The circular economy of advanced enterprise storage

Written By Eric Herzog At a time when budgets and resources are being carefully managed, finding ways to be more efficient is absolutely critical. For a large enterprise with an extensive storage infrastructure to manage, how can those costs be converted into greater value? Value that can fuel new, power-hungry AI applications or improve the ability to recover rapidly from a cyberattack? It's a bit like the circular economy behind plastics recycling. Resources to produce new plastics are finite, but the demand for new plastic packaging keeps growing. So how can existing organisational resources be reused to create or sustain something new? And applying this idea in the context of enterprise storage, can the right solutions make it possible to adopt the similar circular economy approach to plastics recycling? The short answer is YES! And this article outlines some of the benefits that can be realised. By reducing the power that enterprise data infrastructure requires, CIOs can take power from enterprise storage and give it to the AI systems, or other applications, that desperately need it. This is recycling power for innovation. By consolidating storage to more efficient high-end enterprise storage, the CIO dramatically reduces the CAPEX and OPEX of their storage infrastructure and gives the budget to business-enhancing AI projects, and other new initiatives, that will transform the enterprise. This is recycling investment for growth. By implementing a cyber storage resilient, recovery-first strategy to address ransomware, malware, and other cyber threats, the CISO can remove leverage from cyber criminals, cutting the risks of potential disruption and protecting the data infrastructure. This is recycling resilience back into the enterprise. Each of these examples demonstrates how enterprise storage can recycle valuable resources back into the business, creating a win-win for the enterprise. The business value of doing this includes: Increased power efficiency and reduced burden of powering data centres Greater cyber resilience, with the enterprise able to recover more quickly from a cyber attack and continue operating with minimal disruption. How can cyber resilience, power consumption and infrastructure investment be optimised to release resources for higher-value enterprise initiatives? Technology has advanced at such a rate that it's time for CIOs, CISOs, CTOs and CFOs to take a fresh look at how enterprise storage can be modernised. Cyber Storage Resilience A 2025 PwC survey of executives at large enterprises found that only 6% of the survey sample felt prepared for a cyberattack. Yet, when developing their cybersecurity strategies, most CIOs, CISOs and CTOs leave out enterprise storage. Why is this happening? More than 90% of an enterprise's data sits in their enterprise storage infrastructure. Not having it protected from a cyberattack or securely ring-fenced to understand the implications of a cyberattack is a major security oversight. It is going to be necessary to recover rapidly from a cyberattack. At the same time, it will be important to ensure that data being recovered is a known good copy and free from embedded malware or ransomware. But this can be tricky to achieve in practice because malware, ransomware and other cyberattacks are designed to operate surreptitiously. It is difficult to ascertain whether malware or ransomware is already present within the storage. And once the data is inside a fenced forensic environment, how do you ensure you have a known good copy? As a best practice, application owners should verify that nothing has been damaged. When reviewing enterprise storage solutions, it is worth identifying whether you have the ability to interface between SIEM and SOAR data centre-wide cybersecurity applications and your storage infrastructure. This way, if Microsoft Sentinel or your Security Operations Centre (SOC) detects a cyberattack, there's no need to wait. Immutable snapshots can start to be taken instantaneously. Power Efficiency Large enterprises manage tens to hundreds of petabytes of storage, which consume incredible amounts of power and cooling. At the same time, power shortages are sweeping the industry. This is not only due to increased use of AI, but also traditional data centres are also running out of power. According to reports in the Financial Times, demand for electricity by data centres is projected to double or even triple by 2028, with some analysts predicting a 10-gigawatt (GW) to 19-GW capacity gap by 2028. The only way to manage increased demand at this level is to save on power consumption levels by consolidating storage. For example, one Fortune 500 customer was able to consolidate 288 floor tiles down to 61 floor tiles, running all the same applications, workloads and use cases – dramatically reducing power consumption while saving more than £45 million over a period of a few years. The power released through this consolidation was then effectively recycled and allocated to other applications and workloads, optimising data centre performance. CAPEX/OPEX Reduction Storage consolidation also contributes to reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Not only by reducing power consumption, but by freeing up rack space, cooling resources, and IT operational manpower. When budgets are flat or resources limited, this is a win-win scenario. Consolidating enterprise storage increases your strategic position. Additionally, there remains an IT skills gap. The average enterprise has more than 25% open positions in the IT department, with few suitable candidates to fill them. If it becomes possible to reduce the numbers of storage admins needed, their skills can be redirected and applied to new AI or cyber security initiatives. The principles of the circular economy are based on making the best possible use of finite resources. Increasingly, the same applies to enterprise storage. Modern enterprise storage is no longer simply about storing data. It has the potential to recycle power, budget, operational capacity and cyber resilience back into the enterprise, creating the resources needed to support AI, innovation and future growth. The most valuable enterprise storage platform isn't the one that stores the most data – it's the one that recycles the most value back into the enterprise. About Eric Herzog Eric Herzog is the Chief Marketing Officer at Infinidat, a Lenovo company. Prior to joining Infinidat, Herzog was CMO and VP of Global Storage Channels at IBM Storage Solutions. His executive leadership experience also includes: Senior Vice President of Product Management and Product Marketing for EMC's Enterprise & Mid-range Systems Division, and CMO and Senior VP of Alliances for all-flash storage provider Violin Memory.