global Distribution 

M2M Direct 


ENTERPRISE STORAGE DISTRIBUTOR 

OF THE YEAR 

Arrow ECS 

Exertis Enterprise 

Infinigate 

Ingram Micro 

Northamber 

Nuvias 

TD Synnex 


Westcoast 

CLOUD PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 

Arcserve - Cloud Direct 

Asigra - SaaSBACKUP 

Barracuda - Cloud-to-Cloud Backup 

Cirrus Data - Migrate Cloud 

Commvault - Metallic 

Databricks - Lakehouse 

Hornetsecurity - 365 Total Protection Enterprise 

Backup 

HPE - Greenlake 

IBM - Cloud Platform 

Infinidat - InfuzeOS Cloud edition 

Nasuni - Nasuni File Data Platform 

Nutanix - Cloud Platform 

Pure Storage - Cloud Block Store 

Seagate - Lyve 

Snowflake - Horizon 

Spectra Logic - Vail 

Storetec Services - FreeDocs 

Veeam - Cloud Platform 

Veritas - Alta SaaS 

Virtuozzo - Hybrid Cloud 

Wasabi - Cloud Sync Manager 

ZaveIT - ZaveIT Platform 

STORAGE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 

Arcserve - N-Series Storage Appliance 

Barracuda - Barracuda Backup 

Boston - Igloo Series 

Cloudian - HyperBalance 

Commvault - Backup and Recovery 

DataCore - Bolt 

ExaGrid - Tiered Backup 

HPE - GreenLake for Block Storage 

IBM - Spectrum Sentinel 

Infinidat - InfiniSafe Cyber Detection Cloud 

NetApp - AFF A150 

N Cloud - Nexstor 

Pure Storage - Flashblade//E 

Quantum - TS-h1290FX 

Seagate - EXOS X VelosCT/4006 

Scality - ARTESCA 

SoftIron - HyperDrive 

StorMagic - StorMagic Edge Control 

Storetec Services - FreeDocs 

Tintri - VMstore T7000 Series 

Veeam - Data Platform 

Veritas - Backup Exec 

CLOUD COMPANY OF THE YEAR 

AWS 

Acronis 

Asigra 

Arcserve 

Barracuda 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

DataCore 

Datto 

Google 



HPE 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Microsoft Azure 

Nasuni 

NetApp 

Nexstor 

Pure Storage 

Rubrik 

Scality 

Seagate 

Veeam 

Veritas 

Virtuozzo 

Wasabi 

STORAGE COMPANY OF THE YEAR 

Arcserve 

Barracuda 

Boston 

Cloudian 

Commvault 

Datacore 

Dell EMC 

Exagrid 

HPE 

IBM 

Infinidat 

Lenovo 

NetApp 

Nexstor 

Pure Storage 

Quantum 

Seagate 

Spectra Logic 

Stormagic 

Tintri 

Vast Data 

Veeam 

Veritas 

Storage Solution of the Year - Corporate* 

Storage Solution of the Year - Public Sector* 

Editor's Choice - Product* 

Editor's Choice - Company* 

*Not open for votes (A Panel of Industry Experts 

working with the Editor of Storage Magazine will 

decide the winner) 




MAGAZINE

ROUNDTABLE: FLASH 

FLASH FORWARD 

STORAGE MAGAZINE GATHERS 

EXPERT COMMENTARY FROM 

ACROSS THE SECTOR ON THE 

FUTURE OF FLASH: THE ALL- 

FLASH DATA CENTRE, THE 

FLASH TECHNOLOGY CURVE, 

AND THE PROSPECTS FOR THE 

NEXT NEW SOLID-STATE 

MEMORY 

It's been around 20 years since flash 

memory - in its hugely dominant NAND 

variant - first entered the enterprise data 

centre. Since then, it has transformed data 

storage and significantly increased the 

performance of a wide range of applications 

by replacing far slower spinning disk as the 

default medium for primary data storage. 

With these two decades of flash history 

now behind us we thought it was time to ask 

some basic questions about the future of the 

technology. We asked a panel of experts 

when the all-flash data centre might 

become commonplace, where flash is on its 

technology curve, and when the next 

ground-breaking new solid-state memory 

might emerge as a complement or 

successor to flash. 

TAPE HASN'T DIED, NEITHER WILL DISK 

When flash first entered data centres in the 

late 90s, it was used only to store a subset 

of data, for a subset of performancesensitive 

applications. But as flash prices 

continued to fall and flash was used to store 

data for an ever-widening range of 

applications, industry watchers began 

asking how long before flash completely 

displaced disk to create so-called all-flash 

data centres. Two decades 

later, 

we put this question to our panel. All the 

experts agreed flash will not fully displace 

disk for many years yet, and the majority 

said the all-flash data centre will remain a 

rarity for the foreseeable future. However 

other responses were surprisingly different. 

Alfred Chase Hui, Vice President of 

International Business at DapuStor, identified 

the major factors involved in answering this 

question: "It's reasonable to expect that allflash 

data centres will become more common 

in the future. However, the transition to allflash 

data centres may take some time due to 

factors such as cost, compatibility, and 

performance requirements," he said. 

Other experts on the panel pointed to two 

causes for the indefinitely prolonged future of 

disk. The first was what they estimated to be a 

five to seven-fold difference in price per TB 

capacity between flash and disk. The second 

was enterprises' need to store large and evergrowing 

volumes of data that is not in active 

use, for purposes such as AI/ML and 

analytics training, archiving and compliance, 

and backups. 

Shawn Meyers, field CTO at Tintri, said: 

"The 




MAGAZINE


"People who say: 'Moore's Law is dead' are ignoring 3D NAND. This technology 

has given NAND flash a new engine to continue to add bits to the chip, and every 

year process engineers find ingenious ways to push it farther than anyone would 

have thought possible… Expect to see at least another couple of orders of 

magnitude of cost decreases over the next several years as chip densities continue 

to increase." - Jim Handy, Objective Research 

need for lower-cost archival storage, which 

still includes tape in many places, will 

remain. The amount of disk purchased by 

hyperscalers exceeds the amount of flash 

drives today. You only need fast storage for 

things you are actively working on, not for 

things you are just storing for later use." 

Meyers' comment on behalf of Tintri was 

very similar to statements made by others 

on our panel, which collectively might be 

labelled as the 'tape didn't die' argument. 

Despite predictions of the death of tape 

over the last two decades, tape usage - at 

least in terms of sheer volume of data 

stored on it - has increased rather than 

contracted, because of the need to store 

ever-growing volumes of cold or 

infrequently-accessed data. 

Peter Donnelly, director of products at 

storage networking vendor ATTO, shared the 

majority view that all-flash data centres "do 

not make sense," and that there will always 

be a need for multiple tiers of storage. He 

added that, perhaps counter-intuitively, 

emerging technologies such as AI/ML are 

actually strengthening this argument: 

"Companies need access to massive storage 

pools for machine learning training, but once 

that is complete that data needs to be 

offloaded to more cost-effective storage 

technologies. So, while it may be counterintuitive, 

a strong argument can be made that 

emerging AI applications actually increase 

the need for second and third-tier storage 

systems like disk and even tape." 

Coby Hanoch, CEO and founder at Weebit 

Nano, shares the views of others about tape 

and adds another reason why he thinks allflash 

data centres will never be widespread, 

which is that alternative solid-state 

technologies will be used in data centres: "I 

doubt there will ever be all-flash data centres, 

for several reasons. There will always be a 

need for tapes or disks simply because they 

can store huge amounts of data in a cheap 

way off-line, and there will be a growing 

amount of data that is rarely accessed but still 

needs to be kept. And by the time flash takes 

over the data centres the newer NVMs (nonvolatile 

memories), like ReRAM and MRAM, 

will start taking parts of the data centres". 

