The Storage Software Market

Storage software specializes in interfacing with and managing storage hardware. 

Storage software capabilities range from data management to data provisioning and data replication to creating snapshots.

See below to learn all about the global storage software market:

Storage software market

The storage software market was estimated to be valued at $20.4 billion in 2020. It’s projected to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7% from 2020 to 2027, reaching a value of $34.3 billion by the end of it.

One segment of the market is data protection and recovery. It’s estimated to reach $10.5 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 8.6%. 

Regionally, the storage software market is segmented as follows:

• The U.S. market was estimated to be valued at $6 billion in 2020, with a market share of 29.4%
• The Chinese market is forecast for a CAGR of 7.2%, reaching $6 billion by 2027
• Japan and Canada are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% and 6.2% over the forecast period
• Within Europe, Germany is projected to maintain one of the highest CAGRs at 6.2%
• The Asia-Pacific market, led by Australia, South Korea, and India, is projected to reach $3.9 billion by 2027

By industry, the retail and e-commerce sectors are expected to drive demand in the market.

Other notable industries in the market include:

• Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI)
• Government
• Manufacturing
• Health care
• IT 
• Telecommunications

Software-defined storage

The use of software-defined storage (SDS) solutions is on the rise, according to recent studies by IDC and Gartner. 

Gartner’s “Strategic Roadmap for Storage” predicts that the use of SDS both in the cloud and on-premises is set to reach 50% of global storage capacity in 2024, up from 15% in 2020.

IDC forecasts for the SDS market to maintain a CAGR of 8.8% over the five years of analysis, reaching $26.4 billion in 2024.

“Smart capacity optimization techniques and efficient resource management using SDS will help derive maximum value from their existing investments, while deferring storage expansion projects,” according to a post by DataCore.

Storage software features

Storage software is available in several forms, depending on use cases and the category and availability of the data stored on the hardware, such as:

Storage virtualization

Storage virtualization is the process of abstracting software from the underlying hardware to better use limited storage hardware resources.

By pooling the enterprise’s storage resources, they’re usually accessed through a storage area network (SAN), storage arrays, or disk arrays.

Archival storage

For data accessed less frequently, archival storage allows for the long-term and resilient storage of data for access at a later date.

It often overlaps with the hardware used for backup storage and tends to be more affordable at a large scale but relatively slow in providing access to data.

Data backup storage

Backup storage provides a high level of data security, acting as a fail safe in the case of breaches and cyber threats.

While not suitable for random data access, data backup storage is optimized for rapid data retrieval and recovery.

Data replication

Data replication is the process of creating a copy of data in a separate location, either from one location or transmitted across the device network.

This type of storage software enables organizations to better process copies of their data when disaster recovery (DR) is needed.

Storage and device management

Storage and device management is a collection of actions that enables IT managers and admins to monitor storage devices and networks, mass-configure devices accessing the data, and initiate data duplication. It enables the team to achieve reliable data accessibility and reconcilability network-wide.

Benefits of Storage Software

Using specialized storage software for managing data on storage hardware is more critical to large organizations with massive amounts of moving data.

Some notable benefits of storage software include:

• Reducing long-term costs
• Enabling storage agility and scalability
• Simplifying data accessibility
• Enabling data storage connectivity
• Optimizing data storage and availability
• Improving data security and safety

“As IT architects and decision-makers look for ways to effectively address these challenges, software-defined storage is increasingly being recognized as a viable solution for both the short and long term,” according to a post by DataCore.

“Software-defined storage solutions help IT teams to assess and evaluate capacity consumption and implement optimization strategies to make use of existing resources without being impacted by budget constraints and supply chain shortfalls.”

Storage Software Use Cases

The several case studies below highlight how organizations in different industries are using storage software to better manage their data:

NASA

NASA, the U.S. government’s space agency, conducts research and missions to better understand outer space.

Data is critical to the work NASA does, including training machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) models to guide rovers and equipment.

Reaching out to Pure Storage, NASA wanted to remain on top of its data for management and storage. Pure Storage allowed NASA engineers to better iterate on designs through digital monitoring, accelerate the development time of novel ideas by 25%, and support a variety of virtual environments, making it suitable for remote work when necessary.

“In the non-too-distant future, we’re going to need computing storage capabilities outside of Earth — on the moon or Mars. We’re going to need capabilities like Pure can deliver,” says Ron Thompson, chief data officer and deputy digital transformation officer, NASA.

Herman IT

Based in Finland, Herman IT is a provider of high-availability data center services used in computing as well as multi-, hybrid, and private cloud services.

Herman IT uses the latest technology to address challenges their customers face with fast-growing data.

Reaching out to IBM, Herman IT was able to develop a new data backup and archiving service with IBM Cloud Object Storage.

“We’re demonstrating how IBM Cloud Object Storage can keep data warm — that is, ready to access — while offering low storage costs, virtually unlimited scalability, and non-stop availability,” says Veli-Antti Leinonen, sales manager, Herman IT.

“Data represents competitive advantage for many companies but also a major cost and source of risk. Our new data backup and archive service uses IBM Cloud Object Storage to enable fast, secure, reliable access to data.”

Working with IBM, Herman IT was able to capture a new market demographic with their data storage solution, enabling customers to cut the costs of data management and storage and simplify data regulation compliance.

RapidScale

RapidScale is a provider of managed and hybrid-managed cloud services for customers around the world. They offer data centers in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Amsterdam, with plans for growth.

RapidScale worked to stay on top of the expanding amount of unstructured data coming in from the tens of thousands of virtual machines (VMs) on their primary platform. 

Reaching out to NetApp for storage solutions, RapidScale used NetApp’s software-defined object storage solution, StorageGRID, for their archives, web data stores, and media repositories.

“The ability to monetize our investment and offer that value to our customers is a huge added benefit. StorageGRID is more than just the data infrastructure for RapidScale. It’s become a differentiator as well,” says William Hiatt, COO, RapidScale.

With NetApp, RapidScale was able to stay on top of its scalability issues and accommodate the anticipated incoming volumes of data. Further, it was able to reduce the overall cost of data ownership by up to 75% by using integrated data life cycle management.

Storage Software Providers

Some of the leading storage software providers in the market include:

• NetApp
• Broadcom
• Dell Technologies
• Hitachi Vantara
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Pure Storage
• AWS
• IBM
• Red Hat