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Managing the information that drives the enterprise Vol. 10 No. 7 September 2011 CLOUD BACKUP IS ENTERPRISE-READY MIDRANGE ARRAY HONORS STORAGE FC, iSCSI, NAS: How to choose storage for virtual servers Virtual servers need networked storage to yield the biggest benefits; but you don’t have to gamble to get the right storage for your VMs. ALSO INSIDE Getting real with the cloud Goodbye hardware/Hello virtual storage Cloud-enabled storage arrays Breaking the I/O bottleneck Users happy with cloud backup
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Page 1: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Managing the information that drives the enterprise

Vol 10 No 7 September 2011

CLOUD BACKUP IS ENTERPRISE-READY bull MIDRANGE ARRAY HONORS

STORAGEFC iSCSI NAS

How to choose storage for virtual serversVirtual servers need networked storage to yield the biggest benefits

but you donrsquot have to gamble to get the right storage for your VMs

ALSO INSIDEGetting real with the cloud

Goodbye hardwareHello virtual storage

Cloud-enabled storage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Users happy with cloud backup

STORAGEinside |September 2011

3 STORAGE September 2011 Cover image by Enrico Varrasso

STORAGEinside | september 2011

Letrsquos get real about the cloud5 EDITORIAL Cloud storage is really a pretty simple concept so how the

heck did it get so complicated If wersquore going to make this thing work we need to get back to basics by RICH CASTAGNA

The impact of virtual storage appliances8 STORWARS Software-only storage controllers running in virtual machines

are an easy economical way to get shared storage But the current crop of products may not be up to enterprise standards yet by TONY ASARO

The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSIand NAS12 Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good networked data storage

system and all the major storage protocols work with virtual machinesBut some types of storage work better than others in certain environmentsby ERIC SIEBERT

Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise25 Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBs but

lagged in the enterprise Now with more choices and tighter controls cloud backup is truly a viable enterprise alternative by JACOB GSOEDL

Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot37 Dell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite

strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixth Quality Awards survey for midrange arrays by RICH CASTAGNA

Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started45 HOT SPOTS Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that

cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worryby TERRI MCCLURE

IO The next frontier48 READWRITE Processors keep getting faster networking techs get speedier

and bus designs keep up the pace but they may all be dragged down if we canrsquot find a fix for slow storage IO performance by ARUN TANEJA

High satisfaction among cloud backup users51 SNAPSHOT One-quarter of our survey respondents use cloud backup

and theyrsquore pleased enough to keep a big chunk of their backup data stored in the cloud by RICH CASTAGNA

From our sponsors53 Useful links from our sponsors

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copy2011 CDW LLC CDWreg CDWbullGreg and PeOPLe WHO Get Ittrade are trademarks of CDW LLC

t

Storage May 2010Copyright 2011 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writingfrom the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

5

HIS WEEK a few of my fellow editors and I spent more time than reasonablepeople would expect trying to work out a definition for the term ldquocloudwashingrdquo Trying to steer clear of using obvious (and probably accurate)words like ldquobunkrdquo and ldquononsenserdquo we eventually cobbled together a defi-nition that seemed to do the trick without insulting anybody all that muchBut I learned a valuable lesson along the way This cloud thing is a squirmysquishy-squashy thing and getting our arms around it ainrsquot gonna be easy

If itrsquos so hard to define a term about how vendors are twisting the mean-ing of ldquocloudrdquo to obfuscate and ultimately (they hope) convince you their oldproducts are new now that they have ldquocloudrdquo in their names itrsquos bound to bejust as hard to define what cloud truly is Right now itrsquos pretty confusing An-other thing Irsquove learned is that the vendors doing most of the cloud washingare really cloud wishing as in wishing they had a real cloud product to promote

Also not helping very much is the hyperbole on both sides of the issuethe ldquoHallelujah cloud storage is the answer to all our prayersrdquo gang vs the ldquoHarrumph if cloud storage doesnrsquot solve all my data center problemsthen what good is it anywayrdquo folks

