DCN May 2017 | Page 13

centre of attention Why pay for replicated data?  One of the unintended consequences of migrating, backing up and optimising data in a heterogeneous storage environment is an increase in the cost of the data itself. Aside from the expense of storing extra copies of the data, organisations are also forced to pay extra licensing costs for the second, third or additional copies of their data. As a consequence, many businesses pay too much for their storage. They often have to guess what they need and frequently overspecify their requirements or pay for multiple licences to use a product they already own in different applications or environments. One solution is a ‘pay once’ model where customers only pay for the primary instance of their data. This prevents them paying additional licences for data they rarely or never use and gives them a much clearer picture of their storage costs. In a time where organisations are seeking the flexibility to access and use data across multiple platforms and applications, archaic licensing practices are an unnecessary obstacle to their objective of getting the most out of their data. hardware ensnares them in a costly and complex environment – and traps them into an upgrade cycle dictated by the vendor. In a software defined model, most of the features are provided by the software so the underlying hardware requirement is becoming increasingly commoditised. This makes it particularly relevant to organisations busy developing their cloud strategies. Software defined is a smart approach to cloud because it enables intelligent abstraction that gives organisations t he capability for intelligent predictive analytics, helps them make informed decisions and take proactive rather than reactive actions. Knowledge is power but it’s software defined that is powering the future of data storage. Preparing for the cloud intelligently The pay once model is also far more attuned to the world of virtualisation and software defined IT. By decoupling software from the underlying hardware, software defined has enabled organisations to avoid the dangers of proprietary vendor lock-in where the interlocking of software and May 2017 | 13