Stands for “Software-Defined Storage.” SDS is software that manages data storage devices. It is commonly used for managing large amounts of data in data centers, server farms, and enterprise environments.

SDS functions independently of the underlying hardware. It can merge several physical storage devices into one virtual storage volume. For example, five HDDs that have a storage capacity of 2 terabytes can be merged into a single 10 terabyte storage area instead of five separate volumes.

Modern SDS programs use virtualization to create flexible storage solutions. A storage hypervisor monitors the devices and dynamically allocates data across them. It can also provide warnings when data storage limits are near capacity. Virtualized SDS configurations make it easy to add or remove storage devices as needed to increase or reduce storage.

SDS is an important data management tool for web hosts, CDNs, and other organizations that need to manage large amounts of data. It provides an efficient way of scaling storage requirements with little to no downtime.