Linux Foundation Research and SODA Foundation Release New Data and Storage Trends for the Enterprise

New research revealed on eve of KubeCon, shows enterprises' pivot to cloud-based containerized environments and software-defined storage is revolutionizing the way we manage data

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The Linux Foundation

Oct 12, 2021, 09:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KubeCon -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the release of the 2021 Data and Storage Trends Report, produced in collaboration between SODA Foundation and Linux Foundation Research. It reveals new findings on enterprise use of data and storage as it relates to cloud services and workloads in the era of Cloud Native, Edge, IoT and 5G. SODA Foundation is also a sponsor of this week's KubeCon event.

"Data has changed the nature of both enterprise computing and business operations," said Steven Tan, chair, SODA Foundation, and VP and CTO of Cloud Storage Solution at Futurewei. "No longer can companies take a passive or reactive approach to market changes or customer behaviors. Understanding how to collect, manage and consume data is a competitive advantage in today's digital economy, and we believe the 2021 Data and Storage Trends Report can inform this journey."

"Our collaboration with SODA Foundation represents our service to industry and community as a research center for understanding key technology trends that inform open source development and resource allocation," said Hilary Carter, VP of Linux Foundation Research. "Linux Foundation Research is happy to be doing this important work with SODA Foundation, and we believe the 2021 Storage and Data Trends Report can advance the work of its community and the broader open source ecosystem and tech community."

Key Findings from the report include:

Storage requirements move from Terabytes to Petabytes

Mainstream annual data growth is between 1-100 TBs per year as reported in the study. However, 9 percent of the sample is seeing annual data growth of 1 PB or more. This is 10 to 100 times greater growth than the mainstream and is likely a harbinger of where many enterprises will find themselves within a few years.

Enterprises pivot to cloud-based containerized environments

Forty-eight percent of enterprises are using cloud VMs in production and development environments, while 75 percent use Kubernetes or a hybrid Kubernetes on-prem and public cloud combination.

Software-Defined Storage could revolutionize how we manage data

When asked what storage technologies are included in the enterprise's storage infrastructure, three technologies shared a leadership position. File Storage (65 percent), Software Defined Storage (60 percent), and Public Cloud Storage (60 percent) are the storage technologies of choice for most enterprises.

Containerized cloud native storage is not without pain points

Performance was identified by 49 percent of end-user enterprises as the number one pain point when using containers and/or cloud native storage. Performance was followed closely by availability at 46 percent.

Open source projects are shaping data and storage infrastructure use

Thirty-seven percent of enterprises are engaged with SODA Foundation, the #1 response, while GlusterFS and Alluxio followed.

Enterprises fixated on data protection and security

Data protection and availability at 61 percent as well as security and compliance at 57 percent were the top two capabilities identified by end users.

To review all data points and review the analysis of these survey results, please visit: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/resources/publications/soda21

SODA Foundation is also a KubeCon sponsor. Please visit us at booth S23 or our virtual booth.

Survey Partners include Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), Japan Data Storage Forum (JDSF), China Open Source Cloud League (COSCL), Open Infrastructure Foundation (OIF), Mulan Open Source Community and Storage Performance Council (SPC).

Partner Quotes

Cloud Native Computing Foundation
"Storage is one of the most core components of cloud native infrastructure but, historically, persistent storage systems were run outside of cloud native and Kubernetes environments," said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of CNCF. "This has changed in recent years as the cloud native storage space has exploded with new tools and industry efforts emerging to enable storage of persistent state in cloud native environments. The Data and Storage Trends Report provides valuable insights to help the ecosystem understand how these tools are being adopted in cloud environments."

NTT Communications
"It's clear open source is paving the way for innovation in the data and storage space. Now we know how companies are using open source to advance their cloud native and container strategies. The Data and Storage Trends report from SODA Foundation will be an invaluable resource for months to come," said Kei Kusunoki, Infrastructure Engineer, NTT Communications.

Open Infrastructure Foundation
"The results of the SODA 2021 Data and Storage Trends Report show just how important open infrastructure is to large organizations managing data at petabyte scale. Technologies like containers and software-defined storage are going to lead the way, with open source and open communities being the primary drivers making it happen," said Allison Price, Director of Marketing and Community, Open Infrastructure Foundation.

SNIA
"Findings from the Data and Storage Trends Report really shine a light on where we can support our members and accelerate technical development to fully take advantage of this data," said Richelle Ahlvers, SNIA Board of Directors and Secretary. "This is an extremely useful body of work from SODA Foundation and Linux Foundation Research."

Yahoo Japan
"SODA Foundation is in a unique position to be able to survey a diverse group of businesses and end users, so this new information from the Data and Storage Trends Report is incredibly powerful," said Koki Numata, Storage Architect & KURO-OBI (Black belt) engineer, Yahoo! JAPAN.

Report Methodology
The worldwide survey was conducted by SODA Foundation and the Linux Foundation from April 15 to August 19, 2021. Two hundred forty seven respondents completed the survey. Worldwide, 40 percent of the sample originated from North America, 25 percent from Europe, 17 percent from Latin America, 9 percent from India, 4 percent from Japan, 2 percent from China, and 3 percent from the rest of world (Middle East, Africa and Australia/Oceania). Respondents came from organizations of all sizes including 15 percent from very small organizations (1-99 employees), 36 percent from small organizations (100-999 employees), 26 percent from medium organizations (1,000-4,999 employees), and 24 percent from large organizations (5,000 or more employees). The distribution of responses by organization type included 40 percent end users (primarily consumers of IT products and services), 40 percent IT vendors and services providers (Vendor/SvcP), and 20 percent members of standards organizations, open source organizations, and academia (Std/OSS/Ed).

About the SODA Foundation
Previously OpenSDS, the SODA Foundation is part of the Linux Foundation and includes both open source software and standards to support the increasing need for data autonomy. SODA Foundation Premiere members include China Unicom, Fujitsu, Huawei, NTT Communications and Toyota Motor Corporation. Other members include China Construction Bank Fintech, Click2Cloud, GMO Pepabo, IIJ, MayaData, LinBit, Scality, Sony, Wipro and Yahoo Japan.

About the Linux Foundation
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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SOURCE The Linux Foundation