Server-agnostic, software-defined storage sounds like a breeze compared to traditional, clunky arrays; perhaps this is why some might feel it’s too good to be true.

“I think the first hurdle we need to pass is just the challenge for most industry veterans in particular to make the shift from the built-like-a-tank, traditional storage arrays — that you can touch and see  — to software,” said Boaz Palgi, vice president of engineering at Dell EMC, Dell Technologies Inc.’s infrastructure group.

As one of the creators of Dell EMC’s ScaleIO software-defined storage, Palgi understands how a lack of familiar hardware could give pause to some enterprise information technology teams.

To ease customers into the software-defined transition, Dell EMC offers ScaleIO in three form-factors, Palgi said during the recent Dell-EMC World in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of these, oddly enough for a company synonymous with physical arrays, does not wheel in any new hardware to customers’ data-center, he told John Walls (@JohnWalls21), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor). (* Disclosure below.)

“ScaleIO Software is freely downloadable for testing purposes,” he said. This software allows users to mange flash or hybrid block storage in a scalable software-defined manner. It achieves this by applying the virtualization methods of abstract, pool and automate to regular x86 server direct-attached storage.

Once customers give ScaleIO Software testing a whirl, they may decide to roll it into production, which would require them to buy a license.

Other ScaleIO form-factors include appliances, as well as a package consisting of an appliance and special software management, Palgi explained.

Spoiled on software-defined

Once customers experience the ease, scalability and single-click deployment of software-defined storage, they are not in any rush to return to the old, “forklift” migrations, according to Palgi.

“There are a lot of operational challenges with the traditional approaches that completely disappear just like that,” he said.

Later this year, Dell EMC will introduce ScaleIO.Next with intelligent data compression, Palgi said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell EMC World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell EMC World. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE