Voice of the Enterprise: Storage survey respondents indicate that handling data growth, meeting disaster-recovery requirements and high costs are the top three storage pain points. But other pain points, most notably growth from new applications, are up markedly YoY. Nearly one in five respondents cite managing data stored in third-party cloud environments as a top pain point.

The core challenges in storage are shifting; public cloud is beginning to assume the burden of inexorable data growth, and the emphasis is moving to other areas, such as effectively managing data and storage across both on- and off-premises locations. Organizations are increasingly moving to hybrid cloud environments, bringing new providers into the mix (chiefly public cloud providers). The core role of IT infrastructure managers is shifting away from adding capacity toward more effectively managing it. Some storage managers are now charged with handling an organization's cloud storage capabilities – which is often a steep learning curve, and one that incumbent vendors can help alleviate by adding more comprehensive cloud-based integration to their offerings.

The VotE: Storage, Budgets and Outlook study represents more than 1,000 completed surveys from pre-qualified IT decision-makers about adoption levels of various cloud storage technologies, and the impact of public cloud and SaaS strategies on enterprise storage.

A select group of IT executives will gather at the Storage Executive Summit in London this Wednesday to focus on the latest innovations and topics in enterprise storage. In addition to presentations from and discussions with elite 451 Research analysts and relevant vendors, attendees will also have the chance to learn what colleagues in the end-user community have been doing and what recent challenges they have faced and over-come. Two of the day’s sessions will draw directly from the experiences of your peers.

New 451 Research survey of IT professionals reveals that enterprises are rapidly transitioning to a variety of Flash-based storage architectures, though cost concerns linger for All-Flash Array technologies

According to the results of 451 Research’s latest Voice of the Enterprise survey, IT organizations are embracing a range of new, Flash-optimized architectures as they continue to transform their storage infrastructures. Overall, almost 90% of organizations now have some form of Flash-based storage installed in their datacenters, while ‘all Flash’ approaches are becoming increasingly standard to support transactional applications.

The fourth annual 451 Research Executive Summit will take place 29 June at the Waldorf Hilton in London.  This event provides storage professionals with the opportunity to examine forward-thinking alternatives and speak candidly about the current technology solution landscape.

One of the many benefits to attending the summit is the opportunity to both hear from and discuss the latest trends with leading 451 Research analysts. In addition to keynote presentations on Boosting Storage Efficiency, Where Flash is Taking Storage and Object Storage, analyst-led Deep Dive Think Tanks give attendees the chance to interact with colleagues in moderated small group discussions. This is your opportunity to share your journey and challenges, as well as gain insight from your peers.

After years of being dismissed as an archival storage platform, Object-Based Storage is re-emerging as the technology of choice for massive cloud storage platforms and media delivery systems; as well as for enterprises that are finally becoming aware of the power and flexibility that a metadata-rich storage environment can provide. Object Storage is proving to be the multi-tool of the modern storage industry, offering the ability to deliver high performance file, block and object-based front end capabilities while providing exceptional data protection, analytics and policy management in the background. In this program we’re going to discuss the increasing use of object storage technology in the data center and how this versatile technology can modernize your storage environment from end to end.

Register now for next week's webinar!