Software-defined storage (SDS) is a technology that effectively manages and allocates data storage using software, thereby making it independent of the particular hardware it resides on. Earlier, Anand Jayapalan had discussed how it provides high flexibility as it can run on almost any standard computer hardware, unlike traditional NAS or SAN systems that require special equipment. This makes SDS easier to upgrade, scale and adapt as technology changes.
Varied types of SDS platforms tend to include unique and specific features. However, contemporary data infrastructures often share similar components and functions. The majority of SDS solutions are likely to include some combination of the following technologies:
- Hardware: A collection of storage devices that shall be managed inside a cluster organization.
- Abstraction: Even though SDS is not virtualization in itself, it does include abstraction as a critical part of its operations. The separation of software and hardware is quite an important aspect of SDS. Diverse abstraction methods can comprise of parallel NFS, storage virtualization or object storage platforms.
- Automation: The SDS platform is quite likely to include certain form of automation in order to control storage schemas, as well as orchestrate storage across applications, storage types and media. Moreover, automation tends to support dependable and scalable methods for managing security, compliance, and access issues.
- Software-Defined Networking (SDN): Larger SDS infrastructures associated with data centres are likely to depend on SDN capabilities to support more wide-ranging and scalable cluster management.
- A Standardized Interface: Such an interface shall include transparent APIs to support management and software development around the platform.
The major benefits of SDS tend to be derived from the combination of orchestration and virtualization. SDS solutions gain multiple advantages from both of these approaches towards hardware management. The major benefits of software-defined storage include:
- Device-Agnostic Infrastructure: One of the prime benefits of SDS is that the underlying hardware is almost irrelevant, as long as it is able to interface with the solution. Organizations may use diverse types hardware as a part of their solution, and its impact on the actual storage would be minimal. Moreover, companies would be able to use exactly the type of hardware they want without having to worry about compatibility with critical features and services offered by the SDS.
- Pooled vs. Hierarchical Storage: For several years, hierarchical storage has been the de facto way to organize data centers and collected storage efforts. However, by switching to a pooled approach where hardware is able to enter and leave the storage pool as needed, SDS provides improved flexibility and scalability.
- Infinite Scalability: data centers are commonly limited by their physical reality, such as a set pool of IP addresses or energy constraints on servers. On the other hand, with SDS, these limits no longer apply to the solution. Hence, theoretically, there is no limit to their scalability.
Earlier, Anand Jayapalan had spoken about how SDS allows for built-in automation, which makes it easier for companies to better control how their storage functions. This ultimately ensures robust governance capabilities over storage aspects like performance, security, or operations-specific functionality.
