Particularly with innovations like the cloud, edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and streaming, big data has become more prevalent for organizations that want to better understand their customers and operational potential. 

Big Data Trends: Table of Contents

• Real Time Analytics
  
• Stronger Reliance on Cloud Storage
  
• Ethical Customer Data Collection
• AI/ML Powered Automation
• Big Data in Different Industries
• Challenges in Big Data
• Bottom Line: Big Data Trends

Real Time Analytics

Real time big data analytics – data that streams moment by moment – is becoming more popular within businesses to help with large and diverse big data sets. This includes structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data from different sizes of data sets.

With real time big data analytics, a company can have faster decision-making, modeling, and predicting of future outcomes and business intelligence (BI). There are many benefits when it comes to real time analytics in businesses:

• Faster decision-making: Companies can access a large amount of data and analyze a variety of sources of data to receive insights and take needed action – fast.
• Cost reduction: Data processing and storage tools can help companies save costs in storing and analyzing data. 
• Operational efficiency: Quickly finding patterns and insights that help a company identify repeated data patterns more efficiently is a competitive advantage. 
• Improved data-driven market: Analyzing real time data from many devices and platforms empowers a company to be data-driven. Customer needs and potential risks can be discovered so they can create new products and services.

Big data analytics can help any company grow and change the way they do business for customers and employees.

For more on structured and unstructured data: Structured vs. Unstructured Data: Key Differences Explained

Stronger Reliance On Cloud Storage

Big data comes into organizations from many different directions, and with the growth of tech, such as streaming data, observational data, or data unrelated to transactions, big data storage capacity is an issue.

In most businesses, traditional on-premises data storage no longer suffices for the terabytes and petabytes of data flowing into the organization. Cloud and hybrid cloud solutions are increasingly being chosen for their simplified storage infrastructure and scalability.

Popular big data cloud storage tools:

• Amazon Web Services S3
• Microsoft Azure Data Lake
• Google Cloud Storage
• Oracle Cloud
• IBM Cloud
• Alibaba Cloud

With an increased reliance on cloud storage, companies have also started to implement other cloud-based solutions, such as cloud-hosted data warehouses and data lakes. 

For more on data warehousing: 15 Best Data Warehouse Software & Tools

Ethical Customer Data Collection 

Much of the increase in big data over the years has come in the form of consumer data or data that is constantly connected to consumers while they use tech such as streaming devices, IoT devices, and social media. 

Data regulations like GDPR require organizations to handle this personal data with care and compliance, but compliance becomes incredibly complicated when companies don’t know where their data is coming from or what sensitive data is stored in their systems. 

That’s why more companies are relying on software and best practices that emphasize ethical customer data collection.

It’s also important to note that many larger organizations that have historically collected and sold personal data are changing their approach, making consumer data less accessible and more expensive to purchase. 

Many smaller companies are now opting into first-party data sourcing, or collecting their own data, not only to ensure compliance with data laws and maintain data quality but also for cost savings.

AI/ML-Powered Automation

One of the most significant big data trends is using big data analytics to power AI/ML automation, both for consumer-facing needs and internal operations. 

Without the depth and breadth of big data, these automated tools would not have the training data necessary to replace human actions at an enterprise.

AI and ML solutions are exciting on their own, but the automation and workflow shortcuts that they enable are business game-changers. 

With the continued growth of big data input for AI/ML solutions, expect to see more predictive and real-time analytics possibilities in everything from workflow automation to customer service chatbots.

Big Data In Different Industries 

Different industries are picking up on big data and seeing many changes in how big data can help their businesses grow and change. From banking to healthcare, big data can help companies grow, change their technology, and provide for their data.

Banking

Banks must use big data for business and customer accounts to identify any cybersecurity risk that may happen. Big data also can help banks have location intelligence to manage and set goals for branch locations.

As big data develops, big data may become a basis for banks to use money more efficiently.

Agriculture

Agriculture is a large industry, and big data is vital within the industry. However, using the growing big data tools such as big data analytics can predict the weather and when it is best to plant or other agricultural situations for farmers.

Because agriculture is one of the most crucial industries, it’s important that big data support it, and it’s vital to help farmers in their processes. 

Real Estate And Property Management 

Understanding current property markets is necessary for anyone looking, selling, or renting a place to live. With big data, real estate firms can have better property analysis, better trends, and an understanding of customers and markets.

Property management companies are also utilizing their big data collected from their buildings to increase performance, find areas of concern, and help with maintenance processes.

Healthcare

Big data is one of the most important technologies within healthcare. Data needs to be collected from all patients to ensure they are receiving the care they need. This includes data on which medicine a patient should take, their vitals are and how they could change, and what a patient should consume. 

Going forward, data collection through devices will be able to help doctors understand their patients at an even deeper level, which can also help doctors save money and deliver better care.

Challenges in Big Data

With every helpful tool, there will be challenges for companies. While big data grows and changes, there are still challenges to solve.

Here are four challenges and how they can be solved:

Misunderstanding In Big Data

Companies and employees need to know how big data works. This includes storage, processing, key issues, and how a company plans to use the big data tools. Without clarity, properly using big data may not be possible.

Solutions: Big data training and workshops can help companies let their employees learn the ins and outs of how the company is using big data and how it benefits the company.

Data Growth

Storing data properly can be difficult, given how constantly data storehouses grow. This can include unstructured data that cannot be found in all databases. As data grows, it is important to know how to handle the data so the challenge can be fixed as soon as possible.

Solutions: Modern techniques, such as compression, tiering, and deduplication can help a company with large data sets. Using these techniques may help a company with growth and remove duplicate data and unwanted data.

Integrating Company Data

Data integration is necessary for analysis, reporting, and BI. These sources may contain social media pages, ERP applications, customer logs, financial reports, e-mails, presentations, and reports created by employees. This can be difficult to integrate, but it is possible.

Solutions: Integration is based on what tools are used for integration. Companies need to research and find the correct tools.

Lack Of Big Data Professionals

Data tools are growing and changing and often need a professional to handle them, including professionals with titles like data scientists, data analysts, and data engineers. However, some of these workers cannot keep up with the changes happening in the market.

Solutions: Investing money into a worker faced with difficulties in tech changes can fix this problem. Despite the expense, this can solve many problems with companies using big data.

Most challenges with big data can be solved with a company’s care and effort. The trends are growing to be more helpful for companies in need, and challenges will decrease as the technology grows. 

For more big data tools: Top 23 Big Data Companies: Which Are The Best?

