The report, authored by contributing consultant Herman Rutten, builds on the burgeoning SDS/HCI evaluation data on the WhatMatrix site to provide expert insight into the market over the past 12 months. Though a turbulent year for the SDS/HCI market, it is clear that this technology segment continues to gain momentum. Most technology vendors are now actively competing in the SDS/HCI space, while disruptive new vendors continue to enter the market. It was also a year that was marked by acquisitions and product re-positioning.
With no signs of a slowdown in the rate of product development & innovation, the report also provides guidance on future trends and directions:
- SDS/HCI customer base will increase exponentially Expect major platforms to surpass the 10,000 customer-marker before 2018
- SDS/HCI scope will continue to expand beyond storage – Competitive drive towards providing a full set of private cloud ecosystem features with a focus on expanding the platform stacks
- SDS/HCI gets unified and hybrid – Platforms are set to evolve into unified multi-cloud storage offerings
- Start-up companies will continue to drive innovation – Smaller companies with an exclusive focus on SDS/HCI are likely to stay ahead of the established storage vendors when it comes to innovation cycles
Commenting on the report, Community Board Member, Ruben Spruijt said, The reports presents the key trends that will be of interest to customers in 2017. While smaller start-ups may be a potentially more risky purchase for the enterprise, we do see them driving the innovation in this space. With 2016 seeing consolidation in the SDS/HCI market place, Spruijt continued, Our analysis of this market also leads us to believe that we will continue to witness further acquisitions as the innovation continues to drive more market demand.
As with all information and analysis from WhatMatrix, the full report can be downloaded here.