Software-defined storage: What it is and variants available | Computer Weekly

▤ Summary

Software-defined storage (SDS) is an increasingly viable alternative that can bring numerous efficiencies and ways to cut costs. As Gartner’s Mukhyala points out, storage suppliers often sell their arrays in “T-shirt sizes”, with small, medium or large that determine not just capacity, but IOPS too. Without software-defined storage, a move to a higher-performance tier means rip and replace for the entire array, even if it hasn’t reached capacity. And it eases the move to hybrid environments in which storage on-premise, in the cloud and potentially in edge applications forms a common pool. Proprietary suppliers can access low-level functionality in the storage media to improve speeds or flash durability, notes Mukhyala.

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