Is the current flurry of the software-defined data center (SDDC) just hype? Or are enterprises and businesses across the globe really adopting this new approach? No one needs to question the prevalence of software-defined computing—because almost all analysts agree that over 50% of all x86 workloads in data centers are virtualized nowadays.
But what about the other technologies needed for the SDDC vision? How is the adoption of hyper-converged infrastructure and software-defined storage (SDS) going? If storage, along with networking, is the next virtual revolution in the data center, those markets should be ticking upwards, right?
According to Markets and Markets, the software-defined storage space will expand to 6.2 billion in 2019, and experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.6%. That’s certainly bright news and indicates a healthy market adoption of SDS.
Other firms such as Market Realist and Gartner predict that by 2021, the Enterprise SDS revenue will surpass traditional enterprise storage.
While such forecasts are promising—the market still has a fair ways to go, according to research conducted by ActualTech Media. In its 2015 State of Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market survey of 500 tech professionals over small, mid-market, and large enterprises—they found only 24% of them had already adopted a hyper-converged solution.
However, the same research shows that large enterprises are moving towards hyper-converged solutions with 41% of large enterprises saying they expect to implement a hyper-converged solution in the next two to three years.
While no one has a crystal ball to see the future—it’s safe to say we are in the midst of an enterprise revolution towards SDS and hyper-convergence. Research indicates a fundamental shift has occurred in the minds of storage providers, with Gartner research predicting that by 2019, 70% of existing storage array solutions will be available as a “software only” version. The same shift is being echoed in the solutions that large enterprises are seeking to implement—the hyper-converged solution.
Maxta, one of Gartner’s 2015 Cool Vendors in Storage, is on the cutting edge of the hyper-converged revolution. The MxSP software and MaxDeploy appliances offer the cost-savings, choice, and high availability that enterprises are seeking when they look for a hyper-converged solution.
The simple fact is—the software-defined data center is well underway, and forward thinking enterprises that have already invested in virtualization are now seeking storage solutions optimized for their virtual environment. Just as the compute market has reached its “tipping point” of virtual workloads, the storage market is quickly following suit. The writing is on the wall—SDS and hyper-convergence are the future of enterprise storage. The only question is—will you be left behind?
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