Feel the Freedom that Comes with Storage as a Service (STaaS)
By now, you’ve likely heard of the term “software as a service” or SaaS—that is, software delivered in an on-demand capacity via the cloud rather than being locally installed. You’re probably also familiar with “infrastructure as a service” or IaaS—a model whereby a cloud service provider delivers and manages IT infrastructures such as server and network resources to subscribers in much the same way.
But what about “storage as a service” or STaaS?
As the name suggests, storage as a service is a model that allows you to purchase storage and pay for it as you go. Note that this is not to be confused with cloud storage, which simply houses data associated with a business with an offsite provider. Storage as a service has the technology located onsite – it’s simply a different way to pay for and support your storage environment.
Storage as a service is a cost-effective approach to manage your data, safeguard backups and expand as needed. It also brings an almost unprecedented level of freedom across an organization, particularly when you compare it to more traditional storage means of acquiring storage that require a large upfront investment, downtime for updates and typically a lack of support. Let’s dive into the benefits.
STaaS Provides the Freedom of Cash to Innovate
Businesses are realizing the freedom that as a service solutions offer. Take for example the projected growth of the IaaS Market; the market size was $38.94 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $201.83 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 23.2% according to Allied Market Research.
Pain Points of Using Traditional Storage
Traditional enterprise data storage purchases involve a large upfront investment, buying capacity for your projected needs several years down the road. You also require time for implementation, downtime and often consultations with experts for major updates or proactive maintenance. If you guess wrong on capacity, you need to request more funds before you run out of space. Everywhere you turn, money is flowing out. Later, when you are looking to expand your business and in turn your storage, the process isn’t quick or inexpensive. You have to do research, select your vendor, go through implementation and compatibility challenges and when that’s finally complete, you again purchase more storage, again paying upfront. This type of procurement allows you to maintain your technology but at a financial premium.
Storage As A Service Enhances Predictability
With storage as a service models, such as HPE Nimble, you pay as you go monthly, so it is no longer necessary to have large upfront expenditures and extensive capacity planning. In addition, you don’t need to buy more storage than you need to future-proof your environment (and waste money on resources you’re not fully utilizing). Instead you’re dealing with fixed, predictable monthly payments.
Finally, keeping cash in the organization’s pocket allows you to keep CFOs happy and opens opportunities to tackle projects that build a competitive edge for your business. Give your team the freedom of new technology while stretching your budget into other areas!
Find The Freedom to Grow Your Business with Storage as a Service
Another major issue with the “old school” approach to storage is how difficult it is to scale as needed. Sure, you can overprovision your storage resources and buy more than you need at the moment—but there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get a proper return on that investment.
The inverse of that scenario is also common: you suddenly find yourself in need of storage you don’t have, requiring emergency approvals for additional storage to be installed as fast as humanly possible and blowing your budget in the process.
Storage as a service, on the other hand, acts almost like a traditional utility service where you are billed based on your actual consumption with small minimal commitments required. Additionally, you can expand with a simple change order. No more getting a million signatures.
Gone are the days when you attempt to predict the amount of storage you’ll need in the future. In its place is an environment with flexibility and freedom to grow at the right pace when you need it. Today’s businesses need to make quick decisions to capitalize on opportunities, and storage as a service brings that agility.
STaaS Provides the Freedom of On-Demand Expertise
Finally, one of the most important advantages of storage as a service is the freedom to tap into the expertise you need, when you need it.
Under the conventional model of storage procurement, the responsibility for… well, everything fell to you.
You had to painstakingly research your technology options for your short and long-term goals. If something broke, it was up to you to escalate and endure finger-pointing—or hire someone who could. If you couldn’t find someone with the right specialized level of expertise, the job still had to get done, dramatically exposing your risk surface as a result.
AI and machine learning change the support paradigm. For example with Nimble Storage AI is built in via HPE Infosight so 86% of problems resolve on their own before they occur. When you do need to tackle an issue, you get right to a Level 3 support engineer. This is one reason why HPE Nimble has such a fan base.
If you choose to further help staff, you can optionally add managed services so someone else does tasks like firmware updates and patches. Again, it’s part of what you pay for monthly—and this, too, generates the freedom (not to mention peace-of-mind) that only comes with knowing your storage needs are finally taken care of.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s now clear that the traditional approach to storage was far more restrictive and wasteful than we ever realized. But thanks to storage as a service those restrictions are gone and the artificial barriers have been shattered.
Now your team will have freedom! Freedom to innovate without spending extensive time on project upgrades, updates or problems. Freedom pay as you go, which will keep your CFO happy with more money to support the business; Freedom to access experts when you need to. With this improved procurement model, you’re left with the most important benefit of all: an environment where innovation is no longer a matter of “if,” but “when.”
How to Get Started on A Storage Refresh
Learn more about STaaS by watching this webinar, or get started on your storage upgrade by requesting a data storage assessment from Comport. With 30+ years of experience in helping businesses research, plan and implement technology solutions, Comport serves as a seasoned resource to guide businesses toward the best solutions for their specific goals. Request a data storage assessment.
