Server SAN, software-defined storage directly attached to commodity servers, will disrupt the storage market, writes Wikibon CTO David Floyer in “The Rise of Server SAN”. In the hyperscale server provider marketplace, it is core technology for services such as Amazon’s S3, EC2 Block Storage Volumes, and Glacier. Server SAN is now entering enterprise data centers, although that is only 15 percent of the overall $1.646 billion Server SAN market, according to Floyer’s estimates (see chart below).

Besides cost, Server SAN provides performance advantages, particularly when teamed with flash storage, by eliminating the inefficiencies of storage area networks (SANs). SANs improve storage utilization but work best with applications that have small working set sizes, good locality of reference, and predictable IO request rates, Floyer writes. They also lock users into a single storage model and are difficult to manage.

Server SAN can support several network types, allowing users to choose the most efficient for the application, from high-volume transactional systems to Big Data analysis. It scales easily by adding commodity components. Server SAN also improves operational efficiency by moving management from individual arrays to a software layer that manages storage across the data center.

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Over the next decade Floyer predicts that Server SAN will grow to dominate enterprise data centers, even as organizations move most compute loads and data to cloud service mega-datacenters. The growth in the storage market will be in those mega-datacenters. However, in the medium term, vendors that dominate Server SAN in the enterprise can grow their share of the residual market.

Market snapshot

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Today, Hewlett Packard leads the enterprise Server SAN market with 40 percent of overall sales, with Nutaniz second with 24 percent and SimpliVity third with 12 percent (see graphic on left). However, the market is immature, and “other” – a large collection of startups and some long established IT vendors – holds 15 percent. EMC, the dominant player in enterprise storage, has virtually no presence in the Server SAN market today.

Like all Wikibon research, Floyer’s Server SAN Professional Alert is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals can register for free membership in the Wikibon community, allowing them to participate in research including Floyer’s ongoing analysis of the Storage SAN market, and publish their own questions and comments, tips and research.

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