Bottom Line: Growing Big Data Trends

Big data is changing continuously to help companies across all industries. Even with the challenges, big data trends will help companies as it grows.

Real time analytics, cloud storage, customer data collection, AI/ML automation, and big data across industries can dramatically help companies improve their big data tools.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that is free, open-source, and uses various proprietary licenses, including GNU General Public License (GPL). As an RDBMS, MySQL uses SQL to manage data inside a database. It organizes correlated data into one or more data tables, and this correlation helps structure the data.

It allows programmers to use SQL to create, modify, and extract data from the relational database. By normalizing data in the rows and columns of the tables, MySQL turns into a scalable yet flexible data storage system with a user-friendly interface that can manage lots of data.

MySQL also controls user access to the database as an added security measure, managing users and providing network access based on administrator rules. And it facilitates the testing of database integrity and the creation of backups.

While MySQL is normally accessed using SQL, it is often used with other programs as a component of various technology stacks, including LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/PHP/Python). As a result, several web applications that require relational database capabilities run on databases that use MySQL, including Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, and WordPress. Some popular websites even include Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube.

What Makes MySQL So Popular?

MySQL is one of many RDBMSs available in the market. Still, it is among the most popular ones — second only to Oracle Database when compared using critical parameters like search engine results, LinkedIn profiles, and frequency of mentions on online forums. In addition, the reliance of major tech giants on MySQL further solidifies its popularity.

Although the database management industry is dominated by technology behemoths like Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, free and open-source database management systems (DBMSs) such as Apache Cassandra, PostgreSQL, and MySQL remain highly competitive.

Here are four primary reasons for the incredible popularity of MySQL.

Easy to Use

MySQL is an easy-to-use and flexible RDBMS. Within 30 minutes of starting MySQL’s simple installation process, you’re able to modify source code to meet your needs. And as a free, open-source system, you don’t need to spend money for this level of freedom, including upgrading to an advanced version.

Secure

While choosing the right RDBMS software, the security of your data must be your priority. Fortunately, MySQL always prioritizes data security with its access privilege system and user account management. MySQL also offers host-based verification and password encryption.

High Performance

A server cluster backs MySQL. Therefore, MySQL offers smooth assistance with optimum speed, whether you store massive amounts of big data or perform intensive business intelligence (BI) activities.

Industry Standard

MySQL has been in the field for many years, turning it into an industry standard. It also means there are abundant resources for skilled developers. In addition, rapid developments in MySQL are possible anytime, and users can get freelance software experts for a smaller fee.

Top 8 Advantages of MySQL

1. Open Source

MySQL is one of the most popular choices for organizations or businesses regarding software as a service. Its community edition is freely available for anyone to use and modify, offering superior speed, scale, and reliability. This can be extremely beneficial, especially when businesses want to avoid paying licensing fees.

Since the source code is available for anyone to view and modify, developers can make changes to their software to suit their specific needs. This flexibility can benefit businesses with unique requirements or if there is a need to integrate the software with other tools or systems.

2. Data Security

MySQL is the most secure database management system in the world. The recent version of MySQL offers data security and transactional processing support that can significantly benefit any business, especially e-commerce businesses that carry out frequent monetary transactions.

3. Scalability on Demand

Scalability on demand is the hallmark feature of MySQL. It manages deeply embedded applications using a shallow footprint, even in databases that store terabytes of data. Moreover, MySQL offers customized solutions to e-commerce enterprises with specific database requirements.

4. Higher Efficiency

MySQL has several unique features, including a distinct storage engine software. It allows system administrators to configure the MySQL database server for flawless performance. It doesn’t matter if it is an e-commerce web application receiving a million daily queries or a high-speed transactional processing system.

MySQL is created to meet the increasing demands of almost every application and to ensure full-text indexes, optimum speed, and distinct caches for improved performance.

5. 24×7 Server Uptime

MySQL guarantees 24/7 uptime. It also offers a wide array of high-availability database solutions, including master/slave replication configurations and specialized server clusters.

6. Complete Transactional Support

MySQL is the number-one transactional database engine in the world. Its features include full atomic, consistent, isolated, durable, and multi-version transaction support as well as unrestricted row-level locking. Owing to these unique features, MySQL is a one-stop solution for comprehensive data integrity that ensures instant deadlock identification through server-enforced referential integrity.

7. Comprehensive Workflow Control

MySQL has easy usability with an average download and installation time of fewer than 30 minutes. In addition, it doesn’t matter whether your platform is Microsoft, Macintosh, Linux, or UNIX; MySQL is a comprehensive solution with self-management features. These features automate everything from configuration and space expansion to data design and database administration.

8. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

When enterprises migrate from current database applications to MySQL, they save a great deal on total cost of ownership. They can also save money on new projects. The reliability and ease of management of MySQL can save the money and time spent on troubleshooting that is otherwise spent in fixing downtimes and performance issues.

3 Tips on Enhancing MySQL Performance

Today, almost every open-source web application uses MySQL. It’s compatible with every hosting provider and is extremely easy to use. But, if your web application or e-commerce website is performing poorly, here are three performance hacks you should try.

1. Performance Fine-Tuning

You can improve your web application’s performance by fine-tuning your high-availability proxy or HAProxy instances. In addition, use updated load-balancing software to optimize your database and speed up your server. Database load-balancing software is designed to bring agility and scalability to expand capabilities if needed. It can meet unplanned performance demands in the future as well.

2. Security Audits

Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and spamming can wreak havoc on your database server. But, solid load-balancing software helps to easily prevent performance issues and increase uptime. It also ensures automatic failover and timely security updates.

3. Queries Optimization

Database optimization tools or techniques can only help fix the server load if websites and applications are coded well. But, SQL server load-balancing software can help in greater lengths. It is a one-stop solution for uptime maintenance, data consistency, performance enhancement, and reducing service costs.

Moreover, it ensures continuous availability for an enhanced customer experience. In short, MySQL does everything from running health checks to lowering the query wait time and evenly distributing the load across multiple servers.

Who Shouldn’t Use MySQL?

There are several sound reasons for not using MySQL; although, many are based on a misconception. So before implementing MySQL, go through these reasons and check whether they can apply to your enterprise. More than that, rejection of any database technology should be based on solid reasons rather than on the opinion of a database administrator (DBA).

Use of GPL

It is the biggest reason for not using MySQL. A GPL license is an advantage for many, but software with a GPL license may not suit specific environments. In these situations, a commercial license must be preferred if the Berkeley Source Distribution (BSD) license of PostgreSQL is still widely “open.”