Steven Umbehocker, founder and CEO at 

OSNexus, pointed out that disk is 

entrenched in object-based storage systems, 

and that disk-making giant Seagate has 

predicted continued technology 

development. "Today the 5:1 cost savings of 

flash vs disk is making a larger home for 

disk used in object storage a stronger 

alternative to tape and with Seagate 

delivering on long awaited 30, 40, and 

50TB disk drives over the next couple years 

that will extend the runway for disk," he said. 

However IT teams consider more than just 

upfront purchase costs when choosing 

between disk and flash. Randy Kerns, senior 

strategist at analyst firm the Futurum Group 

said: "There is one aspect of moving to flash 

technology that is often overlooked as to its 

value for customers: with the acceleration in 

performance from flash, there is a simplicity 

value. By simplicity, I mean the need to 

manage to device characteristics for data 

placement/distribution in regards to 

performance. It is just simpler when there is 

more performance from storage. This is a 

factor that will move organisations to higher 

performing technology." 

SOME DATA CENTRES ARE ALREADY 

ALL-FLASH 

Tintri's Meyers added that all-flash data 

centres do already exist: "The answer to this 

will be based upon the size, scale, and scope 

of the data centre. There are many smaller to 

mid-sized data centres which are already all 

flash. But these tend to be more singlecustomer 

data centres. The large enterprises, 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

17


"The need for lower-cost archival storage, which still includes tape in 

many places, will remain. The amount of disk purchased by hyperscalers 

exceeds the amount of flash drives today. You only need fast storage for 

things you are actively working on, not for things you are just storing for 

later use." - Shawn Meyers, Tintri 

regional hosting [service providers], and the 

massive hyperscalers will have spinning rust 

for any time period you want to forecast." 

Dennis Hahn, principal analyst at research 

firm Omdia, agreed and predicted that 

there is a class of enterprise data centres 

that will be all-flash by 2028. These are the 

data centres operated by enterprises that are 

increasingly using public infrastructure 

clouds to host their less performancesensitive 

or critical applications that do not 

require flash storage and are using the 

same clouds to store their cold or 

infrequently-accessed data. 

"On-premises data centres that are largely 

focused on running mission-critical 

applications are swiftly transitioning to all 

flash storage," said Hahn. "In the following 

three to five years, Omdia predicts that the 

majority of these on-premises data centres 

will switch entirely to flash technology". 

In other words, disk is moving out of these 

enterprise data centres and into the hypercloud 

data centres - where Hahn, like other 

members of our panel, said it will exist for 

many years yet, because of its low cost, and 

the lack of need for performance when 

storing cold data. Hahn gave another 

reason for not using flash to store this type 

of data: "Since these [bulk, archive and 

backup stores] often interface with the 

relatively slow internet, throughput rather 

than low latency retrieval is more crucial." 

For the same reason of throughput being 

more important than random access, he 

adds: "Major use-cases like video and rich 

media will efficiently be able to use HDD for 

a long time, as well as other technologies 

such as IoT and ELT [Extract, Load, 

Transform] data collection pipelines." 

Roy Illsley, chief analyst at Omdia, added: 

"Another consideration is the trend to extend 

the life of IT equipment as part of an 

environmental sustainability and cost saving 

strategy. Therefore, customers are now less 

willing to rip a perceived old technology out 

and replace it with a shiny new one. The 

impact on data centres will be the running 

of a mixture of technologies that could be as 

old as seven years in some cases, which 

means the arrival of all flash data centres is 

not an immediate prospect." 

Curtis Anderson, software architect at 

Panasas, holds a similar view about the 

prevalence of all-flash data centres, but his 

is based on the size of an enterprise data 

centre rather than the workloads it hosts: 

"We believe that there is a line where 

deployments less than a given capacity 

make sense as all-flash and where 

deployments above that line may not. That 

line will slowly move upward but in our 

opinion will mostly keep pace with the 

growth in capacity needs, so the all-flash 

data centre will be forever 'two years from 

now'," he said. 

To illustrate his argument, Anderson said 

a company might be happy to store 

relatively small 200TB filesystems in flash 

because that would cost only around 

$150,000 more than storing it on disk and 

would perform much better. But for a 100- 

times bigger capacity of 20PB, the extra 

cost would be $12m, which would be hard 

to justify. "Unless you've got some very 

special requirements, that money could 

better be applied to purchasing CPUs and 

GPUs," he said. 

PLENTY LEFT IN THE FLASH 

TECHNOLOGY CURVE 

Technology development often follows a 

curve in which the rate of improvement to 

cost or performance slowly reduces over 




MAGAZINE


"Another consideration is the trend to extend the life of IT equipment as part of an 

environmental sustainability and cost saving strategy. Therefore, customers are now 

less willing to rip a perceived old technology out and replace it with a shiny new 

one. The impact on data centres will be the running of a mixture of technologies 

that could be as old as seven years in some cases, which means the arrival of all 

flash data centres is not an immediate prospect." - Roy Illsley, Omdia 

time, following a curve that steadily 

becomes flatter as technical advances 

become increasingly harder to achieve. 

Indeed, by around 2010, many observers 

were predicting that the technical 

development of NAND flash was about to 

hit a brick wall in terms of the number of 

memory cells that could be packed into a 

single flash chip. By then, flash was a wellestablished 

and growing feature of the 

enterprise IT landscape, thanks not only to 

its performance and other advantages 

compared to disk, but also because its price 

had been tumbling for the previous decade. 

If flash chip-makers hit that predicted 

technology wall, prices would start falling a 

lot more slowly in terms of dollars per unit of 

storage capacity. 

However, in 2013, Samsung side-stepped 

the predicted limitation by shipping the first 

so-called 3D flash chips that consisted of 

multiple layers of memory cells, rather than 

the single layer of cells used previously. This 

meant more memory cells per chip, and as 

an extremely valuable side-effect, the ability 

to store more data bits in each memory cell, 

again reducing per-TB prices. All major flash 

makers soon followed Samsung's lead, and 

since then the number of layers per chip has 

grown rapidly. But that was ten years ago. Is 

flash now approaching the end or flatter 

part of its technology curve? 

"People who say: 'Moore's Law is dead' are 

ignoring 3D NAND," said Jim Handy, 

general director of analyst firm Objective 

Research. "This technology has given NAND 

flash a new engine to continue to add bits to 

the chip, and every year process engineers 

find ingenious ways to push it farther than 

anyone would have thought possible. That's 

a long way of saying 'No' to this question. 

Expect to see at least another couple of 

orders of magnitude of cost decreases over 

the next several years as chip densities 

continue to increase." 

Announcements at the latest Flash Memory 

Summit confirmed that outlook, according 

to Leander Yu, president and CEO of Graid 

Technology. "Flash memory manufacturers 

such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, Western 

Digital, and Micron will continue to innovate 

with roadmaps for greater density with more 

layers using stacking techniques, 

architecture and design innovations, and 

more bits per cell (e.g., penta-level cell or 

PLC)," he said. The first multilayer flash chips 

that shipped in 2013 comprised 24 layers of 

memory cells, and stored 128Gbits. Yu 

pointed to SK Hynix' demonstration this year 

of a 321-layer chip storing 1Tbit, and 

Samsung's prediction made last year that it 

will ship 1,000-layer chips by 2030. 

Anderson added important context to this 

outlook by highlighting the fact that disk 

technology is also still developing, and 

therefore disk prices will also continue to fall 

at around the same rate as for flash. "Flash 

technology will continue its inexorable 

improvement curve but we don't see that 

curve accelerating to gain ground on disk, 

(i.e. lowering that 5x-7x multiplier on $/TB) 

or decelerating compared to disk," he said. 

Amos Ankrah, solutions specialist at 

Boston, confirmed the view that flash is still 

developing: "There are a few factors, some 

outlined in previous answers, which would 

indicate that flash is still on the rise in terms 

of its technology curve. There is an 

argument to be had to considered where 

current flash technology transitions into new 

technologies, however with the levels of 

development which are still being 

undertaken by companies that develop flash 

storage this would seem to suggest that 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

19


"We believe that there is a line where deployments less than a given 

capacity make sense as all-flash and where deployments above that line 

may not. That line will slowly move upward but in our opinion will mostly 

keep pace with the growth in capacity needs, so the all-flash data centre 

will be forever 'two years from now'." - Curtis Anderson, Panasas 

there is still more upward trajectory to move 

along before the plateau is reached." 

THE REVOLUTION STILL TO COME 

Donnelly at ATTO gave a more holistic 

answer to the question whether flash is at the 

end of its technology curve. Referring to the 

development of the network and storage 

access protocols that connect flash drives 

and storage systems to servers, Donnelly 

said: "Not by a long shot. We're really just 

beginning to see how flash can be employed 

in data centres. The value of NVMe 

communication protocols is just starting to 

be recognised in data centres, and it will 

take at least a decade for it to replace the 

massive SCSI-based infrastructure. Also, the 

evolution of the PCIe interface and emerging 

technologies like CXL will bring new 

possibilities for implementing flash storage. 

Additionally, transport protocols such as 

NVM-oF, typically via RDMA Ethernet, are 

just starting to come together as a viable 

alternative. So, rather than peaking, I believe 

that we're just starting to see the first steps of 

a flash technology revolution." 

THE NEXT NEW DISCRETE SOLID- 

STATE MEMORY 

Flash has transformed enterprise data 

storage and was a major force that has 

driven the mobile computing revolution. It 

is now a major technology. Quite 

separately to the manufacture of flashpowered 

products such as storage drives 

or full storage systems, the manufacture 

of NAND flash chips alone now generates 

around $80bn annual revenue, and that 

number continues to grow. 

This raises an obvious question: when 

will the next new solid-state data storage 

technology emerge with the same massmarket 

impact? Billions of dollars have 

been spent in research laboratories for 

the last several decades attempting to find 

another such technology. Intel and 

Micron's jointly-developed Optane 

memory was the fruit of such research, 

and first shipped in solid-state drives in 

2017. Faster but more expensive than 

flash, Optane was heralded as the first of 

a coming class of so-called storage-class 

memories (SCMs) that would either 

complement or replace flash and would 

have a similarly large overall impact on 

IT. However Optane sold poorly and in 

2021 Intel announced its plan to end 

manufacturing of the memory, only four 

years after it first shipped. 

Meanwhile research into other potential 

SCMs continues. For Objective Analysis, 

which has a major focus on emerging 

memories, Handy said that over this 

decade and the next there will probably be 

no new memory technologies with the 

potential to make the same impact as 

flash. He made a distinction between two 

types of memory: those that are embedded 

in processors or other chips, and those like 

NAND flash and Optane that are or were 

sold as discrete memory-only chips, in far 

greater quantities and therefore have far 

greater market potential. 

"Optane failed because of its cost," said 

Handy. "We warned about that as soon as it 

was announced. But other technologies are 

likely to thrive in certain markets, especially 

as embedded memory in microcontrollers, 

ASICs, and other SoCs [Systems-on-a-Chip 

processors.] Discrete memory chips 

though, are highly unlikely to convert en 

masse to an emerging SCM in the 2020s, 

and probably not in the 2030s." 

Coby Hanoch of Weebit Nano agrees with 

Handy's assessment that Optane - also 

known as 3D XPoint - failed for economic 

reasons, but says the creation of an 




MAGAZINE


"Companies need access to massive storage pools for machine learning training, 

but once that is complete that data needs to be offloaded to more cost-effective 

storage technologies. So, while it may be counter-intuitive, a strong argument can 

be made that emerging AI applications actually increase the need for second and 

third-tier storage systems like disk and even tape." - Peter Donnelly, ATTO 

alternative to flash is inevitable: "Several 

NVM technologies including ReRAM, 

MRAM, PCM and FRAM are emerging as 

potential alternatives to flash. Intel's 3D 

XPoint was an initial attempt to address the 

issue but didn't succeed largely for 

economic reasons. The key to a successful 

flash alternative is development of a 

memory that can scale to large enough 

densities but at a low enough price. Intel 

was only able to meet the density part of 

this challenge. It's only a matter of time until 

we see a technology that can meet both 

criteria, and we believe that ReRAM will be 

an answer since it has fundamental 

technical advantages including speed, 

power efficiency and cost. Development is 

underway to get the technology to ever 

higher densities." 

David Norfolk, practice leader for 

development and government at analyst 

firm Bloor Research summed up the 

difficulty of predicting a schedule for the 

arrival of the next new mass-market 

memory: "A lot can happen in 10 years - 

saying what will happen is easy (for 

example atomic memory as being 

researched by IBM); saying when is much 

harder." 

HURDLES FOR ANY NEW MEMORY 

Omdia's Hahn agreed with Handy's belief 

that the inability to reach sufficient sales to 

justify the production volumes needed to 

allow viably low prices caused the 

cancellation of Optane. Roy Illsley added 

that the relatively new high-speed variants of 

SLC flash are handling tasks that Optane 

was intended for: "It is easy to visualise 

where Storage-Class Memory might fit into a 

storage-memory pyramid, but it has been 

difficult to deliver the right combination of 

performance, latency, and cost 

characteristics while providing data 

persistence in the real world. Optane SCM 

seemed to be a good effort, but its 

production is being spun down for lack of 

proper volume economics. There are clearly 

a few good use-cases for Optane SCM but, 

honestly, those are being addressed using 

recently-released NAND flash SLC 

technology. SLC NAND SSD offerings are on 

the rise for their fantastic durability and good 

write performance, especially for hot data 

array tiering and data caching usage." 

Panasas' Anderson said he also did not 

expect an SCM to emerge in the next ten 

years and pointed to another hurdle that 

Optane needed to cross: "SCMs had/have 

huge promise, but the change in software 

architecture required for applications to gain 

all the advantages that SCM can offer was 

too high, so applications never adopted 

them. Flash has not faced this hurdle, 

because its specific combination of cost and 

performance never required or justified its 

use as an adjunct to DRAM memory." 

Furthering his argument about the IT 

industry's reluctance to modify software, 

Anderson refers to NVDIMMs, which are 

devices that combine DRAM memory with 

flash to offer the performance of DRAM with 

the persistence (the ability to retain data 

safely after a power interruption) of flash: 

"Intel and AMD have both now fully backed 

away from vanilla NVDIMMs, let alone the 

more exotic Optane." 

