EMA Ranks Top Software-Defined Storage (SDS) Solutions
Boulder, Colo. (PRWEB) July 01, 2015 -- Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT and data management research and consulting firm, today announced the release of its newest EMA Radar Report titled, EMA Radar for Software-defined Storage: Q2 2015. Created to assist IT professionals in selecting the right SDS products, EMA has identified the leading vendors in this space based on key criteria defined by EMA senior analyst for storage management, Jim Miller.
Data creation is growing at unprecedented rates, with the amount of information stored doubling every year. As business needs change, driven by analytics and real time transactional trends, there is the need to provision storage capacity and services more quickly. The diversity and volume of data are placing extreme operational and capital demands on an already overburdened IT.
Software-defined storage is a new technology that targets meeting these new requirements while controlling costs. SDS aims at making storage application-aware, enabling server administrators, application managers, and developers to provision storage in a policy-driven, automated self-service manner. Like server and network virtualization, storage virtualization abstracts the physical infrastructure into logical resources by utilizing intelligent software. Where SDS extends beyond basic storage virtualization is its ability to deliver a consistent set of services across all storage by utilizing the underlying storage infrastructure. This results in a homogeneous storage infrastructure that can be quickly and flexibly provisioned and more easily managed.
The landscape is changing for how data is being stored, and a preferred software-defined storage solution should span the entire enterprise, enabling IT organizations to exploit new capabilities and technologies as well as continue to leverage legacy network-based storage devices. This EMA Radar report focuses on the core capabilities needed to deliver SDS throughout the entire enterprise. Storage solutions, even those from the same vendor, can have unique hardware, operating systems, connectivity, services, application program interfaces, and data types (block, file, and object). An enterprise-wide approach is preferred because one cannot get the full benefit of software-defined storage unless it is implemented on all storage in the enterprise.
“Software-defined storage has many definitions, and one of the primary purposes of this report is to set a software-defined storage landscape that includes the entire enterprise,” said Miller. “The breadth of storage supported, the completeness of independent storages services and the degree of cost effeteness were all considered and measured to quantify the effectiveness of the different vendor solutions.”
A detailed, comparative study of solutions from the following vendors is provided in the report:
- Atlantis Computing
- Citrix
- DataCore
- EMC
- HP
- IBM
- Nexenta
- Symantec
- VMware
Results identify key strengths and weaknesses and highlight characteristics, summarized in a detailed market map and Radar Chart – which includes a composite score for each vendor – making it simple to see how vendors measure up in the market, as well as against other vendors.
The EMA Radar for Software-defined Storage: Q2 2015 is available online, as well as the Report Summary - EMA Radar for Software-defined Storage: Q2 2015.
About the EMA Radar Report
The EMA Radar Report delivers an in-depth analysis of industry-leading vendors and vendor products, including their overall market position in comparison with other vendors. This information is laid out in an easy-to-decipher, detailed Radar Chart, making it simple to see how vendors measure up in the market, as well as against other vendors. The EMA Radar report also provides a detailed discussion of methodology and criteria, a high-level market segment overview, and a comprehensive analyst write-up on each vendor.
About Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)
Founded in 1996, EMA is a leading industry analyst firm that specializes in providing deep insight across the full spectrum of IT and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices, and in-depth knowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help its clients achieve their goals. Learn more about EMA research, analysis, and consulting services for enterprise line of business users, IT professionals and IT vendors at http://www.enterprisemanagement.com or blogs.enterprisemanagement.com.
Raleigh Gould, Enterprise Management Associates, http://www.enterprisemanagement.com, +1 303-543-9500 Ext: 105, [email protected]
Share this article