In instances where MySQL is not free, GPL may not fit those situations well. For example, if you want to distribute the license for the database along with your project, the project must either be licensed under a similar compliant license, or you must get a commercial license for a fee.

A Proprietary Database Is Already Being Used

If an IT environment already has licensed Oracle and Sybase and several specific licenses for MS-SQL Server, then the MS-SQL instances are primarily the result of department staff’s ignorance of their paid licenses for other databases.

Adding any other database, including MySQL, is not wise in this situation, as DBAs already have to deal with many environments. Maintenance of a common database lessens the management burden. Further, if the company already paid for a proprietary database software license, a free, open-source database management system like MySQL is optional.

High-Volume Applications Need to Be Processed Quickly

MySQL needs to be optimized for high-volume applications and may not be suitable for fast data processing or streaming. For instance, users working on Internet of Things (IoT) systems require databases that can handle high-volume writes and reads as well as low latency.

For such cases, databases designed for IoT applications or real-time data processing work best. Although, it is important to note that MySQL can still be used for real-time data processing. However, it will require significant tweaks and optimizations to achieve the desired performance.

Complex Data Structures Require Advanced Querying

As a relational database management system, MySQL may not be suitable for applications with complex data structures that require advanced querying capabilities. For complex and high write-intensive workloads, NoSQL databases like MongoDB are more suited. Moreover, MySQL may not be suitable for applications with specialized needs, such as graph database capabilities or time series data.

There Is a Lack of Accessible Certification and Support

Certification is a favorite thing for some IT enterprises. Although MySQL has a certification training program, its availability is more challenging than Oracle or MS-SQL Server. In broader terms, even if IT professionals with MySQL skills are easy to find, certification or training programs are more difficult to reach out to with the availability of only a few third-party training sources. Larger IT businesses desire commercial database systems with enterprise experience, while some professionals with MySQL experience may have lesser depth.

Another related issue is the availability of qualified third-party support. The availability of support from the vendor mitigates the issue but only to some degree. The solution to the problem lies in solid third-party, on-site support.

Transparency

Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase are publicly traded companies. On the other hand, MySQL is a private enterprise running on open-source technology. That means its financials or other business-related documents are optional by law to make it into the public record.

As a result, a listed company is relatively transparent, and this transparency provides certainty, stability, and security to some IT professionals or entrepreneurs. In other words, dealing with an immense reputed corporate entity helps some people sleep peacefully at night.

There Is a View That MySQL Doesn’t Scale Well

There is a widespread perception among many IT professionals that MySQL needs to scale better. However, it is a matter of debate, and most arguments discuss the difference between scaling up (vertical) and scaling out (horizontal) processes. Scalability is always one of the top reasons for using MySQL; although, it discusses scaling out more than scaling up.

It has been estimated (without much evidence) that most trained DBAs prefer a proprietary RDBMS such as Oracle to an open-source data management system. In a larger IT environment under the management of a full-time DBA, MySQL creates lesser interest.

In this situation, the criticism of MySQL’s scalability becomes irrelevant. When you have talents and monetary resources at your disposal, it is always better to equip them with the tools they are comfortable with. This approach always pays off in the long run.

Top 3 MySQL Alternatives

Of course, MySQL is a widely used database management system. On top of that, it can be easily installed and integrated with various applications. However, there are also other excellent alternative database management systems available in the market. Some of the well-known options include:

1. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL, also known as Postgres, is an open-source yet powerful data management system that rivals any other paid RDBMS. It is compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, and BSD.

Pros

• PostgreSQL has a holistic approach toward data integrity and robustness, and it is reflected by its comprehensive ACID compliance.
• The performance of PostgreSQL increases with each release. It is also proven by many benchmark tests.
• A strong open-source community backs PostgreSQL with tutorials, guides, and support.
• Updates, features, and fixes are released on time.
• PostgreSQL supports the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data type, an open data interchange format readable to humans and machines.
• PostgreSQL supports popular programming languages such as Perl and Python, allowing programmers to quickly transform a database server into a reliable service with complex business logic.

Cons

• PostgreSQL is not suitable for small applications, as they can’t handle its full power and complex operations.

2. MariaDB

MariaDB is a rapidly growing, MySQL-compatible, open-source database. It has free and paid versions along with a variety of plug-ins to provide more functionalities. Moreover, it works under GPL.

Pros

• MariaDB has strong open-source community support in development, documentation, troubleshooting, and tutorials.
• It has cutting-edge features such as a geographic information system (GIS).
• It has dynamic column support that allows a few NoSQL functionalities.

Cons

• An expensive horizontal scaling process.
• A lesser performance potential with bulky databases.
• Poor load and cluster management.
• Lesser advanced features.

3. SQLite

SQLite is an RDMS that is not a client-server database. However, SQLite and PostgreSQL have similar syntax.

Pros

• It has bindings for various programming languages, including BASIC, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Visual Basic.
• It is a lightweight software.
• SQLite is self-contained and requires little or no support from external libraries or operating systems.
• It is portable across multiple applications with cross-platform support.
• SQLite is reliable with little complications.
• It is ideal for testing and initial development stages.
• No configuration is needed.

Cons

• No multi-user support.
• Missing SQL features, such as FOR EACH STATEMENT and RIGHT OUTER JOIN.

Bottom Line: Advantages of MySQL

MySQL is a versatile, mature, open-source, and extensible database management system. Moreover, if we weigh the advantages of MySQL discussed above, five of its key features and benefits stand out from the rest.

MySQL is a reliable, easy-to-use, and secure RDBMS that is enterprise-ready with support from GPL and can scale with businesses after some fine-tuning and optimization.

Reasons are plenty for MySQL’s popularity. It’s an accessible database management system with improved capability to deal with modern problems. If you need something beyond the core functionality of MySQL, MariaDB may be a better option.

These include Dell PowerProtect Data Manager software advancements, a new appliance, broader cyber recovery in public clouds, and zero-trust multicloud data protection as well as more flexible backup storage as-a-service and a guarantee of cyber recovery, according to the company last month.

The Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance is said to be simple to use and easy to consume. It incorporates artificial intelligence (AI)-powered resilience and operational security features aimed at accelerating the adoption of zero-trust architectures and protecting against potential threats and cyberattacks.

Key Findings in 2022 Dell “Global Data Protection Index”

Dell conducted an in-depth survey of its customers that is covered in the 2022 Dell “Global Data Protection Index.”

Findings:

• In the past year, cyberattacks accounted for 48% of all disasters, up from 37% in 2021, and leading all other causes of data disruption
• 85% of organizations using multiple data protection vendors see a benefit in consolidation
• Organizations using a single data protection vendor incurred 34% less cost recovering from cyberattacks or other cyber incidents than those that used multiple vendors
• 91% of organizations are either aware of or planning to deploy a zero-trust architecture but only 23% are deploying a zero-trust model and 12% have it fully deployed

Embedding Zero Trust

The survey highlighted the fact that zero trust remains largely undeployed in enterprises.

Dell aims to rectify that by incorporating the zero-trust philosophy into its products and services, so customers don’t need to add yet another layer of security tools on top of their existing infrastructures. With embedded security features designed into the hardware, firmware, and security control points, this approach helps organizations achieve zero-trust architectures to strengthen cyber resiliency and reduce security complexity.

See more: Overcoming Zero-Trust Security Challenges

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance

The Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance is available initially for small and mid-sized use cases with support that scales from 12 to 96 TB of data. It offers a software-defined (SD) architecture for automated discovery and protection of assets, including VMware protection with Transparent Snapshots that ensure the VM availability. Identity and access management (IAM) capabilities are also built in.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager software within the appliance addresses cyber resiliency and supports zero-trust principles, such as multifactor authentication (MFA), dual authorization, and role-based access controls.

Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery

For fast cyber recovery from public cloud vaults, Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud enables deployment of completely isolated cyber vaults in Google Cloud.

By securely separating and protecting data, it is further safeguarded from cyberattack. Access to management interfaces is locked down by networking controls and requires separate security credentials and MFA for access. Those wanting to take advantage of these services can use existing Google Cloud subscriptions to purchase PowerProtect Cyber Recovery through the Google Cloud Marketplace or directly from Dell and channel partners.

“Integrated data protection”

“With virtually everything connected to the internet, the need to protect data is more important than ever,” said Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager, infrastructure solutions group, Dell Technologies.

“Point solutions don’t go deep or wide enough to help protect organizations. Dell helps customers strengthen cyber resiliency by offering integrated data protection software, systems, and services to help ensure data and applications are protected and resilient wherever they live.”

Dell’s Recent Activity

Dell has been busy on the cybersecurity front over the past year.

Its Dell Data Protection Suite is being used increasingly to rapidly back up thousands of VMs while providing prompt recovery in the event of a service disruption or outage.

The company has been steadily expanding its security portfolio via endpoint security services, beefed up supply chain security, and upgrades across its Dell PowerProtect Appliance line as well as its trusted devices and trusted infrastructure programs.

In addition, Dell Technologies has been advancing its reputation in the enterprise space via announcements, such as PowerScale cyber protection that incorporates AI, Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery, and a range of business resiliency services.

Growth of the Cybersecurity Market

Dell Technologies is investing forthrightly in the cybersecurity market. And with good reason.

McKinsey studies indicate that security represents a $2 trillion market opportunity over the long term. The consulting firm placed the value of the market at around $150 billion in 2021, with cybersecurity predicted to grow at a rate of at least 12% annually.

Dell is a relatively small player in the cybersecurity market. But by incorporating more features into its existing products and services, it gradually takes away a bigger slice of business from cybersecurity vendors and rivals. An argument may be why buy from Dell and two security vendors when everything is included in some of these latest Dell products and services?

See more: Top 5 Cybersecurity Trends

As an OEM, Lenovo was all in early to embrace AMD’s performance advantages. Lenovo adopted AMD’s Threadripper platform for workstations and rode that decision to workstation leadership in the related segment.

At AMD’s event, Lenovo’s Kirk Skaugen shared that Epyc processors were number one in reliability and in high-performance servers, which speaks well of Lenovo’s aggressive AMD position on PCs and servers. Like the business PC unit, the server unit was acquired from IBM and showcases what can happen if two companies partner well with each other.

I had a chance to meet with Lenovo at the event, so let’s talk about AMD’s performance and sustainability advantages and what this will mean for Lenovo’s movement in the server market.

AMD’s Epyc Launch

This was a powerful AMD launch with many vendors coming on stage to sing its praises, such as Oracle, Super Micro, Dell, and Lenovo.

The performance and energy efficiency of the new Epyc line of server processors is competitively strong. AMD’s new-generational performance advantage is due partly to AMD’s unprecedented focus and execution by its executive team, particularly its IBM-trained top executives Lisa Su and Mark Papermaster.

I was at AMD’s gaming launch recently, and, as you would expect, there was a lot of rowdy behavior and cheering. At AMD’s server event, the crowd seemed as excited about the Epyc release as the other crowd did about gaming.

Lenovo AMD-Based Servers

Lenovo is an exceptional partner. It attends its partners’ events without pitching itself as being above the partner it’s supporting. Lenovo has been using AMD to aggressively move against its competitors successfully for the last several years.

Winning award after award and gaining in market share, Lenovo has also benefited from its Chinese roots, because to operate internationally, Lenovo was forced to implement extremely rigorous security controls, which have had the unanticipated effect of making it more secure and far more reliable.

Companies live on uptime, and based on survey results, Lenovo’s AMD-based servers are by far among the most reliable in the market. Lenovo also shared that the power savings alone from its latest AMD servers provide a 12-month full return on investment on energy cost alone. This is a testament to the pivot Lenovo made toward using AMD as a huge competitive differentiator. One of the most interesting Lenovo efforts is the line of Lenovo Neptune servers that use water cooling but don’t require an external water source. In this regard, they’re more like water-cooled gaming desktop systems and provide the benefits of water cooling without the extreme costs of plumbing the data center for water.

Today, Lenovo is aggressively leading the server market in a number of key metrics with strong growth internationally. Increasingly, what drives that growth is the synergy within Lenovo between units, suggesting we are still at the beginning of this growth spurt.

Lenovo-AMD Partnership

Lenovo is using AMD’s Epyc serve line technology and partnership to drive competitive advantage at a global rate in the server market. Sometimes you can take a risk, and it can make the difference between staying with the pack and market leadership.

Both AMD and Lenovo highlighted at the fourth-generation launch of Epyc that they are taking the latter path. The result puts both of their competitors on notice that they came to play, and they do not intend to lose.

For data centers looking to cut back on operating costs while improving performance, both AMD and Lenovo made a good case for getting your business. It’s worth checking out.

