Storing, moving and managing data is becoming a pain in the neck as modern workloads demand gymnastic data agility. Can a virtualized storage or data backup solution bring harmony to hybrid cloud environments and distributed applications making a mess of data?

Distributed, data-centric applications are forcing virtualization technology to evolve, according to Duncan Epping (pictured), chief technologist of storage and availability at VMware Inc. “The distribution of data is the big challenge as it stands right now from a technical perspective,” he said.

Epping spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the VeeamOn event in Chicago. They discussed the virtualization of yesterday and today and the future of data management. (* Disclosure below.)

Workloads play ring-around-the-data

Controlling and managing scattered data is a tall order, even for vendors billing themselves as “data-management” specialists. One such company — long-time attached-at-the-hip VMware partner, Veeam Software Inc. — is making commendable efforts, according to Epping. However, no one has hit it out of the park as of yet.

“We’re starting to see some players in this space that have solutions that sit out in Azure, that sit out in Google Cloud. But it’s a very challenging solution,” Epping stated.

Data-centric apps — the infrastructure-first approach to virtualized storage, servers and data management — is far too sluggish for the app-first world of digital transformation, Epping pointed out. “Customers are more and more interested in what we can do for the application layer. What kind of benefits do we have for exchange for Oracle for SAP, you name it,” he said.

Compressing components and allowing for easier updates can help storage keep up in this new scheme, Epping added. The most recent releases of VMware’s vSphere virtualization platform — such as 6.5 and 6.7 — are enjoying much quicker adoption among customers than did the 5 series, thanks to VMware’s efforts to simplify them.

Managing data for distributed apps requires advanced methods that don’t endlessly circle data itself around disparate infrastructure environments.

“The company that is capable of managing and owning the data is the company that is probably going to be most successful in the cloud war that’s now happening,” Epping said. “Workloads can move around, but data is very difficult to move around and own as well.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VeeamOn event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VeeamOn 2018. Neither Veeam Software Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE