Object storage is a cloud-based system that allows users to store and retrieve data of any size in the form of objects. Unlike traditional block-based storage systems, object storage is optimized for large-scale data repositories, making it ideal for big data, IoT, and cloud-native applications.

Applications today need to store data safely and access it from anywhere, from multiple applications and devices concurrently, while next-gen microservices-based applications often use object storage as their primary data repository. Moreover, high-performance computing applications—like big data analytics and AI—are also big consumers of object storage, and the new flash media types introduced in high-performance object storage systems strengthen the case for the use of object storage in high-performance, high-value workloads. Thus, the key characteristics of enterprise object stores have changed, with much more attention paid to performance, ease of deployment, security, federation capabilities, and multitenancy than in the past. In addition, edge use cases are becoming more prevalent. Tiny object storage installations at the edge, serving small Kubernetes clusters and IoT infrastructure, are surfacing.

As the technology continues to evolve, it will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of enterprise data management. This is especially true in the context of modern object storage platforms that offer additional capabilities for file data via support for NFS, SMB, and other file protocols. This evolution looks set to continue as organizations seek to build their data pipelines on unified storage platforms that simplify the overall management and governance of data at scale.

In today’s digital age, data is the lifeblood of business. Object storage is essential for organizations to unlock the true value of their data, drive innovation, and stay competitive. CxOs will want to leverage object storage to:

• Enhance customer experiences through personalized analytics and recommendations.
• Drive business innovation through data-driven insights and AI applications.
• Ensure business continuity and compliance through robust and scalable data storage solutions.

Object storage has revolutionized the way enterprises store, manage, and retrieve their data. As the demands for data storage continue to grow, it has become an essential component of any modern IT infrastructure. Object storage matters to C-level executives and IT professionals alike. C-level executives will appreciate its strategic benefits—increased agility, reduced costs, and improved business resilience. IT professionals will appreciate the technical capabilities and innovations that make object storage a robust and scalable solution for their organizations.

This is our fifth year evaluating the object storage space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Radar report examines 18 of the top object storage solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading enterprise object storage offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

The post GigaOm Radar for Enterprise Object Storage appeared first on Gigaom.

To support these requirements, many object storage systems have turned to all flash storage configurations, forgoing support for hard-disk-based media. Striving to contain the cost of using flash technologies, some vendors are turning to QLC-based media to lower hardware costs and employing storage efficiencies to reduce the data footprint and enhance the cost per GB of these solutions.

In addition, many companies are struggling to manage and control their data while at the same time leveraging data at scale to power enhanced customer experience and overall employee productivity–not to mention advanced, emerging AI use cases such as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).

Demand for object storage for modern workloads is driven by its use in the public cloud. Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 is the standard. All object storage vendors have adopted this interface for their solutions and strive to maintain compatibility. This level of standardization and the resulting enhanced compatibility between service implementations enables users to build hybrid and multicloud infrastructures more confidently and at a reasonable cost. Even better, some vendors have built solutions aimed at virtualizing access to multiple object stores on the back end for better control over data placement, governance, and cost.

The S3 API has now been adopted by traditional storage systems too, including primary scale-up storage systems–but not all systems are built the same.

This report intends to provide a deeper understanding of the capabilities of these platforms, highlighting the key differences in a business context to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.

Business Imperative
It’s critical that businesses understand what data they have, where it resides, and who has access to it. Object storage directly addresses this need by providing support for billions of objects, typically under a single namespace, which simplifies both the management of and access to this data across an organization. Object storage often has a very long lifespan compared to other storage systems in the infrastructure, and the market landscape is very complex. Before deciding which solution is better, users should consider whether the object store will be relatively small and serve one or a few applications or whether it will become a fundamental infrastructure service that will store data for a large number of applications, services, and other infrastructure components. This decision will have a strong impact on both data management and the deployment model.

Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value of an enterprise object storage solution deployment to the business, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of an enterprise object storage solution, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) of 4.6 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that an enterprise object storage solution is a credible candidate for deployment and worthy of thoughtful consideration.

The factors contributing to the Sector Adoption Score for enterprise object storage are explained in more detail in the Sector Brief section that follows.