Fremont, California-based Seagate, founded in 1979, has a workforce of over 40,000 people and a presence in the Silicon Valley, China, the U.K., India, and Singapore. See below to learn all about where Seagate stands in the data storage market:

Data storage portfolio

Seagate offers three types of storage solutions:

Services

Lyve Edge-to-Cloud

• Mass storage platform used to capture unstructured data
• Predictable as-a-service consumption model with no vendor lock-in
• Complements existing cloud infrastructure while overcoming the barriers of data gravity
• Breaks down multicloud, multi-site data silos
• Policy-driven orchestration delivers frictionless, rapid movement, and ingestion of data from endpoint to edge to cloud

Lyve Multicloud Object Storage

• Object storage for mass data
• Capacity-based pricing with no hidden fees for egress or API calls, reducing total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Transfers data seamlessly across public and private cloud environments
• High availability and durability with globally recognized security standards
• ISO 270001:2013 and SOC2 certified
• Ransomware protection, enterprise-grade identity management support, automatic data replication, and data encryption at rest and in flight

Hardware

With over 40 years of hardware storage solution development and manufacturing, Seagate has a number of innovative hardware solutions available:

• Lyve Rack: Converged object storage infrastructure solution for artificial intelligence (AI) and big data
• Lyve Mobile Shuttle: Edge storage solution designed to store and move data to and from emerging edge environments, with and without the use of a computer, including support for most industry-standard file systems
• Lyve Mobile Array: Powering high-capacity and high-performance data transfers while employing industry-standard AES 256-bit hardware encryption and key management, in a rugged, lockable transport case
• Data storage systems and enterprise drives: From petabyte to exabyte, storage solutions with firmware and multi-core capabilities

Software

CORTX

• Intelligent object storage software optimized for mass capacity and data-intensive workloads
• 100% open-source and community-driven design, delivering faster access to innovations that can be customized by any enterprise
• Provides structured access to unstructured information, with search and analysis built-in

See more: The Top Data Storage Companies

Partners

Working with an organization as mature as Seagate as a partner means gaining access to various resources and benefits, including:

• Training and education with specialized tracks to meet specific business needs
• Demand generation
• Marketing and sales support
• Monthly newsletter with industry news and events
• Access to a self-service portal

For potential partners looking to build innovative solutions, Seagate offers the Partner Program Builder Track that gives access to additional resources, like marketing development funds, tier discounts, and other personalized benefits.

Independent software and hardware vendors with complementary solutions to Seagate enterprise system products are invited to join their Tech Alliance. Partners in this program have the opportunity to promote solutions together with Seagate.

Becoming a Seagate partner means joining a list of trusted partners, including: Commvault; Equinix; Veritas; IBM; RedHat; Bosch; Intel; and VMWare.

See more: Top 10 Data Storage Certifications

Data storage use case

Concerned by their ability to compete against the most significant players in the cloud storage industry, Sync.com needed a data storage partner that could scale quickly to meet their rising demands. 

With a mission to provide enterprise customers with secure access to enormous data loads, Sync.com also needed automatic fail-over systems and secure HIPAA-compliant capabilities that meet the requirements of legal, health care, and accounting firms.

Sync.com used Seagate’s high-density EXOS E storage system.

Key benefits:

• Scaling to deliver services to more than one million users
• Increased capacity to meet 3 PB-per-month demands
• 99% uptime for customers
• 10 TB of storage for users

“The Seagate solution is a key component under the hood. Without Seagate, we wouldn’t be able to scale in a way that gives us peace of mind — and Sync.com is in the peace of mind business. For Sync.com, success was threefold: the ability to introduce new products, improve scalability, and enhance customer trust,” says Thomas Savundra, co-founder and president, Sync.com.

User reviews of Seagate data storage

Seagate storage solutions are well-reviewed, achieving a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars from users at Gartner Peer Insights.

“At Dropbox, we need to deploy the most cost-efficient storage without sacrificing reliability, security, and performance. That’s why we’ve continually partnered with Seagate. Their collaboration is critical in helping Dropbox define our future storage architecture,” says Seagate user Ali Zafar, senior director of platform strategy and operations, Dropbox, in a case study.

Industry recognition of Seagate data storage

• Won the Leadership Award from the National Association of Manufacturers in 2022

Seagate in the HDD market

When it comes to global hard disk drive (HDD) market share, a segment of the data storage market, Seagate was estimated to hold the top position in 2021, with 43% of the market, ahead of Western Digital at 36%, according to Statista.

Bottom line

Seagate offers a broad portfolio of quality data storage solutions with global reach, an established history of quality customer support, and recently committed to powering their global footprint with 100% renewable energy by 2030.

See more: 5 Top Data Center Storage Trends

NetApp has 11,000 employees focused on helping customers accelerate their digital transformations. The company reported revenue of $5.74 billion in 2021.

See below to learn all about NetApp’s storage offerings and where they stand in the sector:

See more: The Top Data Storage Companies

Data storage portfolio

Hybrid cloud

• Unified storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) all-flash and hybrid storage appliances
• Support for file and block services with three major public cloud providers

Data center modernization

• Reports shrinking storage footprint by up to 19 times
• Reports reducing power and cooling costs by up to 11 times
• Handle multiple workloads, petabytes of data, and thousands of end users

Risk reduction

• Meet strict backup and recovery windows
• Prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, and unwanted modification
• Comply with applicable regulations

NVMe solutions

• Delivers high throughput and fast response times for enterprise workloads
• Provides a performance-obsessed foundation for hybrid-cloud deployments

Keystone

• Storage-as-a-service offering enables customers to build a hybrid cloud with less financial risk or without tedious storage tasks
• Operational and financial flexibility offering on-premises storage with cloud versatility
• Orchestration, provisioning, and management using NetApp Cloud Manager
• Native cloud integration for bursting, backup, and disaster recovery
• Data protection using snapshots, vaulting, replication, and 99.999% data availability
• Pay-as-you-grow model shaped by contract term, on-premises workload capacities by service tier, deployment location, and cloud data services

StorageGRID

• Software-defined object storage suite for public, private, hybrid, and multicloud environments
• Automated life cycle management to store, secure, protect, and preserve unstructured data
• Cost-effective over long periods

ONTAP

• Data management software that solves for data security, staging, and growth
• Automate day-to-day tasks, saving time for IT team members
• Scale performance and capacity
• Built-in data security and automatic ransomware protection
• Protect against disruptions caused by failures, maintenance, and site disasters

See more: How Storage Hardware is Used by Nationwide, BDO, Vox, Cerium, Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Palm Beach County School District, and GKL: Case Studies

Partners

NetApp offers a partnership program for organizations wanting to provide on-premises, hybrid, and multicloud experiences for their customers.

