The title of our recent live SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies webcast, “Cloud Storage and Big Data, A Marriage Made in the Clouds” might lead you to believe we were producing a new reality show, but of course, that was not the case. This webcast with SNIA experts, Chip Maurer, Vincent Hsu and Andy Longworth examined modernization challenges related to Big Data and key considerations for storing Big Data as workloads evolve. Our audience asked great questions during the live event. As promised, here are our experts’ answers.
Q: Is there much movement with Open Source Object Storage solutions, such as OpenStack suite – Swift, etc?
A. Yes, there is no shortage of Open Source storage solutions. The decision depends upon your organization’s expertise, reliability, cost, application availability and location, and your overall storage strategy.
Q. What drives organizations to modernize?
A. Modernization decisions are based on an organization’s strategic priorities. Cost, performance and scalability are also frequently key factors.
Q. What pushes an organization to on-premises vs. cloud?
A. Government regulations, where data cannot leave the data center due to data privacy and data protection concerns are a frequent reason for staying on-prem. Cost is another reason. Despite the benefits of cloud, in many cases, it is less costly to keep data on-prem.
Q. Are universities producing graduates with required current “Big Data” skills?
A. It seems to be university specific. Many are on the cutting-edge and offer several data science certificates and advanced degree programs.