I recently read a blog post on another publicationrsquos website that declaredbackup was dead because it could be replaced by the cloud Really Inter-estingly the blogger didnrsquot get into any details about recovering data fromthe cloud but I guess thatrsquos something that could be worked out ya knowlater His final advice was to virtualize everythingmdashservers and storagemdashifyou want to use cloud storage I donrsquot know why people insist on takingaway the cloudrsquos silver lining with scary stuff like storage virtualization Ihavenrsquot found the page in the cloud storage rule book that says virtualizing in-house storage is required to use the cloud

At the other end of the spectrum Irsquove gotten some press releases froman outfit called MeriTalk that describes itself as a ldquocommunity networkrdquo ofgovernment workers The group sent me the results of a few surveys itrsquos

editorial | rich castagna

Letrsquos get real about the cloudCloud storage is really a pretty simple concept

so how the heck did it get so complicated

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 2: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGEinside |September 2011

3 STORAGE September 2011 Cover image by Enrico Varrasso

STORAGEinside | september 2011

Letrsquos get real about the cloud5 EDITORIAL Cloud storage is really a pretty simple concept so how the

heck did it get so complicated If wersquore going to make this thing work we need to get back to basics by RICH CASTAGNA

The impact of virtual storage appliances8 STORWARS Software-only storage controllers running in virtual machines

are an easy economical way to get shared storage But the current crop of products may not be up to enterprise standards yet by TONY ASARO

The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSIand NAS12 Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good networked data storage

system and all the major storage protocols work with virtual machinesBut some types of storage work better than others in certain environmentsby ERIC SIEBERT

Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise25 Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBs but

lagged in the enterprise Now with more choices and tighter controls cloud backup is truly a viable enterprise alternative by JACOB GSOEDL

Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot37 Dell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite

strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixth Quality Awards survey for midrange arrays by RICH CASTAGNA

Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started45 HOT SPOTS Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that

cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worryby TERRI MCCLURE

IO The next frontier48 READWRITE Processors keep getting faster networking techs get speedier

and bus designs keep up the pace but they may all be dragged down if we canrsquot find a fix for slow storage IO performance by ARUN TANEJA

High satisfaction among cloud backup users51 SNAPSHOT One-quarter of our survey respondents use cloud backup

and theyrsquore pleased enough to keep a big chunk of their backup data stored in the cloud by RICH CASTAGNA

From our sponsors53 Useful links from our sponsors

server rooms that require GPs NaviGatioN

We get that virtualization can drive a better ROI Highly certified by Microsoft VMware HP and others we can evaluate design and implement the right solution for youWersquoll get you out of this mess at CDWcomvirtualization

soLveD

copy2011 CDW LLC CDWreg CDWbullGreg and PeOPLe WHO Get Ittrade are trademarks of CDW LLC

t

Storage May 2010Copyright 2011 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writingfrom the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

5

HIS WEEK a few of my fellow editors and I spent more time than reasonablepeople would expect trying to work out a definition for the term ldquocloudwashingrdquo Trying to steer clear of using obvious (and probably accurate)words like ldquobunkrdquo and ldquononsenserdquo we eventually cobbled together a defi-nition that seemed to do the trick without insulting anybody all that muchBut I learned a valuable lesson along the way This cloud thing is a squirmysquishy-squashy thing and getting our arms around it ainrsquot gonna be easy

If itrsquos so hard to define a term about how vendors are twisting the mean-ing of ldquocloudrdquo to obfuscate and ultimately (they hope) convince you their oldproducts are new now that they have ldquocloudrdquo in their names itrsquos bound to bejust as hard to define what cloud truly is Right now itrsquos pretty confusing An-other thing Irsquove learned is that the vendors doing most of the cloud washingare really cloud wishing as in wishing they had a real cloud product to promote

Also not helping very much is the hyperbole on both sides of the issuethe ldquoHallelujah cloud storage is the answer to all our prayersrdquo gang vs the ldquoHarrumph if cloud storage doesnrsquot solve all my data center problemsthen what good is it anywayrdquo folks

I recently read a blog post on another publicationrsquos website that declaredbackup was dead because it could be replaced by the cloud Really Inter-estingly the blogger didnrsquot get into any details about recovering data fromthe cloud but I guess thatrsquos something that could be worked out ya knowlater His final advice was to virtualize everythingmdashservers and storagemdashifyou want to use cloud storage I donrsquot know why people insist on takingaway the cloudrsquos silver lining with scary stuff like storage virtualization Ihavenrsquot found the page in the cloud storage rule book that says virtualizing in-house storage is required to use the cloud

At the other end of the spectrum Irsquove gotten some press releases froman outfit called MeriTalk that describes itself as a ldquocommunity networkrdquo ofgovernment workers The group sent me the results of a few surveys itrsquos

editorial | rich castagna

Letrsquos get real about the cloudCloud storage is really a pretty simple concept

so how the heck did it get so complicated

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

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9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

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13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

Quantumrsquos DXi-Series Appliances with deduplication provide higher performance at lower cost than the leading competitor

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

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Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

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Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

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Simplebull Easy installation

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bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 3: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

3 STORAGE September 2011 Cover image by Enrico Varrasso

STORAGEinside | september 2011

Letrsquos get real about the cloud5 EDITORIAL Cloud storage is really a pretty simple concept so how the

heck did it get so complicated If wersquore going to make this thing work we need to get back to basics by RICH CASTAGNA

The impact of virtual storage appliances8 STORWARS Software-only storage controllers running in virtual machines

are an easy economical way to get shared storage But the current crop of products may not be up to enterprise standards yet by TONY ASARO

The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSIand NAS12 Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good networked data storage

system and all the major storage protocols work with virtual machinesBut some types of storage work better than others in certain environmentsby ERIC SIEBERT

Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise25 Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBs but

lagged in the enterprise Now with more choices and tighter controls cloud backup is truly a viable enterprise alternative by JACOB GSOEDL

Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot37 Dell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite

strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixth Quality Awards survey for midrange arrays by RICH CASTAGNA

Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started45 HOT SPOTS Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that

cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worryby TERRI MCCLURE

IO The next frontier48 READWRITE Processors keep getting faster networking techs get speedier

and bus designs keep up the pace but they may all be dragged down if we canrsquot find a fix for slow storage IO performance by ARUN TANEJA

High satisfaction among cloud backup users51 SNAPSHOT One-quarter of our survey respondents use cloud backup

and theyrsquore pleased enough to keep a big chunk of their backup data stored in the cloud by RICH CASTAGNA

From our sponsors53 Useful links from our sponsors

server rooms that require GPs NaviGatioN

We get that virtualization can drive a better ROI Highly certified by Microsoft VMware HP and others we can evaluate design and implement the right solution for youWersquoll get you out of this mess at CDWcomvirtualization

soLveD

copy2011 CDW LLC CDWreg CDWbullGreg and PeOPLe WHO Get Ittrade are trademarks of CDW LLC

t

Storage May 2010Copyright 2011 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writingfrom the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

5

HIS WEEK a few of my fellow editors and I spent more time than reasonablepeople would expect trying to work out a definition for the term ldquocloudwashingrdquo Trying to steer clear of using obvious (and probably accurate)words like ldquobunkrdquo and ldquononsenserdquo we eventually cobbled together a defi-nition that seemed to do the trick without insulting anybody all that muchBut I learned a valuable lesson along the way This cloud thing is a squirmysquishy-squashy thing and getting our arms around it ainrsquot gonna be easy

If itrsquos so hard to define a term about how vendors are twisting the mean-ing of ldquocloudrdquo to obfuscate and ultimately (they hope) convince you their oldproducts are new now that they have ldquocloudrdquo in their names itrsquos bound to bejust as hard to define what cloud truly is Right now itrsquos pretty confusing An-other thing Irsquove learned is that the vendors doing most of the cloud washingare really cloud wishing as in wishing they had a real cloud product to promote

Also not helping very much is the hyperbole on both sides of the issuethe ldquoHallelujah cloud storage is the answer to all our prayersrdquo gang vs the ldquoHarrumph if cloud storage doesnrsquot solve all my data center problemsthen what good is it anywayrdquo folks

I recently read a blog post on another publicationrsquos website that declaredbackup was dead because it could be replaced by the cloud Really Inter-estingly the blogger didnrsquot get into any details about recovering data fromthe cloud but I guess thatrsquos something that could be worked out ya knowlater His final advice was to virtualize everythingmdashservers and storagemdashifyou want to use cloud storage I donrsquot know why people insist on takingaway the cloudrsquos silver lining with scary stuff like storage virtualization Ihavenrsquot found the page in the cloud storage rule book that says virtualizing in-house storage is required to use the cloud

At the other end of the spectrum Irsquove gotten some press releases froman outfit called MeriTalk that describes itself as a ldquocommunity networkrdquo ofgovernment workers The group sent me the results of a few surveys itrsquos

editorial | rich castagna

Letrsquos get real about the cloudCloud storage is really a pretty simple concept

so how the heck did it get so complicated

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 4: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

server rooms that require GPs NaviGatioN

We get that virtualization can drive a better ROI Highly certified by Microsoft VMware HP and others we can evaluate design and implement the right solution for youWersquoll get you out of this mess at CDWcomvirtualization

soLveD

copy2011 CDW LLC CDWreg CDWbullGreg and PeOPLe WHO Get Ittrade are trademarks of CDW LLC

t

Storage May 2010Copyright 2011 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writingfrom the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

5

HIS WEEK a few of my fellow editors and I spent more time than reasonablepeople would expect trying to work out a definition for the term ldquocloudwashingrdquo Trying to steer clear of using obvious (and probably accurate)words like ldquobunkrdquo and ldquononsenserdquo we eventually cobbled together a defi-nition that seemed to do the trick without insulting anybody all that muchBut I learned a valuable lesson along the way This cloud thing is a squirmysquishy-squashy thing and getting our arms around it ainrsquot gonna be easy

If itrsquos so hard to define a term about how vendors are twisting the mean-ing of ldquocloudrdquo to obfuscate and ultimately (they hope) convince you their oldproducts are new now that they have ldquocloudrdquo in their names itrsquos bound to bejust as hard to define what cloud truly is Right now itrsquos pretty confusing An-other thing Irsquove learned is that the vendors doing most of the cloud washingare really cloud wishing as in wishing they had a real cloud product to promote

Also not helping very much is the hyperbole on both sides of the issuethe ldquoHallelujah cloud storage is the answer to all our prayersrdquo gang vs the ldquoHarrumph if cloud storage doesnrsquot solve all my data center problemsthen what good is it anywayrdquo folks

I recently read a blog post on another publicationrsquos website that declaredbackup was dead because it could be replaced by the cloud Really Inter-estingly the blogger didnrsquot get into any details about recovering data fromthe cloud but I guess thatrsquos something that could be worked out ya knowlater His final advice was to virtualize everythingmdashservers and storagemdashifyou want to use cloud storage I donrsquot know why people insist on takingaway the cloudrsquos silver lining with scary stuff like storage virtualization Ihavenrsquot found the page in the cloud storage rule book that says virtualizing in-house storage is required to use the cloud

At the other end of the spectrum Irsquove gotten some press releases froman outfit called MeriTalk that describes itself as a ldquocommunity networkrdquo ofgovernment workers The group sent me the results of a few surveys itrsquos

editorial | rich castagna

Letrsquos get real about the cloudCloud storage is really a pretty simple concept

so how the heck did it get so complicated

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

Quantumrsquos DXi-Series Appliances with deduplication provide higher performance at lower cost than the leading competitor

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate

deduplication into their backup process The benefi ts they report are immediate and

signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

using remote replication reduced administration timemdashall while lowering overall costs

and improving the bottom line

Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

to disk backup They are acknowledged technical leaders In fact our DXi6500 was

just nominated as a ldquoBest Backup Hardwarerdquo fi nalist in Storage Magazinersquos Best

Product of the Year Awardsmdashitrsquos both faster and up to 45 less expensive than the

leading competitor

Get more bang for your backup today

Faster performance Easier deployment Lower cost

provide higher pleading competi

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

information easier to manage We can do more together

Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

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copy2011 Iron Mountain Incorporated All rights reserved Iron Mountain and the design of the mountain are registered trademarks of Iron Mountain Incorporated in the US and other countries

choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

bull Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120

bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

hosted file sharing and archiving

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ReadyNASreg Pro 4

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Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization

Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 5: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

t

Storage May 2010Copyright 2011 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writingfrom the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

5

HIS WEEK a few of my fellow editors and I spent more time than reasonablepeople would expect trying to work out a definition for the term ldquocloudwashingrdquo Trying to steer clear of using obvious (and probably accurate)words like ldquobunkrdquo and ldquononsenserdquo we eventually cobbled together a defi-nition that seemed to do the trick without insulting anybody all that muchBut I learned a valuable lesson along the way This cloud thing is a squirmysquishy-squashy thing and getting our arms around it ainrsquot gonna be easy

If itrsquos so hard to define a term about how vendors are twisting the mean-ing of ldquocloudrdquo to obfuscate and ultimately (they hope) convince you their oldproducts are new now that they have ldquocloudrdquo in their names itrsquos bound to bejust as hard to define what cloud truly is Right now itrsquos pretty confusing An-other thing Irsquove learned is that the vendors doing most of the cloud washingare really cloud wishing as in wishing they had a real cloud product to promote

Also not helping very much is the hyperbole on both sides of the issuethe ldquoHallelujah cloud storage is the answer to all our prayersrdquo gang vs the ldquoHarrumph if cloud storage doesnrsquot solve all my data center problemsthen what good is it anywayrdquo folks

I recently read a blog post on another publicationrsquos website that declaredbackup was dead because it could be replaced by the cloud Really Inter-estingly the blogger didnrsquot get into any details about recovering data fromthe cloud but I guess thatrsquos something that could be worked out ya knowlater His final advice was to virtualize everythingmdashservers and storagemdashifyou want to use cloud storage I donrsquot know why people insist on takingaway the cloudrsquos silver lining with scary stuff like storage virtualization Ihavenrsquot found the page in the cloud storage rule book that says virtualizing in-house storage is required to use the cloud

At the other end of the spectrum Irsquove gotten some press releases froman outfit called MeriTalk that describes itself as a ldquocommunity networkrdquo ofgovernment workers The group sent me the results of a few surveys itrsquos

editorial | rich castagna

Letrsquos get real about the cloudCloud storage is really a pretty simple concept

so how the heck did it get so complicated

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

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copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate

deduplication into their backup process The benefi ts they report are immediate and

signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Faster performance Easier deployment Lower cost

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

information easier to manage We can do more together

Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

categoRIze aRcHIVe IMage dIScoVeR deStRoY

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

bull Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120

bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

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ReadyNASreg Pro 4

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Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

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Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

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bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

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bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

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bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 6: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE September 2011

done including one titled ldquoConsolidation Conundrum Reportrdquo The paperseems to spell doom for the Obama administrationrsquos efforts to cut spend-ing by consolidating federal data centers with cheery data points such asonly 10 of federal IT professionals surveyed believe consolidation goalscan be met and 25 predict wersquoll have more data centers in a few yearsthan we do now And theyrsquore not exactly optimistic when it comes to thecloud with 62 saying they donrsquot believe their agencies can use managedservices But my favorite part is this line ldquoAdding capacity is infinitely moredifficult than just flipping a switchrdquo

Of course the cloud-is-good side would just replace the phrase ldquoinfinitelymore difficult thanrdquo with ldquoas easy asrdquo

The truth is somewhere in between but both ends of the cloud storagediscussion arenrsquot doing much more these days than muddling the issuesTherersquos a lot to think about and a few choices to make when considering acloud storage option but itrsquos not that complex And if vendors would quittheir cloud washing nonsense itrsquod be even easier

In its simplest terms a cloudstorage service offers an off-sitealternative to building on-site storage And evaluating a serviceor product requires pretty muchthe same routine of weighing costperformance features mainte-nance and so on If you do all thehomework and decide that buyingmore infrastructure and supporting it is the best choice fine If the cloudservice comes out on top and shifts the Capex to Opex thatrsquos fine too Itcan be that straightforward

The cloud just sounds riskier right Maybe you think that you could endup updating your resume if you send your firmrsquos data into the cloud andthe unthinkable happens But buying the stuff instead wonrsquot give youmuch job insurance either if the new gear goes belly up

If you need more to think about consider this tidbit from a survey calledthe Sogeti World Quality Report ldquoEmerging economies such as China arethe fastest adopters of cloud infrastructurerdquo So China and its fellow up-and-comers are manufacturing a lot of the storage that ends up in yourdata center but rather than buying that stuff themselves theyrsquore going tothe cloud Maybe therersquos something to be learned from that as well 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the October 2011 issue

In its simplest terms a cloud storage serviceoffers an off-site alternative to buildingon-site storage

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

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9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

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10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

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13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