NetApp offers opportunities to a variety of technology partners, including:

• Global system integrators (GSI)
• Solution providers
• Service providers
• Cloud partners
• Alliance partners

NetApp’s partner program also offers several features, such as:

• Integration support and API resources
• Notifications and support for sales opportunities
• Insight into Actions community committed to sharing thoughts on all things NetApp
• Blogs on partner-related topics and program updates

Data storage use case

NetApp provided the partnership necessary to drive the digital transformation journey of the motorcycle maker Ducati, helping to leverage opportunities in the cloud. 

Using NetApp technologies, Ducati captures and analyzes performance data from thousands of connected motorcycles. The insights gained drive new innovations and next-level riding experiences for consumers.

Beyond helping with their products, NetApp increased network performance and cost efficiencies for Ducati. Benefits observed by Ducati include:

• 70% reduction in the cost of powering and cooling the company’s data center
• NetApp AFF consolidated and streamlined workloads and over 200 applications
• High-performance cluster reduced footprint by 20x
• Creation of a data security strategy with an effective data recovery solution

Andrea Spina, CIO at Ducati, describes the company’s decision to work with NetApp, explaining they are “one of the few companies we know that can help virtually every part of our business.”

“Data is only the beginning. NetApp has shown us the power of its comprehensive suite of solutions, from all-flash storage systems to all opportunities offered by cloud data services,” Spina says. “NetApp has helped us capitalize on today’s business opportunities while we innovate for tomorrow.”

User reviews of NetApp data storage

Reviews for NetApp and their portfolio are tremendous, with consistently high ratings.

Industry recognition of NetApp data storage

NetApp enjoys significant industry recognition, with recent awards and accolades that include:

• Named one of America’s “Most Trustworthy” companies by Newsweek and Statista
• CloudCheckr cloud management platform named a leader and an outperformer in the GigaOm “Radar Report” for cloud management platforms
• NetApp AI won the award for natural language processing (NLP) from The Business Intelligence Group
• One of three companies with over 10,000 employees recognized by The Business Intelligence Group for Excellence in Customer Service

NetApp in the data storage market

NetApp competes with several major competitors in the storage sector, such as:

• Dell Technologies
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• IBM
• Pure Storage
• Seagate

See more: 5 Top Storage Hardware Trends

Redwood City, California-based Equinix aims to help customers scale the launch of their digital products and services. The company serves over 10,000 customers, and they report working with over 260 Fortune “500” companies.

See below to learn all about Equinix’s data center offerings:

See more: The Top Data Storage Companies

Data center portfolio

• Owns and operates over 240 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in 70 major metros
• Reports 99.9999% uptime
• Deployment with access to data center expertise from certified technology partners
• Cages, cabinets, and other equipment can be customized and configured to meet customer requirements
• Works to meet certification and compliance standards with network reliability, redundancy, and low latency

IBXflex Space

• Non-cage space that offers security, power, cooling, and interconnecting for office and storage needs
• Unit is equipped with safety and security features, including biometric hand readers, solid doors with pin-proxy cards, fire suppression systems, and smoke detection systems

IBX SmartView

• Real-time online access to environment and operating information relevant to customer footprint at the cage and cabinet levels
• Single source of truth across deployments, including globally
• Actionable, proactive insights using configurable reports and alerts

Equinix Infrastructure Services (EIS)

• Support for planning and project managing deployments
• Vetting, management, and consolidation of all requisite vendor partners into a single invoice with a single Equinix point of contact
• Future-proofing that includes flexible solutions capable of accommodating growth and change

Smart hands

• Remote server access, custom installations, and equipment troubleshooting 24/7/365
• On-site assistance to manage business operations and provide technical support
• Physical audit service to provide information on infrastructure assets and cable connectivity
• Customer portal provides order status, invoices, access reports, and account information, with the ability to place new orders and schedule services
• Payment schedules available with prepayment discounts of up to 40% with rollover of unused monthly plan hours

Equinix Metal

• Developer-friendly automated infrastructure
• DevOps automation offers software deployment in minutes
• Optimize cloud costs, increase security, innovate, and access a world of service providers

Equinix Precision Time

• Time synchronization with 50 microsecond accuracy using Equinix-managed GPS antennas, receivers, grandmaster clocks, and time servers
• Addresses industry-specific challenges, including high-frequency financial services trading platforms needing to precisely order transaction sequences, prevent lip-sync errors for online streaming services, and avoid transactional database errors

Network edge

• Modular infrastructure platform with multi-vendor flexibility
• Reduce complexity and costs with increased ease of management with virtual services

See more: How Storage Hardware is Used by Nationwide, BDO, Vox, Cerium, Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Palm Beach County School District, and GKL: Case Studies

Partners

A commitment to collaboration drives the Equinix partner program, driven by two types of partners:

• Reseller partners: providing end-to-end managed solutions for development, deployment, maintenance, and billing
• Alliance partners: delivering expertise in network optimization and transformation, hybrid and multicloud enablement, and application workload performance

Equinix provides a secure online partner portal known as Partner Central, which offers sales and technical training and sales tracking.

A referral program is also available for partners looking to interconnect with others in the Equinix ecosystem, including:

• Google Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• Oracle
• AWS
• Cisco
• Dell Technologies
• VMware
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Data center use case

Zoom has grown to be the leader in enterprise video communications. 

After experiencing unprecedented growth, Zoom needed a data center partner with the infrastructure to support their evolving needs and uptime demands.

Zoom takes advantage of Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in nine markets worldwide, plus additional data centers used for disaster recovery backup. Zoom also leverages Equinix Internet Exchange to achieve scalable network-peering aggregation and Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric) to set up and scale access to networks, clouds, partners, and customers.

Zoom identifies several key benefits resulting from their strategic partnership with Equinix:

• Establish data center and interconnection operations quickly and easily
• Establish reliable disaster recovery environments
• High-speed virtual connections with low latency
• Reduce network costs with increased scalability
• Maintenance of regulation-compliant voice and data privacy protections

“Equinix makes everything very easy for us because of the consistency across its global platform. For this reason, and its private interconnection solutions, Equinix is by far our largest data center provider,” says Zak Pierce, data center operations manager, Zoom.

