a snapshot of market predictions from 37 vendors · 2019 vendors predictions 6 drivescale brian...

Asnapshotofmarketpredictionsfrom37vendors

January2019

Companies:Aptare,Caringo,Cloudian,Cohesity,Coraid,DataCore,Datrium,

DDNStorage,DriveScale,Druva,E8Storage,Hammerspace,Hedvig,HYCU,Igneous,Infinidat,Kaminario,Kaseya,Komprise,Minio,NetApp,Nexenta,Odaseva,Panasas,Portworx,Quantum,Qumulo,RStor,Rubrik,ScaleComputing,StorCentric,StorONE,StrongBoxData,Vexata,WekaIO,

WesternDigitalandZerto

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2019VendorsPredictions 2

Tableofcontents

Aptare...........................................................................................................................................................................................................3

Caringo.........................................................................................................................................................................................................3

Cloudian.......................................................................................................................................................................................................3

Cohesity.......................................................................................................................................................................................................3

Coraid............................................................................................................................................................................................................4

DataCore......................................................................................................................................................................................................4

Datrium........................................................................................................................................................................................................5

DDNStorage...............................................................................................................................................................................................5

DriveScale...................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Druva.............................................................................................................................................................................................................6

E8Storage...................................................................................................................................................................................................7

Hammerspace...........................................................................................................................................................................................7

Hedvig...........................................................................................................................................................................................................7

HYCU.............................................................................................................................................................................................................8

Igneous.........................................................................................................................................................................................................9

Infinidat.......................................................................................................................................................................................................9

Kaminario...................................................................................................................................................................................................9

Kaseya(andSpanning).......................................................................................................................................................................10

Komprise..................................................................................................................................................................................................10

Minio..........................................................................................................................................................................................................11

NetApp.......................................................................................................................................................................................................11

Nexenta.....................................................................................................................................................................................................12

Odaseva.....................................................................................................................................................................................................12

Panasas......................................................................................................................................................................................................12

Portworx...................................................................................................................................................................................................13

Quantum...................................................................................................................................................................................................13

Qumulo......................................................................................................................................................................................................14

RStor...........................................................................................................................................................................................................14

Rubrik........................................................................................................................................................................................................14

ScaleComputing....................................................................................................................................................................................15

StorCentric...............................................................................................................................................................................................15

StorONE....................................................................................................................................................................................................16

StrongBoxData......................................................................................................................................................................................16

Vexata........................................................................................................................................................................................................17

WekaIO......................................................................................................................................................................................................17

WesternDigital......................................................................................................................................................................................18

Zerto...........................................................................................................................................................................................................18

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AptareRickClark,CEO“Obvious”costsavingswithcloudoron-premstoragewillbescrutinized:ITAdministratorsandBusinessUnitManagerswillhavetoproviderealdatashowingtheimpactoftheireffortstomovetothecloudandoptimizeon-premdata,requiringwide-and-deepmetricsandmorethoroughreporting.RegTechwilldriveaccountabilityandretentionpolicies:visibility intodataprotectionandbackupswillneedtobe increasedtomeetgovernancedemands.BusinessUnitsandLegalCounselwill requiremorefrequentstatementsofcompliance.MoreITorganizationswillseetheirstorageinfrastructureanddataprotectionfracture.Ascorporationsbring in additional products that are best-of-breed technologies, complexity will increase andcomprehensivereportingwillbecomeevenharder.

CaringoTonyBarbagallo,CEOAsegresscostsofenterprisedata residing in thecloudare realized,organizationswillmigratemoreoftheirdatabackintotheiron-premdatacenters.Increaseinfilesizes,especiallydigitalvideodrivenby4Kand8Kworkflows,willcontinuetooutpacetheadoptionof fasterbandwidthconnectivity leadingorganizations tostreamlinecollaborationbybringingdatainhouse.RESTfulAPIs(S3)willbecomemoreprevalenttoallbackendstorageinfrastructures.

CloudianJonToor,CMOThere’sNoPlaceLikeHome:CloudRepatriationIncreasesWhile the growth of the public cloudwill remain strong, enterpriseswill expand their adoption of on-premisesprivatecloudsinahybridcloudmodel.Thiswillincluderepatriatingdatafromthepubliccloudtoavoidthebandwidth,latencyandcostissuesthatcanarisewhenaccessingsuchdata.AIandObjectStoragePlayTagAsbusinessesincreasetheiruseofAItoextractgreatervaluefromtheirdigitalassets,metadatataggingwillbecomeanevenmorecriticalelementofenterprisestorage.Thiswillbringmoreattentiontoobjectstorage,whichiscenteredonmetadata,andthekeywillbeintegratingwellwithAItools.WhatDoYouGetWhenYouMixBlueandRed?IBM-Red Hat Deal Scrambles the Cloud Landscape – IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat will reverberatethroughout2019, givingenterprisesmoreoptions fordesigningamulti-cloud strategyandhighlightingtheimportanceofdatamanagementtoolsthatcanworkacrosspubliccloud,privatecloudandtraditionalon-premisesenvironments.

CohesityRawlinsonRivera,GlobalFieldCTONew infrastructure models will empower developers to deliver better applications faster, withfewerheadachesIn 2019, the application development lifecycle will be revolutionized by data platforms that givedeveloperson-demandaccesstodataandtest/devenvironmentsinsteadofrequiringthemtoask--andwait--forITleaderstoprovideacopyofallrelevantdatasets.Byremovingtheserestrictionsanddelays

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in the test/dev process, these data platformswill empower developers to build faster and experimentwithbroaderdatasetsinordertocreateapplicationsthatprovidenext-generationcustomerexperiences.

CoraidBrantleyCoile,CEOStorage companies will continue to either be sold off, or shutdown during 2019, continuing the trendstartedacoupleofyearsago.Userswillcontinuetodiscoverthatthesmaller,lessexpensiveplayersareagreatdeal,becausetheyaremorestableasabusinessandmoreinnovativethanthebigboxtechcompanyhawkingacquiredsecondhandtechnology.Since everything is software and Moore's Law is dead, there will be a growing focus on softwarecraftsmanshiptoachievespeed,efficiency,andlowercost.

DataCoreGerardoA.Dada,CMOSoftware-DefinedStorageWillBecomeIncreasinglyImportantintheModernDataCenterThe first step in modernizing the data center is to break the silos, achieve vendor independence, andremovevendor-imposedrefreshcycles.Thisiswhysoftware-definedisquicklybecomingthefoundationfor the modern data center. Software-defined storage is very flexible, and enables new storage andtechnologies to be added non-disruptively. Furthermore, the modern data center will be required toincorporate storage technologies that support synchronous mirroring in local and metro clusters,asynchronous replication for disaster recovery, and continuous data protection, which is like a timemachinetoundoanydamagefromransomwareattacks.AsITdepartmentslooktoreapthebenefitsofthesoftware-defineddatacenter,theadvantagesofsoftware-definedstoragewillbequicklyrealizedintermsofperformance,uptimeandflexibility.HyperconvergedwillBecomeHybrid-ConvergedDuetochallengesincludingthelackofintegrationwithexistingsystemsandtheinabilitytoscalecomputeand storage independently, many of the traditional hardware vendors in the hyperconvergedinfrastructure(HCI)marketareshiftingtoasoftwareoffering.Thishas ledtoanoverallevolutionfromtheearliervisionof “hyperconverged,”primarilyconsistingof theconvergenceofcompute, storageandnetworkinonesinglehardwareunit,intoamodelthatissoftware-drivenandsoftware-defined,whichiscalled “hybrid-converged.” Hybrid-converged infrastructure provides the same advantages of HCI withadditionalfunctionalitythatallowsittoconnecttoexternalhostsandtopresentexternalstoragetotheunit.Asaresult,usersnolongerhavetochoosewhethertobuyintotheHCImodelornot—theycanhavethebenefitswithoutthelimitations.NewStorageChallengesWillEmergeasContainerAdoptionContinuestoGrowAscontainer technologymatures, therearenewchallenges emerging,primarily in theareasof securityand storage.Asdeploymentsmove toproduction, ITorganizationswill requireanability todeliver thesame data storage services that are currently provided to monolithic application architectures. Thesolutionhastobecapableofprovidingsharedstoragetoexistingvirtualizedandbare-metalapplicationinfrastructures, as well as allow DevOps engineers to consume storage on-demand, ensure statefulapplicationdata ispersistent.Software-definedstoragewill enableadministrators topresentpersistentstoragetocontainerhostsdeployedasVMsonvirtualhosts,withtheabilitytoprovidepersistentstorageto containerhostsdeployedonbare-metal as anext step.As a result, userswill be able tomanage theprovisioningof storage tocontainerdeployments,with thesameplatformas the restof theapplicationworkloads,andprovidethesamelevelofenterprisestorageservicesrequiredforallcriticalproductionenvironments.

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DatriumBrianBiles,ChiefProductOfficerEnterprise infrastructure for Kubernetes -- not just a stateless toy anymore as enterprises considermissioncriticalappsonit.Existingstoragesystemsarenotbuilttodealwiththis.Newstoragesystemsthatcandoprimary,backupandDRforKuberneteswillrisein2019.More convergence of data services into one platformwith respect to combining primary, backupwithreplicationtocloud,andDRrunbookautomation.Becausethatistheonlywaytoimplementasimpleandviable Hybrid Cloud. Any other way is impractical. You can do an expensive product without theefficiencies, but that product will need other products alongside. Datrium has all 3 dimensions, incollaborationwithstandardVMwareandAWS.Otherswillfollowdownthispath.

DDNStorageKurtKuckein,Sr.DirectorofMarketing2019 looks to be an exciting year. With the emergence of large-scale, AI and machine learningenvironments, the advancement of granular datamanagement capabilities, themove toward cloud-likedatamanagementmodelsandautonomousstorageaswellas theacceleratedadoptionofat-scaleFlashdeploymentsandNVMetheexistingmarketispoisedtoexperienceanevolutionthatwillcontinuetopushtheboundaries.AstheteamatDDNlooksto2019wearefocusedonthetrendsthatwillsuccessfullyandefficientlyhandlethevariousscenariospresented.Hereareourtopthreepredictionsfor2019:Theemergenceoflarge-scaleAIandMachineLearningdeploymentsThepastcoupleofyearshaveseenmanyorganizationstrialingmachinelearningalgorithmsonsmalldatasets, implementing small but growing deployments, and planning at-scale infrastructures. DDN hasalready seen successful projects emerge for predictive analytics for chronic disease management,workflow enhancement in radiology as well as administrative and financial use cases that bringoperationalefficiencytotheseindustries.2019willbetheyearthatlarge-scaleAIandmachinelearningenvironments emerge in mass, with organizations moving from deployments of 4, 8 or 16 GPUs todeploymentsthatrangefromhundredstothousandsofGPUs.Theadvancementofgranulardatamanagementcapabilitiesforat-scaledatasystemsandprivatecloudsAt-scaledatasystemsandprivatecloudsareincreasinglysupportingdiversetypesofdata,suchasAIanddeep learning workflows, that require advanced, granular data management capabilities. These datamanagementsolutionswillneedtodeliversimplicity,allowformoresophisticatedtaggingandsearchingofthedataitself,andprovideinsightintothetypesofdatathatcustomershavewithintheirsystemsandwithintheirclouds.Acceleratedadoptionofat-scaleFlashdeploymentsandtheascendencyofNVMeTheadoptionofscale-outstoragearchitecturestomanageflashondemandandtoscaleperformanceasneededwillaccelerateas flashusageprovidesanoptimalmeans forbalancingperformanceandcost inlong-termstorage,andasthepriceofflashstoragewilldropsignificantlyinthefirstsixmonthsof2019.NVMewillbethedefaultmediafortier-1applications(lowlatency,highIOPsanddensity–what’snottolike?), but NVMeOF will continue to lag as a networking standard as other more established RDMAnetworkslikeInfiniBandandRoCEcontinuetothriveandmeetperformancedemands.

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DriveScaleBrianPawlowski,CTOHCIusecasesconvergewithafocusonsmallscaleVMclusterdeploymentsHCI is best suited for pilot and small-scale big data app deployments, while large-scale deploymentscontinuetosprawlonbaremetalwithplatformslikeKubernetestomanageatscale.RealityaroundSDScomeshometoroostCustomersbegin tounderstandcosts andadvantagesof 'appliances'whichare simple todeployversus'software'whichrequiresmorein-houseinfrastructureandintegrationefforts.BigdatakeepsgettingbiggerNotjustinsize,butinthecomplexityofsourcesandapplicationsthatareusedtoprocessbigdata.Painpoints start to come into focus. Hadoop deployment growth slowed, and Cloudera and Hortonworksmerged.ThisisnotanegativeonBigDatausecases,butanindicationofincreaseddiversityofappsusedtoprocessBigData.

