(Source: Pixabay) As enterprises continue to stockpile massive amounts of information generated by people, businesses, vehicles, and a virtually endless list of other sources, many are wondering where they can store all of that data accessibly, safely, securely, and cost effectively. The data storage business has changed significantly over the last five years and that transformation is continuing and broadening. The big difference today is that while storage used to be about hardware-related issues, such as solid-state drives, faster read/write speeds, and capacity expansion, the cloud and other storage breakthroughs have flipped the market to the opposite side. "For most organizations, storage is more about software, including software-defined storage, software managing virtualization, and integrating AI and ML to improve storage optimization,” said Scott Golden a managing director in the enterprise data and analytics practice at global business and technology consulting firm Protiviti.