User reviews of Equinix data centers

Reviews of Equinix are consistently high, with many user comments indicating a strong customer focus and high-quality services:

• Gartner Peer Insights: 4.3 out of 5
• G2: 4.1 out of 5

“Partnering with Equinix, a world-class co-location and interconnection service provider, was a faster, better, and cheaper strategy for growing the company, expanding our global footprint and better serving our users with greater performance and reliability.” -Nandu Mahadevan, VP of SaaS operations, BMC Software

“Modernizing our financial services infrastructure on Platform Equinix helps me feel confident we’re ready for whatever the future holds. When we look at our road map, whether it’s microservices or cloud-native solutions, we know we can get where we want to go and bring our key partners with us.” -Richard Hannah, CEO, Celero

“Equinix’s innovative interconnection options allow us to eliminate latency for our customers so that they can process more loans more efficiently.” –Ellie Mae’s VP of cloud infrastructure

Industry recognition of Equinix data center

Equinix is receiving a attention within the industry, with several recent notable achievements:

• Ranked on the Fortune “500” for the first time in 2021
• Awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2022 Singapore Data Center Services Company of the Year
• Named the 2022 HPE GreenLake Momentum Partner of the Year
• Ranked No. 6 on the EPA’s “Top 100” list of green power users

In addition, Forrester analysts predict the interconnection of services, branded as Platform Equinix, offers significant benefits:

• 60%-70% cloud connectivity and network traffic cost reduction
• 30% reduction in latency

Equinix in the data center market

Equinix holds an estimated 11% of the co-location data center revenue and ranks first among the 15 largest providers in 2021, according to Statista. 

Digital Realty holds second place with an estimated 7.6% of the market revenue, with China Telecom in third place at 6.1%.

See more: 5 Top Storage Hardware Trends

Boston-based Iron Mountain serves over 225,000 customers in 58 countries, and they report working with 95% of Fortune “1,000” companies

See below to learn all about the data center offerings by Iron Mountain:

See more: The Top Data Storage Companies

Data center portfolio

With a reputation for regulatory compliance, Iron Mountain offers data centers with many notable features, including:

• 20 locations across three continents
• Scalable options from single data center cabinet to fully dedicated data center
• Cloud-neutral data solutions
• Business continuity
• Physical security
• Environmental sustainability

Smart hands

• Contract all hands-on maintenance tasks
• Responses guaranteed within minutes
• Get help with rack and stack, hardware reboots, cabling, and lock resets
• Experts available on-site and on call 24/7/365
• Anytime, anywhere ordering
• Billed hourly or on a recurring discounted basis

Data center migration

• End-to-end solutions that include analysis, risk assessment, planning, design, execution, and testing
• Clear work statements and methodologies with a single point of contact for support tasks
• Team includes project managers, structured cabling personnel, specialized movers, network engineers, and system administrators
• Ensure budgets and time frames are adhered to

Data center installations and builds

• Use proven experts for site selection, design, construction, government and regulator liaison activities, and the creation of power and network connectivity strategies

Global network operations center (GNOC)

• Central point for customer communication and advocacy
• Log in to manage infrastructure
• Request expert assistance, access logs, power and cooling audits, and bandwidth usage reports
• Monitored ticketing platform

See more: How Storage Hardware is Used by Nationwide, BDO, Vox, Cerium, Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Palm Beach County School District, and GKL: Case Studies

Partners

Iron Mountain has three partnership programs:

• Channel partners: dedicated resources that include training, guidance, sales tools to accelerate growth and create recurring revenue streams
• Real estate brokers: assistance with customers who express the need for new or growing infrastructure requirements, such as a cabinet, cage, or building.
• Strategic alliances: with a wide range of businesses and industry groups, including hardware, software, interconnection, and environmental, help to drive digital infrastructure change.

Data center use case

As an internet services company, hosting over 200,000 websites for 30,000 customers, Krystal needed to find a data center capable of high performance with stability and scalability.

Just as important to Krystal was finding a data center partner that could match their values while meeting its technical demands. 

Iron Mountain proved to be reliable and personal with high environmental standards.

“We loved the fact that there was renewable power being generated on-site, but we also saw Iron Mountain as a longer-term match due to their standards, their ecosystems, and their location spread,” says Alex Easter, CTO, Krystal.

Initially, Krystal planned to build their own data centers but turned to providers as remote work recently expanded. Starting with locations in the U.S., Krystal knew they had plans for data center sites in Europe and Asia Pacific. The global nature of Iron Mountain is one of the reasons Krystal selected the vendor.

User reviews of Iron Mountain data centers

Users at the tech review site Gartner Peer Insights give Iron Mountain an overall rating of 4 out of 5.

Industry recognition of Iron Mountain data centers

Iron Mountain has made a significant commitment to using clean energy while providing data center services.

After joining the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Building Initiative as a Challenge Partner and demonstrating their ability to run all of their data centers on 100% renewable energy, Iron Mountain won the RE100 Leadership Awards, Most Impactful Pioneer for using clean energy across their global data center infrastructure.

Iron Mountain was also named as a RE100 Key Collaborator, empowering others in the industry.

Iron Mountain in the data center market

Iron Mountain competes primarily against some of the largest data center companies in the world, such as:

• Equinix
• Lumen
• Digital Realty
• CoreSite 

Conclusions

Iron Mountain is a good secure data center option for companies focused on compliance and continuous improvement for design, operation, security, and efficiency. Iron Mountain also provides true global consistency, achieving certifications in information security (ISO 27001), energy management (ISO 50001), and environmental management (ISO 14001).

See more: 5 Top Storage Hardware Trends

A handful of large storage companies ruled the roost. They captured the lion’s share of storage revenue too. But gradually, their hold over the sector diminished. 

Despite that, SANs remain important, particularly in enterprise-class operations. 

Here are some of the top trends in the storage area network market:

See more: The Storage Area Network (SAN) Market

1. Competing with the cloud 

The cloud is certainly one of the main reasons for the SANs fall from grace. 

It was promoted as a far cheaper option to buying SAN hardware and software and then managing your own storage environment. And so it was for many workloads. 

Of course, there remained plenty of reasons for organizations to retain their SANs: privacy, security, compliance, and control. 

That said, there is now a move to provide SANs and SAN-like equipment at much lower cost and level of simplicity that makes them usable and affordable by small and mid-sized enterprises. 

“The industry must develop new shared storage architectures to deliver similar economics to the cloud with small on-premise solutions,” said Derek Dicker, CEO, Nyriad. 

Just scaling down today’s cloud architecture doesn’t work, Dicker added. Cloud architectures depend on many copies of the data in diverse locations to support high utilization from many users. Private on-premise solutions, therefore, must be architected for efficiency, even with a small number of users. That’s why multiple copies would be cost prohibitive. 

“New shared storage architectures will emerge that minimize trapped capacity, provide data resilience without high overheads (no copies, no RAID), and operate with high availability to provide an efficient, cost-effective, on-premise component of a hybrid storage solution,” Dicker said. 

His company is the developer of the UltraIO storage system, a system that combines the processing speed of GPUs and advanced algorithms for performance, resiliency, and efficiency. 

2. File and object storage  

But SANs don’t have it all their own way when it comes to on-premises storage. 

“While organizations are still deploying mission-critical applications and databases on SAN-based infrastructure, modern applications are increasingly moving to newer paradigms, such as file and object storage,” said Jay Subramanian, VP, product management, Pure Storage. 

“Generally, application deployments are based on the best practices recommended by app vendors, but as unstructured data continues to grow at a rate that is significantly higher than structured data, modern applications require more modern deployment solutions.” 

See more: How Storage Hardware is Used by Nationwide, BDO, Vox, Cerium, Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Palm Beach County School District, and GKL: Case Studies

3. Resilience  

With data volumes exploding and so many working remotely, cyber attacks are on the rise. Thus, SANs and storage hardware in general are incorporating more security features. 

For example, IBM Storage provides the IBM Safeguarded Copy capability, which enables IBM FlashSystem, IBM Spectrum Scale, and IBM DS8000 clients to create cyber-resilient immutable snapshots. 

“This provides organizations with a consistent approach to safeguarding data, regardless of where it’s located or how it scales up or out,” said Scott Baker, VP, storage product marketing, IBM. 

4. Finding storage vulnerabilities 

Most of the attention in vulnerability management has been on operating systems (OSs) and applications. 

However, it is now backup vulnerabilities and storage misconfigurations that are handing hackers a relatively easy passage into organizations, according to Doron Pinhas, CTO, Continuity Software. 

From there, they can cripple backups, lock users out of systems, and hold the organization to ransom. 

“Comprehensive vulnerability management ensures you have eyes and ears on your storage and backup environments at all times,” Pinhas said. 

“This prevents cybercriminals from leveraging those vulnerabilities and misconfigurations to penetrate storage and backup systems.” 

For example, the automated risk detection engines within Continuity Software’s StorageGuard check for thousands of possible misconfigurations and vulnerabilities at the storage system and backup system levels that might pose a security threat to enterprise data. 

It analyzes block, object, and IP storage systems, SAN/NAS, storage management servers, storage appliances, virtual SAN, storage networking switches, data protection appliances, storage virtualization systems, and other storage devices. Much of this is missed by traditional vulnerability scanners. 

5. Storage CVEs and other vulnerabilities 

Pinhas with Continuity Software also draws attention to the surprisingly high number of common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) that impact storage and backup environments. 

He said there are hundreds of such well-known vulnerabilities that are not being addressed in the enterprise. 

To make matters worse, CVEs are far from the only things that storage and backup managers should be addressing. 

Most of them have the mistaken idea that their systems are largely immune to attack, due to their being regarded as back-end systems. 

“There are also thousands of violations of vendor security configuration guidelines and compliance framework violations impacting storage and backup environments,” Pinhas said.

See more: 5 Top Storage Hardware Trends

Many more virtualization avenues have yet to be traveled. Currently, Kubernetes, for example, is taking virtual storage to a whole new level. 

Here are some of the top trends in the storage virtualization market: 

See more: The Storage Virtualization Market

1. Unified data stack 

Storage virtualization enables a unified data stack across different deployment environments, according to Bin Fan, VP of open source and founding engineer, Alluxio. 

“Data platform teams want their data architectures to have a standardized stack applicable to many different environments, making it possible to build once and deploy anywhere,” Fan said. 

“Storage virtualization helps abstract away the complexity of data services in different environments, including on-prem data centers, cloud services by multiple vendors, and across geographical regions.” 

2. Increased agility

Companies want greater flexibility and agility from their IT resources. 

This plays into the strengths of storage virtualization. 

“Virtualization of storage systems significantly reduces the complexity of different data access APIs, protocols, and configurations,” said Fan with Alluxio. 

“Our customers who adopted storage virtualization observed increased agility in their hybrid and multicloud environments.” 

See more: How Storage Virtualization is Used by Groupo Alcione, Seneca Family of Agencies, Consolidated Communications Holdings, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, and Daegu Metropolitan City: Case Studies

3. Hardware variety 

In the past, companies were often vendor-specific shops. This came with advantages in terms of discounts and better support, but it also ended up in vendor lock-in. 

See more: NetApp: Storage Portfolio Review

The cloud sometimes leads to hefty maintenance renewal fees at the end of the year. Software-defined storage (SDS) is changing that and making it possible for companies to diversify their hardware purchases. 

“Storage virtualization builds on today’s trend toward software-defined storage and has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and scalability of enterprise IT systems,” said Scott Baker, VP, IBM Storage. 

“It’s become increasingly important now that the majority of enterprise IT environments include storage hardware from multiple suppliers.” 

By centralizing resources and enabling data services to be applied across the entire storage estate, storage virtualization helps organizations increase the value and extend the life cycle of their existing IT investments. 

Plus, storage virtualization lets them treat disparate arrays as unified storage pools that can be consistently published to a variety of user environments, including cloud-based containerized workloads. 

For example, IBM Storage believes storage virtualization will continue to grow in importance, because of its role in highly automated data centers.

4. Preparing for ransomware 

Storage, just as much, as any other area of IT needs to be alert to the ransomware menace. 

And storage virtualization, if anything, has made storage infrastructure more accessible to the overtures of cyber attackers. An Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) study found that cybersecurity has unseated the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) as the top area for IT spending.   

A research study by Arcserve and Dimension Research found that 50% of organizations worldwide had been targeted by ransomware. These attacks are continuing at a high frequency. Yet, most organizations are unprepared. 

The financial fallout can be staggering: 20% of organizations reported that they were asked to pay $1 million to $10 million; another 35% faced demands of over $100,000. 

Understandably, they are responding with higher investment in better security tools, managed security services, improved backup/disaster recovery (DR), and training for personnel; 64% are spending more to upgrade existing security software and add new security applications. 

5. Storage beware

Certain parts of the enterprise are more concerned about ransomware than others. 

Cybersecurity, help desk, and IT management are in tune with the threat that ransomware poses on a daily basis. 

Storage managers, however, don’t tend to pay as much attention based on the belief that their systems lie at the back end and are not subject to attack. 

But the impact of storage virtualization has changed things and may have inadvertently brought about an easier pathway for cybercriminals to attack storage and from there, the enterprise. 

Research from Continuity Software makes it clear that enterprise storage devices have 15 security vulnerabilities on average. Three of these can be considered high or critical risk. 

“Therefore, it is vitally important that storage managers understand the magnitude of the ransomware menace and take steps to address these vulnerabilities,” said Doron Pinhas, CTO, Continuity. 

See more: NetApp: Storage Portfolio Review