Software Defined Storage

Virtual Storage Platform One Software Defined Block Storage

Hybrid Cloud Ready Software-Defined Storage for distributed block applications drives business agility and cost savings

Virtual Storage Platform One SDS Block and Cloud

Accelerating Business Innovation with software defined storage.

Dig deeper into Software Defined Storage

Physical locality for applications is irrelevant as you evolve cloud delivery platforms.

Modern Consumption

Modern Consumption

API ready plug-ins for Kubernetes plus Terraform integrations for orchestration promotes efficient storage administration.

Cyber Resilient Design

Cyber Resilient Design

99.999% uptime eliminates downtime and data encrypted at rest provides industry-leading security.

Extended Data Services

Extended Data Services

AI powered by same SVOS and AIOPS for a common data and control plane for maximum flexibility.

Public Cloud Native

Public Cloud Native

Available on the AWS Marketplace with multiple subscription-based software licensing options.

Simplified Experience

Simplified Experience

Cloud-based integrations with Clear Sight for observability and timely insights across block, file and object.

Advanced Hybrid Cloud

Advanced Hybrid Cloud

Multiple autonomous zones and replication provide flexibility, scalability and performance for your data across hybrid cloud environments.

Use Cases: VSP One SDS Block Overview

Our focus on delivering software defined solutions is unparalleled

We specialize in constructing contemporary hybrid cloud systems, where Software Defined Storage is an integral architectural element. Experience total data freedom without breaking the bank.

Ensure your application SLAs are met resulting in always-on applications. Rebuilds, snapshots, replication focused user base with a RAS framework.

Unleash data’s full potential with software-defined block storage that lets traditional and modern applications coexist

Eliminate the need for high-priced proprietary storage hardware.

Consistent, streamlined multi-cloud data storage

Run modern applications, with rapid growth pattens, alongside traditional workloads.

Virtual Storage Platform One, Explained

Storage Efficiencies from granular persistent storage support.

Data is always evolving but now is the time for revolution!

Designed for performance and scale driving business agility and elasticity for improved collaboration and communication.

Accelerate the speed of business with software-defined storage, driving agility and savings.

Get massive elastic storage infrastructure, reduce your storage footprint cost-effectively (improved cost/IOPS) and support for a multi-cloud platform.

7 Ways to Reduce Your CO2 Footprint & Save Money - Ebook

Control and manage multiple storage resources in one window for dev/test environments. Unified storage management with CI/CD integration.

April 16, 2024

Transform your storage for infinite scale with Virtual Storage Platform One.

Delivering Data Solutions

Helping you overcome your greatest business challenges

Designed for agility and elasticity where traditional and modern applications coexist, SDS drives petabyte scale and accelerated performance for distributed applications all humming on x86 servers.

Maximize productivity, drive petabyte scale with flexible capacity and granular performance with low latency.

A common control plane for proactive and predictive business operations removes data silos, minimizing platform complexity.

Implement a patented Polyphased Erasure Coding for seamless data mobility and governance at the speed of need.

Simplified Cloud Billing

PayGo and BYOL with Hitachi VSP One SDS Cloud

Hitachi VSP One SDS Block for Cloud allows you to choose from two methods to pay for your cloud usage; Pay as you go (PayGo) and a Bring Your Own License (BYOL). No matter which payment method you choose, Hitachi VSP One SDS Block for Cloud offers a seamless and convenient way to leverage the power of cloud computing.


Pay as you go (PayGo)

Pay for the amount of resources you consume for VSP One SDS Block licenses via AWS. AWS infrastructure services and Elastic Cloud 2 (EC2) are purchased directly from Amazon Web Services (AWS), and are required.


Bring Your Own License (BYOL)

Purchase licenses directly from Hitachi Vantara for Hitachi VSP One SDS Block for Cloud on AWS. This provides you the flexibility to move your licenses to a different platform in the future.

90 percent

By 2027, more than 90% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production.*

Hitachi Vantara SDS Solution Portfolio

Scale out distributed block and enterprise-class software. Manage, analyze, and protect with VSP One data services, petabyte scale and agility, and accelerated performance.

Achieve cost efficient migrations with SDS Cloud available on the AWS Marketplace with licensing choices, efficient data compression, and secure, encrypted data protection.

Download your free 90 day trial now

Frequently Asked Questions

Software defined storage (SDS), like software defined networks, is software used to create pools of storage composed of multiple storage devices which then appears as a single unit, with the goals of adding flexibility, diversification, and enhanced functionality of the underlying storage. In short, SDS abstracts the storage management software layer away from the hardware device, effectively emancipating these management functions from the confines of each device being managed.

SDS is particularly useful in dynamically changing circumstances. In particular, SDS makes it possible for organizations to source storage from multiple vendors and data storage types that help achieve resilience and improve data availability. With SDS software, these multiple sources can be automatically provisioned, de-provisioned, and the whole can be scaled to meet data demands by simply adding storage to the software defined system.

SDS vendors should add features that include the ability to interact efficiently and effectively between all the underlying storage components. The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) defines five characteristics of software defined storage.