DruvaPremAnanthakrishnan,VPofProductsTheRiseofSmartCloudsThe adoption of streaming data capture from IoT and sensors, data governance policies, securitystandards,expandeddatacurationandcompilationandwidespreadadoptionofAIandmachinelearninghavemade it impossible torelycompletelyonon-premisessolutions.TechnologiessuchasAI,machinelearning, and analytics thrive in environments with expansive amounts of data and compute abilitiesbeyond those available in on-premises solutions. These trends greatly favor cloud-based architectures,andwillonlyincreaseasvendorsoffermoreadvancedsolutions.TheCloudWarsWillEscalatein2019Serverless architecturewill drive down costs even further, and Iwould expect hybrid to becomemorepopular with pushes from VMware and AWS. Online marketplaces will shift spending from offlinedistribution and vendors, and resellers will increasingly adopt adopt digital VAR-likemodels. MachinelearningandAIwillcontinuetorise inadoptionand increase theallureofcloudcomputing.Becauseofthesetechnologies,publiccloudwillbecomethede-factochoicefordevelopers.2019istheYearofGovernmentDataComplianceDatamanagement is no longer simply a consumer vs corporation battle, it has quickly elevated to thecountryand federal level. In thewakeofGDPR,othersareusing itasblueprint toenactmorestringentcompliancestandards.TheCaliforniaConsumerPrivacyActgoesintoeffectJanuary2020andweshouldexpect to seemore of the same in the coming years. Such regulationsmean company obligationswillbecomemorecomplicatedandwillneedtomeetnewstandards.Havingthe flexibilityandscalability tostore datawithin specific regionswill become a key buying consideration and increasingly favor clouddeploymentsoveron-premisessolutions.“DataProtection”isGivingWaytoDataManagementTheabilitytoprotectdataandrestorebackedupfilesisnolongersufficientformodernbusiness.Datahasbecomethefuelforcompanysuccess,drivinginsights,customertargetingandbusinessplanningandeventrainingAIandmachinelearningmodels.Anywaytoextractadditionalvaluefromitiscriticaltobusinesssuccessandtheshifttodatamanagementiskey,wheredataisnotonlyprotected,butproperlyarchived,easilysearchable,canbeleveragedforanalytics,andiscomplianttheentiretime.

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E8StorageZivanOri,CEO2019isgoingtobeayearofgrowthandbroaderadoptionofnewtechnologiesthathavebeenintroducedinrecentyears.NVMedriveswillacceleratetheirgaininmarketshareasaSATAreplacementinservers,andbegintakingSASshareinstoragesystems.Thiscontinuesthetrendsbegunin2017/2018,butacceleratesinto2019.NVMe-oF storagearrayswillmove from testing intoproductionacrossmany customerdeployments asmoreestablishedvendorscontinuetointroduceNVMebasedstoragesystems.ARM server products will gain traction, with ARM based NICs becoming generally available, and ARMbasedstoragecontrollersbeingintroduced.

HammerspaceDavidFlynn,CEOWith all of themajor cloud providers now offering some form of Kubernetes-as-a-Service,will see theindustryacceleratingtheadoptionoftruemulti-cloudenvironments.Metadata is the key to hybrid multi-cloud success. More organizations will recognize the need forsophisticated metadata management to cope with issues like data governance and compliance, dataaccessibility,anddatapipelineorchestration.Finally,in2019willseemoredataoperationsteamstakecontrolofenterprisedata,asmanagingdatabycopyingitbetweendatasiloscannotsustaintheagilitydemandedbydigitaltransformation.Kubernetes,metadata management, and data virtualization are all hot trends that will enable this shift inresponsibilities.

HedvigGauravYadav,FoundingEngineerNowthatcontainersareproductionready,thinkaboutstorageContainers are finally becoming production ready. As the next big thing in virtualization and resourceutilization, they are now being used for mission-critical applications. We'll see a major increase inproductiondeploymentcontainers in2019,whichraisetheprofileofassociatedchallenges likestorage.Containersrequirepersistentstorageinordertosucceedinmainstreamusecases.Mostcurrentstoragesolutions cater to virtualization vendor platforms (VMware, etc.) but aren't a great fit for containertechnology.In2019,theproblemtosolveforisfindingonestoragesolutiontosupportthesecompletelyindependentvirtualizationmechanismssothattheycanco-existefficiently.Fromtheapplicationpointofview,theyaredifferentmechanisms,butthatshouldn'tmatterwhenitcomestostorage.Makingprogresson this aspect of container deployment will bring much-needed simplification to this infrastructureoption.GetyourdatagovernanceandsecurityreadyforGDPRandbeyondThe European Union's sweeping consumer data privacy legislation went into effect in May 2018 andstarted an important dialogue around the world. Combined with major breaches and sophisticatedidentity and data manipulation schemes at Facebook, Google, Twitter, and many other major digitalplayers, the global focus on data privacy, security, and integrity is sure to catalyze further regulations.Additional countries and states are already considering tougher privacy mandates and penalties. AsEuropean regulators start levying GDPR penalties, companies are finally implementing stricter dataprotection guidelines. Storage providers will need to have the right answers about data securityguarantees and the ability to offer support for best practices. The guarantees include: if the data beaccessed, stolen, or leaked, no one will be able to use it or make sense of it; data integrity must bepreservedwithoutfail;anddatamustabidebycountry-specificdatalocationrestrictions.Certainkindsof

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datacannotbe transportedacrossgeographicalboundaries (forexample,Chinese Internet regulations),soallpubliccloudprovidersandcloud-likeserviceswillhavetoguaranteelocation.Software-definedstorageisthefoundationfortrust,growth,andinnovationStorage designed with distributed systems in mind makes it possible to quickly provision applicationspecific,policy-baseddata services.Trust (or lackof it) isbecomingamajor factor inenterprisedigitaltransformationandbrandreputationmanagement. In2019, infrastructureteamsand leadershipshouldcarefullyconsider thesignificant rolestorageplays inmaintainingpublic trustand the integrityofdatasystemsusedincommercial,industrial,andsocialsettings.EveryenterprisehasitsownITteam,andeachteamhasauniquecollectionofchallenges.Thesedays,makingsuredistributedapplicationsandbusinessprocesses run as smoothly as possible is job number one.Withmodern cloud strategies and software-defined storage solutions in place, these teams can focus on optimizing applications and addressingemergingchallenges-therewillbeplentyofthoseintheyearahead.

HYCUSimonTaylor,CEOMulti-CloudbecomesmainstreamCloudshavebeeninexistenceformanyyearsnow.Fromaninfrastructureperspective,asmanyas90%ofcustomershavesomecloudusagegoingonintheirinfrastructuretoday.Whatwearestartingtoobserveis thatmanyof themarematureandtheirusagehasgottentothepointwheretheyaretalkingaboutamulti-vendorstrategyfortheirclouds.Thisinouropinionisaturningpointinadoptionofcloud.Ifnotforanything, just to keep things competitive for cloud vendors. Because of this,more customerswill needsolutions thatworkacrossmultipleclouds.Wewillseemostof thevendorswhohave“marketed” theirsolutionsas“multi-cloud”finallywillbeforcedtoeitherdeliverorshrinkin2019.ConsolidationaroundPlatformsIt is no surprise that companies are looking to simplify their IT investments and take advantage ofadvancesinreducingcomplexity.Whenyoulookatnext-generationplatformsintheindustrytoday,theonesthatcometomindareAWS,AzureandGCPinthePublicCloudspaceandNutanixintheEnterpriseCloudspace.WhileVMwareisagreattechnology,theirplatformplayseemstobearoundAWS.Wewouldconsiderasolutionaplatformwhenitcanhandleallof theenterpriseworkloads. Intheenterprise.Weare seeing customers trying to consolidate on the platforms they choose and are eliminating siloedinfrastructures.Onesuchsilothatweseecustomerstryingtoeliminateistheseparatesecondarystoragesilo.In2019,weexpectasignificantnumberofcustomersadoptingtheirprimaryplatformalsofortheirsecondaryworkloadtosignificantlyreducetheircomplexityandalsoincreasetheiroperationalefficiency.Adoptionofas-a-ServiceInfrastructureofferingsInfrastructure-as-a-Service has been in use formany years now. Formost people in the infrastructurespace, they think in termsof instantlyprovisioningVMs, StorageandNetworkingas IaaS.While that isgood, the bigger value will be realized when customers use higher level offerings like Database as aService,BackupandRecoveryasaService,DataWarehouseasaService,andStreamingBigDataServices.Whenutilizedeffectively,thesewouldleadtotremendoussavingsandagilityforthebusiness.In2019,weseecustomersnotjustdoingaliftandshifttothecloud,buttrulyusingthecloudforburstworkloadsandalsoutilizingthesehigherlevelservices.

