Ceph is software-defined

Storage infrastructure architects increasingly favor Software-defined Storage (SDS) solutions. SDS offers an attractive solution to organizations with a large investment in legacy storage who are not getting the flexibility and scalability they need for evolving needs. Ceph is a true SDS solution:

• Open source software
• Runs on commodity hardware
• No vendor lock in
• Low cost per GB

An SDS solution provides much-needed flexibility with respect to hardware selection. Customers can choose commodity hardware from any manufacturer and are free to design a heterogeneous hardware solution that evolves over time to meet their specific needs and constraints. Ceph's software-defined storage built from commodity hardware flexibly provides agile enterprise storage features from the software layer.

In Chapter 3, Hardware and Network Selection we'll explore a variety of factors that influence the hardware choices you make for your Ceph deployments.