Stirred Up About Storage: Why 82% of organizations want to change their approach and move to software-defined storage

According to independent research conducted for SUSE by Loudhouse, a staggering 82% of organizations across the entire world, from Indiana to India and Europe to Eurasia have their approach to storage under the microscope – driven to make changes by the fear that their business’ growth will be choked by rising data volumes.

So what’s got – well pretty much everyone – so stirred up about storage? Let’s start with the blindingly obvious: data volumes are increasing, a lot, over two thirds of storage decision makers expect storage to grow by 30% in the next 12 months, in a remarkably similar pattern for the entire world. North Americans top the chart, followed by Indians, and in the EU where – for the time being at least – the UK tops the demand scale.

The other top concerns? More than half of storage decision makers want to reduce complexity. All those different business applications, with their differing associated storage, built up over time in a hotchpotch of separate business units, departments and operating companies, silo piled on silo. Just short of half of decision makers are getting headaches from cost (I don’t think I’d like to explain a 30% increase even to the most sympathetic boss, year after year). And coming in third, we have issues with facilitating better working practices in the enterprise with 45% stating that helping the organization get better at collaboration, innovation and flexibility is a key priority.

It stands to reason, with all that increasing cost, and with collaboration and innovation as top priorities that this isn’t a problem that only concerns the IT team. Far from it. The business wants to be more agile in the digital age. And its turning up the heat on the IT team to deliver systems that support faster decision making and innovation. Small wonder then, that more than two thirds of storage decision makers report increased pressure from the business over the last couple of years.

The business is not going to leave IT alone when it comes to storage, it’s going to push, and push and push, demanding performance. In a world where digital innovation is competitive edge, and competitive edge comes from the exploitation of data, how and where that data is stored and how quickly it can be access and analyzed defines business success.

Fear of slowing down digital transformation affects over 90% of storage decision makers everywhere except China and the Nordics. Perhaps in China – where the top 50 enterprises are all owned by the state – money isn’t so much of a concern!

Software-defined storage, with its capacity to reduce costs and complexity, deal with rising volumes, and provide a long term strategy for the future, is unsurprisingly seen by the vast majority of decision makers as part of the future.

Over three quarters of storage decision makers worldwide see the business case as ‘compelling’

So, is it any wonder that nearly two thirds of you are going to adopt software defined storage in the next 12 months? I really don’t think it is. But isn’t it time you turned desire into action and kick-started your SDS strategy? The problems with volumes, the challenges of digital transformation and the scrutiny of the wider business are not going to go away – start today: we’re here to help.