I read with interest the recent TechTarget interview of Evaluator Group’s Randy Kerns on what is happening with file based storage. It was a great summary of the trends and pressures we are hearing about from prospects on almost a daily basis. In a nutshell, these are the key points I gleaned from the interview:
- File data growth is exploding faster than block data, in particular from big data
- NAS systems are one of the best storage targets for this data but they have limitations
- Adding more storage can create isolated islands across which one can’t optimize well
- Scale out and clustered NAS address some of these problems but only partly
- Capital cost amortization can make storage management tremendously challenging
- File-sharing has great potential but mainstream technology limits its effectiveness
- Object storage (file-based storage plus metadata) provides a strong platform for file storage
- Applications don’t speak object storage today, so you need a NAS-like target that speaks object storage
Voila, Panzura Global Cloud Storage System! As a Panzura marketing guy, of course I “see” Panzura in every article I read. But I was struck by how well our solution aligns with this progression of thought. It also explains why IT leaders get so excited about what we can do for them.
