Scality forecasts 2024 data storage trends

Persistent challenges in data storage management, such as escalating data volumes, budget constraints, skills shortages, complex IT installations, and growing cyber threats, will continue to shape IT strategies.

Giorgio Regni, CTO at Scality, shared insights from recent industry discussions, "This past year, we've engaged in fascinating debates with industry experts about several key topics. These include the supposed demise of hard disk drives (HDDs), the role of on-premises data storage in advancing data management and AI, and effective protection against ransomware. Our 2024 predictions reflect these ongoing dialogues."

HDDs to persist despite predictions of obsolescence: contrary to some forecasts by all-flash vendors, HDDs are expected to maintain a significant cost and density advantage over high-density SSDs through 2028, potentially up to 3-5 times. This suggests that HDDs will continue to have a relevant role in the foreseeable future, similar to the ongoing use of tape storage, which was previously predicted to become obsolete.

Unstructured data's role in AI: The past year's significant developments in large language models (LLMs) have primarily utilised structured, text-based data. In 2024, businesses are expected to unlock the potential of their unstructured data, such as images and other media forms. This data will provide valuable insights through AI/ML tools for applications in healthcare, surveillance, transportation, and other sectors. Organisations will store petabytes of unstructured data in scalable "lakehouses," feeding AI-optimised services across core, edge, and public cloud environments to gain faster insights.

Ransomware detection in data protection solutions: The technology industry has made substantial progress in safeguarding data against threats, including malware and ransomware. This progress is evidenced by the increasing use of immutability in data protection and storage solutions. In 2024, advancements in AI-generated ransomware detection capabilities are expected to emerge within data protection and storage solutions.

Managed services as a solution to hybrid Cloud complexity: While multi-cloud environments are prevalent, combining on-premises and public cloud in a single application or workload has been hampered by the complexities of differing deployment models and multiple vendor APIs. In the coming year, managed service providers (MSPs) will play a crucial role in addressing these complexities, enabling organisations to achieve the agility and cost savings promised by hybrid-cloud models.