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Self-aware storage? It'll be fine. Really - your arrays aren't the T-1000

Smarter, savvier boxes will change the way we look at infrastructure

Different types of smarter storage

Sometimes you don’t have the CPU power to achieve that, but in this case, cloud can be of help. If you look at what is happening with cloud-based storage analytics, you can easily guess the next step. Let’s take Nimble as an example again. It is already harvesting millions of data points for each single array per day.

With the latest implementation of its cloud-based analytics product, it can now monitor the whole stack. How much time will it take to start digging into VMS and looking at what it is really doing in terms of data and applications?

Security concerns aside (but I’m talking about metadata), the potential is huge and it is not limited by your internal infrastructure. It could help you to better understand your infrastructure and compare it with others all around the world.

You would be able to find weak spots and information about any aspect of your data and infrastructure. For example, it would be possible to analyse the behaviour of your application in a specific context and compare it with what it is usually measured in similar environments. Also, in this case there are many possible applications.

Closing the circle

I love thinking about the potential of these solutions, and the fact they are not very far from where we are today.

Most of the time, application-aware storage is another word for optimisation and integration with a specific application. On the other hand, data-aware storage is something totally new, and it could have many different connotations.

It will be interesting to watch what will happen.

In fact, many storage vendors are working on new data-aware solutions which will have the potential to change the role of data storage in your infrastructure.

Some of these solutions are already available in their first commercial implementations, but the vast majority of them are still in the early stages of their development cycle. Interesting times ahead. ®

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