Enterprise data centers may never change in this one respect: they will always consist of hardware and software solutions. What does stand poised to change, however, is how enterprises deploy and manage hardware and software in their data centers. Providers have historically closely coupled their hardware and software delivering them as a purpose-built appliance. While delivering hardware and software as a single solution persists, many providers now decouple them. This frees enterprises to select and deploy hardware and software solutions independently of one another.
This DCIG industry analyst report compares Quest QoreStor software-defined secondary storage solution with Data Domain PowerProtect deduplication hardware appliance solutions.