Why Pay for What You Don’t Use? The Argument for Composable Storage Solutions

In the words of Lily Tomlin, “The road to success is always under construction.” This sentiment rings particularly true in software development. In the media and entertainment industry in particular, the needs of business customers are constantly evolving, shaped and shaped by new technologies, modes of consumption, and even societal pressures. Over time, the pursuit of solutions that meet these goals leads to the proliferation of new features and ideas; Often, they are created to solve very specific problems in target sectors. Although the intentions are good, this relentless drive to innovate and solve a wide range of problems can ultimately lead to “feature bloat” — a cumbersome imprint of too many bells and whistles that can be stressful for customers. What’s more, not all of these features are free, which can make the solutions out of reach for small businesses.

Feature creep issue

Let’s use your home as an analogy. As is common for many, you likely have a designated room or perhaps a shelf in the garage dedicated to specific things that have been useful in your life, for example, gifts from well-meaning loved ones, tools purchased for that home improvement project a couple of years ago, and others. Of the items that have begun to accumulate dust. Over time, you’ll end up adding more to this space, even though these items aren’t doing you any good today. Once this pile starts to spread out, making things more difficult to find, you realize that this clutter is now a problem. Things that were once useful and sentimental now take up a lot of space and make your life more complicated. This problem is known in the world of software engineering as feature creep.

When companies offer software in different markets that all have very specific and specific workflow requirements, their functionality often becomes fragmented. What starts out as a focused, user-centric solution can quickly balloon into a sprawling platform with a myriad of features targeting diverse use cases, some of which may only be valuable to a small group of the total installed base.

Blindly offering excessive features complicates the user experience, making the software more difficult and less attractive to use. Many features end up taking up a lot of space on the user interface, making it difficult to determine which features and tools are the most useful. Just as cable cutters refuse to pay for hundreds of channels they never watch, software users are reluctant to pay for features they don’t need, let alone the hidden costs associated with those features such as additional support costs or research and development. All of these things end up contributing to the overall price of the software solution.

While some users may appreciate the full range of features, even if they know they may not use all of them, the majority require a simpler offering. In fact, the exacerbation of overhead costs passed on to users as license prices rise keeps small or medium-sized companies locked out, preventing them from providing the solutions they need with features they don’t need. These organizations will instead benefit from a solution that delivers not just the basics, but the core fundamentals as well.

Composite software 101

Smart software companies are turning to composability, which is based on a simple but powerful concept. Through composability, standard features and functions can operate independently or be integrated into customized solutions for specific user groups, thus preventing the accumulation of a lot of unused features. Specific capabilities for specialized problems can be combined into targeted packages that can be made available to those who will see the value. For example, if someone doesn’t play sports, why should they be forced to pay for 15 different professional, college, and high school sports networks? Customers demand choice and proven ROI on their investments, and composability makes that possible.

Composability may be in its infancy in the media and entertainment industry, but adoption in other markets is important. In fact, the market for composable applications has been evaluated in the United States $1.81 billion in 2023 It is expected to reach US$9.19 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 17.70% from 2024 to 2033. It is high time for the media and entertainment industry to make this transformation.

With composability, components are designed to perform distinct tasks and deliver capability sets that can be dynamically reconfigured to adapt to changing business needs. This approach meets customer requirements for simplicity, flexibility, and interoperability, without sacrificing core features or functionality. Naturally, it also allows customers to apply their budgets to a selection of features that best balance cost versus value return.

Installable software ups the ante on storage space

Composability gives us the toolset to think more detailed about different market segments and develop to meet specific requirements across the industry. Instead of building a single software platform to meet all of these needs, we can now create focused, value-packed feature packages that closely align with user needs. Adding more features is as simple as adding an upgrade package to ensure the software continues to grow and flex along with the user’s goals. This module enables customers to pay only for what they need, even as those needs change.

We can take composability even further to solve a common problem in media and entertainment: storage capacity and associated costs. The ability to segment homogeneous feature sets into more vertical or market-appropriate capacity bundles provides a substantial benefit to customers and successfully replaces the pay-per-capacity transaction model – a legacy feature of commodity storage devices. Composability ensures the relationship between OpenDrives, where the software company and our customers remain mutually beneficial in terms of return on investment. We are financially motivated to develop tools to solve more problems; Our users get a platform that will continue to grow with their needs.

Our composable, software-defined storage platform can power new features that can easily lead to new revenue paths, protecting budgets from sudden cost spikes that come with commodity market volatility or projects that trigger unexpected spikes in capacity licenses. Customers can add another 500TB or up to 2PB without additional software fees, up to the capacity limits of their storage devices. As your workload continues to grow, an unlimited-capacity license brings the peace of mind that comes with predictability and control.

Competitive advantage and growth through composability

All businesses, whether large or small, seek new ways to reduce costs and streamline operations to gain a competitive advantage and improve their bottom line. Current economic conditions can be particularly difficult for startups and small businesses. These companies need access to technology that can help them compete in the same arena as larger companies, but they have less capital to access the tools they need.

Media production companies usually work on a lean basis, often from project to project, and can only spend the budget as it comes. The scalability options of composable software allow businesses of all sizes to scale up or down as needed without expensive and often unpredictable license prices. Composable storage software supports growth by providing scalable solutions that grow with companies’ needs and foster a new generation of emerging enterprise customers.

Composability addresses the biggest pain points

The biggest attraction of composable storage software is the tangible, measurable value it provides. High performance, efficiency and scalability are still required to remain competitive, but composability adds an extra dimension by helping customers manage consistently tight budgets with greater revenue expectations and address these issues. Common challenges:

Obstacles to the spread of technology – Traditionally, high-performance features move from enterprises to smaller markets. Composable software breaks this barrier. By making advanced capabilities available to everyone, small businesses can enjoy high-level performance without the high price.

Hardware Marketing – In the past, hardware determined the performance of storage solutions. Today, software drives value. Composable software makes high-performance storage solutions affordable and allows customers to choose their preferred, pre-qualified hardware.

Capacity cost models – Traditional models charge fees based on storage capacity, which discourages customers from increasing their production capacity. However, composable software charges fees based on functionality, enabling companies to scale without escalating costs. This opens up access to features for customers of all sizes and budgets.

Composability is the future of data storage

The future of data storage lies in seamless access to data and more efficient tools to help content creators realize their creative vision. The pace of change will never slow. Software companies will always come up with new features and ways for customers to maximize their investment. Composability is now part of the overall solution: helping customers control their costs; Provide cost predictability in times of growth; And get the tools their business requires at a sustainable cost. It’s time for anyone in software development and anyone in the workflow storage business to evolve with composability.

[Editor’s note: This is a contributed article from OpenDrives. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]

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