The Complexity of Modern Data Environments
In today's digital landscape, data is being created at unprecedented rates, and it is spread across a variety of locations. Whether organizations are engaging in digital transformation, harnessing the potential of AI, or optimizing their current IT infrastructure, they are doing so in environments that are increasingly complex. According to a 2023 study by Enterprise Strategy Group, 87% of organizations anticipate that their applications will be even more widely distributed over the next two years.
The Challenge of Distributed Data
Scott Sinclair from Enterprise Strategy Group highlights the challenge: "Data is becoming more distributed. Apps are becoming more distributed. The typical organization has multiple data centers, multiple cloud providers, and numerous edge locations. Data is all over the place and continues to be created rapidly." To manage this complexity, organizations need to unify this dispersed data while addressing the rapid growth of enterprise data, adopting cloud-like models for security, and balancing cost and performance.
The Role of Data Platforms
The solution for many organizations is a software-defined, virtualized data platform that provides a common data and control plane across hybrid cloud environments. Ian Clatworthy from Hitachi Vantara explains that such a platform "is an integrated set of technologies that meets an organization’s data needs, enabling the storage, delivery, governance, and security of data." Research by Gartner predicts that these platforms will account for 70% of file and object storage by 2028, up from 35% in 2023.
Why Traditional Storage Falls Short
Historically, data was stored in silos—separate storage for file, block, and object data. However, two main factors are making this model inadequate: digital transformation and AI. As companies push forward with digital transformation, they find that isolated storage solutions cannot cope with growing data volumes and evolving business needs.
Simplifying the Data Landscape
In hybrid cloud environments, organizations often discover that they have mainframe or data center data in separate silos, block storage on appliances, and apps on file storage, among other things. This leads to increased complexity and costs, reduced flexibility, and efficiency. Clatworthy stresses that as we move towards a future with generative AI, which will generate vast amounts of data, simplifying data management is paramount. Data platforms are crucial in ensuring that applications can easily consume data.