SLC flash builds on existing NAND flash 

technology, and Hahn's comment about its 

value resonated with a statement made by 

Boyan Krosnov, CTO and co-founder at 

StorPool: "Any new technology has to 

overcome the existing technology, which 

benefits from decades of optimisation and 

large-scale manufacturing. So, the new 

technology will be at a significant 

disadvantage." ST 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

21

STRATEGY: DATA INTEGRITY 

THE CONVERGENCE OF CYBERSECURITY AND 

ENTERPRISE STORAGE 

JIM MCGANN, VP OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS AT INDEX ENGINES, ARGUES FOR A TRANSFORMATIVE 

SHIFT IN THE WAY ENTERPRISE STORAGE COLLABORATES WITH SECURITY IN ORDER TO BATTLE 

RANSOMWARE THREATS 

In today's enterprise environment, the 

collaboration between the storage and 

security functions is not as cohesive as it 

needs to be to combat the growing ransomware 

threats across all organisations. While this lack 

of collaboration has not posed significant 

problems in the past, ransomware is now at an 

all-time high, leading to costly challenges and 

disruptions across the enterprise. 

Gartner addresses this challenge by defining 

cyberstorage in their recent 2023 Storage Hype 

Cycle (Gartner: Hype Cycle for Storage and 

Data Protection Technologies, 2023. Published 

13 July 2023). Cyberstorage adds cyber-specific 

capabilities toward storage vendors, integrating 

the IT and storage disciplines. Gartner predicts 

that by 2028, 100% of the storage products will 

include cyberstorage capabilities. (Gartner: Top 

Trends in Enterprise Data Storage 2023; June 

29, 2023). 

The challenge is two-fold. First, storage 

vendors lack integrated security features to fully 

combat ransomware, leaving organisations 

vulnerable. Existing storage capabilities fall 

short, lacking the resilience needed, especially in 

this ever-complicated ransomware environment. 

Second, organisations lack the structure within 

the storage environment to detect, until it is too 

late, when a ransomware attack has occurred. 

Unlike data protection recovery, many 

organisations do not have or are just adopting a 

formal cyber recovery plan into their operations. 

THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION 

Without a well-defined and tested operational 

plan, fragmented IT and security departments 

hinder collaboration, exposing organisations 

to cyber liability issues, resulting in higher costs 

and downtime. Fostering collaboration 

between storage and security is crucial, 

demanding a convergence for cyber resiliency 

to minimise liability. 

Storage vendors consistently push the 

boundaries of innovation, introducing new 

capabilities to enhance their offerings. The 

primary focus of these advancements is often 

directed towards safeguarding data. Primary 

storage vendors, for instance, have incorporated 

features such as immutability, encryption, and 

multi-factor authentication. Simultaneously, 

secondary storage vendors have expanded their 

data backup capabilities, integrating features 

like the analysis of changes in data thresholds 

and compression of backups to detect potential 

malicious activity. 

While these approaches mark a step 

towards data resiliency, they often fall short in 

addressing the core issue of data integrity in 

a cyber attack. It is imperative for storage 

vendors to adopt advanced security measures 

aimed at ensuring the integrity of the data itself, 

enabling successful recovery in the event of a 

cyber attack. Solely focusing on securing data or 

conducting superficial content inspections may 

lead to unexpected recovery challenges, 

especially when restoring data that has been 

unknowingly corrupted by malicious actors. 

STRUCTURAL ISSUES 

While vendors play a role in the challenge, 

organisations must also address internal issues 

by structuring their IT and security departments 

to foster collaboration in support of data 

resiliency. The threat of ransomware is not only 

a storage problem, but also a security and data 

protection challenge. Through improved 

collaboration IT and security departments can 

help control their cyber liability and minimise 

any impact from a cyber-attack. 

Numerous instances illustrate the challenges 

organisations face when recovering from a 

ransomware attack, and these challenges 

predominantly stem from a lack of collaboration 

between IT and Security. The typical scenario 

unfolds with an attack occurrence, leading the 

security team to enlist the assistance of the 

storage team for recovery. Subsequently, the 

storage team relies on the data protection team 

for restoration, only to discover data corruption. 

Excuses arise, with the data protection team 

attributing the issue to their practice of 

backing up data directly from storage 

platforms regardless of the data's integrity. This 

fragmentation prompts the storage team to 

turn back to the security team seeking details 

on the impacted data and the duration of the 

network intrusion. This lack of collaboration 

results in finger-pointing, prolonged periods of 




MAGAZINE

STRATEGY: DATA INTEGRITY 

"The absence of collaboration between storage and security, whether on the vendor side 

or the end-user side, has resulted in numerous hours of downtime, substantial revenue 

losses, and tarnished public reputation. This issue has manifested repeatedly over the past 

few years. What is imperative is a transformative shift - a change in the way enterprise 

storage collaborates with security, a shift in how corporate data is safeguarded, and a 

redefinition of resilience in anticipation of potential cyber-attacks." 

operational disruption, and substantial data 

loss when achieving a clean recovery 

becomes challenging. 

The absence of collaboration between storage 

and security, whether on the vendor side or the 

end-user side, has resulted in numerous hours 

of downtime, substantial revenue losses, and 

tarnished public reputation. This issue has 

manifested repeatedly over the past few years. 

What is imperative is a transformative shift - a 

change in the way enterprise storage 

collaborates with security, a shift in how 

corporate data is safeguarded, and a 

redefinition of resilience in anticipation of 

potential cyber-attacks. 

A NEW FOCUS ON INTEGRITY 

Data resiliency initiatives represent a pivotal step 

towards unifying enterprise storage and security. 

With this strategic focus, new and valuable 

features will be integrated into storage 

platforms, fostering collaboration within the IT 

organisation. However, these initiatives alone 

are insufficient. The linchpin for uniting these 

disciplines lies in prioritising data integrity. 

Data integrity ensures that data remains free 

from corruption, facilitating effective 

restoration and minimising data loss. Beyond 

these benefits, it furnishes deep analytical 

insights capable of revealing even the most 

concealed and hidden data corruptions. By 

emphasising data integrity, organisations can 

enhance cyber capabilities across primary and 

secondary storage platforms, providing 

detailed forensics into attacks and quickly 

establishing know good recovery options. 

This, in turn, enables security, storage, and 

data protection teams to refine their efforts in 

minimising operational interruptions and 

cyber liability at a time of chaos. 

Data integrity surpasses a superficial 

examination aimed at detecting malicious 

activity. It extends beyond routine checks for 

appended file extensions included .encrypted or 

.lol, unusual changes in daily file thresholds, or 

elevated compression rates in backups, which 

may indicate data encryption. While these 

methods are intriguing, they are susceptible to 

evasion by malicious actors armed with 

sophisticated ransomware variants. 

True data integrity demands a more profound 

analysis, leveraging advanced approaches such 

as content-based security analytics and AI-based 

machine learning. This in-depth inspection not 

only ensures the integrity of the data but also 

yields valuable telemetry data. This information 

can be utilised by data protection teams to 

identify what needs restoration and by security 

teams to understand the nature of the incident, 

enabling them to deploy effective tools against 

similar malicious activities in the future. 

The necessity for a detailed level of data 

integrity becomes evident when considering the 

latest ransomware variants. Contemporary 

strains often employ lightweight encryption 

algorithms, leaving minimal evidence of 

corruption. Some utilise intermittent encryption 

algorithms, which in response requires a 

thorough inspection within files and databases 

content to confidently detect. Additionally, 

certain variants engage in slow corruption, 

deliberately falling below threshold analysis 

triggers. 

ROBUST AND RESILIENT 

Achieving a high level of data integrity demands 

deep, content-based inspections of files and 

databases. Advanced analytics, validating 

headers of databases, assessing content 

structure, and uncovering hidden internal 

encryption, become critical. Integrating this 

advanced level of data integrity with both 

primary and secondary storage platforms 

emerges as the sole, effective approach to 

ensure robust cyber resiliency. 

The ransomware challenge is a grave and 

continually evolving threat. Bad actors are now 

employing advanced technologies like GenAI to 

craft super variants that corrupt data while 

leaving behind minimal evidence. The 

imperative for data integrity becomes 

increasingly critical in establishing a high level of 

resiliency. Such resiliency is essential for 

organisations to swiftly recover, minimise data 

loss, and prevent public exposure in the event of 

a ransomware attack. 

If Gartner's predictions prove to be accurate, 

the use of this type of cyberstorage capabilities 

to recover from ransomware attacks will be 

mainstream in a few years. However, many 

organisations cannot wait that long as the battle 

continues to ramp up and cause serious impacts 

across the globe. 

More info: www.indexengines.com 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

23

CASE STUDY: FLORIDA STUDY: 

PANTHERS 

THEY SHOOT, THEY SCORE 

SYNCHRONISED ON-PREMISE AND CLOUD STORAGE SUPPORTS 

THE BUSY PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS GENERATING CONTENT 

FOR MIAMI ICE HOCKEY TEAM FLORIDA PANTHERS 

Florida Panthers, the NHL ice hockey 

team based in the Greater Miami 

area, has transformed its 

production workflows with the adoption 

of storage systems and management 

tools from EditShare. The new system 

provides support for a rapidly growing 

video department, which creates and 

delivers sophisticated content for inhouse 

screens and scoreboards, 

and for extensive fan 

engagement online and 

through the team's 

custom app. 

Previously, the 

Panthers had 

been using ad- 




MAGAZINE

CASE STUDY: FLORIDA STUDY: 

PANTHERS 

“When we were looking for a solution we looked at the market; EditShare seemed to be 

the most user-friendly for what we needed it to do. It gave us the slick workflows we need 

to keep on top of our exponentially increasing workloads.” 

hoc storage for video content, together 

with consumer tools for file transfers. 

Recent successes for the Panthers - 

including a Stanley Cup final place in 

2023 - meant demand for content 

ramped up dramatically, and a 

more fluid, more secure 

workflow was required. It 

needed to support 

four 

producers/editors 

creating content 

at home 

and 

on the road, a motion graphics 

workshop charged with making engaging 

content for the scoreboard, and the 

team's close relationship with the Bally 

Sports Network, its broadcast partner. 

With consultation from sales engineers 

at 76 Media Systems (now part of Starin 

Marketing) the Panthers developed a 

solution around a 256TB EFS300 

storage appliance from EditShare. This is 

installed at the team's home, the 

Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, 

just west of Fort Lauderdale. 

CLOUD SYNCHRONISED 

The ground storage network is linked 

and synchronised to an EditShare cloud 

implementation. As well as adding 

content redundancy, the hybrid onpremise/cloud 

architecture allows 

shooting teams on the road with 

the Panthers to upload content 

via VPN, making it 

immediately available for 

post and delivery, as well 

as securing it. The ability 

to edit on the road is a 

real boost. 

Dennis Docil, Senior 

Director of Content 

Services for the Florida 

Panthers, made the point 

that key tools like FLOW 

workflow and asset 

management and FLEX 

cloud synchronisation 

are core parts of the 

technology, making the system easy to 

implement as well as intuitive to use. 

"Before coming back to the Panthers I 

worked for Ion Media Networks, and they 

were one of the first users of EditShare," 

Docil said. "When we were looking for a 

solution we looked at the market; 

EditShare seemed to be the most userfriendly 

for what we needed it to do. It 

gave us the slick workflows we need to 

keep on top of our exponentially 

increasing workloads. 

"On top of that, the EditShare price was 

more attractive than the competition, and 

that included all the extra software 

components we needed to manage 

content and synchronise through the 

cloud." 

The ability to support large numbers of 

streams is vital for this sports application. 

At game time, as well as feeding the 

scoreboard and all the video screens 

around the arena the EditShare EFS300 is 

also ingesting live content from eight 

cameras, plus live coverage and additional 

shots from Bally Sports Network. 

A lot of material is generated for fan 

engagement and distributed via the 

website and app. The Panthers also have a 

large retail shop alongside the new 

practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, and 

multiple screens there create interest and 

excitement around the team and players, 

as well as driving sales of merchandise. 

More info: www.editshare.com 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

25

ANALYSIS: CYBERSECURITY 

MODERN WARFARE 

DANIEL HOFMANN, CEO OF HORNETSECURITY, EXAMINES THE 'DIGITAL BATTLEFIELD' OF 

CYBERSECURITY VERSUS MALICIOUS AI 

In the rapidly evolving world of cybersecurity, 

there's a relentless race in the use of AI 

between cybersecurity experts and malicious 

threat actors. This race is driven by the 

widespread adoption of Generative AI, 

presenting a double-edged sword for 

cybersecurity specialists. Cybersecurity experts 

use AI within their next-gen solutions to identify 

and address vulnerabilities in a system's 

security, detect abnormal activity, alert people 

to potential threats, and more. On the 

opposite side, malicious actors are exploiting 

similar technology to orchestrate increasingly 

sophisticated cyber-attacks. 

THE RISE OF DARK WEB AI VARIANTS 

The emergence of Dark Web variants of large 

language models (LLMs), such as DarkBERT 

and WormGPT, enables threat actors to use AI 

for nefarious purposes. These tools provide 

even novice attackers with technology that can 

be used to easily create and automate cyber 

threats with alarming authenticity. One byproduct 

of this is the ability to reach new 

global markets, including regions that are less 

accustomed to traditional cyber threats, as 

LLMs can instantly translate and automate 

large-scale phishing scams. 

The misuse of AI extends beyond the 

manipulation of LLMs. The escalating 

sophistication of deep-fakes poses a significant 

concern, particularly within the realm of 

biometric-based Multi-factor Authentication 

(MFA). This authentication method is gaining 

traction as businesses intensify their efforts to 

protect their systems against unauthorised 

access. Threat actors create spoofing attacks 

that often involve the replicas or imitations of 

an individual's biometric details whether it is a 

fingerprint, 3D facial masks, or voice - which 

was recently used in a deep-fake attack to 

scam an undisclosed Hong Kong-based 

business out of $25 million. 

PUBLIC AWARENESS 

It's not just businesses that are facing these 

attacks; consumers are at risk too. 

Cybercriminals are increasingly using "MFA 

bypass kits" to exploit the growing adoption of 

MFAs. These kits, such as Evilproxy and the 

W3LL panel (private phishing kit), create 

deceptive log-in pages that capture a user's 

credentials and MFA prompts. In its presence, 

unsuspecting users are then directed to 

the real login page, signing into 

the legitimate service while 

the bypass kit steals the 

user's session token for the 

threat actor to use at their 

leisure. Protecting against 

these attacks can be 

challenging, as they are 

adept at bypassing MFA 

and are connected to 

authentic websites. 

Threat actors often use these 

bypass kits to impersonate 

trusted connections and brands. Our research 

found that some of the top impersonated 

brands were leading e-commerce and delivery 

sites, like DHL, Amazon, and FedEx - with DHL 

(26.1%) and Amazon (7.7%) accounting for 

some of our top ten recorded brand 

impersonations. So, consumers likewise need 

to be aware of these tactics. 

