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<strong>ST</strong>OR<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
The UK’s number one in IT Storage<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>ch/<strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2023</strong><br />
Vol 23, Issue 2<br />
LIFE, THE METAVERSE<br />
AND EVERYTHING:<br />
A data storage specialist's guide<br />
ROUNDTABLE:<br />
DNA storage<br />
HARDWARE:<br />
The 'indispensable' hard disk<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
AIOps in storage management<br />
COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS
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QNAP’s backup solution covers most business systems,<br />
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SaaS, and file servers.<br />
* The TS-h987XU-RP NAS has a different a drive bay architecture compared<br />
to the other three models.<br />
www.qnap.com<br />
Copyright © 2022 QNAP Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
The UK’s number one in IT Storage<br />
LIFE, THE METAVERSE<br />
AND EVERYTHING:<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>ch/<strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2023</strong><br />
Vol 23, Issue 2<br />
CONTENTS<br />
<strong>ST</strong>OR<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
CONTENTS<br />
A data storage specialist's guide<br />
ROUNDTABLE:<br />
DNA storage<br />
HARDWARE:<br />
The 'indispensable' hard disk<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
AIOps in storage management<br />
COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS<br />
COMMENT….....................................................................4<br />
Into the metaverse<br />
MANAGEMENT: AIOPS…..….......................................…..6<br />
AIOps can help to simplify storage management, which in turn will alleviate the<br />
pressures of skills shortages within IT, argues Eric Herzog, CMO, Infinidat<br />
10<br />
TECHNOLOGY: SSD……………....................................…….8<br />
Frederik Haak, Senior <strong>Mar</strong>keting Manager SSD Product <strong>Mar</strong>keting at KIOXIA Europe,<br />
discusses the requirements for the perfect SSDs for business applications<br />
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE…............................…..10<br />
DNA storage promises to store vast volumes of data in just a few particles for<br />
thousands of years - slashing both the footprint and energy needed to store our evergrowing<br />
data. Storage magazine asked a range of industry experts for their views<br />
16<br />
MANAGEMENT: CLOUD CO<strong>ST</strong>S…….......................……16<br />
Boyan Ivanov, CEO at StorPool Storage, looks at how cloud providers can better<br />
manage costs in the current unpredictable market<br />
RESEARCH: CYBERSECURITY……........................…….18<br />
Cybersecurity woes continue to plague SMBs, argues Chris McKie, VP, Product<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>keting Security and Networking Solutions at Datto, triggering a commitment to<br />
increase IT security budgets<br />
EVENT <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS <strong>2023</strong>…………….........…….20<br />
Nominations for the 20th Storage Awards close on <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24th - full details here<br />
18<br />
OPINION: ENTERPRISE I.T.…….................................…..22<br />
Tabitha Powell, Senior Specialist, Office of the CTO at F5, explains why enterprise<br />
architecture must evolve for digital transformation<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: HYBRID WORKING…………..................……24<br />
John Michael, CEO of iStorage, explains how corporate storage must change to meet<br />
the needs of a new working culture, and how upgrading hardware can simplify<br />
employee administration<br />
22<br />
TECHNOLOGY: METAVERSE……...........................…….26<br />
Manfred Berger, Senior Manager of Business Development EMEAI at Western Digital,<br />
offers a data storage specialist's guide to the metaverse<br />
ANALYSIS: HDD………..............................................…….30<br />
There are still numerous applications and environments where only the humble HDD<br />
will do, despite the ongoing growth in SSD use across the business and personal<br />
space, argues Rainer W. Kaese of Toshiba Electronics Europe<br />
RESEARCH: HPC <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE………...........................……32<br />
Specialist knowledge is the biggest challenge for managing high-performance storage,<br />
according to new research released by Panasas<br />
26<br />
CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDY: DENTONS………………....................………34<br />
The world's largest law firm, Dentons, is leveraging a portfolio of technology from Pure<br />
Storage to expand its global presence, drive sustainable business practices, and<br />
provide comprehensive data security for clients<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk @<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
03
COMMENT<br />
EDITOR: David Tyler<br />
david.tyler@btc.co.uk<br />
SUB EDITOR: <strong>Mar</strong>k Lyward<br />
mark.lyward@btc.co.uk<br />
INTO THE METAVERSE<br />
BY DAVID TYLER<br />
EDITOR<br />
REVIEWS: Dave Mitchell<br />
PUBLISHER: John Jageurs<br />
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk<br />
LAYOUT/DESIGN: Ian Collis<br />
ian.collis@btc.co.uk<br />
SALES/COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES:<br />
Lucy Gambazza<br />
lucy.gambazza@btc.co.uk<br />
Stuart Leigh<br />
stuart.leigh@btc.co.uk<br />
MANAGING DIRECTOR: John Jageurs<br />
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk<br />
DI<strong>ST</strong>RIBUTION/SUBSCRIPTIONS:<br />
Christina Willis<br />
christina.willis@btc.co.uk<br />
PUBLISHED BY: Barrow & Thompkins<br />
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errors, misrepresentations or any<br />
resulting effects<br />
The <strong>Mar</strong>ch/<strong>Apr</strong>il issue of Storage really does cover a vast variety of topics, even by<br />
our own ever-eclectic standards. One article from Toshiba describes how<br />
indispensable HDDs are, even in a world where SSD continues to grow market<br />
share. At the same time we have a feature from Kioxia on how important it is to select<br />
the right kind of SSD for data centre/enterprise use - not all flash is the same!<br />
Elsewhere we have an in-depth roundtable piece looking into DNA storage. These<br />
examples serve to illustrate the bredath and diversity of the storage sector as a whole,<br />
and also that in the real world there is very rarely a 'one size fits all' technology that<br />
will address everyone's requirements.<br />
For most - if not all - of our readers, their IT environment will have developed over<br />
time (often decades) to include a smorgasbord of different and sometimes competing<br />
hardware and software: hard drives, SSD and tape, of course, but in an increasingly<br />
'always-on' world we also rely on a bewildering array of online solutions where - from<br />
the end users' perspective - it almost doesn't matter what hardware sits behind their<br />
systems.<br />
The pandemic caused a seismic shift in how the world works, accelerating the rate of<br />
change far more than could otherwise have been envisaged by any outside observer.<br />
Hybrid working brings with it a whole range of additional challenges and<br />
opportunities.<br />
As working practices have changed, the potential for data breaches is now greater<br />
than ever. COVID-19 forced almost half of working adults to perform their jobs at<br />
home. Even with restrictions now lifted, 84% of those who worked remotely intend to<br />
continue doing so for a proportion of their working week. As a result, all kinds of staff<br />
staff regularly access sensitive company data outside of the office.<br />
John Michael of iStorage says in his article in this issue: "The integrity of business<br />
data has never been more critical. Regulatory demands are growing, the amount of<br />
data we store and analyse is increasing, and the impact that lost, stolen or even<br />
improperly stored data could have on a business has never been more severe."<br />
Elsewhere WD's Manfred Berger takes the discussion to the next level, considering the<br />
storage implications of the much-lauded metaverse: "The metaverse itself will need to<br />
be stored somewhere, albeit from a centralised or decentralised server or location. The<br />
data required to create and change multiple virtual worlds with vast environments and<br />
complex details that users can interact with will be immense."<br />
As these 'virtual worlds' become more integrated in our lives, data storage providers<br />
will be at the forefront in building the foundations of the metaverse.<br />
04 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk
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MANAGEMENT: AIOPS<br />
A 'SET-IT-AND-FORGET-IT' ERA<br />
FOR ENTERPRISE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE?<br />
AIOPS CAN HELP TO SIMPLIFY <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE MANAGEMENT, WHICH IN<br />
TURN WILL ALLEVIATE THE PRESSURES OF SKILLS SHORTAGES WITHIN<br />
I.T., ARGUES ERIC HERZOG, CMO, INFINIDAT<br />
Regardless of economic uncertainty,<br />
businesses everywhere are pushing<br />
forward with plans for Industry 4.0 and<br />
key technology investments. They can't afford<br />
to do otherwise if they want to remain<br />
competitive. Yet, the potential to deliver on<br />
promises of advanced connectivity, AI,<br />
automation, machine learning and real-time<br />
data availability, is at risk - because of the<br />
ongoing shortage of IT professionals. It's a<br />
feature common to every sector within<br />
enterprise IT, including storage.<br />
80% of IT leaders report that skills gaps pose<br />
a 'high or medium risk to their team's ability to<br />
meet key objectives', according to the Skillsoft<br />
2022 IT Skills & Salary Report. Where the<br />
requisite skills are available, workers are<br />
commanding premium rates and salary<br />
inflation is running at an all-time high. Some<br />
companies admit paying up to 40% more for<br />
the right candidates.<br />
Against this macro backdrop IT budgets are<br />
being squeezed due to inflation, the threat of<br />
cyber-attacks and international compliance<br />
requirements. This makes infrastructure<br />
provision - like enterprise storage - ever more<br />
challenging to resource.<br />
Now a possible solution exists, thanks to<br />
ready availability of advanced AIOps<br />
capabilities at the storage layer in sectors<br />
where the right skills cannot easily be found,<br />
AI provides a route to 'getting things done'<br />
and solving the problem of talent scarcity,<br />
without compromises.<br />
Rather than removing jobs, AIOps<br />
technology brings continuity for enterprises<br />
who cannot recruit into key roles. It's a winwin,<br />
delivering many other advantages to<br />
enterprises and the start of a new 'set-it-andforget-it'<br />
era for enterprise storage. Given all<br />
the economic uncertainty, its timing couldn't<br />
be better.<br />
AIOPS SIMPLIFIES <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
Modern data centre environments are now<br />
highly complex, featuring multiple<br />
architectures and technology stacks, often<br />
with siloed applications. The storage layer<br />
lies at the heart of addressing many of the<br />
challenges created by this complexity. By<br />
using an artificially intelligent solution at the<br />
storage layer, organisations can exploit<br />
built-in infrastructure intelligence, facilitate<br />
easier service level delivery, and improve<br />
the efficiency of data centre operations,<br />
without worrying about how the technology<br />
itself operates.<br />
Used at the storage layer, artificial<br />
intelligence (AI) can also optimise<br />
performance by optimising the cache,<br />
creating a better understanding of<br />
workloads and behaviours, and delivering<br />
memory-speed access to data. Deep<br />
machine learning capabilities deliver<br />
enhanced cache utilisation, with the ability<br />
to accurately predict which workloads will be<br />
required so that they can be brought into<br />
the cache more quickly.<br />
These performance improvements are<br />
possible because the algorithms learn to prefetch<br />
any data likely to be required based on<br />
previous transactions and then retain it in<br />
memory on request. This machine-based<br />
learning also means the speeds of reading<br />
and writing, sequentialisation of inputs and<br />
outputs (I/Os) based on behaviour and<br />
understanding block sizes in relation to each<br />
other and to applications, are all enhanced.<br />
In addition to higher performance, using<br />
AIOps at the storage layer also supports<br />
06 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
MANAGEMENT: AIOPS<br />
"Modern data centre environments are now highly complex, featuring multiple<br />
architectures and technology stacks, often with siloed applications. The storage<br />
layer lies at the heart of addressing many of the challenges created by this<br />
complexity. By using an artificially intelligent solution at the storage layer,<br />
organisations can exploit built-in infrastructure intelligence, facilitate easier service<br />
level delivery, and improve the efficiency of data centre operations, without<br />
worrying about how the technology itself operates."<br />
