Stephanie Balaouras Senior Analyst Forrester Research

TeleconferenceStorage EssentialsStephanie Balaouras

Senior Analyst

Forrester Research

September 26, 2006. Call in at 10:55 a.m. Eastern Time

2Entire contents © 2006 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Agenda

• The state of storage environments today

• Network storage

» Benefits of consolidated, networked storage

» Storage area networks (SANs), network attached storage (NAS)

» IP versus Fibre Channel storage networking

• Tiered storage

» Benefits of tiered storage

» Storage tiers (storage classes, drive types)

• Heterogeneous storage virtualization

» Benefits and pitfalls

» Virtualization approaches

• Storage management software

• Recommendations


Escalating storage demands hamper productivity

Increasing storage capacities

Data retention and compliance

Increasing risk

Complexity and lack of

specialized expertise

Storage budgets

Operational effectiveness

Availability and recovery

Responsiveness and agility

© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Enterprises still rely on non-networked storage

June 2006, Trends “Network Your Storage With IP”


Benefits of consolidated networked storage

• Increased capacity usage

• Server consolidation

• Reduction of management complexity/overhead

• Improved availability

• Scalability

• Improved data protection


Storage networking options today

Network attached storage (NAS)

Storage Area

Network

Servers

LAN

Tape

Virtual tape (Disk)

Tiered disk storage

Near-line storage

NAS Gateway

File and object

storage

Block storage


Network storage

• Storage area network (SAN)» Servers and external storage systems are networked together

in a SAN with routers, switches, and directors

» Block access

» Connected via Fibre Channel or iSCSI protocols

» Greater distances and more flexibility in sharing storage system

» Deployed in large businesses to support mission and business critical applications such as OLTP, data warehousing, ERP, SCM, etc.

» Less popular with midsize businesses because of the cost and complexity of deploying a Fibre Channel SAN.

» iSCSI SANs increasing in popularity with midsize businesses and SMBs


Network storage

• Network attached storage (NAS)» External storage systems are connected to the TCP/IP local

area network (LAN) and are accessed by multiple servers and clients.

» File access

» Connected via the TCP/IP protocol

» Unlimited distance

» Best access method for collaborative applications (CAD/CAM, product design, etc.) and sharing of files

» NAS storage systems are often deployed to consolidate file servers, print servers, and general purpose servers.

» Popular with midsize businesses, SMBs, and also departments of large businesses


Network storage

• Near-line content storage

» File or object-oriented access.

» Object-oriented addressing eliminates the manual storage management (RAID Group, LUN management) of location-based addressing. It also automated data movement.

» Increasingly popular to store reference or archived content.

» These storage systems also offer some mechanism to ensure data integrity and authenticity.

» Some systems are standalone solutions for archiving but often are tightly integrated with ISVs.

– Object-oriented storage systems capture metadata that is used to index the data and facilitate searching and automation.


Network storage recap

Storage area network

Network attached storage

Near-line content storage

Connectivity Fibre Channel, iSCSI IP IP

Data access method

Block File File, object

Key requirement

Deterministic performance, support for high-transaction applications

Sharing, collaborationLong-term data retention, data integrity

Type of applications

OLTP, data warehousing, ERP, SCM, etc.

File and print server consolidation, product design, engineering

Archiving, reference data store

Typical market segment

Large businesses, midsize, SMBs – iSCSI

AllMidsize and large businesses


FC versus IP considerations

Fibre Channel

• Cost and complexity

» Fibre Channel networking requires specialized expertise.

» Fibre Channel networking components are considerably more expensive than IP.

– $1000 per port for most components

• Performance

» 4 GB Fibre Channel networking components available today

» Deterministic performance

» Proven storage network technology

IP

• Cost and complexity

» Ethernet and TC/IP networking technologies are nearly ubiquitous and familiar.

» Ethernet networking components are considerably less expensive than Fibre Channel.

» One networking technology to network clients, servers, and storage.

• Performance

» 1 GB Ethernet networking components available today

© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

IP-based storage adoption trends

June 2006, Trends “Network Your Storage With IP”


Tiered storage

• Data growth is exploding.

• Businesses must reduce storage costs by matching the most cost-effective class of storage system and drive type to application requirements.

• This is known as tiering storage.

• Using just two tiers (for example, high-end and midtier) can save between $20 and $30 per GB of capacity.

• Migrating data between storage tiers based on its life cycle of value is known as information life-cycle management (ILM).


Storage system classes

Time and/or frequency of access

Value

High-end

Midtier

Near-line Long-termarchive

$50 to $70/GB

$20 to $35/GB

$5 to $15/GB $.75 to $3.50/GB

High

Low

Typical acquisition costs


Available drive types for high-end and midtier storage systems

• Fibre Channel (FC)

» Most expensive drive type, high performance, high reliability

» Most suitable for enterprise class mission-critical applications

• Fibre Attached Technology Adapted (FATA)

» Lower performance and lower cost (about 20% to 30%) than traditional Fibre Channel drives but high capacity (500 GB)

» Suitable for noncritical applications and secondary storage requirements (i.e., test beds, training environments, snapshots, etc.)