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IgneousKiranBhageshpur,CEORiseoftheDataEngineerManydifferentrolesinvariousdata-centriccompaniesdependsoheavilyondataandspendsomuchtimeinwranglingdatafromvarioussourcesandintotherightplatformthatwewillseetheriseaadedicatedjobfunctionwhosejobitistowrangledata.UnstructuredDatacontinuestogrowatgeometricalratesTherewillbeabroaderrecognitionofthenumberofbusinessesthatareimpactedbyanddependentonmachinegenerateddata.Asmachinesgrowinnumbersandthefidelityofdatafrommachinesimproves,the volume of data being generated and stored by various business will weight down on alreadyoverburdenedITteams.Realattemptstoregulate"datacompanies"CongressintheUSwillmakefirst"real'attemptsarounddata/privacyissues.Whetheritbecomeslawisanalltogetherdifferentmatter.Expansionof"ML-as-a-service"marketplaceMorecompanieswillariseandofferserviceswiththeofferof"BringmeyourdataandIwillprovideyouinsights"alongspecificverticals.VR/ARwillremainatechnologywearewaitingforMagicLeapwhereforeartthou?

InfinidatBrianCarmody,CTORawstorageshipmentswillexceed700Exabytes,withover90%beingspinningdisk.Application-levelencryptionwillbecomepervasive inevery industry,drivenbyaggressiveenforcementofGDPRanddatabreachliabilities,renderingstoragearraycompressionandde-duplicationineffective.ThefirstMAMR(microwaveassistedmagneticrecording)enterprisestoragesystemisannounced.

KaminarioJoshEpstein,CMOSoftware Composable Infrastructure solutions will start to becomemainstream options considered bydatacenteroperators.Consumption-basedpricingwillbegintobeastandardofferingforinfrastructuresolutions.TheITchannelwillcontinueto transformintoservice-orientedentities–movingawayfromtraditionalVARmodelstoMSPs.

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Kaseya(andSpanning)MikePuglia,CPOBrianRutledge,PrincipalSecurityManager,SpanningMatthewMcDermott,PrincipalTechnicalMarketingEngineer,SpanningMicrosoftCloudGainswithMSPsOverthelastthreeyearsAzuregrowthamongMSPshasskyrocketed,from47percentto67percent.Thiswill grow evenmore next year and can be attributed to twomajor factors: relationships and productfamiliarity.SomeMSPshavebeenworkingwithMicrosoftfor15years,andhavetheirsalesreponspeeddial.StartingoverwithAWSorGoogleCloudPlatformisadauntingendeavor.AlsoMicrosoftismakingiteasytomoveon-premisesapplicationstoAzure.MicrosoftisnotjustbuildingtheinfrastructureforMSPstouse,buttheyarealsobuildingtheappsandservicesontopofthat,makingthetransitiontothecloudthatmucheasier.MicrosoftownstheMSPmarketandgrowthwillcontinuein2019.OrganizationsDouble-DownonSecurityTrainingIn a recent Spanning-sponsored survey ofU.S.workers, almost half of all respondents said theywouldallow a colleague to use theirwork computer to complete a task.While letting awork frienduse yourcomputermight not seem like a riskymove, research has found that insider threats account formostsecuritybreach incidents and sharingdevices—especially for adminholders— is oneway thatbeingpolite could put enterprise data at risk. In the new year, businesses should look to double-down onsecurity training—not justwithphishing testsand lectures—butalso focusmoresecurityawarenesstrainingonaccidental lapses insecurity,becausenotallsecurity incidentsare frommaliciousactors. ITleaders should emphasize that employees, should never use shared passwords, enable SIEM (Securityinformationandeventmanagement)solutionstocentrallylogactionsbyadministratorsandotheruserswith the keys to the kingdom,periodically audit internal controls and implement tools,wherepossibleandfinanciallyfeasible,forPrivilegedAccessManagement(PAM)insteadofusingadministrativeaccountsdirectly.GDPRMakesPersonalizationofWorkflowEasierPersonalizationofworkflowwillbecomeincreasinglyimportantin2019,especiallyinlightofGDPR.Thismight be perceived as challenging with stipulations such as the right to be forgotten, but GDPR mayactuallymake it easier for organizations to achieve. Because softwaremanufacturers are compelled toidentifyandimplementthecomponentsnecessarytotrackpersonalinformation,wecantakeadvantageof this data to create richer personalized interfaces. Personalization allows for fewer interruptions ofsuperlativeinformationandincreasedaccesstoinformationthatwillhelpteamsworksmarterandfasterin2019.

KompriseKrishnaSubramanian,COOImprovingintelligenceWith adaptive automation and machine learning, data management software will start to perform insmarterwaysbyobservingandleveragingpatterns.In2019,AIbaseddatamanagementwillstarttobeabletothinkoutsidethebox,offeringmoreintelligentwaystomanagebusinessneeds.Aretractionfromrule-basedpolicymanagementRulebasedpoliciescanbetimeconsumingandinefficient.ITadminshavetomanuallydictaterules,andthinkabouteverypossiblescenarioinordertoprogramaruleforit.Thishaslongbeentheapproachfordata management, but in 2019 we will start to see a retraction as AI allows us to utilize intelligentsoftwareandsetgoal-basedpolicies.ImprovedsearchanddiscoveryAIcan improveability tosearchanddiscoverdatapulling fromawiderpool.Manyorganizationstodaystoredatabothinthecloudandon-premises,butwithAI,intelligentsoftwarecanpullinformationoutofawiderdatalake,nomatterwhereitisstored.

