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back to article Hybrid cloud thingies, new media and everything is software-defined: Storage reinvents itself

The foundation-shaking changes in storage media in 2015 were paralleled, if not exceeded, by the massive perturbations at all levels in the systems, suppliers and applications areas. EMC is fleeing into the arms of Dell, there were acquisitions and splits, activist investors, startups galore, and death and near-death experiences …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Software defined this, software defined that...

    So what is really new here?

    We've had software running in all sorts of systems for decades now.

    I can remember configuring a DEC Storageworks controller in the early 1990's.

    Cisco Routers had config files

    etc

    etc

    etc

    So what is really new here? Or is it just a load of marketing hype as usual?

    Can someone tell us in terms that even us ignoramuses can understand what this crap is all about?

    If they can't can this site please stop promoting a load of shit?

    0 1 Reply
    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Software defined this, software defined that...

      "what this crap is all about?"

      Not being tied to some vendor's over-priced hardware is the most obvious aspect, as traditionally you would buy some storage array and then have to get replacement HDD from that vendor, at £1-2k per HDD for SFA, but for a firmware version the software would accept.

      So yes it is a lot of bollocks but the underlying issue, that of having a choice of hardware, is not such a trivial aspect after all.

      2 0 Reply
    2. Yaron Haviv
      Reply Icon

      Re: Software defined this, software defined that...

      "Software Defined" originate from the idea you can use software abstractions (i.e. REST calls) to define infrastructure and services, SDN started with OpenFlow which allowed to bypass the rigid Cisco CLI based ACLs with something much more flexible and it controlled HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE, it evolved from there, many of the network services are now implemented in software to provide better flexibility.

      the issue is that many guys in storage saw that as a marketing opportunity to re-brand their rigid/legacy products, and hijacked the term to mean "Software Implemented", useless term in days when ALL storage products run with software over x86.

      the real software defined is AWS, which provide pretty high-level abstractions and automation on top of their infrastructure and services, in a way you dont even know or care how things are implemented. Check out the UI for most of the "Software-Defined" products, why is there so much data about low-level/infrastructure stuff and hardly any self-service abstractions ?

      Yaron

      SDSBlog.com

      0 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Software defined this, software defined that...

        @Yaron; IBM 87xx/88xx series runs on custom RISC chips; POWER6 I believe, and in certain benchmarks are kicka** arrays.

        0 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Software defined this, software defined that...

      "So what is really new here?"

      @AC what's new here is you build your own array with your own commodity parts. You pay the vendor for software or for open source, a maintenance contract; think VSAN and ScaleIO.

      If you piece together the right software and your own hardware you can save boatloads of money.

      Rumor has it that ScaleIO can out run most of SSD arrays from the HW vendors on the market.

      This is huge; Google and Amazon done figured it out. With the SW coming available we may have seen the end of the packaged array vendors.

      0 2 Reply

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