Best on-premise storage for enterprise

On-premise storage refers to hardware and software infrastructure for data storage that is physically located within an organization’s facilities, such as its data centers or offices. Servers, storage arrays, and networking equipment are deployed, managed, and maintained directly by the organization's IT staff. This contrasts with cloud storage, where data and infrastructure are hosted and managed offsite by third-party providers. On-premise storage offers companies direct control and visibility over their data and supporting hardware at all times.

By retaining storage resources on their own premises, enterprises maintain full responsibility for capacity management, scaling, upgrades, and failure remediation. This model often requires greater upfront investment in hardware, software licenses, and skilled personnel. However, many organizations choose on-premise storage to meet stringent requirements around privacy, control, and regulatory compliance. It remains a strong choice for businesses handling sensitive or business-critical data that cannot be entrusted to outside entities.

Here are a few reasons why enterprises invest in on-premises storage instead of using cloud-based or outsourced storage options.

Implementing on-premise storage infrastructure grants companies maximum control over their data and systems. They determine how and where data is stored, who can access it, and how backups and disaster recovery protocols are managed. This direct oversight means changes, custom configurations, and upgrades can be performed without waiting for vendor support or navigating shared-cloud management interfaces, giving organizations true autonomy over their storage environment.

On-premise storage allows organizations to implement tailored security measures. They can dictate encryption algorithms, access authentication mechanisms, and logging architectures designed specifically for their threat model and risk tolerance. Data traffic never leaves the corporate network unless explicitly configured, minimizing exposure to external threats and reducing the attack surface associated with data traversing the public internet.

Many industries face complex legal mandates for how and where data must be stored and handled. On-premise storage simplifies compliance by providing clarity around data residency, audit trails, retention, and data destruction. Regulated sectors—such as healthcare, finance, or government—often have explicit directives requiring that data remain within national borders and be subject to internal governance models over and above those offered by cloud vendors.

On-premise storage minimizes reliance on wide area networks (WANs) and external internet links, significantly reducing risks associated with network latency, bandwidth constraints, or potential outages due to third-party issues. With all infrastructure located on local premises, enterprises can ensure consistent data access performance and availability, even if they encounter internet connectivity issues or external service providers experience downtime.

NetApp's AFF (All-Flash FAS) and FAS (Fabric-Attached Storage) series are high-performance, on-premise flash array solutions designed to meet the needs of modern data environments. These systems deliver enterprise-grade storage capabilities with a focus on scalability, data protection, and seamless integration with hybrid cloud environments. Built on NetApp's ONTAP software, they provide consistent performance for mixed workloads while simplifying data management and ensuring operational efficiency.

General features include:

• All-flash and hybrid configurations: Offers both all-flash AFF systems for maximum performance and hybrid FAS systems for cost-effective storage, catering to diverse workload requirements.
• Unified storage architecture: Supports SAN, NAS, and object storage protocols, enabling centralized management of structured and unstructured data.
• Data efficiency technologies: Features inline deduplication, compression, and compaction to reduce storage footprint and optimize capacity utilization.
• Seamless hybrid cloud integration: Provides native connectivity to major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling data mobility and tiering across on-premise and cloud environments.
• Non-disruptive operations: Supports zero-downtime upgrades, data migration, and system maintenance to ensure continuous availability.

Enterprise features include:

• Advanced data protection: Includes features like SnapMirror for replication, SnapVault for backup, and immutable snapshots to safeguard against data loss and ransomware attacks.
• AI-driven management: Leverages NetApp Active IQ for predictive analytics, proactive issue resolution, and intelligent system optimization.
• Scalability and performance: Delivers consistent low-latency performance with NVMe-based storage and scales to petabyte-level capacities to support growing enterprise needs.
• Integrated cybersecurity: Offers multi-layered security with encryption, role-based access control, and compliance with industry standards like FIPS 140-2 and GDPR.
• Sustainability focus: Designed with energy-efficient components and features like auto power-saving modes to reduce environmental impact and operational costs.

Diverse product lineup: Includes the AFF A-Series for high-performance all-flash storage and the FAS series for hybrid storage, offering flexibility to meet a wide range of performance and budget requirements.

Source: NetApp

IBM FlashSystem is a portfolio of high-performance, all-flash and hybrid flash storage solutions to meet the demands of data environments. Intended to support AI-driven automation, cyber-resiliency, and cost-efficient scaling, FlashSystem delivers consistent performance for mixed workloads while simplifying operations through data placement and system-level optimization.

