Enterprise storage remains focused on higher-density flash (often QLC), hybrid cloud operations, containerised application storage and backup, as-a-service procurement models, and infrastructure tuned for AI workloads. Suppliers show differing approaches and maturity levels across cloud integration, consumption models, container storage, and data protection. Several vendors have issued significant technology refreshes emphasizing AI support. NetApp and Pure Storage are extending storage management toward broader data management capabilities. Lenovo gained market share to reach fourth place in IDC rankings by partnering for hardware and targeting small and medium enterprises. IDC 2023 market-share leaders include Dell, Huawei, HPE, Lenovo, NetApp, Pure Storage, Hitachi Vantara, and IBM.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the French say. That's certainly the case in enterprise storage. Here we review the storage supplier profiles published this year on ComputerWeekly.com, and find all the key players building on key themes of the past decade. These include: flash storage (often QLC for increased density), hybrid cloud operations, storage and backup for containerised apps, as-a-service models of purchasing, and storage for AI workloads.
As in our last survey in 2023, we find players with differing approaches and levels of maturity across all these areas, as well as significant technology refreshes for some suppliers. While the cloud - and readiness to provide storage there and on-premise - has been a big driver for a few years, recently, the strong trend has been towards support for artificial intelligence processing, and this is reflected in many product technology refreshes.
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