greater consolidation of applications based on<br />
data utilisation, with multiple nodes that deliver<br />
enhanced redundancy. The system effectively<br />
keeps on learning and its capabilities<br />
continuously improve as the algorithm<br />
continues to be used.<br />
BENEFITS BEYOND THE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
LAYER<br />
AI offers many benefits outside of the main<br />
storage layer too, through cloud-based<br />
applications to deliver a multi-system, detailed<br />
and granular view of and across workloads,<br />
platforms and data centres. This is particularly<br />
useful where resourcing challenges make it<br />
difficult to recruit the right calibre storage<br />
professionals.<br />
AI based support means management<br />
workloads are halved because a singular,<br />
consolidated dashboard can be created to<br />
cover the entire storage architecture. Other<br />
benefits include early issue detection and<br />
prevention, alerting and system management.<br />
Delivered through an open, cloud-based<br />
architecture, these solutions can be customised<br />
to fit various workflows, while predictive<br />
analytics can deliver trend analysis and<br />
reporting, anomaly detection and enhanced<br />
resource planning. This enables automated,<br />
actionable insights on areas such as<br />
performance and capacity, which can<br />
ultimately lead to better business decisions<br />
through integration with ServiceNow, VMware<br />
vCenter Ops and other pan-data centre/cloud<br />
AIOps packages.<br />
COMBINING <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE INSIGHTS<br />
WITH DEVOPS<br />
An intelligent storage solution delivers a lot<br />
more than high performance, improved<br />
storage utilisation and actionable insights to an<br />
enterprise. It is also possible to integrate<br />
development operations capabilities and at the<br />
same time, ensure that storage layers are in<br />
tune with the needs of system administrators.<br />
This gives direct access to broad and deep<br />
capabilities through proven solutions including<br />
cyber resilience, seamless migration,<br />
automatic file system extension, infrastructure<br />
as code and Storage-as-a-Service (<strong>ST</strong>aaS)<br />
automation. In turn, solution deployment can<br />
be expedited while eliminating solution<br />
development risks, as well as improving<br />
integration capability with other third-party<br />
functionality, such as Ansible and other pandata<br />
centre/cloud DevOps packages.<br />
UNDERPINNING PERFORMANCE<br />
TRANSFORMATION<br />
At a time when storage resources are so<br />
challenged - both in terms of talent availability<br />
and high salary costs - implementing an<br />
intelligent storage architecture can help<br />
organisations minimise the consequences,<br />
without compromising performance.<br />
Integrating AIOps into the storage layer<br />
means the infrastructure can become selfmanaging<br />
and self-optimised, with 100%<br />
uptime. Direct access to DevOps capabilities<br />
ensures that functionality can be extended with<br />
simplified solution implementation, expedited<br />
solution delivery and reduced solution risk.<br />
Ultimately, AI is facilitating a new, 'set-itand-forget-it'<br />
era for enterprise storage<br />
management, reducing complexity,<br />
standardising processes across applications<br />
and service levels and reducing the burden<br />
of resourcing with skills that are in very<br />
short supply.<br />
Instead, with an AI powered storage<br />
infrastructure, less time and fewer people are<br />
needed to manage an increasingly advanced<br />
and powerful architecture, one that supports<br />
consolidation, breaks down siloes, supports<br />
diverse workloads and delivers an all-round<br />
improved return on assets employed.<br />
By bringing all these advantages together with<br />
AI powered storage, organisations can finally<br />
shift the focus away from overcoming short<br />
term resourcing challenges and emphasise<br />
really enhancing long term business value.<br />
More info: www.infinidat.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
07
TECHNOLOGY: SSD<br />
ALL SSD OFFERINGS ARE NOT ALIKE<br />
FREDERIK HAAK, SENIOR<br />
MARKETING MANAGER SSD<br />
PRODUCT MARKETING AT<br />
KIOXIA EUROPE, DISCUSSES<br />
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE<br />
PERFECT SSDS FOR BUSINESS<br />
APPLICATIONS<br />
Many modern data centre<br />
applications require high<br />
throughput rates and low<br />
latencies, which is why SSDs are becoming<br />
the storage medium of choice. A wide<br />
product range is available on the market,<br />
with diverse form factors, interfaces and<br />
transmission protocols, as well as<br />
performance and endurance<br />
specifications. But which specifications do<br />
businesses have to watch out for when<br />
planning SSDs for specific activity fields?<br />
With digitisation forging ahead, growing<br />
data quantities have to be processed<br />
faster and faster, placing more demands<br />
on data centres. Characterised by high<br />
data throughput and low latency, SSDs are<br />
increasingly being used as storage media.<br />
By now, there is a massive selection of<br />
SSDs available on the market, suitable for<br />
an equally diverse range of applications.<br />
Consequently, businesses must take<br />
various factors into consideration<br />
when choosing a solution. On<br />
the other hand, this also<br />
enables them to use SSDs that<br />
seamlessly fit the planned<br />
application.<br />
The key parameters<br />
businesses should factor in<br />
are latency, write and read<br />
speed, form factor, interface<br />
standard and transmission<br />
protocol, as well as<br />
endurance, or the number of<br />
write cycles for which an SSD<br />
is designed. These must fit<br />
the planned<br />
application as well<br />
as the available<br />
and future<br />
infrastructure, while being technically and<br />
economically sensible.<br />
If businesses are looking, for example, to<br />
speed up the affordable mass storage of a<br />
server or storage system with an SSD<br />
cache, they will require SSDs that deliver<br />
great performance and last for many write<br />
cycles. SAS SSDs with a drive writes per<br />
day (DWPD) value of up to 10 are often<br />
combined as a cache with SAS hard<br />
drives. The DWPD value indicates how<br />
often the drive can be written per day, at<br />
full capacity, over its entire life cycle -<br />
usually the warranty period.<br />
If the system already has fast NVMe SSDs<br />
for mass storage, storage class memory<br />
(SCM) SSDs are more suitable for cache<br />
use, because they offer even greater<br />
performance and, depending on the<br />
model, more than 30 DWPD. These<br />
caching drives usually have a relatively<br />
low capacity - 400 GB to 3.2 TB -<br />
because they do not permanently store<br />
data, but rather serve as interim storage<br />
for faster provision.<br />
SSDs can also speed up many systems as<br />
boot drives, in this case generally<br />
requiring smaller capacities and lower<br />
endurance, with the operating system<br />
placing very low demands on the storage<br />
medium. Conversely, demands placed on<br />
SSDs that are used as storage in server<br />
and storage systems within data centres<br />
are usually much higher. They combine<br />
high storage capacities with high<br />
performance. Here, the required<br />
endurance depends on the applications.<br />
For applications requiring a relatively<br />
small number of write activities - such as<br />
the provision of media, a web shop or a<br />
file server - SSDs with low DWPD values<br />
suffice. For write-intensive workloads, such<br />
as database and analytics applications, as<br />
08 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
TECHNOLOGY: SSD<br />
"Overprovisioning with storage cells is already standard in SSDs. Because the<br />
cells wear out, algorithms try to distribute the data over the available cells as<br />
evenly as possible - if cells fail, the stored data is restored using correction<br />
processes and backed up on replacement cells. This is how enterprise SSDs<br />
manage to achieve much higher DWPD values, and with that, a longer service<br />
life than consumer SSDs."<br />
well as high-performance computing,<br />
companies need SSDs with higher DWPD<br />
values. Ideally, businesses are aware of the<br />
write loads and the data quantities that must<br />
be written onto the storage in a given day.<br />
THE FUTURE IS PCIE AND NVME<br />
Whereas SSDs with the PCIe interface have<br />
become standard in servers, SSDs with the<br />
SAS interface offer dual-port functionality,<br />
and thus redundancy, which is why they are<br />
still frequently used in storage systems. Here<br />
too, there is a trend toward PCIe, because<br />
this interface offers very low latencies with<br />
very high write and read rates together with<br />
the NVMe protocol.<br />
High-performance and relatively<br />
affordable storage systems can be<br />
integrated through the NVMe over fabric<br />
(NVMeoF) network protocol, which can also<br />
be used in existing TCP Ethernet networks.<br />
This is why manufacturers such as KIOXIA<br />
also offer PCIe SSDs with dual ports.<br />
Even with many SSDs still supporting SATA,<br />
these models are virtually only suited to<br />
upgrading existing systems, because they<br />
cannot leverage the actual potential of flash<br />
storage. The standard is not being<br />
developed any more, and many SSD<br />
manufacturers do not have any new SATA<br />
SSDs on their roadmap either.<br />
Therefore, there is no way around PCIe<br />
SSDs when developing new infrastructures.<br />
The slight uptick in SATA SSD sales figures<br />
over recent months is primarily attributable<br />
to many companies extending the life cycle<br />
of old systems as a result of the insecure<br />
economic situation brought about by the<br />
pandemic.<br />
The same goes for the 2.5-inch form<br />
factor, still popular because of drive<br />
compatibility with existing systems. By now,<br />
the Enterprise & Data Center SSD Form<br />
Factor (EDSFF) is establishing itself for<br />
SSDs. They are optimised for flash storage<br />
and allow for superior heat dissipation from<br />
the SSD surface - which is most important<br />
with the high-performance specifications of<br />
PCIe SSDs from the fourth generation up,<br />
as well as drives with high storage<br />
capacities. They consume more power<br />
because of their capacity, which is why they<br />
also produce more heat.<br />
CONSUMER SSDS HAVE NO<br />
BUSINESS IN DATA CENTRES<br />
If there are no system restrictions, for<br />
example regarding the number of slots or<br />
controller ports, high-capacity drives are<br />
usually the more attractive choice because<br />
of the lower costs per capacity unit.<br />
However, with 15 or 30 TB SSDs, the<br />
manufacturer might have specified lower<br />
write/read performances to avoid<br />
exceeding the specified maximum power<br />
consumption. Companies that need topnotch<br />
performance above all are<br />
therefore advised to opt for a larger<br />
number of smaller SSDs.<br />
Nevertheless, they should be aware that<br />
performance might deteriorate as the<br />
drive fills up, because the organisation of<br />
the flash storage in pages and blocks<br />
requires the controller to clear up more<br />
to write data.<br />
SSD manufacturers such as KIOXIA,<br />
however, continuously improve the<br />
algorithms used for clearing up drives,<br />
counteracting performance drops through<br />
increased overprovisioning.<br />
Overprovisioning with storage cells is<br />
already standard in SSDs. Because the<br />
cells wear out, algorithms try to distribute<br />
the data over the available cells as evenly<br />
as possible - if cells fail, the stored data is<br />
restored using correction processes and<br />
backed up on replacement cells. This is<br />
how enterprise SSDs manage to achieve<br />
much higher DWPD values, and with that,<br />
a longer service life than consumer SSDs.<br />
Moreover, contrary to consumer SSDs,<br />
the former come with power loss<br />
protection (PLP) through internal<br />
capacitors, which still provide sufficient<br />
power in the event of a cut to the power<br />
supply to store all data from the SSD<br />
cache, preventing any data loss. This is<br />
another reason why more affordable<br />
consumer SSDs are not suited to use in<br />
data centres.<br />
More info: www.kioxia.com<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
09
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE DATA<br />
DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE PROMISES TO <strong>ST</strong>ORE VA<strong>ST</strong> VOLUMES OF DATA IN<br />
JU<strong>ST</strong> A FEW PARTICLES FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS - SLASHING<br />
BOTH THE FOOTPRINT AND ENERGY NEEDED TO <strong>ST</strong>ORE OUR EVER-<br />
GROWING DATA. <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE MAGAZINE ASKED A RANGE OF<br />
INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY EXPERTS FOR THEIR VIEWS<br />
Capacity, cost, and performance:<br />
three of your top data storage<br />
priorities? No wonder, and it's the<br />
same for many. The volume of data we<br />
produce is in overdrive; we're churning<br />
out a staggering 2.5 quintillion bytes of<br />
data each day - and that impacts the size<br />
of your data centre, how far your budget<br />
