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Choose the Right Workloads for SDS Using Microsoft Storage Spaces
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Product Spotlight: Dell Storage With Microsoft Storage Spaces
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The need for agility, scalability, and cost savings is driving many organizations to investigate software-defined storage solutions, but they sometimes experience difficulties with SDS in large-scale deployments. Deploying a validated reference architecture is one way to eliminate the guesswork while maximizing cost savings and other benefits.
Software-Defined Storage
Simplified
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The advent of software-defined storage has given
large organizations a new option for meeting their
storage needs. Traditional storage appliances combine
hardware and management software in a single box.
By contrast, software-defined storage (SDS) separates
storage management software from storage hardware, enabling
users to build storage solutions with any hardware they choose.
One of the main attractions of SDS is the potential cost sav-
ings. Using industry-standard hardware rather than relying on
expensive and complex proprietary storage appliances ideally lets
organizations save money on both capital and operational ex-
penditures. In addition, SDS promises to offer more flexibility and
scalability than some other options.
Hoping to capitalize on these benefits, a growing number
of organizations have been investigating and deploying SDS.
November 2015
SDS ChallengesOvercome
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Researchers from MarketsandMarkets predict
that the SDS market will grow to $6.2 billion
in 2019 from $1.4 billion in 2014, an annual
growth rate of 34.6 percent.
With an eye on meeting this demand, a
number of enterprise software vendors have
released SDS products. One of those vendors is
Microsoft, which has built SDS capabilities into
Windows and Windows Server through a fea-
ture called Storage Spaces.
Storage Spaces provides a distinct advantage
for organizations with Windows-based servers.
Because it is included in Windows Server 2012
R2, it lets them use SDS technology without
purchasing any new software. And because
it’s from Microsoft, it integrates with the other
tools they are using and leverages their exist-
ing staff knowledge and expertise.
However, SDS technology is relatively new,
and organizations sometimes run into chal-
lenges when trying to deploy it at scale. One
way to simplify the deployment process and
avoid the challenges associated with SDS solu-
tions is to deploy a tested, prevalidated, and
supported reference architecture. A prevalidated
solution eases the product selection and de-
ployment processes, ensures outcomes, and
maximizes cost savings.
The Promise of Software-Defined StorageSeveral technology and business trends are
driving organizations to consider SDS. Over
the past decade, virtualization and cloud com-
puting have transformed the enterprise data
center and become commonplace. In fact,
InformationWeek’s 2014 State of Cloud Survey
found that less than a quarter (22%) of enter-
prises had no plans to use cloud computing.
And in a separate study, 99 percent of large
organizations expected to have at least some
servers virtualized by the end of 2015.
Organizations that are already virtualizing
their servers or deploying private clouds often
find that the next logical step is to virtual-
ize their storage systems in order to achieve
greater resource utilization, agility, and cost
savings. Bearing this out, in InformationWeek’s
2014 State of Storage report, fully half of the
$6.2 billionSize the SDS market is
expected to grow to in 2019, from $1.4 billion in 2014.
staff is already familiar with Microsoft technolo-
gies, there’s a short learning curve for organiza-
tions that use Microsoft Storage Spaces in their
Windows-based private cloud environments.
Virtualization With Microsoft Hyper-VEven if they aren’t deploying a full private
cloud, the vast majority of organizations are
virtualizing at least some of their servers. Mi-
crosoft has included advanced virtualization
capabilities based on its Hyper-V hypervisor
in Windows Server 2012. Organizations us-
ing Hyper-V have many of the same incen-
tives for using Microsoft Storage Spaces as
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Key Features of Microsoft Storage Spaces
Tiering: Microsoft Storage Spaces allows users to create separate tiers for “hot” data that is accessed frequently and “cold” data that is accessed less frequently. It can move the hot data to high-performance flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) and the cold data to low-cost hard disk drives (HDDs).
Write-back cache: Closely related to tiering, this feature allows users to designate some SSD capacity for small random writes before they are moved to HDDs. This caching capability can greatly improve performance for many enterprise workloads.