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MinioAnandBabuPeriasamy,CEOObjectStoragesettoreplaceHadoopHDFSIn-memorydataprocessingplatformslikeSparkandPrestocontinuetoshiftawayfromHadoopHDFStoS3compatibleobjectstorage.Disaggregatingstorageandcomputeenablesstatelesscomputenodestobecontainerized andmanaged by Kubernetes. This innovation came from Amazon AWS and public cloudinfrastructuresandtherestoftheworldwilladoptit.Enterprisesadopthigh-performanceobjectstorageforAIworkloadsModernbusinessesneed tobecomedata-driven.Traditionaldatawarehouseandbigdata solutionsareinadequatewhenthevolumeofdataishugeandconstantlyevolving.ThisiswheremachinelearninganddeeplearningalgorithmshavemadesignificantprogressinthelastfewyearstointeractivelyanalyzeandpredictpatternswiththehelpofGPUs,high-performancestorageandnetworking.2019willbetheyearofhigh-performanceobjectstorageand100GbE+network.NVMeoFsagacontinuesinto2019NVMeoFRDMAisstilla longwayfromgettingenterpriseadoption.NVMeoFTCPshowspromisebut itsbenefits are still unclearwhen compared to FCP and iSCSI. Independent of the fabric protocols, NVMeblock storage systems still need to address SAN features like volumemanagement, snapshots, erasurecodeorreplication.Nevertheless,NVMeoFisasteptowardeliminatinglegacybaggage.

NetAppAtishGude,ChiefStrategyOfficerStill atanearly stageofdevelopment,AI technologieswillprocessmassiveamountsofdata, themajorityofwhichwillhappeninpubliccloudsArapidlygrowingbodyofAIsoftwareandservicetools–mostlyinthecloud–willmakeAIdevelopmenteasierandeasier.ThiswillenableAIapplicationstodeliverhighperformanceandscalability,bothonandoffpremises, andsupportmultipledataaccessprotocolsandvariednewdata formats.Accordingly, theinfrastructuresupportingAIworkloadswillbealsohavetobefast,resilient,andautomated.WhileAIwillcertainly become the next battleground for infrastructure vendors,most developmentwill start in thecloud.ThedemandforhighlysimplifiedITserviceswilldrivecontinuedabstractionofITresourcesandthecommoditizationofdataservicesRemember when car ads began boasting that your first tune up would be at 100,000 miles? (Well, iteventuallybecamesortof true.)Point is,hardlyanyone’sspendingweekendschanging theirownoilorsparkplugsoradjustingtheirowntimingbeltsanymore.Youturnonthecar, itruns.Youdon’thavetothink about it until you get a message saying something needs attention. Pretty simple. The sameexpectationsaredevelopingforITinfrastructure,startingwithstorageanddatamanagement:developersdon’t want to think about it, they just want it to work. “Automagically,” please. Especially withcontainerization and “server-less” technologies, the continuous trend toward abstraction of individualsystemsandserviceswilldriveITarchitectstodesignfordataanddataprocessingandtobuildhybrid,multi-cloud data fabrics rather than data centers. With the application of predictive technologies anddiagnostics, decisionmakerswill relymore andmore on extremely robust yet “invisible” data servicesthatdeliverdatawhenandwhereit’sneeded,whereveritlives.Thesecapabilitieswillalsoautomatethebrokerage of infrastructure services as dynamic commodities and the shuttling of containers andworkloadstoandfromthemostefficientserviceprovidersolutionsforthejob.Multi-cloud will be the default IT architecture for most larger organization while others willchoosethesimplicityandconsistencyofasinglecloudproviderContainershave thepotential todisrupt the cloudbusinessmodel andbreakvendor lock-inbymakingdevelopmentenvironmentshighlyportable.Thiswillmakeiteasierandeasiertomovetheworktowheredata is being generated rather thanwhat has traditionally been the otherway around. Data is far lessportablethancomputeandapplicationresourcesandthataffectstheportabilityofruntimeenvironments.Evenifyousolvefordatagravity,dataconsistency,dataprotection,datasecurityandsoon,youcanstillfacetheproblemofplatformlock-inandcloud-specificservicesthatyou'rewritingagainst,whicharenot

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portable.Asa result, smallerorganizationswill eitherdevelop in-housecapabilitiesasanalternative tocloud service providers, or they’ll choose the simplicity, optimization and hands-off management thatcomefrombuying intoasinglecloudprovider.Andyoucancountonserviceproviders todevelopnewdifferentiatorsandencouragelock-in.Largerorganizationswilldemandtheflexibility,neutralityandcost-effectiveness of being able to move applications between clouds. They'll leverage containers and datafabrics to break lock-in, to ensure portability of applications andworkloads, and to control their owndestiny.Whatevertheirpath,organizationswillneedtodeveloppoliciesandpracticestogetthemostoutoftheirchoice.

NexentaThomasCornely,CPOAsserviceprovidersworldwidegearupfor5Gofferingsin2019,massivesoftware-definedinfrastructureopportunitieswillariseforfullstack5GreadyTelcoCloudsincludingtheneedforfull-featuredsoftware-definedstoragesolutions.EnterpriseFileserviceneedswillcontinuetogrowatexponentialrates,withtheever-increasinguseofhyper-convergedinfrastructuresinthedatacenterdrivingenterprise-classfileserviceofferingsthatcanaugmentHCIandtraditionalthree-tierarchitectures.Adoptionofpubliccloudserviceswillstrengthenasanoptiontosupplementon-premofferingsaswellasnew deployments, which will be increasingly useful with hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deploymentsrequiringastandardstoragesolutionbestdeployedinasoftwaremodel.

OdasevaSovanBin,CEODataRightsMore andmore individuals inEuropewill exercise their data rights to protect their data, such as theirrighttoaccesspersonaldataortherighttobeforgotten.DataMinimizationData minimization in accordance with data privacy laws, like GDPR will be become key to successfulEnterprises.Abidingbyamultitudeofdifferentlegalretentionperiodswillbecomeacriticalchallenge.DataProtectionEnterpriseswillincreasinglylooktodataencryptionandmulti-factorauthenticationasonewaytoprotecttheirdata;andtheywillinvestinbettercontrolofthelocationoftheirdataprocessinganddatastoragetofacilitatecompliancewithlocalregulations.

PanasasCurtisAnderson,SeniorArchitectHPCwillbeattheheartofAIandmachinelearning“HPC” canbe thoughtof as a setofbestpractices forhow to “scaleout”:how toarchitect applications,interconnect,andstoragethatcanscalewellbeyondwhatasinglemachinecanprocess.ManyAIprojectshavealreadysurpassedwhatasinglemachinecanprocess,andasaresultareadoptingHPCtechniques.Giventhegrowthindatasizeandincreasingcomplexityofneuralnetworks,thattrendofadopting(andextending) HPC’s architectural lessons will continue to accelerate. The trajectory of HPC storagearchitectureswillnotbegreatlyaffected,however.TheamountofAItrainingdatabeingprocessed,andthe time before NN refinement forces a new training cycle, makes moving the data between differentstoragesystemsimpractical;theGPUsmustbekeptfullyutilized,sothetypicalaccesslatenciesofObjectStores are unable to keep up; and at these capacities, all-flash solutions are not cost-effective.Performanceandcapacitywillneedtogoup,butwholenewarchitecturesarenotrequired.

