Data is still king, as this week’s VMware Explore event showcased through VMware Inc.’s portfolio, which facilitates the secure generation, transfer and utilization of data for contemporary business purposes.

In today’s changing landscape storage is taking on a role focusing more on being a platform for storing data. Businesses are adapting to this shift and understanding the significance of data by giving priority to factors, such as accessibility, dependability, efficiency, cost savings and data protection. This holds importance in the world of artificial intelligence applications and multicloud environments.

“If you’re going to use AI in your applications and workloads, it can’t go down,” said Eric Herzog (pictured, right), chief marketing officer of Infinidat Ltd. “The AI’s going to feed in to look at the apps. Some people will embed AI in the apps. Others will use AI to examine the apps or examine the data so you can’t go down. That reliability, availability, which, by the way, has been a watchword in the enterprise already, is just going to get more important.”

Herzog and David Nicholson (left), field chief technology officer of Infinidat, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at VMware Explore 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed AI shaping the move towards data being pushed on-premise and different approaches when it comes to protecting data. (* Disclosure below.)

Real value of storage

While AI is both the new buzzword and a potential threat to companies, it has spurred many to seek innovative solutions and ways to protect business data, which usually entails moving everything on-premise.

The increasing need for constantly accessible storage has risen because businesses are under pressure to utilize workloads such as AI and containers. It also require access to data both on-premises and in the cloud all while focusing on running applications and ensuring business success.

“We had this issue when we went to the hyper-converged model of this thing that I’d refer to as the devil’s triangle of CPU memory and storage,” Nicholson said. “If you said you needed new storage, more storage in that model, you had to buy another server. The stuff we do in Infinidat is designed to aggregate all the storage and share it out … it is interesting to see the next iteration of vSAN going in that direction.”

The real value of storage then lies in its ability to impact applications, workloads and use cases by protecting, empowering and enhancing its performance and security, according to Herzog.

“First of all, we see seamless hybrid cloud integration,” he added. “You’ve got to be able to move data back and forth between on-prem and off-prem. Second thing we see is because of the value of the data and, even especially because of the AI, there’s issues of how do I keep it protected in this case, legally protected. The whole idea around AI actually is partially going to push certain amounts of data back on-prem out of the cloud, and then they’re going to try to wall it off because the last thing they want is someone working on their code to use AI.”

Infinidat is trying to stay ahead of the curve by offering its autonomous automation solution, powered by AI. It enables its customers to have a rock-solid storage solution that operates on its own for years without the need for constant manual intervention.

“The key thing [Infinidat] does is allows [customers] to cut their cap back as an OpEx and use that instead of on infrastructure, on AI software development or AI integration with Oracle or whatever their workloads are,” Herzog explained. “There’s only so much money. If you can cut money on storage and make it automated doing its own thing, but still functioning the right way, then you can spend the money on these other projects.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore 2023:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for VMware Explore 2023. VMware Inc. and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE