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Tintri 2015 Predictions: Cloud, OpenStack, Service Providers and More


 

Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2015.  Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed article by Kieran Harty, CTO of Tintri

2015 Outlook – Cloud, OpenStack, Service Providers and More

Software Innovation in Storage Unlocks the Hardware Innovations of the Last 5 Years. Not long ago the primary issues plaguing storage were performance and cost. Those issues have been tackled with hardware innovations, including flash, multicore and 10 GB Ethernet. Now the obstacle is data management, which is still abstracted in LUNs, volumes and other legacy concepts. Since the business thinks in VMs, the natural solution is to manage storage in VMs. The resulting visibility, automation and analytics unlocks the full capabilities of the hardware. Consider tablets-the hardware technology was available, but it was the simplicity of management (iPad / iOS) that transformed the market. In 2015, storage software will spark the beginnings of a similar transformation.

IT Generalists Can Manage Storage. Conventional storage is hard to manage and requires specialists steeped in LUNs, volumes, RAID, etc. As a result, storage has become a black box, expensive and hard to manage. But the silos of IT are being broken down, and so in 2015 IT generalists - virtualization admins, system engineers and software developers - will start to take ownership of their server, virtualization AND storage requirements. In turn, that elevates the storage admin to working on projects with more strategic value than carving up LUNs and volumes.

Democratization of Cloud (It's Not Just About Amazon and Google Any More). Rising security risks, lack of a strong economic case for large-scale deployment and the continuing challenge of adapting enterprise applications to the cloud force companies to explore private cloud. Many of the capabilities of public cloud will become available in the private cloud-allowing companies to realize scale, security, automation, data protection and, ultimately, cost savings.  Service providers will quickly grow to service the private clouds of organizations that don't want to run their own infrastructure.

OpenStack Gets Real. OpenStack has been a point of discussion since 2010, but in 2015 it's become very real. IBM, HP, Cisco, Red Hat, Oracle and VMware all support OpenStack, prompting many companies to start looking at OpenStack seriously. The momentum will start in Software Development (specifically DevOps) where the flexibility / agility of OpenStack is most compelling. Once value is realized it will naturally spread to other parts of the enterprise.

Customers Look for Differentiated Flash Products. In 2015, customers will realize that buying basic flash-based storage doesn't provide a lot of value, and it doesn't address the root cause of data center pain. Why? Because flash performance without baked-in intelligence will be table stakes in 2015-companies will see that driving an orange Ferrari while wearing a blindfold is cool for a short time, but not very bright in the end. So, they'll demand total visibility (GPS in our metaphor) into individual VMs; and any flash provider that forces companies to continue to think in LUNs, volumes, etc. will quickly lose its shine.

Service Providers Turn to Storage as a Competitive Advantage. Cloud service providers compete on speed and reliability. In the past that has put the focus on their network. But smart providers have realized that storage can have greater amplification of their performance. They'll turn to storage that removes guesswork allowing for precise pricing, quality of service guarantees and happier customers. Storage providers that build upon these sources of differentiation will be best positioned to capture the private cloud opportunity (per above).

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About the Author

Kieran is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Tintri.  Prior to becoming CTO, Kieran served as CEO and Chairman of Tintri. Kieran has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin.

Published Friday, November 21, 2014 6:30 AM by David Marshall
Comments
@VMblog - (Author's Link) - February 10, 2015 6:59 AM

Once again, how great is it to be a part of the virtualization and cloud industries? 2014 was another banner year, and we witnessed a number of fantastic technologies take shape and skyrocket. And I, along with many industry experts and executives, media

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