EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
FRED LHERAULT , FIELD CTO , EMEA EMERGING ,
PURE STORAGE
For automated containerised environments , businesses should look for enterprise-grade Kubernetes data platform for modern applications .
For fully automated containerised environments , businesses should look for the enterprise-grade Kubernetes data platform for modern applications . This will provide storage management for Kubernetes clusters with automated deployment and scaling of persistent storage , plus data protection .
Some solutions even include data services on top of this , such as a curated set of databases for use in Kubernetes environments , which deploy with just one click of a button , saving a huge amount of time for developers .
The future of storage management centres on customer-set storage performance profiles selected via self-service or entirely automated in the application environment via storage-ascode and orchestrators . Smart IT organisations will transform the role of the storage administrator to look like a product manager . This means defining storage products through abstract concepts such as storage classes and policies .
This also means enabling self-service by the organisations ’ internal customers and orchestration platforms rather than being the person that provisions storage objects , leaving the new storage product manager free to manage fleets of devices rather than individual storage arrays , monitor the use of the existing services and create new offerings .
To enable this cloud operating model , some storage vendors can offer platforms with which storage admins can manage and add capacity to their fleet of storage devices non-disruptively , as well as define classes of storage , policies , and availability zones to be made available to their consumers .
Meanwhile , developers that use infrastructure-ascode platforms can specify the class of storage they want for an application , code it into templates , evaluate it and deploy it .
Note however that enabling self-service while still being dependent on long purchasing and delivery cycles leaves the organisation open to risk . Fully embracing these concepts means consuming the underlying storage platforms as-a-Service , to enable rapid scale where needed , enable flexibility , but also avoid investing in hardware ahead of when it is needed .
Businesses should look not only at vendor ’ s technology but also their ability to provide their platforms through flexible , on-demand consumption models .
Some storage vendors can indeed offer all the above ; the benefit of working with a single storage supplier is that integrated product sets create efficiencies all through the stack .
All flash storage arrays linked across a single operating environment means workloads can be managed at scale across the business from a single view , seamlessly alongside a Kubernetes data platform and all the selfservice storage functionality a modern business needs .
Collaborating with a vendor that can offer all of this through a flexible , SLA-backed storage as-a-Service offering that feature guarantees around energy usage , zero data migrations and non-disruptive upgrades is the key to achieving seamless , modern storage management .
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