What is Software-Defined Storage?
Software-defined storage (SDS) is a technology used in data storage management that intentionally separates the functions responsible for provisioning capacity, protecting data and controlling data placement from the physical hardware on which data is stored.
SDS allows storage hardware to be easily replaced, upgraded, and expanded without uprooting familiar operational procedures or discarding valuable software investments.
If you contrast modern SDS principles with hardware-bound designs that inextricably tie storage operations to a specific device or manufacturer, you’ll find that each make and model performs similar functions but implements them differently so as to render them mutually incompatible.
このような非互換性により、ハードウェアのマイナーな更新が、手間のかかるデータ移行によって遅れた大規模な運用のオーバーホールになり、結果としてコストのかかるストレージサイロが発生することになります。
In their most versatile form, SDS solutions hide proprietary hardware idiosyncrasies through a layer of virtualization software.Unlike hypervisors that make a single server appear to be many virtual machines, SDS combines diverse storage devices into centrally managed pools.
The scope of an SDS product may be confined to a small selection of hardware and a short list of functions, especially when offered by a hardware manufacturer consciously limiting where it can be used.
More flexible alternatives from independent software vendors, such as DataCore, support a variety of hardware choices and a rich set of data services.
Before SDS
Isolated Storage Capacity Across Unlike Storage Systems
After SDS
Without Software-Defined Storage
- Monolithic and siloed storage architecture
- Rigid, hardware-bound storage infrastructure
- Can run into vendor lock-in
- Storage refresh and data migration are tedious
- Premium devices are stressed with overload
- Add more hardware when low on capacity
With Software-Defined Storage
- Centrally pooled and fluid storage architecture
- Flexible and hardware-independent storage infrastructure (hardware is decoupled from storage software)
- Ultimate freedom to choose any storage vendor/model/type
- Non-disruptive storage refresh and data migration
- Balance capacity and load uniformly across diverse and unlike storage systems
- Optimize unused capacity intelligently and defer new hardware expenditure
The Authoritative Guide to Software-Defined Storage
Understand the power of SDS and why now is the time to implement it in your IT department
ソフトウェアディファインドストレージに転換する理由
今日の企業のほとんどは、次のようなストレージの大きな課題に直面しています。
- 高コスト
- 遅延の問題
- ストレージのダウンタイム
- 移行の複雑さ
- サイロの管理
- Exponential data growth
That’s exactly where storage virtualization through software-defined storage comes in. SDS is a mature, proven technology, benefitting IT organizations and services providers across verticals and use cases.
Regardless of what storage hardware you own, the software is the brain and layer of intelligence that determines which functions, features, services, and benefits you will be able to offer to your hosts, applications, and end users.
If you find yourself losing sleep at night due to existing SAN/NAS challenges, then it is time to evaluate software-defined storage solutions. Your organization cannot afford to continue depending on traditional storage and keep throwing hardware at the problem every time you run out of capacity. It is time to modernize your storage architecture and optimize your investments.
To the degree that your SDS product can remove device-specific dependencies and be re-configured for different deployment/topology models, the more readily you can adapt to new hardware innovations from competing suppliers.
また、自動化のレベルやポリシーに基づいたインテリジェンスも考慮する必要があります。これは、オンプレミスやクラウドにある様々なストレージシステムの階層で、負荷分散やホットデータ、ウォームデータ、コールドデータの分散を行う場合に特に重要です。
Find out how storage virtualization technology used in software-defined storage pays you back.
ソフトウェアディファインドストレージが機能する仕組み
企業がSDSモデルに転換している大きな理由は、一連のさまざまな特長や機能を活用しながら、既存のすべてのストレージを1か所から集中的に統合および管理できるからです。
SDSは、物理ストレージを仮想化および管理するソフトウェアコントローラーです。基本的にすべてのストレージ容量を「仮想プール」に集約し、容量を最大限に利用するためにシンプロビジョニングが行われます。
仮想プールが作成されると、仮想プールに「仮想ディスク」も作成され、データを保存するためのRaw LUNとしてホストサーバーに提供されます。
Central Storage Pooling
データセンター内の Pure、NetApp、Dell/EMC、IBM、または任意のSANやNASのアレイを組み合わせて、単一の仮想プールに統合したところを想像してください。
What if you could stripe your application data across all of them regardless of how fast or slow the devices may be? Well, you can with SDS.
Automatic Data Placement
SDSソリューションは、データがホット、ウォーム、またはコールドのいずれかであるかに基づいてデータを自動的に移動し、ホットデータ用のプレミアムストレージ、ウォームデータ用のセカンダリストレージ、コールド/アーカイブデータ用のオブジェクトストレージなどの最も適切なストレージデバイスに配置する機能も提供します。
Scale, Migrate, Refresh with Ease
Add, change, remove storage with ease using SDS. You are not bound by any choice of storage or budget constraint.
If you ever need to replace any of the expensive traditional storage gear, you will have the freedom to find more cost-effective alternatives.
Try software-defined storage solutionsfor your block, file and objectstorage environments today!
SDS Solutions from DataCore: Helping you Thrive from Diversity
With so many vendors promoting SDS products, you may find it hard to distinguish them. You will find DataCore an ideal fit for environments with a mixed collection of distributed storage equipment that operate in isolation – each running disparate functions trying to achieve similar availability and performance.
Our customers point to improved:
High Availability
Resource Pooling
柔軟性
コスト削減
管理
効率
DataCoreのお客様は、ソフトウェアイノベーションによって既存のデバイスを交換することなく機能を拡張することで、サービスやサービスレベルの向上を実感しています。ソフトウェアのレイヤーがすべての魔法を起こす秘密の源です。DataCoreがソフトウェア定義ストレージのトップ企業の1社と考えられている理由は、当社のプラットフォームが、従来のNAS（ネットワーク接続型ストレージ）やSAN（ストレージエリアネットワーク）機器に対して、比べものにならないような優位性を提供しているためです。ソフトウェアをハードウェアから分離することがお客様に勝利をもたらします。答えは簡単です。
Key Advantages of DataCore Software-Defined Storage
For any organization – enterprise or SMB – there are definitive benefits in terms of simplicity, efficiency and cost savings when using SDS.
- Get the most out of existing storage investments and reduce CAPEX on new purchases
- Gain the ultimate flexibility to integrate new technologies with existing equipment – no vendor lock-in
- Make your storage infrastructure more efficient with intelligent, policy-driven and automated data placement
- Simplify control and management of storage provisioning and capacity allocation from a central control plane – eliminate storage silos
SDS for File and Object Storage
- Offload inactive data from file to object storage (on-premises or cloud) and lower storage costs
- Make data search operations faster and efficient with global namespace
- Pool NAS devices and file servers and unify management across sites
Understand the key drivers and use cases for the increased adoption of software-defined storage by IT organizations.
DataCore SDS Takes You Further and Beyond
DataCore SDS solutions are extensible and agile, enabling data access via known and/or published interfaces (APIs or standard file, block, or object interfaces) that can extend the capabilities of SDS to integrate with existing and new technologies.
Ultimately, data matters the most to the application, end-user, and business. While virtualized and optimized data storage helps increase storage efficiency, out-of-the-box data services offered by DataCore SDS solutions take you further in your pursuit to maximize the value of your current and future IT investments.
Software-Defined Storage Resources
Learn More About our SDS Solution
If you believe your organization can benefit from software-defined storage, we invite you to learn more about SANsymphony and vFilO.
We have been doing this for a very long time—20 years to be exact. We are considered the SDS authority, and we have the most mature platform in the market.
