Here are 100 vendors solution providers should have on their radar across software-defined storage; data recovery, observability and resiliency; and components.
Indeed, protecting data is now the top-of-mind concern of businesses, followed closely by making sure it can be easily managed, said Joe Kadlec, vice president and senior partner of Consilient Technologies, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider working with enterprise and government organizations.
“Customers are really worried about being breached, and so layers and layers of security is something that I see mentioned over and over again, at least with our customers and the people that we’re talking to,” Kadlec told CRN.
They are also looking for easy ways to manage their data storage whether it’s in their own data centers, in co-location facilities or in the cloud, he said.
“They want it to be easy to manage, easy to replicate, easy to back up,” he said. “They want to make sure that the data is properly backed up and replicated. They don’t want to let the wrong people have access to it And they don’t want to have a ton of extra overhead to manage their data.”
Another major motivator when working with data is to get rid of individual data silos, whether in the cloud or on-premises, Kadlec said.
“Customers want to have a single pane of glass where they can manage multiple environments,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who the back-end storage is from because these large organizations have a little bit of everybody, and when they do acquisitions and what have you, and they’re bringing in disparate systems, they know they need to be able to consolidate it all and have a single pane of glass to look at their data.”
And when it comes to finding the right storage systems, having a solution provider like Consilient is important, Kadlec said.
“There are a lot of good storage vendors out there,” he said. “And customers have a little bit of everything. So it’s not a matter of competing with some specific brand. You need to have a lot more on your side. Really good systems engineering support. The ability to architect solutions to cover a lot of disparate systems. There are appropriate storage platforms based on how critical that data is and what your price point is. You know, if you only need a Chevy truck, why are you going to buy a Lamborghini?”
CRN’s 2025 Storage 100 looks at 100 vendors from the “Chevy trucks” to the “Lamborghinis” of the data storage world, with a particular focus on the software side of the business, which is where the real value of storage resides.
The 50 Coolest Software-Defined Storage Vendors: The 2025 Storage 100
As part of CRN’s 2025 Storage 100, here are 50 vendors bringing software capabilities, services and cloud connectivity to storage technology.
