What Is Software-defined Storage? Benefits and Best Solutions

Enterprise IT teams using hardware-bound IT infrastructure connect data storage operations to specific devices.

However, hardware idiosyncrasies make it difficult to replace, expand, or refresh proprietary hardware. These challenges loom even large in organizations with storage platform lock-ins. As a result, heterogeneous data storage management becomes increasingly difficult.

Soon, hardware upgrades turn into operational bottlenecks and create storage silos. To tackle these challenges, modern IT teams use software-defined storage or hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions.

Software-defined storage (SDS) uses a software layer to decouple hardware from storage management. It also simplifies data provisioning, orchestration, and physical data storage management on servers. Thanks to the flexible and hardware-independent storage infrastructure, enterprises can achieve agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

The intentional separation of their storage duties removes the software’s dependency on the proprietary hardware. Any industry-standard or x86 server can perform software-defined storage functions.

SDS lets companies combine physical storage resource pools in a single device. This way, storage resources become part of a software-designed data center (SDDC) architecture that can efficiently automate and orchestrate resources.

Organizations that handle unstructured data adopt SDS solutions to create scale-out storage architectures, ensure server hardware availability, and resolve latency issues. Let’s look at why they use or switch to software-defined storage.

Why do companies use software-defined storage?

Companies take advantage of software-defined storage to create fluid storage architectures, remain hardware-independent, and stay free from vendor lock-ins. As a result, they also experience improved flexibility, scalability, and efficiency.

Software-defined storage solutions run on commodity server hardware instead of specific hardware components. Moreover, storage abstraction helps businesses create programmable storage resources vital to running software-driven data centers. This makes SDS an excellent choice for automating siloed infrastructure resources and replacing costly hardware-dependent storage services. 

What are the features of software-defined storage?

The following software-defined storage architecture features create storage abstraction from hardware, while ensuring flexibility, scalability, and efficiency. 

• Abstraction, also known as decoupling or uncoupling, is the process of separating the storage software from the underlying hardware. This separation differentiates SDS from all-in-one legacy storage arrays containing tightly integrated software and hardware.
• Storage virtualization creates and manages virtual versions of storage resources as a single unit. Unlike data center networking, which applies virtualization to compute resources, it only applies to physical storage.
• Storage management automation helps storage administrators automate repetitive tasks.
• Industry-standard hardware, like x86 servers and application programming interfaces (APIs), are key to how SDS solutions function.
• Flexibility and scalability allow organizations to use vendors and infrastructure types of their choice. Depending on storage needs, these enterprises can add or remove storage capacity. 

How does software-defined storage work?

Software-defined storage is a software controller that creates a single, virtual storage pool from heterogeneous storage arrays by separating storage media management services (control plane) from the storage media infrastructure (data plane). This virtual pool contains virtual disks that host servers use as logical unit numbers (LUN) to store data. 

A hypervisor between applications and available resources balances all IT resources. This abstraction pairs resource flexibility and programmability to help organizations adapt to storage demands.

The programmability also automates storage capacity provisioning with resource management policies. These policies are key to how system administrators create, add, or remove virtual storage arrays. As a result, administrators can develop self-service tools to offer users faster storage access.

This software-independent deployment results in improved implementation of data security, data protection, and governance protocols. Administrators also have an easier time meeting and managing service level agreements (SLAs) and quality of service (QoS).

Types of software-defined storage

The lack of a standard definition makes it difficult to categorize software-defined storage products. Some run on an on-premise or public cloud server operating system (OS) or virtual machines. Others use containers or server hypervisor kernels. Below are the most common types of SDS solutions commonly available on the market. 

• Block, file, and object storage are used to store data using distributed server clusters and a unified data management system.
• Scale-out block storage clusters x86 server nodes as a single block storage system to improve cache coherency among nodes.
• Scale-out file storage is the earliest form of software-defined storage. They overcome the limitations of traditional storage by creating scale-out files for file-driven application storage.
• Scale-out object storage adds unique identifiers and metadata to every file. Some solutions also offer file access support for network file storage (NFS) and server message block (SMB).
• Storage virtualization aggregates hardware-based storage, network attached storage (NAS), and storage area network (SAN)  to create one or more storage system pools. Businesses use them to monitor and manage storage from a single platform.
• Hyperconverged infrastructure creates clustered servers that combine compute, storage, networking, and virtualization resources. These solutions may use virtual machines, server OS, containers, or hypervisor kernels.

Software-defined storage vs. traditional storage

Traditional storage restricts data storage to specific hardware. Software-defined storage virtualizes and runs storage on non-proprietary commodity hardware. It’s less expensive and doesn’t require upfront spending like legacy storage. 

SDS stores data on virtual disks across data center servers, meaning you can quickly scale per needs. 

SDS vs. storage area network

A storage area network is a dedicated network that delivers shared pools of block-level storage to servers. It interconnects hosts, switches, hardware, and storage components to do so.

Storage area network systems improve multiple data paths to boost data availability. They also protect IT assets while enhancing business continuity and minimizing storage resources. The critical differences are that SAN solutions offer pay-as-you-grow models, provide granular storage items, and ensure modularity. The result is minimal downtime for upgrades. 

SDS vs. network attached storage 

A network attached storage is a file storage device that creates centralized, shareable data storage for multiple users. This centralized disk capacity allows users with local area network (LAN) connections to access the data via Ethernet. 

NAS solutions create logical containers that make file sharing easy across devices. They reduce the administrative workload with more straightforward configurations. Unlike NAS, SDS doesn’t rely on a network attachment and requires a networked connection. Compared to NAS, SDS offers scalability and budget-friendly storage options. 

SDS vs. storage virtualization

Storage virtualization refers to storage abstraction using a software layer between a user and the physical storage hardware. It divides or combines storage capacity per organizational needs.

The main difference between SDS and storage virtualization lies in how they abstract storage to simplify storage management. SDS separates storage software and hardware functions, whereas storage virtualization creates a storage pool that separates hardware capacity.

SDS frees organizations from hardware dependencies, while storage virtualization ensures centralized storage management.

Benefits of software-defined storage

Organizations benefit from software-defined storage’s virtualization and orchestration. As a result, companies experience cost savings, flexible networking, and programmability with a hardware-agnostic infrastructure.

• Hardware-independent infrastructure: The most significant advantage of using SDS is that it lets organizations use different hardware types instead of proprietary hardware for data storage. This hardware-independent architecture lets IT teams upgrade or downgrade hardware and software separately.
• Storage pool: SDS also allows organizations to move away from hierarchical storage and add or remove hardware as needed.
• Programmability: SDS solutions’ built-in automation features improve storage performance and data governance capabilities.
• Scalability: SDS doesn’t limit data center capability based on physical factors like energy constraints or internet protocol (IP) address pools. This makes it easier for companies to scale their storage architecture.
• Cost-efficiency: Legacy software requires substantial upfront investments and ongoing maintenance costs. Software-defined storage is less expensive compared to the cost of proprietary hardware. 

SDS use cases

Organizations generally use SDS for the following workloads.

• Organizations use hybrid cloud storage to maintain data across on-premise systems, and public and virtual private clouds. SDS solutions expand storage infrastructure so users can access data from anywhere.
• Companies with remote office and branch offices (ROBO) use software-defined storage to keep data on-premise and provide users with centralized access.
• Businesses also turn to SDS solutions to centralize data for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. As a result, users can access remote data from their desktops.
• To help manage and control centralized storage for high availability applications, software-defined storage solutions feature deduplication, mirroring, failover, and replication capabilities.
• With SDS software solutions, businesses can rely on archival storage in a hybrid cloud environment to recover from hardware failures and downtimes.
• Internet of things (IoT) devices and edge applications use SDS solutions to store and manage large volumes of data cost-effectively. 

The old road doesn’t lead to new places

Gone are the days when organizations could scale their storage architecture with purpose-built storage hardware. Today’s modern IT environment requires high-performance and dynamic SDS for cost-savings and agility. 

Learn more about how hyperconverged infrastructure helps enterprises achieve architectural efficiency.