VMware caught the IT industry's attention when it acquired software-defined networking start-up Nicira for $1.2 billion in July last year.The move kickstarted the virtualisation giant's strategic rebranding around the 'software-defined d...
VMware caught the IT industry's attention when it acquired software-defined networking start-up Nicira for $1.2 billion in July last year.The move kickstarted the virtualisation giant's strategic rebranding around the 'software-defined data centre', which looks to virtualise all IT infrastructure so that computing, networking and storage can be delivered as a service in software to the business on demand.Virtualisation has for years made it possible to consolidate server estates and find savings. After networking, attention has turned to storage, which stands out as one of the few remaining areas of proprietary technology in the data centre, according to 451 Research's Simon Robinson."Until recently, most high end storage systems ran on custom processors and even had specific networking connectivity in fibre channel," he says. "The consolidation of resources using virtualisation that's happened on the server side hasn't really reached storage yet." SeparationSoftware-defined storage (SDS) takes the programming away from the hardware on which the stored data resides. The data is effectively pooled and its use in applications can be automated through policy-based management.Because the programming is decoupled from hardware, it's possible to add low-cost commodity storage without breaking existing configurations.Additionally, the use of open source software in SDS promises to end 'vendor lock-in' as businesses no longer have to purchase more expensive proprietary boxes from their existing vendor.Of course, the technology has the backing of VMware, which predicts the market could balloon to $50 billion by 2016.Aspects of SDS systems include:Use of commodity storage hardware.Simplified policy-based storage management spanning multiple arrays.Simplified administration of storage.Scale-out architecture.Thin Provisioning and snapshots.Open source software.Beyond virtualisationSDS has emerged from the shadow of the storage hypervisor. However, to qualify as a 'software-defined' solution, vendors must provide functions beyond virtualisation in their platforms, starting with a move to commodity hardware, says Robinson."The enabler of software-defined storage is that storage runs on off-the-shelf hardware, which is increasingly possible now and even becoming the norm," he says."Everybody has their own definition of software-defined storage, but that should be the first thing."Sean Horne, Managing Director of UK and Ireland at EMC, which last month announced its own SDS offering in ViPR, says SDS platforms should go further than virtualisation by introducing new, simplified ways of allowing IT managers to flexibly allocate storage to the business."Most storage hypervisors don't necessarily drive any of the other benefits that application owners want around flexible performance and being able to acquire storage on demand through a portal," he says. "Software-defined storage is much more about driving administrative simplicity."Making storage simpler to manage could prove one of the most appealing aspects of SDS for small to midsized businesses, according to Ovum analyst Roy Illsley.He says: "Software-defined storage has good potential for SMEs because the right type of solution will mean they won't need to hire people with specialist skills to manage storage."Such functionality is more likely to be found in a SDS solution built with a converged infrastructure, he adds.Illsley points to US SDS vendor Nutanix's Virtual Computing Platform, which combines storage and the compute power of a commodity x86 server into a single, integrated system. If the business needs to scale out, more systems can be added over time.Islands"Rather than having separate islands of SAN and NAS, a CIO of an SME should buy a unit that is server-like in admin and management but provides the flexibility of completely pooled storage and compute," he says. "That will allow them to slice and dice both how