will stretch, and how quickly data can be<br />
moved.<br />
This growth is a major challenge for<br />
many data storage vendors today:<br />
requirements for storage capacity and<br />
longevity continue to expand with no<br />
signs of slowing down in sight. Enter<br />
DNA storage. A technology promising to<br />
store millions upon millions of gigabytes<br />
in just a few particles, for thousands<br />
of years.<br />
Sounds too good to be true? We<br />
gathered a group of experts, vendors,<br />
researchers, and analysts, to unpick this<br />
new medium's claims and help you stay<br />
ahead of this game-changing technology.<br />
A '<strong>ST</strong>ORE EVERYTHING' FUTURE<br />
If you think the data we are producing now<br />
is off the scale, consider where we'll be in<br />
ten, 20 or even 30 years' time. CIOs are<br />
likely to be juggling much larger volumes<br />
of data then than their counterparts are<br />
now. Thomas Ybert, CEO and co-founder<br />
of DNA Script, a world leader in Enzymatic<br />
DNA Synthesis (EDS), explains: "Emerging<br />
technologies such as autonomous cars and<br />
artificial intelligence will further increase<br />
the need for unprecedented data storage<br />
requirements. The anticipated growth in<br />
data storage needs cannot be addressed<br />
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MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
"DNA storage works by encoding digital data into<br />
DNA sequences, which are then synthesised and<br />
stored. The data can be retrieved by sequencing the<br />
DNA and decoding the data. DNA encapsulated with<br />
salt remains stable for decades at room temperature<br />
and should last much longer in controlled<br />
environments like a data centre. DNA doesn't require<br />
maintenance, and data stored in DNA can easily be<br />
copied at low cost."- Giorgio Regni, Scality<br />
by current resource-intensive technologies."<br />
And what will happen to that data if there<br />
is nowhere to store it? Over to Curtis<br />
Anderson, Software Architect at Panasas:<br />
"We are currently - mostly - able to keep<br />
up … by prudent pruning of low-value<br />
data and the natural growth in the density<br />
of individual drives, along with the growth<br />
in the number of those drives. We will<br />
almost certainly require progressively<br />
deeper and deeper pruning of low-value<br />
data to stay ahead of that explosion. If<br />
DNA-based storage lives up to its promise,<br />
we will be able to stop pruning and simply<br />
store everything."<br />
Sabine Sykora, PhD. Application Scientist<br />
and Business Developer at Kilobaser, a<br />
team committed to the democratisation of<br />
DNA and RNA synthesis, points out we<br />
need to consider more than just capacity:<br />
"Unfortunately, all current archival storage<br />
media face fundamental limitations. Tape<br />
drives, for instance, suffer from media<br />
obsolescence. Data stored on tape must<br />
constantly be migrated to account for<br />
equipment failures and technology<br />
upgrades, thus making tape drives a highly<br />
inefficient storage medium that produces<br />
considerable amounts of electronic waste.<br />
Existing storage technology is becoming far<br />
too costly while at the same time leading to<br />
considerable negative impact on the<br />
environment."<br />
WISHFUL THINKING?<br />
Our experts continue to return to the<br />
environmental cost, and the fact that<br />
organisations will have to consider this<br />
impact more carefully in the future. Thomas<br />
Heinis, Professor in Data Management at<br />
Imperial College London, confirms: "Data<br />
centres today are considerable contributors<br />
to CO2 emissions…DNA as a storage<br />
medium does not need to be cooled and<br />
requires no electricity."<br />
Surely he can't really mean DNA, the<br />
'building blocks of life'? In fact, that is<br />
exactly what he means: digital data stored<br />
in synthetic DNA and, because that data is<br />
said to be retrievable for millennia, it is<br />
perfect for archiving large data sets for<br />
long periods of time.<br />
Do not write this off as wishful thinking.<br />
DNA storage is already in use, according<br />
to Giorgio Regni, CTO of Scality. "End<br />
users already benefiting from DNA storage<br />
include researchers who need to store large<br />
volumes of data, such as genome<br />
sequences," he explains. "In the future,<br />
DNA storage may be used by businesses<br />
and individuals to store data for long<br />
periods of time."<br />
Kilobaser's Sykora expands: "The<br />
application of DNA storage is already<br />
being realised for long-term storage…<br />
basically the backup of the backup. From<br />
this backup, everyone that stores<br />
information on DNA benefits as there is an<br />
alternative storage medium in use.<br />
However, there are currently only a few<br />
companies that can provide DNA storage<br />
with their own coding and infrastructure.<br />
This severely limits the number of end-users<br />
at the time being."<br />
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL<br />
Bernard Peultier is VP innovation at data<br />
protection software provider, Atempo. He<br />
agrees with Sykora's assertion that DNA<br />
storage is for the long haul. "You don't store<br />
data you want to keep for a few days or a<br />
few months in DNA. DNA is part of what I<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
11
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
"We are currently - mostly - able to keep up … by<br />
prudent pruning of low-value data and the natural<br />
growth in the density of individual drives, along with the<br />
growth in the number of those drives. We will almost<br />
certainly require progressively deeper and deeper<br />
pruning of low-value data to stay ahead of that<br />
explosion. If DNA-based storage lives up to its promise,<br />
we will be able to stop pruning and simply<br />
store everything."- Curtis Anderson, Panasas<br />
call alternative long-term storage. When<br />
you archive long-term, any archivist will tell<br />
you, you must store information in different<br />
types of storage to guarantee its durability .<br />
Don't store copies on the same type of<br />
storage, quite simply because if there is an<br />
unforeseen deterioration in the time of the<br />
storage, well then, you are in trouble."<br />
Daniel Chadash sits on the board of the<br />
DNA Storage Alliance, which is helping to<br />
address the growing demand for archival<br />
storage by using DNA as a storage<br />
medium. He explains where this type of<br />
storage is likely to be adopted: "The first<br />
users that will benefit from it will probably<br />
be in the digital preservation industries,<br />
media & entertainment, healthcare, and<br />
advanced scientific research that needs to<br />
preserve data for decades, if not forever."<br />
But any sector that is expected to store<br />
ever-growing data long-term could be in<br />
the frame.<br />
Sergei Serdyuk, VP of Product<br />
Management at NAKIVO adds: "As the<br />
need for high-density, low-maintenance<br />
storage keeps growing, more and more<br />
businesses from various sectors are<br />
investing in its development. Although<br />
energy-efficient, lasting data storage will<br />
have a positive impact on many industries,<br />
organisations in the data management<br />
sector will probably be the first to benefit<br />
once the technology moves from the lab to<br />
production."<br />
So: yes to archiving data, but DNA<br />
storage promises much more, according to<br />
Newcastle University's Professor of<br />
Computing Science and Synthetic Biology,<br />
Natalio Krasnagor. "I strongly believe that<br />
the most exciting applications have not yet<br />
been uncovered and that those will start to<br />
emerge sometime in the next few years. My<br />
lab is focusing on DNA data structures<br />
rather than archival storage. We believe<br />
that what is needed is the ability to not only<br />
store large amounts of data, but also to<br />
uniformly manipulate, sort, search and,<br />
more generally, to process that data, and<br />
to do so where the data is produced,<br />
stored, and consumed."<br />
A word of caution though, from research<br />
company Omdia's Principal Analyst in<br />
Advanced Computing for AI, Alexander<br />
Harrowell: "The main benefits are that the<br />
storage is very efficient, a lot of information<br />
is packed into a tiny volume of DNA, and it<br />
is stable without electrical power for the<br />
long term. The downsides are that<br />
accessing it is extremely slow and requires<br />
equipment, chemicals, and skills that are<br />
far rarer than say, those required to<br />
manage a tape drive."<br />
HERE COMES THE SCIENCE BIT<br />
That slow retrieval is in part what will limit<br />
adoption, say our experts. When you shrink<br />
data usually stored in data centres that can<br />
rival a small town in size and power<br />
consumption, to fit into a test tube, there is<br />
going to be a trade-off. For now at least.<br />
But why does it take so long to retrieve<br />
data stored in DNA? Scality's Regni sets out<br />
the detail: "DNA storage works by encoding<br />
digital data into DNA sequences, which are<br />
then synthesised and stored. The data can<br />
be retrieved by sequencing the DNA and<br />
decoding the data. DNA encapsulated with<br />
salt remains stable for decades at room<br />
temperature and should last much longer<br />
in controlled environments like a data<br />
centre. DNA doesn't require maintenance,<br />
and data stored in DNA can easily be<br />
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MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
"Unfortunately, all current archival storage media face<br />
fundamental limitations. Tape drives, for instance, suffer from<br />
media obsolescence. Data stored on tape must constantly be<br />
migrated to account for equipment failures and technology<br />
upgrades, thus making tape drives a highly inefficient storage<br />
medium that produces considerable amounts of electronic<br />
waste. Existing storage technology is becoming far too costly<br />
while at the same time leading to considerable negative<br />
impact on the environment."- Sabine Sykora, Kilobaser<br />
copied at low cost."<br />
DNA Script's Ybert elaborates further:<br />
"DNA is composed of four bases which<br />
can be used to encode information. The<br />
encoded data would need to be<br />
synthesised as DNA using the available<br />
nucleic acid printing technologies. DNA<br />
Script uses Enzymatic DNA Synthesis<br />
(EDS), which prints nucleic acids without<br />
the toxic chemicals used by conventional<br />
phosphoramidite chemistry printing<br />
methods. EDS is a 'clean' chemistry<br />
process that doesn't require the strict<br />
environmental conditions, hazardous<br />
waste disposal, or physical footprint like<br />
the conventional process."<br />
Another positive step towards greener<br />
data storage? Perhaps, but there is a way<br />
to go before we realise the potential<br />
benefits of this technology, according to the<br />
majority of our experts.<br />
SCIENCE FICTION - OR FACT?<br />
Although work is underway to bring DNA<br />
storage into the mainstream - DNA Script's<br />
collaboration with Harvard to manufacture<br />
DNA on a semiconductor chip is just one<br />
example - it could be some time before it is<br />
a staple in your data centre. The stumbling<br />
blocks? Time and cost.<br />
Kilobaser's Sykora: "To make DNA storage<br />
widely available, both processes - writing<br />
and reading - need to be moved out of the<br />
lab and into the office. To achieve this<br />
transition, both writing and reading need to<br />
become easier, cheaper, and faster."<br />
She continues: "The European Union has<br />
decided to fund several research projects<br />
aimed at making DNA synthesis cheaper<br />
and faster. The result of these projects will<br />
be new technologies that will bring DNA<br />
storage one step closer to broad<br />
application."<br />
Alessia <strong>Mar</strong>elli is CTO at DNAalgo, a<br />
team of storage industry veterans<br />
developing DNA storage. She explains<br />
more: "There are a lot of companies<br />
working on DNA data storage right now.<br />
The DNA Data Storage Alliance is doing a<br />
great job trying to consolidate roadmaps<br />
and standards in this sector. Biotech<br />
companies are working on synthesis and<br />
sequencing to make it more affordable as<br />
costs and speed. Other companies like<br />
DNAalgo are working on encoding and<br />
decoding to make DNA data storage<br />
reliable. I think that in the following years a<br />
lot of progress will come, resulting in a real<br />
commercial product in five to ten years."<br />
ICL's Heinis supports <strong>Mar</strong>elli's timeline:<br />
"We believe it will be available in around<br />
five years. DNA synthesis is too expensive<br />
and we will need to find ways to reduce the<br />
cost, by also adapting the technology to<br />
data storage, i.e., departing from the life<br />
science use case."<br />
Chadash of the DNA Storage Alliance<br />
also agrees: "Based on public<br />
announcements, we assume that at least by<br />
the end of this decade (2030), if not earlier,<br />
DNA storage solutions will be widely<br />
available and at a competitive price. Right<br />
now, many companies, most of them<br />
alliance members, are working hard to<br />
make it more affordable and scalable. The<br />
