ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at storage systems and solutions spanning physical on-site, virtual, and software-defined as well as cloud services. Data storage is often taken for granted while not being well understood, particularly when there is no more room to save files, photos or other data. Different storage system implementations have various architectures as well as packaging, including where data services or other functionalities are located. The storage system’s personality is how it is abstracted and optimized, and how it acts. For example, protection storage is optimized to support the needs of data protection applications or functionality. High-performance transactional storage has the personality to implement input/output optimization, quality of service, and low-latency access, among other capabilities. Storage systems, solutions, software, and services include those for primary, secondary, tertiary, bulk, and protection use. Some solutions are optimized for performance, others for space capacity or availability, while still others are focused on low cost.
