GigaOm Radar for Enterprise Object Storagev5.0

1. Executive Summary

As the volume and variety of data continue to grow exponentially, organizations are facing unprecedented challenges in managing and storing their data efficiently. Amid this influx, object storage has emerged as a critical solution for unstructured data, which can include images, videos, and files.

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.