GigaOm lists 20 scale-out file system (SOFS) suppliers in a hotly-contested market, and a dozen, led by Qumulo, are duking it out in a leaders’ category.
Report author Enrico Signoretti places the suppliers in a 4-circle, 4-axis, 4-quadrant Radar screen. Qumulo, VAST Data, Quobyte, DDN, and Commvault are the top five in the Leaders’ area.
Unstructured data today accounts for up to 90 per cent of the total data under management for many enterprises. This explains the strong demand for SOFS and why so many suppliers are jockeying for position. The vendors form three distinct groups.
Scale-out file systems have received a consistent boost as enterprises have turned to high-performance computing (HPC) set-ups to analyse and process massive datasets. That means the parallel access file systems such as IBM Spectrum Scale, Panasas have moved into enterprise space. Conversely, the mainstream enterprise filers such as Dell EMC Isilon and NetApp have moved upmarket.
Also a bunch of startups such as Qumulo, VAST Data and Weka have arrived on the scene. They scent an opportunity to scale more and speed performance with software and hardware developments.
Signoretti comments: “Most of the complexity of scale-out architectures is hidden behind the scenes today. Systems are more balanced than in the past, with improved efficiency, while providing the same or even better performance. All of this is thanks to the adoption of new technologies and integrations that take advantage of public cloud and other types of storage systems.”
He says the list of suppliers in the market is very long: “All scale to multi-petabyte capacities or more, and most exhibit performance as their other primary characteristic. But it is also true that there is increasing demand for data management and hybrid cloud integration – an area where most solutions remain immature. Many vendors are concentrating their efforts in this area to meet growing demand.”
Signoretti’s reports are available to subscribers but you can read the introductory paragraphs and inspect the diagrams by visiting GigaOm’s website.
