Data is the new oil driving business value – which makes storage more important than ever.
Organisations are spoilt for choice when it comes to data storage: but which technology is the most effective for which applications?
Cassim Amod, BP lead: NetApp at Westcon-Comstor sub-Saharan Africa, discusses the latest trends in storage, and how resellers can keep themselves relevant as trusted advisers and technology providers.
What is the difference between cloud and on-premises storage (and backup)?
On-premises storage is the traditional storage that is hosted in a company-owned Data Centre and is usually managed by internal staff.
Cloud storage is infrastructure that is hosted in a Hyperscaler’s Data Centre and clients usually consume resources based on a subscription-based model.
The storage can be a fully managed service or partially managed.
Cloud-based backup has fundamentally reduced the total cost of ownership of backup as companies no longer need to invest in and maintain legacy infrastructure for long-term data retention
When would customers use either the cloud or on-premises?
I firmly believe that this is a “horses for courses” scenario. Before deciding to place a workload in the cloud or on-premise, a full assessment needs to be done to determine the total ROI.
Certain sensitive data sets that store confidential information may not be suitable for the cloud due to data sovereignty regulations.
At times project-based workloads are best suited to the cloud as this negates the need to invest in physical infrastructure that will only be used for a short period of time.
What solutions are available?
There are several solutions available in South Africa; these range from private cloud providers to the three major hyperscalers (Azure from Microsoft, GCP from Google and AWS from Amazon).
These range from ultra-fast flash drives that provide sub-milli second response times to slower speeds that are best suited to long term data retention.
The solutions are also tailored and optimised for specific workloads such as databases, SAP etc.
What is the reseller’s role in ensuring customers get the best solution while keeping themselves in the loop?
As resellers we have the responsibility to ensure that customers derive the best return on investment (ROI) from their storage and data investment. It’s important to seek out a vendor that offers flexibility and agility that allows data to be moved seamlessly between on-premise and the cloud and even between cloud providers; this will ensure that a cloud or on-premise “lock-in” scenario is avoided.
One needs to be able to have a data fabric that allows for the seamless movement and optimal placement of data between on-premise and cloud.