In a world where technology systems, data management, and storage asset management are constantly changing, it is important to pay attention to how older systems are being transformed and re-written to fit today’s technological environment.
As we approach 2023, the big question for companies like InfoSystems and IBM Storage surrounds applications and whether the data from those applications feed into a larger system. People are moving away from the traditional IT stack to containers, since they can run virtually anywhere and are a lighter-weight way to store data.
For context, containers, according to Google, are packages of software that contain all the necessary elements to run in any environment. In this way, containers virtualize the operating system and run anywhere, from a private data center to the public cloud or even on a developer’s personal laptop.
With containers, it doesn’t matter where the data or process lives. However, the switch from a server to a container doesn’t happen overnight, and there can be roadblocks when it comes to making the switch.
Customers are paying attention to things like vendor lock-in. By utilizing practices like data patterning, heat mapping, and data crawling, companies can avoid getting into a situation where they don’t own their own data.
Digital transformation is not an overnight process.
Digital transformation is the process of modernizing digital technology. This is a complex process; a company that has systems written for how storage management functioned 30+ years ago must re-write those systems for 2022 and 2023, making sure they are stored in containers, where they can be moved across all environments.
Additionally, digital transformation can’t happen if you don’t know what and where your most important data is. This is where data crawling and heat mapping comes in. Think of it like an audit; locating your data so that it can be moved from one place to another.
Roadblocks to storage management and optimization.
One of the trickiest parts about digital transformation and making sure your storage management process is optimized for the 21st century is vendor lock-in. There are a lot of storage companies that will lock you into a single environment, charging you millions of dollars if you ever want to pull your data out.
What really matters, according to IBM digital transformation sales leader Edwin Garver Jr., is “avoiding the pitfalls in order to maximize the 50% to 90% savings realized in a containerized architecture.” Garver asks, “What tools and/or technologies are you embracing in your modernization/digital transformation roadmap? The old adage of ‘a failure to plan is a plan to fail’ couldn’t be more true today, as the landscape is riddled with failed initiatives and pitfalls.”
He likes to refer to it as the ‘Welcome to Hotel California’ effect. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
How the IBM + Red Hat partnership creates hyper-converged and software defined solutions for containerized environments.
Red Hat, a software company that provides open-source software products to companies, was acquired by IBM in 2019. The acquisition redefined the cloud market with the goal to accelerate innovation by offering a next-generation hybrid multicloud platform that will provide an agnostic environment where you aren’t locked in to one vendor but can use data in disperse areas.
At the end of the day, the biggest challenge for customers is keeping up with the ever-changing world of technology and finding collaborative solutions that allow them to build and deploy apps anywhere. This is digital transformation in a nutshell; there are still companies that are fighting to keep customers locked in, and InfoSystems, IBM, and Red Hat are pushing back.
In addition to the integration of Red Hat and IBM, Ceph, an open-source software-defined storage platform, announced in October that its storage team at Red Hat would be moving to IBM. As a 100% open-source platform, Ceph’s integration with IBM is a milestone and helps continue the development of robust, scalable, open storage platforms.
Digital transformation can be a battle.
As we approach the new year, integration and modification of digital technology is necessary for any organization. We simply can’t work with processes that were developed 30 years ago; old processes must be updated to fit the modern world.
You must know what your most important data is and where it is, and re-engineer applications to fit in containerized environments. Companies like InfoSystems will charge you for the software to do this but won’t charge you additional fees to retrieve your data when you need it. By partnering with a company like InfoSystems, there is no question that you own your data.
Unfortunately, there are companies who want you to fall for vendor lock-in so that they can charge you millions in egress charges for something that should belong to you in the first place. Companies like InfoSystems, IBM, and Red Hat partner in order to change that. InfoSystems can help you move your data to the cloud and not be a victim of vendor lock-in. While most cloud providers charge between 5 and 20 cents per gigabyte, there is often room for negotiation.
InfoSystems, alongside strategic partners like IBM, understand the insecurity that comes with business technology and storage management and optimization. Dealing with dozens of IT, Cloud, and software vendors can be stressful, and if you’re not familiar with the technology space, you run the risk of getting locked in with a vendor who can put your organization back instead of moving it forward.
In addition to its service offerings, IBM offers free courses and Toolkit activities that help business owners keep up with human-centered solutions when it comes to your organization.
Ready to start protecting your data? Schedule an intro meeting today: https://infosystemsinc.com/
