Navigating the Data Labyrinth
Collaboration is everywhere. Last year Microsoft added 95-million users, as Teams became one of the fastest growing apps of the pandemic¹. And overall, Internet usage was up 70%² as we relied on digital channels to keep us connected.
However, the sheer volume of terabytes being transmitted has created a data labyrinth.
The quickest way to tackle the data deluge is with cloud. But if you’re like 9 in 10 organisations, you haven’t moved to a cloud-first model yet³. The reality is that most organisations simply need something for today that is secure, compliant and allows them to access their intelligence in the right way.
Fortunately, NetApp can help, regardless of where your data resides.
NetApp: proud to be a specialist
NetApp is a true expert because it doesn’t just understand what's possible, it can deliver against it too. The vendor even coined the phrase 'data fabric'⁴ - a term that has since been adopted industry-wide. And it counts passionate people, like Chief Technology Evangelist Matt Watts, among its team.
In his book - The Third Wave⁵ - Matt talks about how every organisation must evolve at some point, because if you fail to make progress, you move backwards and eventually die.
It made me think about a conversation I once had with a distributor, who said: 'Don’t be too busy thinking about today that you forget about tomorrow'. To not think about the future and progress towards that vision of success means you risk doing the same thing over and over. But the reverse is equally true - you can’t spend so much time thinking about tomorrow that you forget about today.
There is no blueprint for success
Listening to another vendor presentation recently, they shared the Chinese proverb:
“To get through the hardest journey we need only to take it one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.”
So often we hear about metamorphosis-style change where we essentially bulldoze everything to the ground and start from scratch. This quote resonates because it acknowledges that it’s ok to focus on the here and now. We have several clients whose legacy infrastructure is largely fit-for-purpose - it’s simply a few ‘broken’ parts that if updated, will enhance what’s already in place.
Just as data is personal to each organisation, the way it’s stored and managed needs to be different too. Our priority is to give you options so when you step forward, it’s helps you do so in the way that’s right for your business.
Evolve the business with a step-change
Take a moment to think about the evolution of the smartphone⁶. Today it has everything from the Internet to GPS, camera, clock, calculator, endless apps - and of course the ability to make calls. IT strategy is evolving the same way, as organisation move towards modern unified storage.
Matt explains it really well with his ‘Pets and Cattle’ analogy⁷. In the early days of IT, Matt had two pet physical servers (named ‘Asterix and Obelisk’!). As the industry moved towards virtualised environments, the virtual servers became more like cattle - we still cared for them, but they were numbered rather than named. Now as we move towards micro-services and containers, our servers have changed into insects - just like the May Fly⁸, which only lives for one day, we bring hundreds to life to perform a specific function and allow them to die once their purpose is served.
Within this fabric, the challenge becomes how to care for a much broader ecosystem, which could include pets, cattle and insects that live and interact with each other.
Kuiper: proud to be broadline
As a NetApp Gold Partner, we’ve put the effort into improve our knowledge base so we can support any customer, regardless of its shape or size.
But we’re equally proud that we can add value to NetApp because we don’t limit ourselves and instead, choose to invest in lots of technologies. Storage is a key component of modern IT infrastructures, but data is just one consideration. It’s why we always look for opportunities to help our clients progress, because on this journey, there are no right or wrong steps, as long as you keep stepping forward.
Six questions. Three minutes. Your storage solution revealed.
Take advantage of our assessment: NetApp Explore. Tell us about your business needs and storage requirements to receive a customised recommendation on how NetApp can help you get where you need to be today, and set you up for success tomorrow.
References
¹ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/microsoft-teams-statistics/
³ https://www.infoworld.com/article/3561269/the-2020-idg-cloud-computing-survey.html
⁵ https://www.watts-innovating.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Third-Wave-v1.8.pdf
⁶ https://blog.netapp.com/unified-storage
⁷ https://www.watts-innovating.com/pets-cattle-insects-and-the-fabric-of-life/
⁸ https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/the-24-hour-lifespan-of-a-mayfly