BEACON OF HOPE 

Nevertheless, AI is also a formidable ally in the 

ongoing battle against cyber threats. Security 

experts and technology vendors integrate AI 

and machine learning into their defensive 

toolkits against such attacks, helping keep their 

solutions one step ahead in the 'cat and 

mouse' dance with attackers. Additionally, 

leading AI organisations such as OpenAI have 

launched initiatives aimed at empowering 

cybersecurity entities to "AI-enable" their 

defences. This strategic move is predicted to 

improve various facets of cybersecurity, 

ranging from outlier detection and improved 

log analysis to AI-simulated attacks as 

underscored in Hornetsecurity's Cyber Security 

Report 2024, along with threat modelling. 

All businesses with a digital presence may be 

at risk, so it's imperative to invest in robust 

security solutions, as well as ongoing 

employee education and awareness around 

cyber risks. 

A majority of breached businesses were 

infiltrated due to the absence of robust 

authentication (preferably MFA with phishresistant 

hardware), the allowance of simple 

passwords, and the lack of employee training 

to instil caution when clicking on links in 

emails. Coupled with next-gen cybersecurity 

solutions, taking action to avoid these missteps 

can go very far in protecting against AIenabled 

threats. 

More info: www.hornetsecurity.com 




MAGAZINE

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RESEARCH: 

RESEARCH: IMMUTABLE STORAGE 

IMMUTABLE STORAGE BECOMING AN 

ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF CYBERSECURITY 

STRATEGY 

NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM SCALITY SUGGEST THAT MORE ORGANISATIONS SHOULD 

CONSIDER "TRUE" IMMUTABILITY AS PART OF THEIR CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY 

Scality has announced the results of a 

survey of 500 IT decision-makers across 

France, Germany, the UK and the US to 

gain insight into the role immutable data 

storage plays in an organisation's overall 

cybersecurity strategy. 

The survey was conducted by global 

technology market research firm Vanson 

Bourne across several industries, including 

manufacturing, telecoms, professional 

services, financial services, and retail. 

Respondents were asked: "Is immutable data 

storage an essential element of your 

organisation's corporate cybersecurity 

strategy?" To qualify, each respondent carried 

a manager or above title in an enterprisesized 

commercial organisation with over 

1,000 employees and is primarily employed 

in the IT function. 

Key findings specific to respondents in the 

UK included: 

85% of UK respondents currently rely on 

immutable storage or plan to implement it 

within 12 months. This is the lowest of the 

four regions (US, UK, France, Germany). 

47% of UK respondents across all 

vertical markets consider immutable 

storage essential to their corporate 

cybersecurity strategy. 

54% of UK respondents in the IT, 

technology and telecoms sector deploy 

and consider immutable storage essential 

to their corporate cybersecurity strategy. 

This is the highest score among all sectors 

surveyed in the UK. 

While the findings across all of the regions 

covered revealed some variations in the 

figures: 

94% either already rely on immutable 

data storage or plan to implement it 

within the next 12 months, and an 

additional 2% plan to deploy it within the 

next three years. 

69% consider immutable data storage 

essential to their corporate cybersecurity. 

Only 12% of those who deployed 

immutable data storage say it is not 

essential to cybersecurity. 

Overall the results appear to demonstrate 

that IT leaders consider immutable storage 

as a must-have in the fight against 

cyberattacks. Ransomware threats are now 

understood by organisations to be 

inevitable. Reports show 1 in 4 

organisations that pay a ransom never get 

their data back, and just 16% are able to 

recover without paying a ransom. 




MAGAZINE

RESEARCH: 

RESEARCH: IMMUTABLE STORAGE 

"Immutable data storage is an insurance policy against ransomware. While the survey 

data shows IT leaders resoundingly agree that immutability is a cornerstone of 

cybersecurity strategy, 31% still did not report it as essential. Here's the reality: Being able 

to restore quickly from an immutable backup means the difference between a successful 

and unsuccessful ransomware attack. Without storage that's truly immutable, you're 

vulnerable to cybercriminals' demands." 

This reinforces the role immutable data 

storage plays as an essential last line of 

defence within a cybersecurity toolkit. With 

immutable storage, data cannot be deleted or 

modified once written, increasing data safety 

and ensuring organisations have the power to 

restore data with 100% accuracy in the event 

of a breach. 

VERTICAL AND REGIONAL NUANCES 

Comparisons among IT leaders surveyed 

across vertical industries and specific countries 

reveal a number of notable differences: 

Vertical market: 

Manufacturing organisations (95%) are 

most likely to deploy immutable storage. 

84% consider it essential to their corporate 

cybersecurity. 

Financial services firms (74%) report the 

lowest reliance on immutable storage. 

60% say it's essential to their corporate 

cybersecurity. 

Regional: 

A majority of IT leaders across all regions 

currently use or plan to use immutable 

data storage: The US has the highest level 

of current or planned immutable data 

storage deployments, with 98% of 

respondents either having implemented it 

or planning to do so within the next year. 

This is followed by France at 96%, 

Germany at 94% and the UK at 85%. 

While a relatively low number (12%) of IT 

leaders worldwide who currently use 

immutable data storage do not regard it 

as "essential" to their cybersecurity strategy, 

a larger percentage resides in the UK: 

24% of UK respondents have deployed it 

but say it is not essential to their 

cybersecurity, compared to 11% in France, 

9% in the US and 6% in Germany. 

Dave Russell, VP of enterprise strategy at 

Veeam Software comments: "Widespread 

deployment of immutable storage reinforces 

an increased awareness of the critical role 

secure backup plays as an active defence 

against cyberattacks, specifically coupled with 

immutable backup data. Veeam believes that 

achieving Zero Trust Data Resilience with 

immutable storage implementations - that are 

indeed truly immutable - is a great 

opportunity for IT leaders to reduce the risk of 

growing data security threats and improve 

their overall cyber resilience." 

A WINDOW OF EXPOSURE 

The survey reveals the criticality of immutable 

storage at a time of evolving industry dialogue 

about data cybersecurity best practices and 

technologies. But it's important to note that 

not all immutability is created equal - some 

forms still leave a window of exposure. 

Unlike forms of immutability enabled by 

traditional solutions (such as NAS/file system 

snapshots, dedupe appliances, Linuxhardened 

repositories or tape), true object 

storage solutions are inherently immutable at 

the core architecture level. 

The system implements proper protocols 

and true object storage semantics to 

preserve data in its original form the very 

moment it is written - which is not the case 

for other immutable solutions that can 

introduce time delays before data is 

immutable. Each object, even those written 

nanoseconds apart, can never be 

overwritten, deleted, or modified. This 

architectural reinforcement provides a 

crucial last line of defence against 

ransomware attackers' attempts to encrypt 

data and extort victims. 

Paul Speciale, CMO, Scality comments: 

"Immutable data storage is an insurance 

policy against ransomware. While the survey 

data shows IT leaders resoundingly agree 

that immutability is a cornerstone of 

cybersecurity strategy, 31% still did not report 

it as essential. Here's the reality: Being able 

to restore quickly from an immutable backup 

means the difference between a successful 

and unsuccessful ransomware attack. 

Without storage that's truly immutable, you're 

vulnerable to cybercriminals' demands. The 

perception among some respondents that it's 

not essential to cybersecurity is misguided 

and represents an opportunity to shift more IT 

leaders towards achieving a modern, 

inherently immutable object storage solution 

as a much-needed last line of defence to 

keep data locked and immune to 

ransomware exfiltration, modification or 

destruction." 

