Not your traditional storage: Are your storage solutions fit for the future?

When we think about storage, it’s very likely most of us imagine boxes sitting in data centers. And while those boxes are still very important, when you look at the big picture, storage is multi-faceted and evolving every day. Where is storage going to be in five years, and how can your organization make sure you’re keeping up to speed while optimizing spend?

Software-defined storage

With software-defined storage (SDS), you separate storage software from its hardware, splitting the provisioning and management and allowing different pools of physical resources to be managed as one.

SDS allows for rapid, dynamic growth and change in the ways organizations store data, enabling you to keep up with your own needs as well as those of your partners and customers.

The biggest advantage of software-defined storage is its flexibility – the ability to scale up and down, as demand dictates, as well as its ability to be changed on the fly through simplified management. This flexibility is crucial because it gives your organization the chance to optimize business operations based on ever-changing needs, without the worry of having to invest in new hardware every time something changes in your environment.

Storage with built-in security

Across all industries, there is one constant of utmost importance: security. The data centers where storage lives must be secured through both physical and virtual methods. While the demand for data center storage continues to rise, so does the demand for access to the stored information. This leads to an increase in organizations looking for ways to store some of their most valuable assets: their employee and customer data.

With its growing significance, security is becoming more and more ingrained in storage itself. Storage immutability means your data cannot be altered, deleted, or overwritten. Working with many leading storage partners that offer immutable storage technology, our experts can help you find a suitable solution for enhanced security and ease of management.

Storage as a Service

Storage as a Service (STaaS) is a subscription service model that provides access to storage and computer resources. STaaS can help your organization optimize storage costs, giving you the ability to only pay for the storage you need.

STaaS also helps promote sustainability. Organizations can utilize as-a-service IT procurement to avoid e-waste and improve energy efficiency and management.

With new growth comes new challenges

To meet the demand placed upon them, data center managers must have teams that can manage all facets of storage strategy within the organization’s infrastructure. Software engineers are already in high demand, with a tight market only appearing to get smaller as software needs grow. Over the past few years, organizations of all kinds are no strangers to staff shortages, and this will be no exception.

The ever-growing edge means more data – and more data means more storage. Combine that with the proliferation of data from artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and analytics, and there’s no wonder storage continues to be so vital to an organization’s infrastructure. Demand for storage is, and will continue to be, high.

Solutions for today and tomorrow

A common misconception – not unique to the storage space – is that you need to constantly buy bleeding-edge technology to keep up with the competition. Yes, storage technologies evolve over time, but the technologies themselves are not going anywhere; they’re just getting better.

With data growing faster than ever, we help you solve what’s next so the decisions you make count, and you get to be on the cutting edge with concrete solutions that meet your requirements today, and for the foreseeable future.

With SHI, you’re not only getting industry-leading technical expertise but also access to a growing portfolio of the very best, most robust technology partners available. SHI’s data storage experts can help you evaluate your storage needs and implement a scalable solution fit for the future.