There is a lot of talk in the technology industry of “software defining”, taking the intelligent software elements of our stack abstracting it from the hardware to create a software only appliance that can be installed on a wide variety of hardware platforms.
As we continue to demand more flexibility from our technology infrastructure, the case for software defining it becomes even stronger as we need to be able to deploy in multiple locations, branch offices, co-location sites or Public Cloud, we can’t do this if we are limited by hardware restrictions, this is true of applications, infrastructure and increasingly our storage.
It is the move to software defined storage that we explore in this weeks podcast as we look at how the need for flexibility in our technology stack means that the ability to extract data management services from engineered hardware and deliver it as software upon any type of hardware becomes a very attractive proposition.
Joining me to discuss this rapidly developing area is Andy Scholl, Senior Product Manager at NetApp as we review the current market as well as how NetApp have abstracted their own data management platform ONTAP from their engineered systems to create a software defined offering, ONTAP Select.
We start our conversation by defining what we mean by Software Defined Storage (SDS) and why we may want to abstract our data management platform from our hardware. We look at how flexibility and agility is core to the drive behind software defined infrastructure allowing us to bring data management to diverse environments, especially those where engineered hardware would not be appropriate.
Andy shares the value of consistent data management across your entire infrastructure and how SDS ensures that this consistency is not limited to hardware engineered appliances.
We talk about how software defined helps build a modern DevOps focussed technology stack with an automated, consistent and repeatable deployment model and of course explore what NetApp are doing in this space with their ONTAP Select platform and the important part it plays in their data fabric strategy.
We finish up discussing how SDS is not just about getting the technology right, it also needs the commercials to be equally flexible. We touch upon how software defined is the right move at the right time for many and how SDS may also allow us to bring some of the flexibility we currently rely on public cloud for to be brought back in house.
Software defined is going to play an increasingly crucial part in the way we deploy our modern data management and as you’d expect NetApp are showing real innovation in this space and Andy shares a lot of that and provides some some great insight.
If you want to find out more about NetApp’s ONTAP Select you can find that on neteapp.com/select where you can also find how to try it out for free.
If you have questions for Andy, you can find him at NetApp via email Andy.scholl@netapp.com.
Enjoy the show and thanks for listening.
Techstringy 