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TheintegrityofopensourceparallelfilesystemswillremaininthespotlightThere will be continued skepticism concerning the future of open source parallel filesystems due todeployment complexity, overall maturity, and even ownership concerns. The vendor-neutrality of themostmatureoftheset,Lustre,hasbeenputintoquestionandwithitconcernsoverincreasesinthecostforlicensingandsupport.AsparallelfilesystemsbecomemoreimportanttoEnterpriseslookingtodeployHPCsystemsforAIandotheradvantages,theywillbelookingforturn-keysolutionsratherthanscienceprojects.

PortworxMurliThirumale,CEOContainerizedApplicationswillpulldatamanagementawayfromstoragearraysDriven by DevOps, containers drive app portability and microservices. Dynamic container placementmeans data movement and data placement needs to automated and tied to containers not to storagearrays. Just like VMWare virtualized and allowed compute capacity to bemanaged away from servers,datawillbemanagedbynewcontainercentricstoragesoftware.HybridclouddeploymentswillbreakstoragevendorsilosAsenterprisesdeployappsacrosson-premandpubliccloudsorbetweentwopublicclouds,theycannotdependonmeetingdataSLAsviajusttheirstoragevendor.AutomationanddataSLAswillbemanagedatalayerabovethestoragevendor.AIandautomationwillchangetheeconomicsofITMuchofDevOpsisstilldrivenbypeople,eveniftheinfrastructureitselfisbecomingprogrammable.Butdatavolumesaregrowingsofastandapplicationsevolvingsoquickly,theinfrastructuremustbenimbleenough that it doesn’t become the bottleneck. In 2019, infrastructure will become increasinglyprogrammable, and AI-basedmachineswill predict storage and compute needs and allocate resourcesautomaticallybasedonnetworkconditions,workloadsandhistoricalpatterns.70percentofcustomerswilloptfortheKubernetesplatformfromtheircloudprovider,OpenShiftorTectonicBut consolidation is coming.Most customerswill use the Kubernetes distribution and packed servicesfrom their cloud providers or a distribution of Kubernetes from RedHat (Openshift) or CoreOS(Tectonic).Smallercustomerswillprobablyoptforthefullypackagedofferingfromtheircloudprovider,even though they will be locked in and find it difficult to implement multi-cloud strategies.Largerenterpriseswillmoreoftenopt foracloud-agnosticplatformnotonlybecausesuchplatformsallowformore customization but also because they are less likely to be locked into their cloud providers,somethingthatishelpfulwhenitistimetonegotiateprice.

QuantumEricBassier,Sr.DirectorofProductMarketingandCorporateCommunicationsVideocontentwillgrowexponentially,acrossmanyindustriesVideoandvideo-likedatawill constituteover50percentof all databeinggenerated, fromsurveillancefootage; consumer images, voice, medical imagery, IoT, entertainment and social media. Large andunstructureddataisoften50timeslargerthantheaveragecorporatedatabase.Videoisunique,anditisnot typicallyagood fit for traditionalbackup; it cannotbecompressedordeduplicated, itdoesn’tworkwell with replication, snaps or clones, and ingest speed is critical. This “unstructured” data –predominantly video and images – is projected to surpass 100 Zetabytes worldwide by 2020. Expectenterprisedataservicestobeincreasinglyoptimizedforthesedatasets,withinfrastructureoptimizedforingestprocessingandthefulllifecyclemanagementofthisformofdata.NVMewillrevolutionizemediaworkflowinfrastructuresNVMe will finally allow our customers to unlock the true potential of flash – dramatically reducinglatencies and enabling IP-based infrastructures and workflows, while reducing expensive fiberinfrastructure costs. It also sets the stage for truly software defined infrastructures and can free uphardwareresourcestofocusonadvancedanalytics.

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AutonomousvehicledevelopmentwilldriveenormousdatacreationAs testing continues in 2019, cars are on the cusp of Level 3 autonomy, so we can anticipate newworkflowsforthetestvehiclesastheypushforwardfromthispoint.Watchforothervehiclestobecomeautonomousaswellinland,sea,andair.Datastorageintheformofflash,disk,tapeandthecloud–andtheability toseamlesslymovedatabetween these typesof storage tobalanceaccessandcost factors –willbekeyinsupportingautomotivevehicledevelopment.

QumuloBillRichter,CEOFileemergesasthegoldstandardforunstructureddatastorageworkflowsCustomers can take a breath of relief and embrace the things they love about file storage— standardprotocols,robustdataservices,applicationintegration,managementandperformance.Software-definedstoragegoesmainstreamCustomers will continue to run data centers for certain workloads, but those data centers need to besoftware-defined. That means standard hardware supplied by a choice of vendors, coupled withintelligent, API-driven software that can be automated and scaled economically. Software-definedinfrastructuremakeshardwareinnovation,suchasNVMe,moreeasytoadoptandconsume.Thefogofuncertaintyhasliftedandthe“clouds”havepartedCustomerswillincreasinglydemandthattheirstorageinfrastructureruninboththepubliccloudandthedatacenter.“Scale-across”supersedesscale-outasthearchitectureofchoiceforthehybridcloud.

RStorGiovanniCoglitore,CEO2019willbe theyear thatcomputingcomes toyou.Wepredict thatwhiledatacenterswillpersist, thetrendofmulti-clouddeploymentspanningon-premiseITtopublicandprivatecloudswillfocusongivingCIOsthecontrolandagnosticplatformstheyneedtomanagetheirhybridcloudneeds.In that vein, architecturesdefined strictly as either “core”or “edge”will shift to those that arebuilt ondistributedcomputing,network,storage,andresources,whichleadsustooursecondprediction:CIOswilllook for tools and solutions that allow for data to be portable between environments, agnostic to anyparticularcloudproviderandfundamentallymoreflexible.Thiswill translate into furthermomentumaroundcontainersandserverless technology.Already,we'veseendemandfortheintegrationofKubernetesandSingularity,acontainertechnologyinitiallydevelopedfor high-performance computing, as companies run more service-based compute jobs that involvestreamingdataandreal-timeanalytics.

