Is Software-Defined Storage always less expensive than Pre-Built Systems?

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Earlier this year, the kind folks at Storage Newsletter wrote an article [Cost of Eight Online Archive Storage Solutions], which discussed the [IT Brand Pulse] [5 Year TCO Case Study (14 pages)].

(FCC Disclosure: I work for IBM. I have no financial interest in SUSE, Scality, or any other storage vendor mentioned in this post. This blog post can be considered a "paid celebrity endorsement" for IBM Storwize, IBM Cloud Object Storage, and IBM Spectrum Storage software mentioned below.)

The study takes a realistic request for 250 TB of storage, at 25 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), to store infrequently accessed data in an online archive, and then looks at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over five year period.

The study compares five different Software-Defined Solutions and three pre-built systems. The Software-defined solutions come as software-only, requiring that you purchase the hardware separately and build it yourself. The three pre-built systems were chosen from the top three storage vendors in the marketplace: Dell EMC, IBM and NetApp.

The cost of support is factored in, as it should be. To keep things equal, no data reduction like data deduplication or compression were used.

In an odd approach, the study mixes block, file and object based approaches all in the same study.

You can read the full 14-page study (linked above). I have organized the results into a single table, ranked from best to worst, color coded for the best deals in green ($100K to $200K), moderate solutions in yellow ($200K to $300K) and most expensive in red (over $300K). I put the software-only options on the left and pre-built systems on the right.

I am often asked, "Isn't the software-only, build-it-yourself approach, always the lowest cost option?" Now, I can answer, "Sometimes yes, sometimes no." Fortunately, IBM offers Software-Defined Storage in a variety of packaging options including software-only, pre-built systems, and in the Cloud as a service.

IBM Storwize V5010 is based on IBM Spectrum Virtualize software, which you can deploy as software-only on your own x86 servers. This was not mentioned in the study, and perhaps it is my job to remind people that this option is also available for those who want to build their own storage.

For that matter, IBM Cloud Object Storage System -- available as software-only, pre-built systems, and in the Cloud -- might also be a cost-effective alternative.

Next week I will be in Orlando, Florida for the IBM Systems Technical University. If you are attending, stop by one of my presentations,  or look for me at the Solution Center at one of the IBM peds, or attend the "Meet the Experts for IBM Storage" on Thursday!

technorati tags: Storage Newsletter, IT Brand Pulse, Total Cost Ownership, TCO Case Study, CAGR, Software-Defined Storage, SDS, Dell EMC, IBM, NetApp, SUSE, SUSE Enterprise Storage, CEPH, CephFS, IBM Storwize, Storwize V5000, Storwize V5010, Spectrum Virtualize, IBM Cloud Object Storage