work is focused on writing DNA, to improve<br />
current technologies and commercialise<br />
new technologies, such as enzymatic<br />
synthesis and reading DNA, new<br />
companies are emerging with new<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
13
ROUNDTABLE: DNA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
"As the need for high-density, low-maintenance storage<br />
keeps growing, more and more businesses from<br />
various sectors are investing in its development.<br />
Although energy-efficient, lasting data storage will have<br />
a positive impact on many industries, organisations in<br />
the data management sector will probably be the first<br />
to benefit once the technology moves from the lab<br />
to production."- Sergei Serdyuk, NAKIVO<br />
technologies, and existing companies are<br />
launching new products that reduce the<br />
price of reading."<br />
But not everyone takes this view.<br />
Enterprise Strategy Group's Practice<br />
Director, Cloud, Infrastructure, and<br />
DevOps, Scott Sinclair is doubtful. "Count<br />
me as a sceptic," he says. "Until the<br />
format becomes cheaper and faster to<br />
leverage, it will be difficult to leverage<br />
effectively. I'm not saying it won't happen,<br />
DNA storage just needs multiple<br />
innovations to be in the realm of<br />
consideration."<br />
Omdia's Harrowell is pragmatic: "There<br />
are demonstration projects that actually<br />
work, if you're willing to spend a lot of<br />
money per write and wait a long time for<br />
your data."<br />
But every technology starts somewhere,<br />
reminds Chadash of the Data Storage<br />
Alliance: "Some claimed that the internet<br />
would not succeed and would remain a<br />
science project between universities, and<br />
some doubted our need for flat screens or<br />
flash-based hard drives."<br />
He continues: "We are already past the<br />
science fiction phase as a few companies,<br />
including Twist Bioscience and Microsoft,<br />
have already shown that the technology<br />
works. The challenge now is to scale and<br />
commercialise it, just like with any other<br />
new technology."<br />
WHAT IS NEXT?<br />
When asked whether DNA storage will<br />
move out of its archival comfort zone,<br />
Ybert of DNA Script is sanguine: "We will<br />
see… We do not anticipate data storage<br />
to change quickly or overnight. We<br />
predict a coexistence between 'hot' data<br />
that is frequently accessed and stored on<br />
traditional systems and 'cold' data, which<br />
is archival, rarely accessed, and doesn't<br />
require immediate access. We've seen<br />
estimates that 70% of data stored is<br />
considered archival."<br />
ICL's Heinis agrees: "Archival is clearly<br />
the lowest hanging fruit as it builds on the<br />
longevity and durability of DNA. For it to<br />
come nearline, however, the process<br />
needs to be made substantially smaller<br />
and more efficient. It is a long road, but it<br />
is possible."<br />
Although the focus is on archival storage<br />
for now, there is potential for further<br />
applications, perhaps through<br />
parallelisation. Randy Kerns, Senior<br />
Strategist at Evaluator Group, explains:<br />
"The parallelism could be in sequencing<br />
which will speed the process, allowing it to<br />
perform at a level beyond the expectations<br />
for archival storage. Also, parallel<br />
operations against DNA to allow other uses<br />
is done with operations across multiple<br />
elements of data at the same time, similar<br />
to the arguments for computation storage<br />
with SSDs. An example may be<br />
implementing a search function that could<br />
run in parallel."<br />
THAT'S A WRAP<br />
So, although it is not completely the<br />
exclusive of sci-fi, DNA storage still has<br />
some way to go before it becomes a<br />
standard feature of most data centres.<br />
Currently in its infancy, with high costs and<br />
long retrieval times, the technology offers<br />
promise. And it might be the most futuristic<br />
storage that we have access to right now.<br />
When asked what comes next, let's give the<br />
last word to Anderson of Panasas: "I'm not<br />
sure yet, I'll have to ask my AI assistant." <strong>ST</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
MANAGEMENT: CLOUD CO<strong>ST</strong>S<br />
TOWARDS A MORE CO<strong>ST</strong>-EFFECTIVE CLOUD<br />
BOYAN IVANOV, CEO AT <strong>ST</strong>ORPOOL <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE, LOOKS AT HOW CLOUD PROVIDERS CAN BETTER<br />
MANAGE CO<strong>ST</strong>S IN THE CURRENT UNPREDICTABLE MARKET<br />
Rising energy prices directly impact cloud<br />
builders like Managed Services Providers,<br />
Hosting Services Providers, Cloud<br />
Services Providers, enterprises and SaaS<br />
vendors. Since many of these companies<br />
operate their own on-premises cloud<br />
infrastructures, they are taking a hit as their<br />
overhead costs rise and derail their Total Cost<br />
of Ownership projections.<br />
This trend is forcing many companies to<br />
review and optimise power use by turning off<br />
sections of their infrastructure and seeking other<br />
cost-optimisation tactics. With this article, we<br />
provide an overview of how cloud providers<br />
can optimise their operating costs from a<br />
hardware perspective.<br />
HARDWARE PLANNING<br />
Hardware components are often considered<br />
'cash consumers' because, in addition to their<br />
upfront cost, each one requires operating<br />
expenses like electricity. So, doing the same<br />
job with less hardware can significantly<br />
reduce costs and free up cash for other<br />
purposes.<br />
While dual-socket servers - servers that<br />
support two CPUs - are commonplace in data<br />
centres, if a single-socket server can do the<br />
job, there is no need for a dual-socket. The<br />
presence of a second CPU tends to only lead<br />
to increased power consumption (by the CPU<br />
itself, the links between both CPUs, etc.) and<br />
can quickly eat up the single-rack power limit.<br />
However, if the case requires more CPU<br />
cores than a single unit can provide, the dualsocket<br />
architecture is probably more powerefficient<br />
than two single-socket servers. That is<br />
because the dual-socket node still uses a<br />
single chipset on the motherboard, the same<br />
NIC(s), GPUs, coolers, etc.<br />
Having two running nodes is an example of<br />
pure spending without value unless disaster<br />
recovery RPO and RTO objectives mandate it.<br />
Since doubling the hardware components<br />
(power supplies, coolers, NICs, etc.), two halfloaded<br />
physical servers will consume more<br />
power than one loaded at 85% to 90%.<br />
If the workloads and software allow it, the<br />
second node can be powered off and stay<br />
ready to be returned to work if the first one<br />
fails or needs maintenance, or if there is a<br />
need for additional resources to handle peak<br />
loads. Of course, there is a trade-off, boottime<br />
of an offline node versus power used by<br />
the same node to stay idle.<br />
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MAGAZINE
MANAGEMENT: CLOUD CO<strong>ST</strong>S<br />
"An integral part of offering hardware planning is to help customers design<br />
their cloud with the right hardware for their specific use cases. In the early<br />
stage of each project, always ask what components the customer plans to use<br />
for their particular use case (e.g., databases, IaaS services, web hosting, etc.),<br />
not only to confirm the hardware compatibility or check for known issues but<br />
also to help with the component choice. By achieving their goals with less and<br />
right-sized hardware, users ultimately achieve improved power saving as well."<br />
For larger cases, a chassis with a modular<br />
system design provides high density,<br />
performance, efficiency and cost-effectiveness.<br />
Such systems share some hardware (e.g.,<br />
power supplies) and provide rack space<br />
savings (e.g., eight servers in 4U chassis).<br />
An integral part of offering hardware<br />
planning is to help customers design their<br />
cloud with the right hardware for their specific<br />
use cases. In the early stage of each project,<br />
always ask what components the customer<br />
plans to use for their particular use case (e.g.,<br />
databases, IaaS services, web hosting, etc.),<br />
not only to confirm the hardware<br />
compatibility or check for known issues but<br />
also to help with the component choice. By<br />
achieving their goals with less and right-sized<br />
hardware, users ultimately achieve improved<br />
power saving as well.<br />
HARDWARE UTILISATION<br />
With the current shortages in the components<br />
market and significantly increased delivery<br />
times, obtaining new chips, compute, network<br />
and storage resources to achieve their<br />
hardware-planning objectives could be timeconsuming.<br />
This is the time during which a<br />
cloud builder's business suffers or cannot grow<br />
because of a lack of resources.<br />
This market situation forces companies to<br />
rethink and optimise their hardware utilisation<br />
to achieve their power-saving goals with what<br />
they already have.<br />
"Hardware packing" is a set of approaches<br />
aiming to run maximum valuable workloads<br />
on a minimal amount of hardware resources<br />
in use. There are three general points of<br />
consideration:<br />
Get rid of unused hardware components.<br />
Why spend power and money on a RAID<br />
controller while the server has only NVMe<br />
devices on PCIe slots or just a single boot<br />
device? Why buy and 'feed' a dual-port<br />
100GbE NIC while the motherboard<br />
integrated 2×10 GbE NIC is enough for<br />
the job? If the 100 GbE NIC is<br />
unavoidable (e.g., already bought or<br />
integrated into the motherboard),<br />
connecting it to a 10 or 25 Gbps network<br />
will use less power. The difference is not big<br />
for a single server, but it becomes<br />
significant for a fleet of hundreds of nodes.<br />
Concentrate workloads on fewer servers.<br />
Servers without bottlenecks can take on<br />
additional tasks, and thus the workloads in<br />
the cloud can be concentrated in a subset<br />
of nodes. Load-free servers will use less<br />
power while idle or even powered off until<br />
they are needed to take on peak loads. If<br />
the resources are enough, it is more<br />
efficient to pack 20 VMs on a single<br />
hypervisor instead of dispersing them over<br />
two, three or more nodes.<br />
Make a schedule of the workloads and plan<br />
the needed resources for them. During<br />
weekdays, developers and QAs could need<br />
thousands of VMs or containers for their<br />
regular jobs, but there is no need for such<br />
a fleet to stay online and consume power<br />
during the weekends. The nightly builds<br />
and tests could run on the same groups of<br />
nodes where the daily reports are<br />
generated during the working hours-there<br />
is no value in keeping spare resources<br />
online for both 24/7.<br />
The dynamic scheduling of the Cloud<br />
Management Platform in use can be helpful<br />
here. Depending on the level of automation,<br />
these schedulers can stop unnecessary<br />
workloads and free the used resources based<br />
on various criteria. Ideally, they could<br />
automatically migrate and pack workloads on<br />
only a few servers, freeing the rest and putting<br />
the off-loaded ones to sleep.<br />
BUILD FOR EFFICIENCY<br />
In the past the approach to building cloud<br />
infrastructure was often just to buy a ton of<br />
RAM, CPU cores and storage devices.<br />
Nowadays, this is no longer so easy. With the<br />
difficulty of sourcing hardware and rising<br />
electricity, building a cloud to be more efficient<br />
from inception is a more cost-effective way to<br />
go. Working with the right provider to build<br />
right-sized clouds capable of running<br />
demanding applications is an ideal approach<br />
to reining in costs due to hyperinflation or<br />
constrained energy supplies.<br />
More info: www.storpool.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
17
RESEARCH: CYBERSECURITY<br />
TAKING CYBERSECURITY SERIOUSLY<br />
CYBERSECURITY WOES CONTINUE TO PLAGUE SMBS, ARGUES CHRIS MCKIE, VP, PRODUCT MARKETING<br />
SECURITY AND NETWORKING SOLUTIONS AT DATTO, TRIGGERING A COMMITMENT TO INCREASE I.T.<br />
SECURITY BUDGETS<br />
The intensifying threat of ransomware and<br />
malware and its devastating aftermath has<br />
prompted small and medium-sized<br />
businesses (SMBs) to take additional measures<br />
to protect themselves against attacks. In a new<br />
survey, conducted by Datto, a Kaseya company,<br />
nearly 3,000 IT professionals in SMBs across<br />
eight countries provided insights into the steps<br />
they are taking to protect themselves against<br />
threat actors.<br />
Datto's annual 'State of Ransomware Report'<br />
determined that SMBs are taking cybersecurity<br />
more earnestly - from investing in more security<br />
products to utilising multiple security<br />
frameworks. However, with only 3 in 10 SMBs<br />
stating that they have a best-in-class recovery<br />
plan in place - there is room for improvement.<br />
Key findings of the report determined that<br />
SMBs recognise the need to make investments<br />
in cybersecurity and are actively increasing their<br />
IT security budgets. Although one-fifth of an<br />
SMB's IT budget is dedicated to security, 42 per<br />
cent of respondents reported an increase in<br />
their IT security budgets and plan to allocate<br />
additional resources.<br />
Findings further established that a strong<br />
defence against ransomware leads the<br />
SMB security purchasing priority list with<br />
antivirus software (57%) and<br />
email/spam protection (53%)<br />
topping budgetary priorities. However, less than<br />
half (43%) of SMBs conduct security awareness<br />
training, resulting in 42 per cent of SMBs<br />
blaming security issues on lack of training.<br />
Optimistic about rising IT security budgets,<br />
nearly half (47%) of SMBs plan to invest in<br />
network security in the next 12 months, and 45<br />
per cent plan to add cloud security. Further<br />
down the investment priority list are<br />
collaboration security tools (29%), endpoint<br />
security (27%), and business continuity and<br />
disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions at 25 per<br />
cent.<br />
While onboarding the right cybersecurity tools<br />
is critical to minimise downtime in the event of<br />
an attack, SMBs are becoming increasingly<br />
aware of the need to proactively monitor their<br />
security posture. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of<br />
respondents run IT security vulnerability<br />
assessments at least twice a year, with more<br />
than one-third (37%) running assessments three<br />
or more times a year.<br />
Contrary to popular belief, NI<strong>ST</strong> is not the<br />
most popular cybersecurity framework. CIS<br />
(34%) and CMMC (30%) are the most<br />
frequently used, with COBIT (27%) and NI<strong>ST</strong><br />
(22%) close behind. While Zero Trust is highly<br />
recommended by experts, only 14 per cent of<br />
SMBs said their organisations use that<br />
framework and just 7 per cent voiced their<br />
concern about it not being used - leaving<br />
plenty of room for growth and opportunity.<br />
CYBER INSURANCE ON THE RISE<br />
Another piece of the cybersecurity puzzle, cyber<br />
insurance is a worthy investment that SMBs are<br />
increasingly considering. While there are<br />
numerous drivers for investing in cyber<br />
insurance, 42 per cent of SMBs with cyber<br />
insurance believe it is extremely likely that they<br />
will be exposed to a ransomware attack in the<br />
next year. Further, 7 in 10 SMB respondents<br />
revealed that a successful attack would<br />
seriously impact their business, with nearly<br />
three-quarters of SMBs saying that a<br />
ransomware attack would be a death blow to<br />
their company.<br />
Designed to offset the liabilities and<br />
repercussions of data breaches, cyber<br />
insurance is a key consideration for SMBs.<br />
Nearly three-quarters (69%) of survey<br />
respondents currently have cyber insurance in<br />
place and 34 per cent of those without cyber<br />
insurance are highly likely to purchase it within<br />
the year. However, due to costly data breaches,<br />
ransomware, and other security attacks, rising<br />
premiums, and stricter underwriting<br />
requirements such as mandatory multi-factor<br />
authentication; cyber insurance is now<br />
becoming more difficult for SMBs to afford or<br />
obtain.<br />
Generally, SMBs with cyber insurance are<br />
more likely to engage in other cybersecurity<br />
18 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
RESEARCH: CYBERSECURITY<br />
"With only 3 in 10 companies having a best-in-class recovery<br />
plan in place, 52 per cent of SMBs rely on a standard plan and<br />
16 per cent disclosed that their company didn't have a formal<br />
recovery plan; the majority of SMBs are leaving themselves open<br />
to complete data loss and significant business disruption. These<br />
statistics may be the reason that nearly half (47%) of respondents<br />
admitted that recovery from a cyber-attack would be difficult and<br />
why 16 per cent believe their company would never recover from<br />
a cybersecurity incident."<br />
solutions, as well as have more IT support,<br />
more frameworks (CSFs), and more security<br />
solutions already in place. Additionally, these<br />
companies have more than likely experienced a<br />
cyber security incident in the past.<br />
PHISHING TOPS SMBS THREAT<br />
CONCERNS<br />
In response to previous attacks, the majority of<br />
respondents saw phishing as the prime suspect<br />
for security issues: more than one-quarter of<br />
SMBs have experienced an attack on their IT<br />
service provider (16% in the past year), and<br />
almost one-third of respondents cited that their<br />
organisation encountered phishing and other<br />
viruses. Overall, nearly one-third of all SMB<br />
respondents encountered computer viruses in<br />
the past year and 21 per cent reported COVID-<br />
19 related scams or threats.<br />
The primary reasons behind these security<br />
breaches include phishing emails (37%),<br />
followed by malicious websites, weak<br />
passwords, and access management. In<br />
response to clarification for the reasons for<br />
these breaches, approximately 42 per cent<br />
believe their security issues were due to lack of<br />
training and 24 per cent cited poor user<br />
practices. These reasons clearly indicate that<br />
SMBs need to have strong security awareness<br />
training and phishing solutions, along with<br />
other cybersecurity measures, in place.<br />
PLUGGING CYBERSECURITY WEAK<br />
SPOTS<br />
Despite SMBs placing increased importance on<br />
cybersecurity, the majority of respondents (72%)<br />
think it is likely that their company will<br />
experience a phishing attack in the next year,<br />
which is a clear call to action for SMBs to<br />
prepare for worst-case scenarios.<br />
With only 3 in 10 companies having a best-inclass<br />
recovery plan in place, 52 per cent of<br />
SMBs rely on a standard plan and 16 per cent<br />
disclosed that their company didn't have a<br />
formal recovery plan; the majority of SMBs are<br />
leaving themselves open to complete data loss<br />
and significant business disruption. These<br />
statistics may be the reason that nearly half<br />
(47%) of respondents admitted that recovery<br />
from a cyber-attack would be difficult and why<br />
16 per cent believe their company would never<br />
recover from a cybersecurity incident.<br />
When asked about recovery after an attack,<br />
nearly half (49%) of respondents said their<br />
organisation relied on manual backup to<br />
recover data from their last cybersecurity<br />
incident and one-fifth (21%) were forced to<br />
reinstall and reconfigure all systems from<br />
scratch. Due to these slow and cumbersome<br />
recovery processes, approximately 45 per cent<br />
of businesses endured more than two days of<br />
downtime.<br />
Not only is the downtime detrimental to the<br />
business but it is also costly. In 2022, the<br />
average cost of downtime (including revenue)<br />
for SMBs was $126,000 USD. These are clear<br />
indicators that many SMBs don't have the tools<br />
such as a unified BCDR solution, a managed<br />
security operations centre (SOC), or an incident<br />
response strategy to minimise downtime and its<br />
associated costs.<br />
The survey results in combination with the<br />
cybersecurity talent shortage and lack of<br />
internal expertise are clear indications that<br />
many SMBs will need IT security assistance.<br />
Currently, only one in four SMBs outsource their<br />
security to a managed service provider (MSP)<br />
and one in six to a managed security service<br />
provider (MSSP). With the increasing complexity<br />
and frequency of cyber threats, SMBs will<br />
increasingly be in the market to outsource their<br />
IT security needs.<br />
The complete 'State of Ransomware Report'<br />
can be found at:<br />
https://www.datto.com/resources/datto-smbcybersecurity-for-msps-report.<br />
More info: www.datto.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
19
EVENT:<br />
EVENT: <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS: IT'S A DATE!<br />
NOMINATIONS FOR THE 20TH<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS CLOSE ON<br />
MARCH 24TH - FULL DETAILS<br />
BELOW<br />
Following on from our big<br />
announcement in the Jan/Feb issue of<br />
Storage that this year will see the 20th<br />
annual Storage Awards, we are delighted to<br />
now be able to share more details of the<br />
event including venue information and of<br />
course the all-important dates for your diary -<br />
and also invite you to make your nominations<br />
before it is too late!<br />
Storage magazine editor Dave Tyler<br />
comments: "Twenty years is a phenomenal<br />
achievement for an event of this nature that<br />
relies so heavily on the goodwill and support<br />
of the industry itself - since we announced this<br />
milestone we've already seen unprecedented<br />
interest from across the sector in sponsoring<br />
and supporting the Awards, as well as of<br />
course attending on the night. If ever there has<br />
been a year where you really needed to get in<br />
quick to be sure of not missing out, this is it."<br />
That an awards night can reach 20 years of<br />
continuous success says a lot about the sector<br />
and the companies within it - as well as the<br />
continuous hard work of lots of people behind<br />
the scenes here! The big night is June 8th, and<br />
the ceremony will take place at the Leonardo<br />
Royal Hotel, Tower Bridge, London.<br />
If you would like to book your place at this<br />
year's awards get in touch to discuss your<br />
options, Lucy (lucy.gambazza@btc.co.uk) or<br />
Stuart (stuart.leigh@btc.co.uk) will be happy<br />
to help.<br />
These are the key dates for your diary:<br />
Nominations opened - 30th January<br />
Nominations close - 24th <strong>Mar</strong>ch<br />
Finalists announced & voting opens - 5th<br />
<strong>Apr</strong>il<br />
Vote closes - 31st May<br />
Awards Ceremony London - 8th June<br />
Check out the list opposite for the full<br />
categories for this year's awards, and be sure<br />
to visit the website before <strong>Mar</strong>ch 24th to<br />
nominate.<br />
More info: www.storage-awards.com<br />
20 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
EVENT:<br />
EVENT: <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE AWARDS <strong>2023</strong>: CATEGORIES<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE INNOVATION OF THE YEAR<br />
ONE TO WATCH - VENDOR<br />
ONE TO WATCH - CHANNEL<br />
IMMUTABLE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR<br />
CONTRIBUTION TO THE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY<br />
CHANNEL EXCELLENCE AWARD<br />
RANSOMWARE PROTECTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
CLOUD BACKUP COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
DATA PROTECTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
ENTERPRISE BACKUP HARDWARE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE INNOVATORS OF THE YEAR<br />
DATA MANAGEMENT & MONITORING VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
OBJECT <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
HYPER-CONVERGENCE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
HYBRID <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
"AS A SERVICE" PLATFORM OF THE YEAR<br />
FLASH/SSD <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
PERFORMANCE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
CLOUD ENABLER OF THE YEAR<br />
SOFTWARE DEFINED <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE (SDS) VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
CAPACITY <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE VENDOR OF THE YEAR<br />
CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAM OF THE YEAR<br />
MULTI-VENDOR SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE REPAIR CENTRE AND BROKER OF THE YEAR<br />
SECURITY <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE RESELLER OF THE YEAR<br />
SPECIALI<strong>ST</strong> <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE RESELLER OF THE YEAR<br />
CORPORATE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE RESELLER OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE DI<strong>ST</strong>RIBUTOR OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE SOLUTION OF THE YEAR<br />
EDITOR'S CHOICE - PRODUCT<br />
EDITOR'S CHOICE - VENDOR<br />
CLOUD PRODUCT OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR<br />
CLOUD COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE COMPANY OF THE YEAR<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
21
OPINION:<br />
OPINION: ENTERPRISE I.T.<br />
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON ENTERPRISE<br />
ARCHITECTURE<br />
TABITHA POWELL, SENIOR SPECIALI<strong>ST</strong>, OFFICE OF THE CTO AT F5, EXPLAINS WHY ENTERPRISE<br />
ARCHITECTURE MU<strong>ST</strong> EVOLVE FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION<br />
On the road to innovation, it's not<br />
uncommon for fundamental<br />
architectures - the guiding<br />
frameworks and standards - to be<br />
modernised in order to enable continued<br />
progress. Take for instance the telescope.<br />
We'll skip over optics and light theory and<br />
jump to the function that prompted a<br />
telescope's architectural framework. People<br />
wanted to be able to see "faraway things as<br />
though nearby". Working with the available<br />
technology they created a framework,<br />
which included optic lenses and a<br />
cylindrical tube. That was more than 400<br />
years ago.<br />
While early telescopes were confined to<br />
something people could physically peer<br />
