Object Storage: Evolution from Repository for Backups and Archives to Target for High-Performance Workloads

Object Storage: Evolution from Repository for Backups and Archives to Target for High-Performance Workloads

This IDC Market Perspective discusses the evolution of object storage. Object storage is undergoing an image transformation from slow, cheap, and deep repository for backups and archives to infinitely scalable, cost-effective, high-performance S3 API-based target for big data analytics, AI, ML, and DL workloads. Key developments driving the change include the introduction of flash-based storage to speed data access and memory operations, the increasing use of Amazon's S3 API for modern application development, and the growing availability of new and re-architected products tailored for Kubernetes-, container-, and edge-based deployments, where object storage makes a great fit. Backup and archive use cases will remain important revenue producers for object storage vendors, but the newer high-performance opportunities create the potential for growth at a time when most enterprises plan to upgrade their AI storage infrastructure."Massively scalable object storage has evolved beyond its roots as a 'cheap and deep' repository for backups and archives into a viable option for higher-performance use cases," said Carol Sliwa, research director, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies Group at IDC. "Object storage vendors that best adapt to meet the needs of enterprises and DevOps teams building analytics, AI, and ML applications to gain greater business benefit from their data have a strong opportunity for growth."

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