More info: www.scality.com 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

29

MANAGEMENT: CLOUD STORAGE 

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS: CLOUD 

STORAGE WITHOUT THE CLIMATE COST 

SIMON YEOMAN, CEO AT FASTHOSTS, DISCUSSES HOW BUSINESSES 

CAN ENSURE THEIR CLOUD STORAGE IS MORE SUSTAINABLE 

With over half of all corporate data 

held in the cloud as of 2022, 

demand for cloud storage has 

never been higher. This has triggered 

extreme energy consumption throughout the 

data centre industry, leading to hefty 

greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Worryingly, the European Commission now 

estimates that by 2030, EU data centre 

energy use will increase from 2.7 per cent to 

3.2 per cent of the Union's total demand. 

This would put the industry's emissions 

almost on par with pollution from the EU's 

international aviation. 

Despite this, it must be remembered that 

cloud storage is still far more sustainable 

than the alternatives. 

IS CLOUD STORAGE SUSTAINABLE? 

It's important to put the energy used by 

cloud storage into context and consider the 

savings it can make elsewhere. Thanks to 

file storage and sharing services, teams can 

collaborate and work wherever they are, 

removing the need for large offices and 

everyday commuting. 

As a result, businesses can downsize their 

workspaces as well as reduce the 

environmental impact caused by employees 

travelling. In fact, it's estimated that working 

from home four days a week can reduce 

nitrogen dioxide emissions by around 10%. 

In addition, cloud storage reduces reliance 

on physical, on-premises servers. For small 

and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), 

having on-site servers or their own data 

centres can be expensive, whilst running and 

cooling the equipment requires a lot of 

energy, which means more CO2 emissions. 

Cloud servers, on the other hand, offer a 

more efficient alternative. Unlike on-premise 

servers that might only be used to a fraction 

of their capacity, cloud servers in data 

centres can be used much more effectively. 

They often operate at much higher 

capacities, thanks to virtualisation 

technology that allows a single physical 

server to act as multiple virtual ones. 

Each virtual server can be used by different 

businesses, meaning fewer physical units are 

needed overall. This means less energy is 

required to power and cool, leading to a 




MAGAZINE

MANAGEMENT: CLOUD STORAGE 

"The cloud's impact on businesses is undeniable, but our 

digital growth risks an unsustainable future with serious 

environmental consequences. However, businesses shouldn't 

have to choose between innovation and the planet. The 

answer lies in green cloud storage. By embracing providers 

powered by renewable energy, efficient data centres, and 

innovative technologies, businesses can reap the cloud's 

benefits without triggering a devastating energy tax." 

reduction in overall emissions. 

Furthermore, on-premise servers often 

have higher storage and computing 

capacity than needed just to handle 

occasional spikes in demand, which is an 

inefficient use of resources. Cloud data 

centres, by contrast, pool large amounts of 

equipment to manage these spikes more 

efficiently. 

In 2022, the average power usage 

effectiveness of data centres improved. This 

indicates that cloud providers are using 

energy more efficiently and helping 

companies reduce their carbon footprint 

with cloud storage. 

A SUSTAINABLE TRANSITION: 3 STEPS 

TO GREEN CLOUD STORAGE 

Importantly, there are ways to further 

improve the sustainability of services like 

cloud storage, which could translate to 

energy savings of 30-50% per cent through 

greening strategies. So, how can ordinary 

cloud storage be turned into green cloud 

storage? We believe there are three 

fundamental steps. 

Firstly, businesses should carefully 

consider location. This means choosing a 

cloud storage provider that's close to a 

power facility. This is because distance 

matters. If electricity travels a long way 

between generation and use, a proportion 

is lost. In addition, data centres located in 

cooler climates or underwater 

environments can cut down on the energy 

required for cooling. 

Next, businesses should quiz green 

providers about what they're doing to 

reduce their environmental impact. For 

example, powering their operations with 

wind, solar or biofuels minimises reliance on 

fossil fuels and so lowering GHG emissions. 

Some facilities will house large battery 

banks to store renewable energy and ensure 

a continuous, eco-friendly power supply. 

Last but certainly not least, technology 

offers powerful ways to enhance the energy 

efficiency of cloud storage. Some providers 

have been investing in algorithms, software 

and hardware designed to optimise energy 

use. For example, introducing frequency 

scaling or AI and machine learning 

algorithms can significantly improve how 

data centres manage power consumption 

and cooling. For instance, Google's use of 

its DeepMind AI has reduced its data centre 

cooling bill by 40 per cent - a prime 

example of how intelligent systems can work 

towards greater sustainability. 

At a time when the world is warming up at 

an accelerating rate, selecting a cloud 

storage provider that demonstrates a clear 

commitment to sustainability can have a 

significant impact. In fact, major cloud 

providers like Google, Microsoft and 

Amazon have already taken steps to make 

their cloud services greener, such as 

pledging to move to 100 per cent 

renewable sources of energy. 

CLOUD STORAGE WITHOUT THE 

CLIMATE COST 

The cloud's impact on businesses is 

undeniable, but our digital growth risks an 

unsustainable future with serious 

environmental consequences. However, 

businesses shouldn't have to choose 

between innovation and the planet. 

The answer lies in green cloud storage. By 

embracing providers powered by renewable 

energy, efficient data centres, and innovative 

technologies, businesses can reap the 

cloud's benefits without triggering a 

devastating energy tax. 

The time to act is now. Businesses have a 

responsibility to choose green cloud storage 

and be part of the solution, not the 

problem. By making the switch today, we 

can ensure the cloud remains a convenient 

sanctuary, not a climate change culprit. 

More info: www.fasthosts.co.uk 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

31

STRATEGY: GENAI 

THREE STEPS TO GENAI HEAVEN 

STEWART HUNWICK, FIELD CTO, PRIMARY STORAGE, DELL TECHNOLOGIES UK, ARGUES THAT THE 

RIGHT DATA STORAGE APPROACH IS CRITICAL TO ACHIEVE GENAI SUCCESS 

There is no doubt that Generative AI 

(GenAI) was one of the hottest topics of 

2023, and the conversation continues 

today. But it is not just talk; people are already 

seeing tangible benefits from the technology. 

McKinsey estimates that GenAI could add 

between $2.6-$4.4 trillion to the global 

economy annually. In fact, according to Dell's 

latest Generative AI Pulse survey amongst IT 

decision-makers (https://www.dell.com/enus/dt/solutions/artificialintelligence/index.htm), 

75% of UK 

respondents think the impact of GenAI will be 

significant or transformative for their 

organisations. So, it is no surprise that UK 

businesses are eager to uncover and leverage 

its benefits. 

Yet, developing and training GenAI models 

is not a straightforward process. 

Organisations need vast amounts of data to 

feed models, and in turn, these same models 

generate a plethora of data back into the 

business. Therefore, business leaders must ask 

themselves a simple but essential question 

before embracing AI and GenAI - are our 

storage solutions up to the task? 

In 2024 and beyond, it is a scalable, secure, 

and economically sound data architecture that 

will set apart the organisations leading the AI 

race from those playing catch up. 

THE GENAI AGE NEEDS THE RIGHT 

STORAGE SOLUTIONS 

Organisations must rethink, rearchitect, and 

optimise their storage to effectively handle 

GenAI's hefty data management requirements 

and ultimately deploy GenAI successfully. By 

doing so, organisations will avoid a potential 

process slowdown due to inadequate or 

improperly designed storage. 