through, scientists realised that with new<br />
technology capable of transmitting images<br />
over waves and launching things outside of<br />
Earth's atmosphere, the architectural<br />
framework should be updated. This<br />
eventually enabled the development of the<br />
Hubble telescope. It still called for lenses<br />
and a cylindrical tube, but the framework<br />
no longer required it to be physically within<br />
reach. Telescopes could be mobile and<br />
operated from afar, allowing for continued<br />
innovations.<br />
By contrast, today's enterprise architecture<br />
has not been modernised; it's like we're<br />
working with the initial outline of the<br />
telescope. By circumventing this important<br />
evolution organisations create more friction<br />
down the line. Why? Because it's generally<br />
harder to alter the foundation when it's<br />
already holding up a three-story home (not<br />
to mix metaphors). The digital<br />
transformation journey businesses are on is<br />
also a continuous road of innovation, and<br />
no one wants to arrive at a dead end then<br />
be forced to backtrack, but that's what<br />
digital businesses can expect if they don't<br />
modernise their enterprise architecture.<br />
OUTDATED FRAMEWORKS IMPEDE<br />
INNOVATION<br />
Current enterprise architectures (EAs) were<br />
being developed in the 1980s, and while<br />
there have been iterations of them since,<br />
widely adopted EAs are still utilising the<br />
same architectural foundations as when they<br />
were established. Take for example The<br />
Open Group Architecture Framework<br />
(TOGAF), which had its first version<br />
published in 1995. The foundation still<br />
consists of the same four architectural<br />
domains: business, application, data, and<br />
technical.<br />
That foundation was laid before the<br />
internet existed. And this is part of the<br />
problem. Today it is not uncommon to<br />
equate technology with the worldwide<br />
connection that is so ingrained in our<br />
everyday lives. While TOGAF has managed<br />
to support businesses up to now by<br />
versioning, including integrating the internet<br />
and new capabilities into its architecture, it<br />
wasn't purpose-built for today's possibilities -<br />
digital business. Our understanding of<br />
what's possible drives the need for<br />
modernising enterprise architecture.<br />
MODERNISE FOR MOBILITY<br />
As technological advances create new<br />
possibilities the enterprise architecture needs<br />
to adapt to new constraints - or lack thereof<br />
- to sustain continued innovation.<br />
Advancements like Wi-Fi and 5G have<br />
changed the landscape. Computer<br />
applications can leave the data center and<br />
users are no longer static, they're mobile.<br />
The pressure has been building for a<br />
modern architectural framework<br />
intentionally designed to account for these<br />
and other advances. Without this<br />
modernised enterprise architecture<br />
innovation will stagnate, hindering the<br />
transformation businesses need to truly<br />
22 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
OPINION:<br />
OPINION: ENTERPRISE I.T.<br />
launch themselves into the digital space.<br />
PROTECTING WHAT'S POSSIBLE<br />
In 2022 the US and collaborating countries<br />
completed and launched into space a new<br />
telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope<br />
(JW<strong>ST</strong>). It was designed using a modernised<br />
architecture. With an updated understanding<br />
of what's possible - including the ability to<br />
detect and "see" infrared light instead of just<br />
visible light, the ability to transmit images back<br />
to earth from over one million miles away,<br />
and more - scientists believed there could be<br />
greater functions and capabilities of<br />
telescopes. With these increased possibilities<br />
came new challenges and therefore the<br />
architectural framework was yet again<br />
reimagined.<br />
The James Webb Space<br />
Telescope still utilises<br />
lenses and needs to<br />
collect light<br />
through a path, but instead of requiring a<br />
cylindrical tube to focus the incoming light,<br />
the architecture evolved for its new purpose -<br />
to collect the increased range of light that is<br />
infrared waves. This new purpose also<br />
presented a unique challenge. Everything<br />
above absolute zero registers as infrared light,<br />
so it was essential to mitigate interference<br />
from heat sources like the sun.<br />
The result was a modernised architectural<br />
framework to serve the evolved needs, which<br />
included the sunshield, spacecraft bus, optical<br />
telescope elements (OTE), and an Integrated<br />
Science Instrument Module (ISIM).<br />
Similarly, while modernised EAs must be<br />
purpose-built to<br />
support new<br />
capabilities available to organisations<br />
following the establishment of the internet, they<br />
must also address emerging challenges. For<br />
example, mobility threatens security and<br />
ubiquitous access and connection increases<br />
users and demand on the resources. These are<br />
just some of the points of friction introduced in<br />
the path to digital business by the traditional<br />
architecture domains, indicating a need for<br />
new domains and concepts in the framework<br />
to remove that friction - like security,<br />
automation, and digital services.<br />
Like the evolution and modernisation of the<br />
telescope, we have increased capabilities with<br />
today's technology compared with 30 years<br />
ago. The hardware is smaller, the<br />
communication languages are streamlined,<br />
and in general science has advanced<br />
providing for even more innovation. For<br />
businesses, this means the ability to connect<br />
with their customers in a new way - digitally.<br />
But the enterprise architecture on which they<br />
build needs to be<br />
purposefully designed with<br />
today's understanding of<br />
what's possible.<br />
We wouldn't imagine<br />
trying to restrict today's<br />
astronomical study to a tool we<br />
can hold in our hands, so why<br />
would we restrict our businesses<br />
to an architectural framework<br />
developed before the internet,<br />
mobile computing, and<br />
cybersecurity?<br />
More info: www.f5.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
23
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: HYBRID WORKING<br />
REMOTE CONTROL<br />
JOHN MICHAEL, CEO OF I<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE, EXPLAINS HOW CORPORATE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE MU<strong>ST</strong> CHANGE TO MEET<br />
THE NEEDS OF A NEW WORKING CULTURE, AND HOW UPGRADING HARDWARE CAN SIMPLIFY<br />
EMPLOYEE ADMINI<strong>ST</strong>RATION<br />
The integrity of business data has<br />
never been more critical. Regulatory<br />
demands are growing, the amount<br />
of data we store and analyse is<br />
increasing, and the impact that lost,<br />
stolen or even improperly stored data<br />
could have on a business has never been<br />
more severe. HR departments know this.<br />
They have already faced the challenge of<br />
meeting GDPR requirements and have<br />
experienced how intimidating and<br />
complex such a task can be.<br />
The responsibility for preventing data<br />
breaches is not simply an IT issue. It is a<br />
burden shared by the entire organisation -<br />
and when onboarding, training and<br />
offboarding employees who may manage<br />
sensitive data, it is up to HR to ensure the<br />
severity of such breaches is impressed<br />
upon those that could potentially cause<br />
them. Every possibility must be<br />
considered, and every preventative<br />
measure taken, to ensure data breaches<br />
do not happen.<br />
THE NEW DATA NORMAL<br />
Working practices have changed, and the<br />
potential for a breach is now greater than<br />
ever. The COVID-19 pandemic forced<br />
almost half of working adults to perform<br />
their jobs at home. Even with restrictions<br />
now lifted, 84% of those who worked<br />
remotely intend to continue doing so for a<br />
proportion of their working week.<br />
Potential new employees may be enticed<br />
by the option of hybrid or home working,<br />
thus even probationary staff regularly<br />
access sensitive company data outside of<br />
the office. Hybrid working has changed<br />
the culture, and with it the rules. Data<br />
must go with a hybrid worker wherever<br />
they may be.<br />
Careless and callous behaviour happens:<br />
a worker might decide to sit in a coffee<br />
shop to work, potentially using insecure<br />
Wi-Fi or leaving their laptop unattended<br />
around members of the public. Hybrid<br />
workers must commute with that data,<br />
potentially misplacing it on public<br />
transport and allowing it to fall into the<br />
wrong hands. An employee tempted to<br />
seek employment elsewhere may take<br />
sensitive company data with them.<br />
From a data management perspective,<br />
any one of these situations presents a<br />
significant risk. And the common risks<br />
which existed prior to the pandemic -<br />
executives working on the train, reps<br />
making site visits, corporate espionage et<br />
al - have not gone away. For as much<br />
training as you can offer the workforce in<br />
safe data handling, mistakes can and do<br />
happen - but the right technology can help<br />
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MAGAZINE
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: HYBRID WORKING<br />
"Remote management makes offboarding simple. An<br />
employee at the end of their contract can simply have<br />
their access removed. With one setting in a management<br />
tool - one that, in theory, should be simple enough<br />
for anyone to use - anything stored on a company drive<br />
can remain locked down forever, keeping it safe<br />
whether the employee returns the hardware or not."<br />
ensure that a mistake does not turn into a<br />
disaster.<br />
THE POWER OF REMOTE<br />
CENTRALISED DATA MANAGEMENT<br />
Equipping employees with encrypted<br />
storage is step one. Only those with the<br />
correct credentials can access data on an<br />
encrypted drive. Without the appropriate<br />
key, encrypted data is completely<br />
unreadable and functionally useless.<br />
Depending on the hardware, the drive<br />
itself may even be completely inaccessible<br />
without the credentials to unlock it. Data<br />
stored on such a drive is inherently secure.<br />
Managing encryption does not<br />
necessarily mean issuing a simple<br />
password. The unlock method could be<br />
biometric, utilising your employees' phone<br />
sensors or fingerprint reader to confirm<br />
their identity. It could, if you choose, use a<br />
passcode on a dedicated device.<br />
Crucially, neither the encryption nor<br />
unlock method need be left to an<br />
employee to manage. IT departments -<br />
and even HR departments - can issue and<br />
remotely administer such drives using a<br />
simple interface at a central location.<br />
Central administration offers a surprising<br />
amount of power. Perhaps you've made an<br />
agreement with an employee about where,<br />
when and how they work. The right remote<br />
management solution can offer the tools<br />
to help make this happen. Geofencing, for<br />
example, prevents an employee unlocking<br />
such a drive if they are outside of a certain<br />
geographical radius - as large as a<br />
continent, country, or city, or as small as,<br />
say, their home and garden. Time limits<br />
can lock-down storage outside of working<br />
hours. An administrator could temporarily<br />
lock a drive, or offer a one-time relaxation<br />
of restrictions if, for example, an in-office<br />
employee has brought their drive to work<br />
but not the phone required to unlock it.<br />
MA<strong>ST</strong>ERING LOSS PREVENTION<br />
If an employee loses a drive, encryption is<br />
not the only line of defence. A remotely<br />
managed drive can be marked to be<br />
remotely wiped the next time it is inserted<br />
into a computer, and a new drive issued<br />
quickly using the credentials already<br />
present on a central system. Secure drives<br />
can also erase themselves should<br />
someone attempt to force entry or use an<br />
incorrect password too many times -<br />
meaning even a drive not yet reported as<br />
lost is inherently secure.<br />
Remote management makes offboarding<br />
simple. An employee at the end of their<br />
contract can simply have their access<br />
removed. With one setting in a<br />
management tool - one that, in theory,<br />
should be simple enough for anyone to<br />
use - anything stored on a company drive<br />
can remain locked down forever, keeping<br />
it safe whether the employee returns the<br />
hardware or not.<br />
It is not hard to see the potential that<br />
secure, remotely managed storage offers<br />
to streamline both data safety and<br />
employee administration in a new era of<br />
hybrid work. Backed by a consistent and<br />
well-considered security policy, the right<br />
hardware can vastly reduce the burden of<br />
administering the IT requirements of new<br />
and existing employees - and help to<br />
make data breaches a thing of the past in<br />
a work environment that's moving towards<br />
the future.<br />
More info: www.istorage-uk.com<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
25
TECHNOLOGY: METAVERSE<br />
LIFE, THE METAVERSE AND EVERYTHING<br />
