Gartner defines file and object storage platforms as software and/or hardware platforms that offer object and distributed file system technologies for storing and managing unstructured data over NFS, SMB and Amazon S3 access protocols. File and object storage platforms store, secure, protect and scale an organization’s unstructured data with access over the network using protocols such as NFS, SMB and Amazon S3. Use cases include analytics, workload consolidation, backup and archiving, hybrid cloud, object-native applications, cloud IT operations, and high-performance files.
Gartner defines full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure software as the market consisting of complete software solutions that include virtualized compute, storage and networking from a single instantiation designed to run on-premises or in a colocation environment. It consists of those vendors that develop and sell hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software comprising the vendor’s own server virtualization, software-defined storage and network management tools. The full-stack software solution may also be integrated with a hardware stack, as a complete offering spanning both software and hardware. Recently, this market has been heavily influenced by the positioning of storage virtualization and private cloud infrastructure looking to revirtualize compute and providing alternatives to incumbent vendors.