Unfortunately, traditional storage systems 




MAGAZINE

STRATEGY: GENAI 

"Organisations must rethink, rearchitect, and optimise their storage 

to effectively handle GenAI's hefty data management requirements 

and ultimately deploy GenAI successfully. By doing so, organisations 

will avoid a potential process slowdown due to inadequate or 

improperly designed storage. Unfortunately, traditional storage 

systems are already struggling to keep up with the ever-growing 

data load. The requirements will only increase with GenAI systems 

processing and managing new and more sophisticated tasks." 

are already struggling to keep up with the 

ever-growing data load. The requirements 

will only increase with GenAI systems 

processing and managing new and more 

sophisticated tasks. Therefore, an 

organisation must align their storage 

platforms with the more complex realities of 

unstructured data, also known as qualitative 

data and the emerging needs of GenAI. 

Unstructured data accounts for more than 

90% of the data created each year, so 

businesses require innovative ways to store 

data of this scale and complexity costeffectively 

while offering easy and quick 

access to it. Above all, companies should 

ensure they safeguard this precious data 

against cyber criminals - unstructured data 

attracts hackers because of its high value and 

sheer volume. 

The truth is that organisations want and 

expect better data movement, access, 

scalability, and protection. As a response, 

many have turned to cloud-first strategies, 

storing data across multiple public cloud 

environments. 

Despite providing a potential short-term 

solution, organisations will likely face rising 

ingress and egress costs, security concerns 

and data optimisation challenges in the long 

run. For GenAI to truly take effect, it needs 

simple, easy access to data - something a 

cloud-first strategy will struggle to provide. 

Instead, organisations should adopt a 

multi-cloud by-design approach to ensure 

management consistency in storing, 

protecting and securing data in multi-cloud 

environments. Adopting a multi-cloud by 

design approach will help organisations 

unlock the full potential of GenAI in the 

short and long term without being 

constrained by siloed ecosystems of 

proprietary tools and services. 

INVESTING IN NEW STORAGE 

TECHNOLOGIES 

Businesses need novel approaches such as 

distributed storage, data compression and 

indexing, to cater to GenAI's requirements and 

vast, diverse data sets. 

Distributed storage improves the scalability 

and reliability of GenAI systems by housing 

data across multiple locations. Organisations 

can then rapidly scale their storage needs 

across several nodes should demand 

increase. They can also replicate their most 

critical data, allowing it to be vaulted in a 

separate location and easily retrieved in the 

event of a cyber-attack. 

As cost is another challenge many 

organisations face, data compression can 

partly remedy the issue. When organisations 

remove unwanted data through data 

compression methods, they can reduce their 

storage needs by more effectively analysing 

data and eliminating unnecessary information. 

This results in a more condensed version, 

thereby decreasing the amount of storage 

required by the organisation and, ultimately, 

reducing costs. 

Data indexing improves retrieval 

capabilities and contributes to faster, more 

efficient search capabilities and training by 

more effectively organising the data into 

specific locations. Together, these three 

technologies enhance performance, 

efficiency, and cost savings, three key 

priorities for business leaders looking for a 

painless transition to GenAI technologies. 

STORAGE SOLUTIONS ARE A 

PREREQUISITE TO CAPITALISING ON 

GENAI 

AI and GenAI are significant enablers of 

competitive advantage and a way to disrupt 

markets, and it may be tempting to skip 

ahead to training and modelling. However, 

GenAI requires a solid storage foundation as 

a first step to be successful. It might not be the 

most exciting topic for business leaders, but 

how organisations store and manage data will 

drive greater business value in the future. 

More info: www.dell.com 



STORAGE 

MAGAZINE 

33

CASE STUDY: GRUNDON STUDY: 

A STABLE FUTURE 

WASTE MANAGEMENT COMPANY GRUNDON HAS BEEN ABLE TO EFFICIENTLY SCALE ITS STORAGE 

SYSTEMS SINCE DEPLOYING SEAGATE SOLUTIONS IN AN IMPLEMENTATION THAT WON THE 'STORAGE 

SOLUTION OF THE YEAR' TROPHY AT THE 2023 STORAGE AWARDS 

continue to, benefit from the ability to scale 

our physical storage in a very simple and 

efficient manner. Redundant Controllers have 

meant that we have been able to actively 

upgrade the system in real-time, critical to 

ensuring that we have business continuity." 

John Greenwood, Chief Technology Officer 

at Virtual Effect, adds "There is a constant and 

consistent evolution of the Seagate Exos 

portfolio, something that makes it extremely 

attractive to both partners and customers. 

With wide support for connectivity options, 

plus integration and certification for the full 

suite of Seagate Exos HDD, SSD and NVMe 

drives a blend of performance and capacity 

can be delivered from a single Seagate Exos 

system. What's not to like?" 

Founded in 1929, Grundon is the UK's 

largest family-owned supplier of 

integrated waste management and 

environmental services. One of the most visible 

brands in the UK waste management sector, 

with a backdrop that includes six materials 

recovery facilities, Grundon is responsible for 

treating more than 800,000 tonnes of waste 

for over 15,000 organisations of all sizes and 

across all industries. Their fleet, bins and skips 

are prominent around the UK and the 

company's many services include clinical, 

confidential and hazardous waste disposal. 

Grundon's total waste management service 

includes the collection, treatment, recovery, 

recycling and disposal of non-hazardous waste 

streams, in addition to dealing with all aspects 

of hazardous waste, including contaminated 

waste, clinical and healthcare waste, and 

waste electrical and electronic equipment 

(WEEE). The company also offers additional 

services, including special event waste 

management and industrial cleaning services. 

This is a data-driven organisation, and the 

'always on' availability of this information 

underpins the successful running of the dayto-day 

operations of this distributed and 

dynamic business. 

Their Storage Area Network spans two 

locations and the business needs the 

assurance that they have a robust and 

resilient storage environment that can address 

future growth and security for data 

compliance. Richard Hardyman is the Head 

of IT at Grundon Waste Management, and 

Richard and his team work closely with 

trusted partner and storage specialist Virtual 

Effect to ensure that they meet the needs of 

the business. 

At the core of their award-winning solution 

is Seagate's Exos storage technology. Richard 

explains why this was chosen: "The Seagate 

Exos platform provides tiered storage and 

gives us full redundancy for our active 

business data. We have been able to, and 

Seagate is an established global industry 

leader in mass data storage solutions with 

manufacturing sites located worldwide. In the 

past 40 years, Seagate has provided over 4 

zettabytes of storage to the market and the 

company continues to lead the way in 

development and innovation, having recently 

announced the Exos Mosaic 3+ representing 

a breakthrough in HDD technology 

combining mass capacity, unprecedented 

areal density, and proven performance. And 

it's not just on-premise technology that 

Seagate deliver, something that their Lyve 

Cloud Object Storage represents - with no 

egress fees, API charges or vendor lock-in. 

Grundon clearly has an agile business 

model that constantly adapts as the 

regulations and messaging around reuse and 

recycling evolve, and with the solution that 

Virtual Effect have provided based on 

Seagate technology, the business has a data 

storage platform that provides complete 

peace of mind and stability for the future. 

More info: www.seagate.com 




MAGAZINE

The future is here. 

Tiered Backup Storage 

• Fastest backups 

• Fastest restores 

• Scalability for fixed-length backup window 

• Comprehensive security with ransomware recovery 

• Low cost up front and over time 

Thank you so much 

to all who voted, and 

congratulations to our fellow 

Storage Awards 2023 winners! 

Visit our website to learn more 

about ExaGrid’s award-winning 

Tiered Backup Storage. 

LEARN MORE

ST2403

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