MANFRED BERGER, SENIOR MANAGER OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EMEAI AT WE<strong>ST</strong>ERN<br />
DIGITAL, OFFERS A DATA <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE SPECIALI<strong>ST</strong>'S GUIDE TO THE METAVERSE<br />
CoinWire and TK Ventures' latest report<br />
shows that 69% of people believe the<br />
metaverse will reshape social lifestyles,<br />
especially the way we consume entertainment<br />
and conduct our social activities. At a business<br />
level, the metaverse is expected to change our<br />
daily work functions: improved collaboration<br />
with colleagues, more involved staff training<br />
and a reduced need for office space. While<br />
the metaverse is still in its infancy, what would<br />
this emerging concept look like for a data<br />
storage specialist?<br />
Without a doubt, the past few years have<br />
rapidly accelerated our shift to digital across<br />
almost every sector. During the pandemic,<br />
many people needed to embrace this digital<br />
move in order to remain connected - primarily<br />
through social media as users turned to digital<br />
channels to better engage with the people and<br />
the brands they care about most.<br />
Extended Reality (XR) has also<br />
seen greater demand in recent<br />
years. When music artists and<br />
athletes were unable to perform<br />
in front of live audiences during<br />
the pandemic, XR bridged the gap<br />
between what is known as "the<br />
complete real" and "the complete<br />
virtual." A more recent and highly<br />
successful example is still ongoing at<br />
London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park<br />
with ABBA Voyage.<br />
The virtual concert began its<br />
residency in May 2022<br />
and is looking to<br />
run until<br />
This new way of interacting with technology<br />
has given way to the rise of the metaverse,<br />
which is broadly linked to the worlds of<br />
Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).<br />
Experiences we traditionally associate with<br />
as being "real" are moving towards the<br />
metaverse. Initially critics called the<br />
metaverse the 3D replacement to the<br />
2D internet.<br />
EXTENDING REALITY<br />
But live events and in-person<br />
entertainment have already<br />
established a presence in this<br />
hybrid world of physical and<br />
digital experiences.<br />
According to YouGov,<br />
35% of Brits who have<br />
trialled the metaverse<br />
view it as an<br />
extension of a virtual<br />
reality experience.<br />
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MAGAZINE
TECHNOLOGY: METAVERSE<br />
November <strong>2023</strong> at least. In the show,<br />
the virtual avatars depict ABBA as<br />
they once looked back in 1977.<br />
This was achieved through<br />
motion capture - making the<br />
show one of the most expensive<br />
live music experiences in history<br />
with a reported budget of<br />
$175 million.<br />
This demonstration is a great<br />
example of how media and<br />
technology can intercede. But<br />
data intensive platforms like this<br />
will require organisations to rethink<br />
their data storage strategies moving<br />
forwards to best push the envelope of<br />
creativity. As collected data grows,<br />
the sensitive data collated in the<br />
metaverse must be stored safely<br />
and securely.<br />
The emerging metaverse is also expected to<br />
change the world of advertising, finance,<br />
media consumption and the ecommerce<br />
landscape as we know it. On an individual<br />
basis, the metaverse is pegged to evolve the<br />
way we work and socialise with others.<br />
While the metaverse is still being<br />
developed and tested, organisations need<br />
to come prepared for the 'big bang' when<br />
the next-generation Quest 3 headset<br />
launches this year.<br />
Like a video game with additional<br />
downloadable content (DLCs) the<br />
metaverse's continual expansion will demand<br />
exponential storage. As the metaverse is a<br />
new market medium, consumers and<br />
businesses will need to place their trust into<br />
this world. To run the platform effectively and<br />
solidify that trust, storage manufacturers will<br />
need to provide robust, high-performance,<br />
and high-capacity storage solutions to<br />
support this new digital realm.<br />
'HOT' OR 'COLD' <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
SOLUTIONS<br />
The metaverse itself will need to be<br />
stored somewhere, albeit from a<br />
centralised or decentralised server or<br />
location. The data required to create<br />
and change multiple virtual worlds<br />
with vast environments and complex<br />
details that users can interact with<br />
will be immense.<br />
Together with NFTs (nonfungible<br />
tokens), avatars and<br />
user-generated content<br />
(UGC), the data sets<br />
collected by singular<br />
organisations will also<br />
need to be<br />
accounted for.<br />
Whether that be<br />
the data<br />
collected<br />
around user<br />
experience,<br />
individual<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
27
TECHNOLOGY: METAVERSE<br />
"The data required to create and change multiple virtual<br />
worlds with vast environments and complex details that<br />
users can interact with will be immense. Together with NFTs<br />
(non-fungible tokens), avatars and user-generated content<br />
(UGC), the data sets collected by singular organisations<br />
will also need to be accounted for. Whether that be the<br />
data collected around user experience, individual<br />
shopping preferences or impressions, it is paramount that<br />
this information be safely and efficiently secured by<br />
organisations venturing into the metaverse."<br />
shopping preferences or impressions, it is<br />
paramount that this information be safely and<br />
efficiently secured by organisations venturing<br />
into the metaverse.<br />
This is where the need for emerging<br />
technologies like 'hot' and 'cold' storage come<br />
into play. 'Hot' storage is required for live or<br />
real-time production data, which requires<br />
immediate access. As the metaverse develops,<br />
worlds are built, characters created and<br />
information exchanges occur in real-time, the<br />
need for hot, fast data storage will explode.<br />
These worlds and avatars will be constantly<br />
evolving. That data must be available to<br />
developers immediately, especially because<br />
of the AR and VR elements associated with<br />
real-time production.<br />
Secondary storage or 'cold' storage is often<br />
inactive or archived for future use like<br />
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine<br />
Learning (ML). This data is retained on hard<br />
disk drives (HDDs) instead of solid-state<br />
drives (SSDs). The biggest consideration is<br />
how readily available you need that data to<br />
be. Data stored in cooler tiers can take<br />
service providers hours to access, which isn't<br />
useful for a constantly evolving virtual world.<br />
There will come a point where the<br />
metaverse will benefit from the use of cooler<br />
storage. For example, storing and sharing<br />
recordings of gaming sessions for individuals<br />
to view later or share with others. But hot<br />
storage takes precedence in the<br />
developmental stages that the metaverse<br />
currently finds itself in.<br />
Relating to user and commerce experiences,<br />
the collected data footprint could become<br />
quite large. This cold data will need to be<br />
stored privately, away from the data used to<br />
render the metaverse or the objects that<br />
feature and populate that world. Storing the<br />
captured data will be the next greatest<br />
challenge for brands, developers, and data<br />
storage providers.<br />
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEXT<br />
PHASE<br />
For the metaverse to have the desired futuregazing<br />
impact organisations are looking for,<br />
the virtual realm requires innovation.<br />
As the metaverse sees its Big Bang, data<br />
storage providers need to consider multiple<br />
aspects of the data they're trying to store. For<br />
example, a tiered data storage strategy helps<br />
to differentiate the data sets into 'hot' and 'cold'<br />
storage tiers based on what information needs<br />
to be readily available or safely secured.<br />
These platforms need to withstand petabytes<br />
upon petabytes of data, thereby making<br />
storage a paramount issue for solution<br />
providers. Organisations need to ensure data<br />
is collected and stored securely, with capacity<br />
to store more as their portion of the<br />
metaverse continues to scale in size. These<br />
storage considerations need to be factored in<br />
without impacting the day-to-day connectivity<br />
of the metaverse and building consumer trust<br />
within the space.<br />
As virtual worlds become more integrated in<br />
our lives, data storage providers will be at the<br />
forefront to build the foundations of the<br />
metaverse.<br />
More info: www.westerndigital.com/en-gb<br />
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MAGAZINE
ANALYSIS: HDD<br />
HARD DISK IS <strong>ST</strong>ILL INDISPENSABLE<br />
THERE ARE <strong>ST</strong>ILL NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTS WHERE ONLY THE HUMBLE HDD WILL<br />
DO, DESPITE THE ONGOING GROWTH IN SSD USE ACROSS THE BUSINESS AND PERSONAL SPACE,<br />
ARGUES RAINER W. KAESE, SENIOR MANAGER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE PRODUCTS AT TOSHIBA<br />
ELECTRONICS EUROPE<br />
Since the introduction of flash memory,<br />
the end of the hard disk drive (HDD) has<br />
been predicted again and again - but<br />
the classic storage device persists and remains<br />
the standard in many application areas.<br />
society. Whether it's Industry 4.0<br />
environments, connected vehicles,<br />
streaming platforms or social networks - the<br />
huge and ever-growing volumes of data<br />
are stored on hard disks in data centres.<br />
According to TRENDFOCUS, 259 million<br />
HDDs were shipped last year - a case in<br />
point. Their total capacity reached 1.338<br />
Zettabytes, an increase of almost one-third<br />
compared to 2020. Never before have<br />
HDDs been shipped with more combined<br />
storage capacity.<br />
Here is Toshiba's view on which HDDs are<br />
indispensable today and will remain so in<br />
the coming years:<br />
Online storage in core and cloud data<br />
centres: Digital services now permeate<br />
almost all companies and large parts of<br />
HDDs are simply the most economical<br />
medium for these large online storage<br />
facilities; their capacity is constantly<br />
increasing due to the advancement of<br />
technology, while the price per Terabyte is<br />
continuously decreasing.<br />
Flash memory is much more expensive and<br />
could not be produced in sufficient<br />
quantities, so it is mainly used as a cache<br />
when the data throughput of hard disk<br />
arrays is insufficient.<br />
Network storage in companies and<br />
households: Network-attached storage<br />
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MAGAZINE
ANALYSIS: HDD<br />
"SSDs are not expected to completely replace hard<br />
disks at any point. Since the need for storage<br />
space is growing virtually everywhere and only<br />
HDDs can deliver the high storage capacities at<br />
low costs that data centres, cloud and other<br />
application areas demand, both media will<br />
continue to coexist for years to come."<br />
(NAS) systems serve as central data<br />
storage and backup storage for many<br />
small and medium-sized companies, but<br />
also in more and more households. There<br />
they take over tasks as media servers and<br />
control centres for the smart home. HDDs<br />
are the ideal storage medium for these<br />
versatile devices - not only for cost<br />
reasons.<br />
Moreover, they can comfortably handle<br />
the transfer speeds in most company and<br />
home networks, where the high<br />
performance of flash memory would only<br />
be noticeable when transferring very many<br />
small files. In this case a caching SSD, for<br />
which some NAS systems have a separate<br />
slot, is sufficient.<br />
Video surveillance: The market for video<br />
surveillance is booming because people's<br />
need for security is growing, and systems<br />
are becoming cheaper and cheaper,<br />
making them affordable for private users.<br />
The now mostly high-resolution cameras<br />
deliver a video stream that hard disks can<br />
store perfectly - sequential writing of data<br />
at high speed is one of their strengths,<br />
and even the parallel recording of several<br />
HD streams does not pose any problems.<br />
They also offer a lot of storage space at a<br />
low cost, making them ideal for the large<br />
amounts of data generated by modern 4K<br />
and 8K cameras.<br />
External storage for computer users and<br />
gamers: Flash memory has displaced the<br />
hard disk from almost all client systems,<br />
but because the manufacturers of PCs,<br />
notebooks and games consoles often only<br />
install quite small SSDs for cost reasons,<br />
users today generally have less storage<br />
capacity available in the devices than in<br />
the hard disk era.<br />
At the same time, their storage needs<br />
are increasing because, for example,<br />
private photo collections photo collections<br />
are growing and new more sophisticated<br />
games can take up several dozen<br />
Gigabytes of storage space. Usually data<br />
will be stored externally in "the cloud", but<br />
people may prefer to have access to<br />
