Software-Defined Storage

Abstract

SDS along with SDN and software-defined compute (SDC; where in computing is virtualized and software defined) creates software-defined infrastructure (SDI). SDI is the set of three components—SDN, SDS, and SDC—making a new kind of software-defined IT infrastructure where centralization and virtualization are the main focus. SDI is proposed to have infrastructure developed over commodity hardware and software stack defined over it. SDS is exploiting the same concept of decoupling and centralization in reference to storage solutions as in SDN. The SDN works on decoupling the control plane with the data plane from a layer, three switches, or router, and makes a centralized decision point called the controller. The SDS works in a similar way by moving the decision making from the storage hardware to a centralized server. It helps in developing new and existing storage solutions over the commodity storage devices. The centralization helps to create a better dynamic solution for satisfying the customized user need. The solutions are expected to be cheaper due to the use of commodity hardware.