The storage of the object may have a cool factor. But block storage has a place in the world of storage, even in the cloud.
Here are some of the top trends companies and IT teams are seeing in the cloud block storage market:
1. Incorporating AI technology
Storage technology, such as cloud block storage, continues to be a critical foundation for optimizing the performance of AI applications, workloads, and use cases.
The integration of AI technologies across storage systems and software-defined storage (SDS) will help enterprises deliver superior value, save significantly on CAPEX and OPEX, and enhance real-world performance in all applications and workloads.
“In 2022, AI will be used to build storage systems and SDS,” said Eric Herzog, CMO, Infinity.
“This trend will use the full power of AI for your storage estate.”
2. The block integrates with hybrid cloud and containers
The transition to hybrid cloud and container technologies will continue to grow at an accelerated pace, according to Herzog along with Infinidat.
With many workloads moving to a hybrid cloud configuration, there needs to be an infrastructure that supports the core, edge, and cloud as well as the virtualization layer and the container layer in a hybrid environment.
This will enhance the ability of businesses to deliver the right end-user services with the right SLAs for their business.
“The importance of having hybrid cloud integration capabilities will increase significantly in 2022,” Herzog said.
3. Air-gapping storage
Additional enhancements are being added to storage systems, such as air gapping as an integral part of a hybrid cloud cybersecurity strategy.
This is due to the threat of cyberattacks, which have reached such a high fever that 66% of CEOs have called it their No. 1 business threat to a Fortune “500” CEO survey. To make matters worse, the average number of days to identify and contain a data breach is 287 days.
If an enterprise or service provider lacks data and cyber resilience, cybercriminals will relentlessly launch cyberattacks. In other words, not if you will experience a cyberattack, when and how often.
Readiness covers having data and cyber-resilient storage as a critical part of your enterprise’s corporate cybersecurity strategy.
One element of protection is to store data-whether block, file, or object-offline but easily retrieved when needed. Tape systems have emerged that fulfill this need.
“While data can be stored offline, the tape air gap prevents information from being infected with ransomware and other malware,” said Rich Gadomski, tape evangelist, Fujifilm Recording Media USA
4. Performance and availability of application/work load
Just as servers are important to real-world application performance, so is storage.
For highly transactional block workloads, there will be an enhanced focus on application latency to read and write of sub-100 microseconds.
While there are many storage performance metrics you can look at, latency is the number one determinant for transaction performance in the real world, according to Herzog with Infinidat.
“Through the real-world application layer, an IT team can see performance as low as 50 microseconds on the read side and as low as 75-80 microseconds on the write side,” Herzog said.
“Receiving less means a company is stuck with a legacy solution that is sub-optimal.”
But the maximum usability of the system is just as critical. If storage is fast but not available, performance is a moot point.
There will be a noticeable increase in the emphasis of businesses on having their storage meeting with 100% availability properties.
5. Integrated storage arrays
The pressure for enterprise CIOs to reduce costs will only increase, due to economic changes and business uncertainty. IT leaders are working hard to find ways to cut costs from the data infrastructure.
Due to high performance and low latency in a software-defined storage architecture, an increasing number of organizations are able to consolidate multiple workloads into a single storage array, reducing CAPEX and OPEX.
No need for 50 different arrays each running an application or workload. Enterprise storage solutions can run all 50 applications. Workloads can fit in one or two storage arrays, Herzog says with Infinidat.
Further innovation reduces costs. Modern storage systems can now automatically adjust caching and other performance parameters on the fly with precision or automated AI.
Also, its integration with AIOps-centric storage monitoring software with proactive support can also lower costs. Some storage companies have expanded their own AIOps storage software using that from data center AIOps vendors, such as ServiceNow, Virtana, VMware, Splunk and others, which reduces not only OPEX for storage but OPEX for data center as a whole.