locally situated storage - due to cost<br />
reasons or security concerns.<br />
External hard disks with 2 or 4 Terabyte<br />
are therefore extremely popular, and are a<br />
simple and inexpensive way for many<br />
users to expand their storage.<br />
Archiving: When it comes to long-term<br />
storage of data, hard disks are the<br />
storage medium of choice, along with<br />
tapes. HDDs are somewhat more<br />
expensive for the same capacity, but they<br />
score points for shorter access times when<br />
certain documents need to be retrieved<br />
for an audit.<br />
In addition, HDDs can use<br />
deduplication mechanisms to reduce the<br />
amount of data to be archived, which can<br />
significantly reduce costs, depending on<br />
the type of data.<br />
SSDs are not expected to completely<br />
replace hard disks at any point. Since the<br />
need for storage space is growing virtually<br />
everywhere and only HDDs can deliver the<br />
high storage capacities at low costs that<br />
data centres, cloud and other application<br />
areas demand, both media will continue<br />
to coexist for years to come.<br />
More info: www.toshiba-storage.com<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
31
RESEARCH: HPC <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
ADDRESSING THE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE CHALLENGES OF<br />
HPC, AI & ML<br />
SPECIALI<strong>ST</strong> KNOWLEDGE IS THE BIGGE<strong>ST</strong> CHALLENGE FOR MANAGING HIGH-PERFORMANCE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE,<br />
ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH RELEASED BY PANASAS<br />
Panasas has shared the results of a<br />
global survey on the challenges<br />
enterprises face in building and<br />
managing storage infrastructure for highperformance<br />
applications. Lack of<br />
specialist knowledge coupled with high<br />
resource needs was the most frequently<br />
ranked challenge (over 50% of<br />
respondents).<br />
The findings result from an independent<br />
survey by Vanson Bourne of hundreds of IT<br />
decision makers within enterprises with<br />
more than 1,000 employees across the US,<br />
UK, and Germany. Results reflect feedback<br />
across a broad range of industries,<br />
including financial services, manufacturing,<br />
commercial, retail, and more.<br />
Intersect360 Research forecasts that the<br />
high-performance computing (HPC) sector<br />
will continue to grow at a healthy rate, with<br />
HPC budgets expected to reach $59.2<br />
billion by 2026 at a 7.7% compound<br />
annual growth rate (CAGR). This growth is<br />
further fuelled by convergence of HPC with<br />
AI/ML and the role these technologies play<br />
in helping enterprises gain better insights<br />
to support business objectives. However,<br />
harnessing the power of HPC and AI/ML<br />
comes with new challenges. IT teams must<br />
have the tools and the people in place to<br />
manage the high-performance storage<br />
required to support current applications. As<br />
such, organisations must ensure that the<br />
storage infrastructure selected is scalable<br />
and versatile enough to successfully<br />
support future applications at scale.<br />
MULTIPLE CHALLENGES<br />
The survey results showed an<br />
overwhelming 96% of respondents across<br />
the US, UK, and Germany facing<br />
challenges in building and managing highperformance<br />
storage. In addition to over<br />
half of respondents (52%) citing specialist<br />
knowledge as the top challenge, other key<br />
findings include:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Nearly 50% of respondents across all<br />
three regions cited high maintenance<br />
costs and high acquisition costs as the<br />
primary challenges at 45% and 43%<br />
respectively.<br />
Respondents from IT, tech, and telecom<br />
sector selected high maintenance costs<br />
as a challenge (44%) compared to high<br />
acquisition costs (36%).<br />
39% of respondents across all regions<br />
stated that it is time consuming to<br />
juggle multiple storage systems to cater<br />
for different high-performance<br />
workloads, while 38% find it time<br />
consuming to tune the overall<br />
infrastructure for each workload.<br />
US respondents across manufacturing<br />
organisations (68%) cited specialist<br />
knowledge and high resources needs<br />
as the biggest challenge.<br />
US respondents across financial<br />
services organisations (53%) cited<br />
storage infrastructure to support<br />
application scalability as the most<br />
common challenge.<br />
With high resource needs and specialist<br />
knowledge for performance storage<br />
configuration and management cited<br />
as the biggest challenge across all<br />
industries, it was ranked highest among<br />
these industries: business and<br />
professional services sector (61%)<br />
followed by the manufacturing sector<br />
(60%) and the IT, tech, and telecoms<br />
sector (57%).<br />
REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS<br />
Panasas solutions reduce TCO and<br />
address the simplicity, reliability, and<br />
scalability challenges survey recipients<br />
noted in managing their high-performance<br />
storage infrastructure. Global<br />
organisations across multiple industries<br />
leverage Panasas to support their most<br />
innovative HPC and AI/ML projects. The<br />
company's PanFS parallel file system<br />
software suite improves data visibility and<br />
mobility for high-performance workloads,<br />
ensuring optimal performance in the most<br />
data-intensive environments. The plugand-play<br />
Panasas storage solution is<br />
packaged within trusted hardware<br />
components to eliminate the specialist<br />
knowledge challenge cited by survey<br />
recipients as no training is required,<br />
empowering IT teams to play a more<br />
strategic role within their business.<br />
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research<br />
is widely recognised for its genomics<br />
expertise and aims to improve clinical<br />
practices such as assessing cancer risk and<br />
diagnosing children with intellectual<br />
disabilities. The company is known for its<br />
willingness to adopt new technology and<br />
needed a solution to boost genomics data<br />
performance levels while minimising<br />
installation and maintenance time<br />
requirements to reduce IT complexity and<br />
boost the productivity of 80 internal<br />
researchers. "Panasas lives up to its<br />
promise of terrific performance with<br />
negligible maintenance and administration<br />
time," said Dr. Warren Kaplan, Chief of<br />
Informatics at Garvan Institute of Medical<br />
Research.<br />
According to one IT leader at a large<br />
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RESEARCH: HPC <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
industrial manufacturing companies in<br />
Europe, "Once Panasas is up and running,<br />
you just forget about it, which is exactly<br />
what we need." Another customer in the<br />
professional services industry noted, "Even<br />
when we bring on additional data, Panasas<br />
still performs exactly as we would expect.<br />
We can count on the solution to handle<br />
everything we can throw at it. That helps us<br />
meet our deadlines and ensure that clients<br />
get the information they need."<br />
The School of Arts, Technology and<br />
Emerging Communications (ATEC) at the<br />
University of Texas at Dallas invests in the<br />
next generation of media and<br />
entertainment professionals. "Every six to<br />
12 months, it seems that render practices<br />
and technologies change, increasing our<br />
file sizes. Panasas storage provides the<br />
scalability and high-speed processing<br />
necessary to finish even the most complex<br />
projects in a timely way," said Todd<br />
Fechter, Professor at the school. Fechter<br />
estimates that students now have one-third<br />
more time to work on their projects,<br />
because they no longer have to wrangle<br />
each image computer by computer. More<br />
efficient project rendering allows students<br />
to finish even the most complex projects in<br />
a timely way.<br />
SIMPLE AND RELIABLE<br />
"We know what it takes to successfully<br />
manage HPC and AI/ML data storage<br />
environments and the critical role these<br />
bandwidth-intensive applications play in<br />
supporting business growth," said Jeff<br />
Whitaker, VP of Product Strategy and<br />
<strong>Mar</strong>keting at Panasas. "We long ago saw<br />
the challenges organisations face in<br />
managing storage infrastructures for highperformance<br />
environments, and these<br />
survey results reinforce those challenges.<br />
Our PanFS software suite demonstrates our<br />
commitment to delivering simple, reliable<br />
solutions that support multiple HPC and<br />
AI/ML applications from a single storage<br />
platform. Customers gain the necessary<br />
insight into data movement and usage<br />
patterns to ensure optimal workload<br />
performance across the enterprise and into<br />
the high-performance computing world."<br />
More info: www.panasas.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
33
CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDY: DENTONS <strong>ST</strong>UDY:<br />
RAPID GROWTH WITH A SECURE,<br />
SCALABLE BACKBONE<br />
THE WORLD'S LARGE<strong>ST</strong> LAW FIRM, DENTONS, IS LEVERAGING A PORTFOLIO OF TECHNOLOGY FROM<br />
PURE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE TO EXPAND ITS GLOBAL PRESENCE, DRIVE SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES, AND<br />
PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE DATA SECURITY FOR CLIENTS<br />
services, and disaster recovery.<br />
Because FlashArray is encrypted at rest,<br />
Dentons knows that all-important security<br />
measures are baked into its storage. "Many<br />
new clients have a long list of security<br />
requirements that we need to meet before we<br />
can work with them," says Thurston. "With<br />
Pure FlashArray, we can quickly and easily<br />
meet many of those requirements, helping us<br />
to get up and running sooner."<br />
Law firms generate a huge number of<br />
documents, reports, and<br />
communications every day. If you're<br />
Dentons UKIME, the world's largest law<br />
firm - with over 21,000 professionals in<br />
over 200 locations across more than 80<br />
countries - then managing and storing<br />
that volume of data is a major<br />
undertaking. Add the fact that Dentons<br />
works with every kind of client-from<br />
individuals to global enterprises and<br />
national governments-and the complexity<br />
and urgency of its data needs become<br />
even clearer.<br />
After years of rapid growth, Dentons'<br />
mixture of storage arrays was struggling to<br />
cope, putting fundamental systems at risk.<br />
A move to Pure Storage changed that,<br />
giving hundreds of lawyers a dependable<br />
set-up to deliver world-class legal<br />
services.<br />
Over the last 12 years, Dentons UKIME<br />
has grown rapidly to become a truly<br />
global law firm. But the speed of growth<br />
presents challenges from an IT<br />
perspective, as Paul Thurston, CIO for<br />
Dentons, knows only too well. A few years<br />
ago, Dentons was running multiple<br />
storage systems - from a variety of<br />
providers - across its EMEA data centres.<br />
This complex set-up was difficult to<br />
manage and wasn't performing at the<br />
speed the company needed to support its<br />
growth.<br />
With a system running close to capacity,<br />
Dentons needed to consolidate and<br />
upgrade its storage. "We knew we needed<br />
a cloud-like offering that gave us flexibility<br />
and scalability that could match our<br />
ambitions," says Thurston. "With a<br />
consumption-based subscription<br />
approach, Pure Evergreen//One<br />
absolutely ticked these boxes."<br />
SECURE BY DEFAULT<br />
Dentons moved the bulk of its storage to<br />
Pure FlashArray, supported throughout by<br />
the Pure Evergreen subscription model.<br />
The heart of the business now runs on<br />
Pure, from the email system to the<br />
management platform, SQL database<br />
As a firm that advises many clients on ESG<br />
matters, sustainability will always be a priority<br />
for Dentons. Pure FlashArray consumes up to<br />
80% less power than competitors and<br />
reduces the data centre footprint, while the<br />
Evergreen//One subscription maximises<br />
utilisation and reduces e-waste. Thurston<br />
says, "In a legacy world, we had to replace<br />
our equipment roughly every five years. With<br />
Pure Evergreen//One, we're always working<br />
with the latest technology, without needing to<br />
deal with disruptive upgrades."<br />
A SMART, FLEXIBLE FUTURE<br />
As Dentons UKIME grows its global presence,<br />
it's also investigating new and innovative ways<br />
to deliver legal services. This includes a legal<br />
managed service offering via a self-service<br />
online portal for clients and a discovery tool<br />
built around AI and automation.<br />
"We're always looking to use technology and<br />
innovation to deliver services more cost<br />
effectively for our clients," Thurston<br />
concludes. "Pure's storage technologies<br />
provide the dependable foundation we need<br />
to deliver for clients today, as we explore and<br />
innovate for the future."<br />
More info: www.purestorage.com<br />
34 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
Performance Redefined<br />
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