(continued)


Available drive types for midtier, entry, and near-line storage systems

• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

» Increasingly available option with midtier and entry-level storage systems

» Dual ported drives provide good reliability and performance for typical application requirements of SMBs and small enterprises

» Compatible with SATA standards and interfaces

• Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)

» Lower performance, lower reliability (single-ported) but higher capacity drives

» Can be as much as 50% less expensive than traditional Fibre Channel drives

» Disruptive technology that originated as drive technology used in desktops/laptops

» Suitable for noncritical applications and secondary storage requirements (i.e., test beds, training environments, snapshots, etc.)

» Primary disk technology employed in purpose-built reference/near-line storage systems

» Some enterprises are pushing the boundaries of where SATA is used with RAID 6 dual-parity protection

(continued)


Defining storage virtualization

► Technology that aggregates physically separate, heterogeneous storage resources into a single shared resource.

► Accomplished by creating logical abstractions of physical storage resources.


Changing the dynamics of storage allocation

• Physical storage resources are no longer statically dedicated to users and applications.

• Multiple users and applications share a single pool of storage capacity.

• Users and applications are insulated from changes to physical storage resources.

• Administrators manage and provision storage from a single console.

7


Key benefits of storage virtualization

• Reduction of management complexity

• Increased capacity usage

• Simplified data management and protection

• Tier storage/extend the life of legacy storage systems

• Consolidation


Virtualization can exist anywhere

• Host

» A file system with a global namespace

• Storage network

» In-band appliance

» Out-of-band appliance

» NAS gateway

• Storage array

» RAID controller

Storage arrays

Servers

Fabric devices


Vendor offerings run the gamut

Vendor offering

EMC InVista

IBM SVC

NetApp V-Series

HDS Tagma USP

Virtualization location, architecture, features

Storage network, out-of-band appliance, targeted at EMC’s largest customers

Storage network, in-band appliance, significant market traction, good data protection functionality

Storage network, NAS gateway, market traction, block and file virtualization, full functionality of DATA ONTAP

Storage array, RAID Controller, full functionality of the Tagma USP, new low-cost entry point, scales to 1 petabyte

Symantec Host, VERITAS Storage Foundation Cluster File System, data protection functionality available through add-on products, host dependent


Abstraction may increase complexity

• Storage resource management (SRM) consoles may or may not support every virtualization approach.

• Troubleshooting storage-related problems and root-cause analysis may be more difficult.

• Many virtualization offerings have limited data protection functionality such as local and long-distance replication capabilities.


More storage expertise — not less

• Specialized expertise may be required to manage the virtualization engine.

• Specialized vendor expertise for each array is still a requirement for initial setup.

» Administrators must still use the specific element managers of each storage array for basic RAID group and logical unit (LUN) definition.


Enterprises are not investing in advanced storage management software

Base: 50 storage and business continuity decision-makers at North American enterprises

7

9

8

4

6

7

3

6

0

0

9

7

4

7

1

3

3

3

4

11

8

7

1

3

5

2

7

3

9 3

Improving disaster recovery

Data retention/archiving

Storage consolidation

Cutting storage costs

Tiering storage

Improving storage security

Improving local data protection and recovery

Updating storage systems

Updating storage management

Automating storage tasks

Rank 1

Rank 2

Rank 3


Yet storage management is key to gaining control

• Provides a single management console to heterogeneous storage systems and fabric devices

• Accelerates staff expertise

• Improves capacity usage

• Reduces vendor hardware lock-in

• Reduces capital and operational costs

• Reduces downtime

• Cuts time to deployment

• Replicates storage best practices

• Improves operational agility


Key capabilities of a storage management platform

• Resource management and availability management

» Dynamic discovery and visualization of the storage network, array, hosts, file systems, and applications

» Health and status of all elements in the storage network

» Alerts, event monitoring, and reports

» Essential storage and storage network administration and configuration

» Array and network performance analysis

• Capacity management

» Storage capacity usage and trend analysis for planning

» Policies for disk quotas

» Charge back

• Storage provisioning and automation

» Policy-based allocation of capacity to hosts/applications

» Integration with third-party management platforms

» Workflow integration


Recommendations

• Stop meeting capacity requirements with servers and DAS.

• Classify your data and tier your storage appropriately.

• Consider IP-based storage options before selecting Fibre Channel-based storage.

• Consider vendor consolidation and advanced storage management software before virtualization.

• Invest in advanced storage management software.


Stephanie Balaouras

+1 617/613-6440

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

Thank you

Stephanie Balaouras Senior Analyst Forrester Research

Technology

storage costs

network storage network

escalating storage

tiering storage

storage nas ip

storage networking options

sharing storage system

nonnetworked storage