The skinny
The burgeoning trend of software-defined storage (SDS) is where a company relies on intelligent software, rather than the storage hardware itself, to manage its entire storage infrastructure.
This means the storage can be used as and when it is needed to accurately meet storage capacity requirements, rather than paying for more than is needed just in case capacity demands rise.
So what are the benefits of that?
Well, for starters it means you don’t have to spend a tonne of money on storage hardware anymore. With separately-purchased software able to handle different types of storage hardware, you don’t need to worry about keeping it all the same to make sure it’s interoperable. That means you’re no longer tied into one vendor and its prices, so you can shop around.
Another cost-saving bonus is that the storage will be allocated as and when it’s needed automatically, so there’s fewer reasons to be concerned about keeping too much or too little storage online at once.
