Software Defined Storage - Moving Beyond the Hype

Deployment of virtualization technologies has had a significant impact on the way companies view and manage their IT infrastructure. Virtualization has enabled both enterprises and cloud service providers to improve utilization and drive down cost. This is resulting in a fundamental change in the way Information Technology (IT) is viewed and managed as it shifts from a being a cost center to an efficient service. To fully realize this change, the Datacenter must be viewed as a single system, not a collection of isolated pools of hardware. As server virtualization leads to the separation of the application from the physical HW, Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) will further separate the compute, networking, and storage functions from the physical data center environment, to provide better utilization and lower costs. Over the last year, Software Defined Storage (SDS) has become a popular marketing term, however there is much less agreement on SDS framework and collective thinking in the industry to take advantage of this disruptive trend in the industry. In this keynote, we explore SDS framework within the context of Software Defined Infrastructure, how it enables flexible service delivery model, role of open interfaces and call to action for broader adoption in the industry.

Learning Objectives

Understand Software Defined Infrastructure and how SDS fits into this broader framework
Role of SDS in addressing storage management challenges
Understand existing open standards role as well as need for new standards
Industry wide initiatives needed to ramp SDS solutions and promote interoperability