Agile Storage: Core storage requirements for an agile IT infrastructure

As the volume of both structured and unstructured data continues to grow, a wellthought-out and holistic approach is critical when selecting a new storage platform. Data generated by machine learning, IoT, analytics, and artificial intelligence are examples of unstructured data and comprise the majority of data growth, while structured data is created from traditional deployments such as a relational database management system (RDBMS).

With the diversity of these workloads and data types, IT professionals should consider these three factors in their assessment of storage offerings for traditional purchases (CAPEX model):

• Scalability and upgradeability: The ability to meet current and long-term capacity and performance needs
• Operational efficiency: How easy is it for IT staff to deploy, manage, optimize, and upgrade storage systems
• Cost containment: How to minimize ongoing operating resources required for management, real-estate, power, and cooling