General features include:

• Flash and hybrid storage: Offers a range of configurations from SAS-based hybrid systems to all-NVMe flash for optimized performance
• AI-driven management: Uses artificial intelligence for automated data placement, performance tuning, and policy enforcement, reducing manual overhead
• Non-disruptive data movement: Enables zero-downtime migration and rebalancing across storage nodes without requiring external hardware
• FlashCore module technology: Provides computational storage and advanced data reduction with no performance penalty, backed by guaranteed drive longevity
• Energy efficiency: Certain models deliver energy usage as low as 1.7 W/TB, supporting sustainability goals without sacrificing capability

Enterprise features include:

• Ransomware detection: Uses AI to detect ransomware threats in under a minute and triggers autonomous response mechanisms for rapid recovery
• Cyber-resilient architecture: Features immutable snapshots, flexible replication, and secure grid-based design to protect data during cyberattacks
• Scalable grid architecture: Supports growth and consistent performance across FlashSystem nodes, suitable for dynamic enterprise needs
• Lifecycle cost reduction: Delivers up to 40% cost savings compared to competitors by automating management and optimizing system utilization
• Diverse product lineup: Includes models like the entry-level 5000 and 5300, high-capacity C200, and high-performance 7300 and 9500

Dell EMC PowerScale is a scalable NAS platform to accelerate AI and multicloud operations by simplifying unstructured data management. Intended for demanding workloads like AI model training and high-throughput data pipelines, it provides parallel data access, federated data mobility, and security in a unified system.

General features include:

• Scalable NAS architecture: Flexible scale-out design that supports growth across edge, core, and cloud without disrupting operations
• Parallel access: Optimized for AI with up to 220% faster data ingestion and 3× greater write throughput per rack unit than competitors
• Unified data lake: Supports multiprotocol access including S3, NFS, SMB, and HDFS, enabling centralized access to unstructured data across environments
• Efficiency at scale: Reduces storage footprint by up to 50% through data reduction technologies and space-efficient architecture
• Non-disruptive upgrades: Enables continuous performance improvements and access to new features without downtime or migration complexities

Enterprise features include:

• AI-optimized data delivery: Prevents GPU idling by delivering fast, consistent data throughput using technologies like GPUDirect and NFSoRDMA
• Integrated cybersecurity: Zero-trust architecture with API-integrated ransomware detection guards against AI-specific threats like model inversion and data poisoning
• End-to-end AI platform: Validated and tested with Dell’s ecosystem of ISVs and hardware partners for seamless AI deployment across infrastructure tiers
• Federated data mobility: Offers a consistent storage experience across locations, enabling simplified data movement across the enterprise
• Sustainable infrastructure: Supports lower power usage and reduced physical footprint to meet environmental and energy-efficiency targets

Cloudian HyperStore is a software-defined object storage platform for large-scale, data-intensive environments. It delivers exabyte-level scalability, data protection, and integration with cloud-native applications. It aims to support use cases such as AI, analytics, and regulatory compliance, with a modular architecture to scale storage across multiple locations.

• General features include:
• Exabyte-level scalability: Modular architecture enables limitless capacity growth with non-disruptive expansion
• AI-optimized performance: High-throughput, low-latency access via S3 API with support for NVIDIA GPUDirect and all-flash configurations
• S3 APi compatibility: AWS S3 support ensures smooth integration and data portability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Unified file and object storage: Simplifies data management by supporting both file and object access in a single platform
• Hardware flexibility: Deploy on industry-standard servers or Cloudian appliances, reducing CAPEX and avoiding vendor lock-in

Enterprise features include:

• Military-grade security: Offers data encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, SAML and MFA integration, and Object Lock for ransomware defense
• Secure multi-tenancy: Isolates user environments with strict access controls and policy enforcement
• Compliance-ready: Holds top industry certifications and supports audit trails and policy-based data governance
• Distributed architecture: Supports multi-site deployments with centralized management, enabling high availability and disaster recovery
• Ransomware protection: Object Lock and immutability features defend against unauthorized changes or deletions of critical data

Red Hat Ceph Storage is a software-defined storage platform for private cloud environments. Optimized for Red Hat OpenStack Services on OpenShift, it offers scalable, unified storage for containers, virtual machines, and emerging workloads like AI and analytics. Its architecture enables access to massive volumes of unstructured data while simplifying operations.

