Digitization of World - from Edge to Core: BS Teh, Seagate
Ban Seng Teh, SVP, Global Sales and Sales Operations, Seagate Technology, was in Delhi. I caught up with him for a discussion. He said: "We sponsored a survey with IDC to understand storage trends, and also look at Seagate's strategy.
"The global datasphere will grow from 33 ZB in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025. Growth of data is stronger and faster than what we know. How did we get there? By 2020, we are seeing a rise of the edge, and distributed computing. There are 1+ trillion users. There is a rapid expansion of edge intelligence. It is driven by IoT, AI, and the need for real-time responsiveness.
"There will be a proliferation of many edge devices over the years. Beginning 2019, more data will be stored in the enterprise core, than in the world's existing endpoints. By 2024, IDC expects data stored in the core to be more than double the data stored in the endpoint, completely reversing the dynamic from 2015. Edge is also growing in terms of generation and storage of data.
"Responsibility for data management is shifting to enterprise/cloud providers' data centers. By 2020, more bytes will be stored in the public cloud than in consumer devices. In 2025, 49 percent of the world's stored data will reside in public cloud environments. Real-time data will represent nearly 30 percent of the datasphere by 2025. Real-time data demand is driving the edge.
"Data needs to be processed, analyzed, and a signal needs to be given to an autonomous car, for example. Over 22 ZB of storage capacity must ship across all media types from 2018 to 2025 to keep up with storage demands. Around 59 percent of the capacity will need to come from the HDD industry. Also, almost 80 percent of the data will come from the enterprise."
Apac largest datasphere
Asia Pacific currently has the largest datasphere. APJxC also has the second largest strong cloud storage growth. Together with China, the region has the lion's share of cloud storage and edge computing globally. RoW and China have 50 percent CAGR growth , while APJxC has 47 percent CAGR growth.
Teh added: "Data readiness condition (Datcon) index measures each industry by management of data. Do industries have the expertise and management? Or, the budget? Out of 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum), the optimized (5), has the highest rank, and shows that the industry is leading in DX. Suppliers are synced and healthy. A DX culture is driven throughout from the top. A skilled workforce is executing advanced solutions. A strong vision exists on what data is needed, leveraged and monetized.
"Data is changing the world. Enterprises must rise to the data guardianship challenge. Cloud migration will be strategic. You need to take a global approach to data. There is a need to invest in the edge. Ensure that your organization is data ready. Ready your organization for digital transformation.
"Seagate helps to maximize data. We continue to evolve with digital transformation to enable our customers to improve their data readiness for success in the data age. We help customers create and capture the right data. Seagate is also investing in the future of HDD. It is addressing multiple customer challenges through new products and technologies.
Customer pain points are: growing exabyte demand, maintaining SLAs with high performance, and reduce TCO. Hard drive technologies are Areal density - technology HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic technology), and focus on 20TB by 2020.
In performance, scale IOPS with capacity - using multi actuator and parallelism technologies, with focus on random read IOPS and latency. To reduce TCO, there are technologies are HE, SMR and RPM. It focuses on power consumption and saves dollars per TB. Seagate is also working on reducing the power.
Seagate datasphere
On Seagate's datasphere, he added: "We have devices to sell at the endpoints, edge and core. We also have security systems on our devices to protect the data. We need to help customers with proactive maintenance, and help customers manage their storage devices. The vision is to deliver complete solution to customers. Enterprise is a big focus for us. It is the new data steward. Cloud is the new core. Consider custom storage systems for flexibility in managing data.
"AI is the key. And, IoT is the most important enabler. AI will make things run more efficiently and effectively. 5G is the biggest enabler for IoT. India came out among the top in AI adoption."
What has the HAMR storage capacity achieved so far? He said: "We have progressed from demo version to engineering samples. We will have commercial shipments by 2020."
Datcon research is global. As of now, finance is adopting storage faster. Manufacturing and media, and healthcare are the other verticals. Data security will be at the device and systems levels.
On the datcon index, how many companies are in level 1? So far, the percentage is low, as most companies are within levels 2 and 4. Regarding datcon, he said that level 1 is critical and level 5 is optimized. "Companies are monitoring the growth of data. We see industries like media and entertainment as not quite as ready, but financial services are quite ready. In healthcare, some countries are thriving, while the others are not, in terms of strategy and vision.
"As for media and entertainment, they need a proper strategy. You see more content creators and distributors. Most of it is done at the endpoint. They need to look at more efficient ways to distribute content."
Regarding edge, Teh said: "We are at the threshold. There will be some leading markets. It will be part of the storage ecosystem, in terms of generating and storing data. Early adopters are video surveillance market, autonomous cars, smart manufacturing, healthcare, etc.
"Smart manufacturing is about AI. India is quite capable. It is about having an AI infrastructure and solutions. One, you need to ensure there are proper investments and two, you have the necessary resources.
"Edge in telecom can be 100 percent. Edge deployment could be done by telcos, especially in self-driving cars. Transmission is done via 5G. Telcos are at a bit of a crossroads, as they are in the business of selling data. As cost of data comes down, and usage increases, investments are ever increasing. There is a need to look for them to monetize data. Edge is a good way to move into an adjacent space.
As for the question - SSDs vs HDDs, he said: "SSDs are a big part of our goal forward. Seagate completed the investment in Bain Capital Private Equity acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corp.. WD, our main competitor, acquired SanDisk. HDDs will continue to be part of storage. We are leading in HAMR. SSDs are the adjacent growth vehicles in our growth.
"We will come out with storage products for the endpoints. We sell storage devices for gaming consoles, mobile phones. We came out with a standalone product that allows you to injest data. We have a device, the co-pilot, that allows you to injest data."