Data deduplication: Deduplication is built into Windows Server 2012 and can be used with or without Storage Spaces. In Microsoft’s tests, the Windows Server 2012 deduplication capabilities increased storage efficiency between 30 and 90 percent, depending on the type of workload.
Resiliency: With Microsoft Storage Spaces, storage administrators have the option of using mirroring or parity technology to help ensure data availability in case of disk failure. It also includes features like failover clustering, parallel rebuild, background scrubbing, and intelligent error correction in order to provide continuous availability.
Storage pooling: This technology allows storage administrators to pool together many different physical disks, simplifying storage management. Within a pool, they can create different virtual disks if they choose.
Inclusion in Windows Server 2012 R2: Because Microsoft Storage Spaces is includ-ed with the operating system, organizations that are already running Windows Server 2012 don’t incur extra costs for the technology. By some estimates, organizations can save as much as 75 percent using Storage Spaces instead of traditional SANs.
ability, and high performance. Leading the way for the industry, Dell
became the first hardware manufacturer to officially support Micro-
soft Storage Spaces in early 2014.
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In order to make it easier for customers to
deploy Microsoft Storage Spaces and experi-
ence the full benefits of the technology, Dell
began working closely with Microsoft to test
and validate the product configurations that
work best with Storage Spaces. Organizations
are now reaping the benefits of this research
when they purchase Dell Storage with Micro-
soft Storage Spaces, which offers validated,
supported hardware that is known to work
well with the SDS solution.
Why Choose Dell Storage With Microsoft Storage Spaces?Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces
offers all the typical SDS benefits, such as cost
savings, scalability, flexibility, and simplified
management through automation. In addi-
tion, the Dell solution simplifies the process of
configuring and purchasing an SDS solution.
Organizations no longer have to guess which
hardware will work best with Storage Solutions
because the hardware and software providers
have already done the hard work of testing,
validating, and optimizing configurations. The
company provides a wide range of capacity
and configuration options, giving customers
the flexibility they’re seeking in an SDS solu-
tion. Dell also offers performance and capacity-
sizing guidance to help organizations select
the solutions that will best meet their needs.
In addition, Dell Storage with Microsoft Stor-
age Spaces eliminates SDS-related deploy-
ment headaches. All the pieces and parts of
the solution are known to work together, and
Dell provides detailed deployment guides to
smooth the process. For those companies that
would prefer to outsource the deployment
process, professional deployment services are
also available.
Dell also offers enhanced customer support
for the solution. This solution carries a unique
identifier that sets it apart from identical Dell
hardware used for different purposes. When
customers call and reference that identi-
fier, they are connected with knowledgeable
representatives who understand the unique
requirements of an SDS solution. This saves a
tremendous amount of time and simplifies the
troubleshooting process.
As one of the world’s leading server vendors,
Dell has built a reputation for outstanding reli-
ability, service, and support. When customers
invest in Dell hardware, they know they are
benefiting from decades of Dell enterprise ex-
perience and expertise, and that Dell will stand
behind their products for years to come.
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What’s Included in Dell Storage With Microsoft Storage Spaces?The product includes two to four Dell JBOD
storage nodes, SAS direct attach cabling, and
two to four storage enclosures. Dell Storage
with Microsoft Storage Spaces has been vali-
dated to work with six different Dell switches
and any Dell PowerEdge 13G server.
Initially, Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage
Spaces will support compute nodes that are
separate from the file server nodes, but begin-
ning in the third quarter of 2015, customers will
have convergence options that run the com-
pute workloads on the file server.
Dell also offers the assurance of on-site instal-
lation services for very large deployments, so or-
ganizations can focus on their business, not the
technical details of deployment. (This service is
optional for small deployments.)
A Proven SolutionBy purchasing Dell Storage with Microsoft Stor-
age Spaces, organizations are getting an SDS
solution that they know will work. Choosing a
validated and supported reference architecture
helps them protect their investment and mini-
mize the amount of time that will be required
to deploy and maintain the solution. It keeps
costs low while offering the choice and flexibil-
ity that attract many customers to SDS. In short,
it’s an efficient way to minimize the headaches
of SDS while reaping all of the benefits. p
About DellDell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative tech-nology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com/SDS.