FEATURE : ENTERPRISE STORAGE
drive the maximum value out of the underline hardware ,” he explained . “ Recent developments in storage technologies around NVMe and SCM are extremely valuable for data driven businesses as it does not only offer significantly higher performance and lower latencies for existing application , but also enables new capabilities for real time data processing in hybrid cloud environments .
Having said that , El Kordy pointed out that compute and network become equally critical to maximise the potential of enterprise storage deployments . “ CIOs need to make sure that their compute and network architectures support these state-of-the-art communication protocols like NVMe and the fastest media which are storage class memory ( SCM ) drives ,” he said .
Bespin Global ’ s Chaghlil said : “ In today ’ s world , CIOs are given a broader remit than they had before and are currently playing a leading role in directing businesses ’ technologies to ensure optimising data storage for their enterprise . That would entail implementing a hybrid cloud to simplify and secure existing back-up , investing in AI opportunities to increase IT functions and support hybrid storage , eliminating technical debt by implementing a culture of financially sustainable cost management and of course , implementing automation and AI / Machine Learning technologies to reduce expenses and complexity .”
Sought after technologies
With the adoption of hybrid multi-cloud architectures for enterprise customers , organisations everywhere are under tremendous pressure to modernise their infrastructure and to deliver tangible business value around data intensive applications and workloads .
As a result , said Kanafani , enterprises are shifting from on-premises environments to using public cloud services , building private clouds and moving from disk to flash in their data centres . “ These transformations open the door to huge potential , but they also introduce the challenge of increased IT complexity .
“ Therefore demand for simplicity and customisability will be the most sought requirement for enterprise storage technologies in the year ahead ,” he said .
Kanafani said add to that , the skill shortage in MEA for data scientists and storage architects has pushed CIOs to consider IT managed services with clear service level agreements ( SLAs ) to support the business outcomes . “ NetApp for example has many offerings that take the burden away from customers so they can focus is on what matters most and leave the data management element of the equation with the vendor as a service either provided directly or through one of the established cloud service providers in the region ,” he said .
Antoine Harb , Team Leader , Middle East and North Africa ( MENA ), Kingston Technology , said CIOs will see a major increase in investments enabling and accelerating Digital Transformation of businesses . “ This is not only driven by the currently on-going lockdowns around the globe , but also through the growing demand of employees to include part-time working from home into their working contracts ,” he said . p
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