  • Automation – Automation helps to simplify management, reduce costs, and maintain storage operations between the diverse storage make-up underpinning the software defined storage system.
  • Scalability – While many systems can scale, SDS must be seamless so that storage appears infinite in theory, when capacity must increase, it must do so without hiccup.
  • Standardized Interfaces – SDS must supply APIs that facilitate automations, and ultimately management, maintenance and provisioning of data storage.
  • Transparency – The SDS system must allow for monitoring of storage consumption so that it can be easily managed, and can inform higher level business concerns like cost.
  • Virtualized Data Path – Virtualized data paths allow block, file storage, and object storage to interface between applications.

Businesses benefit in key ways from the storage abstraction provided by software-defined storage platforms.

  • Ultimate Choice in Underlying Hardware — Software-defined solutions are inherently designed to be agnostic. Consequently, organizations can include any variety of vendor storage in their storage infrastructures, all managed from a central point.
  • Centralized Management — SDS software is uniquely designed to make visible all storage aspects and connections between underlying storage infrastructure. This helps to clarify the entire storage system, and simplify management.
  • Reduced Storage Management Costs — Storage visibility brings into focus unused space which with storage optimizations can maximize system performance. With SDS optimizations, costs can be controlled and businesses can take action to reduce expenses.
  • Automation of Key Storage Management Functions — Routine and error-prone tasks that were once the responsibility of human administrators can be shifted onto automated management functions. Automated functions include storage optimizations, replication, data migrations, and backups.
  • Unlimited Capacity to Scale — Because an SDS management layer is decoupled from the hardware storage, storage can be added and removed from the infrastructure pool dynamically. Theoretically, the system can scale infinitely. This beneficially also allows for aging storage to be added to the pool, gaining the functionality of the SDS management layer, and repurposing unused storage assets.

SDS vendors can fulfill both customized and turnkey software defined storage solutions. Within these two needs, several degrees of SDS can be found, so it is advisable to compare product offerings. These are not hardline categories, but rather ones that demonstrate how SDS technology is evolving.

  • SDS Software Only — The basic solution is software only packages that allow for virtualization, and optimization of underlying storage devices.
  • Software Layered on Enterprise Storage Arrays — Sometimes referred to as scale-out network attached storage (NAS), these hardware devices can be grouped into logical units or clusters. They are typically geared for performance of unstructured data, and specialized to bring costs down. These may also come in the form of appliances, and are marketed as hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI).
  • Cloud-based SDS — Becoming more the norm for data storage are cloud-based vendors of SDS software which requires little setup from the purchaser. These HCI tout their ability to support public, private, and hybrid cloud environments with the greatest performance.
  • SDS with AI Capabilities — Found in other packages, like cloud-based SDS, are more advanced AI features. AI helps admins analyze performance and space use, which translates into understanding when capacity needs to be increased, where bottlenecks may be dampening performance, and when it's time to decommission older storage devices.
  • Hyperconverged Infrastructures — While SDS is often marketed as Hyperconverged Infrastructure, HCIs do more by consolidating the advantages of virtualization, servers, storage, and networking into one package reducing complexity and subsequent administration, while eliminating compatibility issues. In comparison, SDS can be thought of as an element within an HCI ecosystem, whereas HCI is a central consolidated point of control over the entire infrastructure.

In short, software defined storage decouples storage software from its hardware allowing the upgrading and downgrading of hardware at will because software manages the underlying storage. But while this is an abstraction, SDS is not storage virtualization, and SDS is not a cloud in full. That confusion comes in because SDS shares many of the same characteristics.

Abstraction is the key characteristic that cloud, storage virtualization, and SDS share. The implementation of each is what differentiates them. Storage virtualization virtualizes storage resources, effectively pooling multiple physical resources into logical units to be treated as a single storage unit. SDS utilizes storage virtualization, but the application also shifts from the hardware the responsibilities and functionalities of deduplication, snapshots, and replication to software, hence software defined storage is a manager, in addition to a virtualizer. The cloud then applies these concepts at scale.

In this way, implementing SDS can provide those functions that were not included on some storage devices. Such is the case for older storage, which would typically not include backup and replication functions, SDS can give new purpose to older storage hardware that would otherwise be considered obsolete.

Resources & Insights

Virtual Storage Platform One, Software-Defined Block Storage

Accelerate the speed of business with software-defined storage, driving agility and savings.

ESG eBook — Consistent, Streamlined Multi-cloud Data Storage with Virtual Storage Platform One

VSP One SDS Specifications

The Datacenter Revolution is Now

Top 10 Reasons VSP One SDS Block Storage Drives Business Agility and Cost Savings

Hitachi Vantara Professional Services - Maximize the Value of Your VSP One SDS Block Investment

Hitachi Vantara Professional Services - Maximize the Value of Your VSP One SDS Cloud Investment

Unleash the Power of Your Data: Virtual Storage Platform One

Unleash the Power of Your Data: Virtual Storage Platform One