RubrikArvindNithrakashyap,CTOThefuturewillbehybridWhenitcomestoanon-premisesorpubliccloudstrategy,enterpriseswillnotchooseoneortheother.Aswe’veseenthroughtheintroductionofnewsolutionslikeAWSOutpostandMicrosoft’sAzureStack,eventhemajorcloudprovidersunderstandthepowerandpromiseofhybridcloud. Iexpect themajorcloudplayerswill continue to introduceandadvancehybrid solutions that aim toprovide enterpriseswith aseamlessexperienceacrosson-premises,publicormulti-cloudenvironment.BusinesswillcapitalizeonAIandautomationNextyear,youcanexpect thatAIwillbecomemore integrated intosupplychainbusinessprocesses.Asautomation becomes more sophisticated and practical use cases become the norm, CTOs will need to

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adjust their thinking and identify opportunities where they can leverage AI to work alongside humancounterpartsandaugmenthumanintelligence.CybersecuritywillremaintopofmindinboardroomseverywhereIn aworld inwhich attackers are seeking out vulnerabilities 24/7, getting hitwith a cyberattack is nolongeramatterofif--butwhen.CTOswillneedtofocusonimplementingstrongersecuritymeasurestoprotect emerging technologies, like cloud-native applications, that arebeneficial to enterprisesbut alsocomewiththeirownsetofsecurityrisks.

ScaleComputingAlanConboy,OfficeoftheCTOArtificialIntelligenceandMachineLearningIn 2019 Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will nearly reach its full potential byconnectingandprocessingdatafasteroveraglobaldistributionofedgecomputingplatforms.AIandMLinsightshavealwaysbeenavailable,butpossiblyleveragedabitslowerthanneededovercloudplatformsortraditionaldatacentres.Nowwecanmovethecomputeandstoragecapabilitiesclosertowheredataisretrievedandprocessed,enablingcompanies,organizationsandgovernmentagenciestomakewiserandfasterdecisions.CloudComputingNextyearwillbeadefiningyearforedgeandhybridcomputingstrategiesasIoTandtheglobalnetworkof sensors pile onmoredata than the average cloudhas had to handle in the past. This transitionwillofficiallycrownedgecomputingasthenextbigthing.AccordingtoastudyfromIDC,45percentofalldatacreated by IoT deviceswill be stored, processed, analysed and acted upon close to or at the edge of anetworkby2020. In theprocess, edgecomputingwill takeonworkloads that struggleonhostedcloudenvironments,passingthetorchovertoHCIplatforms.EdgeComputingAccordingtoStatistatheglobalIoTmarketwillexplodefrom$2.9trillionin2014to$8.9trillionin2020.That means companies will be collecting data and insights from nearly everything we touch from themomentwewakeupandlikelyevenwhilewesleep.In2019,edgecomputingwillrequireanewlevelofintelligence and automation tomake those platforms practical.Where once only a smidge of datawascreated andprocessedoutside a traditional data center,wewill soonbe at a stagewherenearly everypieceofdatawillbegeneratedfaroutsidethedatacenter.Thisamountofdatawillcreateapermanenthomeforedgecomputing.

StorCentricGaryWatson,CTOAretreatfromthecloudCloud was once considered cheap and flexible but many organizations made the move without fullyunderstanding it. As a result, we are starting to see a retraction as businesses look for amore hybridmodelinordertoreducecostsandregaincontrol.Thisissomethingthatwillcontinuethroughout2019,businesses need to find a balance by understanding what data is stored and where. The lesson to belearnedistobeawareofindustryhypearoundthelatesttrends.ConsolidationsaresettogrowThe storagemarket has beenquite noisywith industry leaders touting about the latest trends, but theovercrowdedmarketisstartingtomakeanumberofconsolidations.Onethingtobeawareofistheneedformeaningfulintegration.Asorganizationsgetacquired,customersneedtoconsiderif it’sfortherightreason,howthiswillsupportthem,andthetypeofintegrationtoexpect.HighcapacitystoragewillstillbeamustWehavebeentalkingaboutdatagrowthforthepastcoupleofyears,butit’samajorpainpointthatisn’tgoing away. It is easier than ever before to create vast volumes of data, and to support this, we willincreasinglyseesoftwareandautomationdevelop. Infact, inthepastcoupleofmonthsthishasalready

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startedtorampup.Aswestoreincreasingvolumesofdatamovingforward,it’simportanttocomplimentstoragewithdataprotection,ensuringyouhavethecapacityneeded,alongwithacomprehensiverangeofdataprotectionfeatures.

StorONEGalNaor,CEO

Organizationsaretiredofbolt-onstoragesolutions,addinghardwaretoachievehighperformanceorhighcapacity,andhavingtoleverageyesterday’stechnologiestotrytohandletoday’sworkloads.2019willbea year of innovation. As IT struggles to achieve the results they need in terms of performance, dataprotection and cost, they will seek out a unified approach using core technologies that can provideimmediate ROI. In the upcoming year, we shall see enterprises adopting solutions that help themovercomethefollowingchallenges:GettingmorestoragewithlesshardwareAchievingahigherutilizationratefromstoragehardwareallowsorganizationstousedramaticallylessofittoachievethesameperformance.WhetherusingAFAstoachieveultra-highperformancewithverylowlatencyorhighthroughputwithHDDs,extractingthefullvalueofthedriveswillresultinlessoverallcost.Wewill see the emergence of software solutions for hardware challenges thatwill result in the lowestCAPEXandTCOwithlesshardwaretobuyandmanage.AssuringcompletedataretentionanddataprotectionEnterprise-classfunctionalitywillnolongerbeanice-to-havefeaturebutsomethingthatwillbebuiltintonext-generation software solutions.Rather thanhaving tobuy and integrate external solutions – again,less hardware! – Enterprises will be able to achieve complete data protection without performancedegradation within a single solution that provides unlimited snapshots and high-performance erasurecodingallincludedwithoutpayingmore.Future-proofingdatastorageGettingaheadofthecurveisoftenapipe-dreaminIT.Toomuchtimeandeffortisspentputtingoutfires,havingtoplanforfuturecapacityorperformanceneeds.In2019,moreorganizationswillbelookingforsolutions thatprovide the flexibility theyneed tosimplify theirstorageenvironmentandallowthemtomakechangesonthefly.Acompleteandcentralstoragesolutionthatallowsforthemixandmatchingofanydrivetype(HDD,SSD)fromanyvendor,andanycapacity;anyphysicalhardwareorvirtualappliance.2019willbethefirsttimesoftwarewillenableblock,fileandobjectprotocolstorunonthesamedrivesincludedononeplatform.In2019,anewwaveof innovationwillemerge,providingorganizationswithperformanceandcapacitywithdramaticallylesshardwareinasinglesolutionwhileprovidingallenterprise-classfunctionalityandprotocolstosatisfytheneedsoftheirmission-criticalapplicationstodayandintothefuture.