• General features include:
• Scalability: Supports billions of objects with elastic scaling, allowing storage clusters to grow or shrink without service disruption
• Unified storage platform: Handles object, block, and file storage under a single system, streamlining resource allocation for mixed workloads
• Simplified operations: Offers faster deployment with easier installation, integrated monitoring, and centralized capacity management
• Flexible architecture: Designed to support OpenStack and OpenShift environments, enabling consistent storage services across private cloud infrastructure
• Optimized for unstructured data: Processes large-scale data for containers, virtual machines, and cloud-native applications

Enterprise features include:

• Data protection and security: Includes client-side and object-level encryption, built-in data replication, and fault tolerance to secure against hardware failures and external threats
• Backup and recovery: Centralized administration simplifies recovery workflows and reduces operational complexity
• Support for emerging workloads: Tailored for AI/ML, cloud object storage, and data lake analytics, delivering infrastructure-ready performance for next-gen data use cases
• Storage-as-a-service capabilities: Provides self-service storage provisioning to meet the needs of developers and data science teams
• Integrated with OpenStack on OpenShift: Combines tightly with Red Hat’s hybrid cloud platforms, enabling end-to-end automation and faster time-to-market

Once requirements are understood, organizations must decide on the optimal storage architecture—file, block, object, or unified—and evaluate their alignment with workload needs. Enterprise storage infrastructure can be centralized in a traditional SAN/NAS model, or disaggregated with software-defined and hyper-converged architectures offering flexibility and ease of scaling. Each design choice comes with implications for manageability, cost, and compatibility with existing IT systems.

It’s equally important to consider factors like redundancy, data protection, and disaster recovery in the design phase. Choices regarding RAID levels, clustering, snapshotting, and replication all affect storage reliability and resilience. Integrating storage architecture with automation frameworks and data management policies from the outset ensures streamlined operations and enhances the longevity of the investment across future technology refreshes.

Determining the required throughput, latency, and IOPS (input/output operations per second) is essential to ensure that the on-premise solution meets performance expectations. Workloads such as databases, virtualization, and high-frequency trading often demand low latency and high IOPS, while analytics or backup systems may prioritize bulk throughput. Accurate benchmarking and stress testing simulate real-world usage, helping validate whether potential solutions can meet specific application needs under load.

Performance considerations should also account for how storage traffic fluctuates during peak hours or unexpected surges. Selecting hardware with the right balance of processor, memory, network interfaces, and storage media—SSD versus HDD, NVMe versus SAS or SATA—can prevent bottlenecks. Enterprises also need to confirm that proposed configurations will keep up with evolving business requirements, as underestimating performance needs can lead to costly rearchitecting or system slowdowns.

Scalability is a critical criterion when selecting on-premise storage for enterprise use. Organizations should evaluate how storage systems can expand capacity and performance in response to future data growth or new application demands. Modular designs that allow the addition of drives, nodes, or expansion shelves without major service interruptions offer smoother scaling compared to inflexible monolithic architectures. Efficient scalability also reduces the need for upfront overallocation, preserving both budget and data center space.

Furthermore, scaling should not introduce unnecessary complexity or require significant downtime for integration. The system’s management software should facilitate seamless expansion, whether scaling up (adding resources to existing nodes) or scaling out (adding more nodes). Attention to non-disruptive upgrades, automated load balancing, and compatibility with hybrid cloud or multi-site deployments helps ensure that the storage solution continues to meet business needs as requirements evolve.

Total cost of ownership for on-premise storage extends beyond the initial capital expenditure (CapEx). While hardware, software licenses, and installation typically dominate upfront costs, ongoing operational expenses (OpEx) such as electricity, cooling, maintenance, and support contracts add up over the system’s lifecycle. Enterprises must carefully evaluate both initial and recurring expenses to ensure the solution remains financially sustainable.

Accurate budgeting also factors in staffing—on-premise systems require skilled personnel for management, troubleshooting, upgrades, and compliance tasks. Predictable OpEx is crucial for long-term IT planning, as is the ability to estimate costs for roadmap upgrades or scaling. Comparing these cost components to the total impact on service quality and risk mitigation helps organizations select solutions that align with both financial and technical objectives.

On-premise storage remains a strategic choice for enterprises that need tight control over performance, security, and data governance. Selecting the right platform requires clear evaluation of architecture, scalability, operational demands, and long-term cost. A structured assessment of workload characteristics and growth patterns helps ensure the chosen solution supports current requirements, while providing a stable foundation for future expansion.