Maxta Commissions 451 Research to Conduct Midmarket Survey Revealing Strong Interest in Hyper-Convergence and Software-Defined Storage

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxta®, a leader in hyper-convergence and software-defined storage, today released results of an independent study conducted by 451 Research of IT purchasers in midmarket companies. A few hundred companies with annual revenues of $100 million to $1 billion were surveyed. The survey, sponsored by Maxta and Intel, revealed a strong interest in deploying Software-Defined Storage (SDS), with 96% of respondents stating that they were "somewhat or very likely" to adopt SDS and 82% stating they were "somewhat or very likely" to adopt a hyper-converged infrastructure. Midmarket storage management problems, often similar to those of larger enterprises, were seen in the survey, amplified by the need for simplification of IT management. These challenges were compounded by additional difficulties in finding staff to maintain complex storage infrastructures. The research findings also confirmed that midmarket companies are very willing to take on new technologies that will help them with the vexing problem of exponential storage growth.

Tweet this: @451research w/ @Maxtainc @intel: 96% likely to adopt #softwaredefined #storage, 82% #hyperconverged; Get report http://bit.ly/1EyrW1j

Survey Highlights Software-Defined Storage

Midmarket companies are showing strong adoption of server virtualization solutions, with a strong interest in SDS solutions. Simplifying storage infrastructure management is seen as a major driver, with VM-level management seen as one of the most appealing features, followed by improving data protection, data integrity and scalability. CAPEX savings have not been a driving factor.

• 96 percent of respondents are aware of SDS, with 71 percent of respondents stating they were "somewhat likely" to consider deploying SDS, while 25 percent said they were "very likely."
• 77 percent of companies surveyed indicated that 50 percent or more of their servers are already virtualized.  
• Given the strong rate of adoption of virtualized servers, it is not surprising that 52 percent of respondents cite simplification of storage management as the key consideration to move to SDS, with 61 percent stating VM-level storage management as the main appeal to move to SDS. High-level skill sets needed to manage complex storage (35 percent), followed closely by the complexity itself (35 percent) were noted as top challenges.
• 53 percent seek compression and a consistent interest was displayed in enterprise-class data services such as thin provisioning, tiering, de-duplication, snapshots and cloning.
• 40 percent seek to improve their data protection policies with SDS and 35 percent cite SDS snapshots and cloning as a motivator to SDS.
• Maintaining data integrity across different systems was a challenge for 46 percent, with scalability being highlighted by 41 percent as a motivator to move to SDS.
• 53 percent of respondents want the ability to support mixed drive types – server side, SSD, spinning disk, indicating broad use case and workload interest.
• Somewhat surprising was that only 16 percent of respondents selected price (CAPEX) or the ability to deploy on less expensive commodity x86 hardware as a significant benefit of SDS solutions.

Survey Highlights Hyper-Convergence
Respondents' interest in hyper-convergence appears to be driven by the reduction of operating expenses which many would find synonymous with the simplification of IT management. Half of the respondents cited that cost savings would be part of their evaluation consideration. Compatibility and configuration also made the list of concerns validating the need for reference architectures and ordering simplicity. Maxta has seen strong interest in MaxDeploy™ reference architectures, which provide pre-configured and pre-validated solutions that can run on any x86 server platform, with recent evaluators of hyper-converged solutions expressing strong interest in MaxDeploy running on both Intel and Supermicro servers. These solutions provide organizations greater than 30% savings over a hyper-converged solution running on branded server platforms and greater than 55% savings compared to an appliance-based hyper-converged architecture.

• 87 percent of respondents were aware of hyper-convergence, with 82 percent of respondents stating they were "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to consider a hyper-converged infrastructure; 36 percent of those aware of hyper-convergence stated they were unclear of the total benefits and/or full meaning of hyper-convergence, indicating that an improved understanding could increase results to be more consistent with the SDS findings.
• 62 percent state simplification of IT infrastructure as a key motivator to consider hyper-convergence.
• More than SDS at 35 percent, 52 percent of respondents are seeking to reduce management and operational costs with hyper-convergence. 50 percent stated they would want to see a cost savings use case as part of their evaluation process.       
• 29 percent shared some concern about compatibility and configuration along with 42 percent requiring a demo as part of the evaluation process. Results indicate a need for pre-configured systems and validated reference architectures.
• Fueling the debate of whether hyper-convergence is a virtualization or storage purchase, 37 percent would evaluate hyper-convergence in the same way they evaluated server virtualization and 28 percent in the same way they would evaluate a storage array.

Quotes

"Storage has not kept pace with compute in terms of the simplicity, availability, agility, and overall cost," said Yoram Novick, Maxta founder, president and CEO. "The 451 Research findings show significant demand for SDS and hyper-convergence, including the need for the simplification of IT, enterprise-class data services, and cost efficiencies. By offering the choice of MxSP VM-centric software-defined storage and MaxDeploy family of hyper-converged solutions, customers have the maximum flexibility to choose the best solution for them with the complete flexibility to run on the server, hypervisor, and storage of their choice."
Yoram Novick, CEO, Maxta, Inc.

"Software-defined infrastructure (SDI) is the foundation for the future of the data center. The survey demonstrated a strong market interest from midmarket organizations to simplify infrastructure management. Software-defined storage and hyper-converged systems are ways to do just that: simplify management," said Bev Crair, general manager of the storage division at Intel.  "The recently announced IntelR XeonR E5-2600 v3 processors provide the performance and scale to enable organizations to transform their storage."
Bev Crair, GM, Storage Division, Intel Corporation

"Software-defined storage and hyper-converged infrastructure are coming of age," said Tim Stammers, senior analyst at 451 Research. "Midmarket companies face mounting challenges storing and managing ever-growing volumes of data. Clearly there is a demand for IT infrastructure that is simpler to manage, and can scale out as data grows. Hyper-converged systems and software-defined storage are strong candidates to meet these needs."
Tim Stammers, Senior Analyst, Storage, 451 Research

Maxta and Intel commissioned 451 Research to poll online 200 midmarket U.S. businesses, defined as those companies with $100 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. Respondents were IT, data center, storage, networking and operations managers, as well as executive managers with responsibility for or influence on IT infrastructure purchasing decisions. The majority of these businesses were managing 25 TB or more of data as their storage infrastructure.

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About Maxta
Maxta maximizes the promise of hyper-convergence. Maxta software-defined storage solutions provide organizations the choice to deploy hyper-convergence on any x86 server, use any hypervisor and any combination of storage devices. The simplicity of Maxta's VM-centric solution reduces IT management to further maximize cost savings.  Hyper-scale, enterprise-level data services and capacity optimization, empower organizations to hyper-converge, eliminating the need for SAN or NAS devices. Think outside the storage box.  For more information visit http://www.maxta.com.

About 451 Research
451 Research is a preeminent information technology research and advisory company. With a core focus on technology innovation and market disruption, we provide essential insight for leaders of the digital economy. More than 100 analysts and consultants deliver that insight via syndicated research, advisory services and live events to over 1,000 client organizations in North America, Europe and around the world. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, 451 Research is a division of The 451 Group.

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