StrongBoxDataFloydChristofferson,SVPProductsCross-platformStorageAutomationLarge-scale data users are creating increasing demand for solutions that simplify and automate globaldataandstorageresourcemanagementacrossmultiplestoragetypesandvendors,withtheobjectiveofreducing the complexity of managing multi-vendor/cloud environments. These new solutions arecombiningmultiplesourcesoffileandstoragemetadataintopowerfulpolicyenginestoautomatestorageworkflows andmaximize value from the storage anddata itself. This is a quantum leapbeyond simpleHSMsanddatamoversofthepastwhichhadlimitedpolicytriggers,suchastheageofthefile.Thesenewvendor-neutral solutions are driven by richmetadata tomeet the demands of AI/ML, improve ROI onstorage resources, and to reduce OPEX and complexity for IT, breaking storage vendor lock-in, andincreasingstorageutilizationefficiencyanduserproductivity.

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LeveragingAIOpsforStorageAIOps(Artificial IntelligenceforITOperations) isanemergingcategorythatusesBigDataandmachinelearning technologiesbasedonaggregatingmultiple layersof inputs toautomateglobal ITactions.Thistrend is now expanding beyond its traditional use cases for application performance and networkmonitoring to now include storage and datamanagement tasks. AIOps for storage ismade possible byaggregating multiple layers of metadata about files and storage platforms, the combination of whichprovides the context needed to automate management of both data and storage resources across anystoragetype,fromanyvendor.InthiswayAIOpsforStorageprovidesITteamswiththeabilityto:

- Automate routine storage IT operations, including file copymanagement, datamigration, dataprotection,tiering,activearchiving,andmore.

- Quicklyrecognizeand takeactiononserious issuesdrivenbyreal-time feedback fromthedataandthestorageplatforms.

- Implementglobalcontrolacrossmultiplelocationsandstorageplatforms.AIOpsforStoragewillgainadditionaltractionasITteamsleverageittoreducestoragecostsandimproveROIwhilealsoreducingoperationalloadonITstaff.Multi-Cloud&On-PremStorageIt is no longer enough to simply have a “Cloud” strategy for managing off-premises data. IncreasinglystorageITmanagersrealizetheyneedahybridapproachtodatastoragethatwillincludeacombinationofon-premisesandoff-sitedatastorage,butwhichdoesnotlockthemintoasingleCloudstorageprovider.They need a way to simplify, accelerate, and automate management of data across both on-premisesstorageandmultipleCloudsolutions.Datavaluechangesovertime,suchthatdatathatmightneedtobehousedinanallflasharrayorNVMeplatformtodaywillneedadditionalprotectionandlowercoststorageoptions tomorrow. As storage choices proliferate for both on- and off-premises solutions, the need tocentrallymanageandautomatedataplacementacrossahybridofmulti-cloudandmultipleon-premisesstoragetypeswillincreaseinimportancein2019andbeyond.

VexataZahidHussain,CEOArtificialIntelligence,MachineLearningandCognitiveSystemswill drive infrastructure decisions in 2018, requiring that Line of Business and IT management worktogethertoaddressbottlenecksthatexistincurrentsolutions.In2018therewillbeacontinuedshiftofcomputeprocessingandanalyticstotheedge,drivinginfrastructurearchitecturedecisionstode-centralizedataprocessingandpositivelyimpactdigitaltransformation,customerengagementandbusinessmodels.IoTwillcontinuetodriveinfrastructurearchitecturedecisions to deploy solutions that can offer abundant I/O performance at scale to drive down TCO,increaseefficiencyanddeliverperformanceelasticitytosupportever-changingworkloaddemands.

WekaIOAndyWatson,CTOLedbyQLC,theacquisitioncostofflashstoragewillbeatHDD.Cloudbursting will be more broadly adopted by mainstream customers implementing multicloudstrategieswhichfacilitatetheflowofdatabetweenon-premdatacentersandthecloud,oracrossmultiplegeos.100-GbEandotherhigh-perfnetworking(e.g.,200gbit/sInfiniBand)willenjoybroadadoption,drivingthelastnailsintothefadingrelevanceofFCSAN.Applications(especiallyonesleveragingGPU’s,eachofwhichcandriveIOat≥6gigabytespersec)willnolongerbebottleneckedbyNFS,whichwasokaysolongasnetworkswerestuckat10-GbEor less; in2019theywill lookbeyondNFStoobtaingreaterbenefitsfromfasterstorageoverfasternetworks.(Hint:CallWekaIO!)

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WesternDigitalMartinFink,CTOWithworkloadsconstantlychangingandprocessingdemandsinflux,in2019,wewillseeaproliferationof RISC-V based silicon as there will be an increased demand from organizations who are looking tospecificallytailor(andadapt)theirIoTembeddeddevicestoaspecificworkload,whilereducingcostsandsecurityrisksassociatedwithsiliconthatisnotopen-source.In2019wewillrealizethefirststeponatrajectorytowardfabricinfrastructure,includingfabricattachedmemory,withthewide-spreadadoptionof fabricattachedstorage.Thismayseemlikeasmallstep,butthecommitmenttoFASmeanswearetakingthenecessarysteps,asanindustry,toensureallcomponentsareconnectedwithoneanother,allowingcomputetomoveclosertowherethedataisstoredratherthandatabeingresignedtoseveralstepsawayfromcompute.Although “composability” is not a new term, in 2019, we will see open composability, versus today’sinflexible, proprietary solutions, comeof age and start to gomainstreamasorganizations look tobuildcomposableinfrastructuresonopenstandardstoallowforspecializedconfigurationsthatarespecifictotheirworkloadsandaddressdiversedata.

ZertoSteveBlow,TechnologyEvangelistBrexitBrexitisgoingtohaveasignificantimpactonIToperationsnextyear,andpeoplewillstarttounderstandhow the UK’s decision to leave the EU will impact where they can run their IT infrastructure. Manyorganisationsmayfindthemselveswithanewrequirementtomovethingsto,fromorbetweendifferentcloud and on-premises environments to ensure their data falls in the right regions for regulatorypurposes. And a key tominimising the disruption this could bring is having the rightmobility tools inplace.Converginginfrastructure2019willseeanewmeaningcometotheword“convergence”.In2018wesawhardwarevendorstryingtoconvergethesoftwarelayerintotheirproductoffering.However,allthey’vereallycreatedisaneweraof vendor lock-in – a hyper-lock-in in many ways. In 2019 organisations will rethink what convergedsolutions mean. As IT professionals increasingly look for out-of-the-box ready solutions to simplifyoperations,we’ll see technology vendorswork together to bringmore vendor-agnostic, comprehensiveconvergedsystemstomarket.BackupIn2018,itbecameclearthatcurrentbackupsolutionsarenolongerfitforpurpose,withnearlyhalfofallbusinesses experiencing anunrecoverable data event in the last three years.However, preventingdatalossrequiresconstant,secondbysecondbackup.Thebigchallengeforbackupvendorswiththisishowtominimise the impact such frequent backups can have on production. Some hardware vendors haveworked hard to try and minimise the impact, however have created more of an evolution to backuptechnologyratherthanrevolution.Theraceisstillontofindawaytoeliminatetheimpactentirely.

a snapshot of market predictions from 37 vendors · 2019 vendors predictions 6 drivescale brian...

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