Microsoft is one or two release cycles away from adopting software-defined storage, but customers can turn that into an advantage, according to Wikibon co-founder and chief analyst Dave Vellante. He outlined the company’s position in this market and detailed the best course of action for traditional Microsoft IT shops in his latest entry on the Wikibon blog.

Vellante writes that Windows Server 2012 contradicts VMware’s aggressive push towards software-led infrastructure in many ways. In particular, Microsoft’s cloud operating system lacks certain functions that would qualify it as a software-led platform. While Windows Server 2012 does offer capabilities that reduce server and network overhead and increase utilization, the native resource pooling and deduplication functionality was deemed limiting by users who participated in a recent Wikibon survey on the subject.

The same study found that spending 10 percent more on disk storage can lead to 14 percent reduction in overall costs for Microsoft cloud users. The paper concludes that investing in hardware that is well optimized to run the platform can shrink associated HR requirements and management complexity by roughly a third.

“As such, the array-based capability that Wikibon modeled to evaluate the business case demonstrated significantly better value than a Microsoft Software-led approach using commodity disks.

Note: Wikibon modeled an EMC VNX, which had integration capabilities with Windows Server 2012. Practitioners should be cautious to ensure that new array purchases can exploit Windows Server 2012 capabilities.

Microsoft is hesitant to jump on the software-defined storage bandwagon, but that isn’t stopping other vendors from leaping ahead of this trend.  Last month Fusion-io acquired ID7, a UK-based developer of storage connectivity software that has played major role in the open-source movement. According to Fusion-io CEO David Flynn, the firm’s assets will be used to enhance his company’s ION Data Accelerator platform.