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Simplebull Easy installation

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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See a Webinar on

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Solutions featuring

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Automate

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Dell Compellent Storage

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with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 7: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Source IDC Worldwide Purpose Built Backup Appliance 2010-2015 Market Analysis and Forecast 2010 Vendor Shares report (May 2011) EMC2 EMC and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries copy Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation All rights reserved 2548

EMC BACKUP MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE

Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC backup solutions

Register for the Virtual Seminar gtgt

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

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signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

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copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

information easier to manage We can do more together

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

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bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

bull Ideal backup target for VMs

Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

hosted file sharing and archiving

bull FREE 100GB of ReadyNAS Vault offsite archive

ReadyNASreg Pro 4

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Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization

Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

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The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

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Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

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bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

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bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

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bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 8: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

8 STORAGE September 2011

aVIRTUAL STORAGE APPLIANCE (VSA) is storage controller software that runswithin a virtual machine (VM) turning servers into data storage systemsThere are a number of them available including Hewlett-Packardrsquos Storage-Works P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software (formerly LeftHand) which is the most widely adopted and VMwarersquos recently announced vSphereStorage Appliance The implications of VMware offering a VSA are com-pelling although the immediate impact is minimal

VSA solutions are typically positioned as small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) storage because of performance limitations that draw adistinct line in the sand between VSA and hardware-based storage systemsHowever the line will begin to disappear as processors and memory becomeeven faster and cheaper And you can count on innovations that will overcometechnical limitations and improve not only performance but reliability andscalability

Storage networks made it possible to share what was once a very ex-pensive resource storage But the cost of storage has gone down signifi-cantly and data storage vendors have created a wide range of softwarefeatures that have become requisite in the data center such as snapshotsand replication We also wanted high availability to ensure that our datawas always accessible

But now all that can be achieved in the virtual data center without storagenetworks If you have 10 VMs running on a single physical server then yoursquoresharing the storage in that server across those 10 applications A VSA pro-vides the snapshot and replication features without requiring an externalhardware-based storage system and it also provides high availability toanother server All this can be done todaymdashthere are literally thousands of VSAusers who have implemented that type of environment So what changed

StorWars | tony asaro

The impact of virtual storage appliances

Software-only storage controllers running in virtualmachines are an easy economical way to get

shared storage But the current crop of products arenrsquot up to enterprise standards yet

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

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13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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Backup and Cloud Computing

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 9: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Adding a product like Fusion-iorsquos PCIe-based solid-state storage to thisenvironment makes things a bit more interesting Performance tests withFusion-io-equipped VSAs donrsquot reach the vendorrsquos touted 100000 IOPS butcan achieve approximately 30000 IOPS which is very respectable perform-ance especially for a VSA system that typically tops out at approximately5000 IOPS But the main reason you go with a VSA is cost and adding Fusion-io or any other solid-state storage will increase the price signifi-cantly Priceperformance is what matters so combining solid-state andVSA isnrsquot necessarily front of mind when considering alternatives to tradi-tional storage networks

But the writingrsquos on the wall The elements needed for a new class ofVSAmdashan enterprise-class VSAmdashare taking shape Enterprise-class VSA requires new software a purpose-built architecture and physical serverswith new storage-specific designs to overcome the limitations of todayrsquos VSA products This last point is an important one optimizing servers tosupport storage systems doesnrsquot mean building a storage system butrather having the proper reliability and availability that external storagearrays provide

There are some applications thatstill arenrsquot being virtualized becauseof performance limitations Many ofthese are high-performance data-base applications that canrsquot affordthe inherent latency of virtualizationBut an enterprise VSA would be ar-chitected to enable even the mostperformance-starved applications to be virtualized

Ultimately VSAs could spell doomfor networked storage Not only could it happen but it should happen Enter-prise VSA would exponentially drive down costs improve manageability andresult in landscape-changing business enablement But it will take time be-cause of technology incumbency lack of awareness internal politics and thefact that enterprise VSA is just a good idea And existing VSA solutions willneed major architectural changes to evolve into enterprise VSA

This doesnrsquot mean storage goes away On the contrary itrsquos storagetechnology expertise and experience that will make the difference Ifstorage system vendors cling to the legacy of the physical data centerthey run the great risk of overlooking the value of this new storage concept

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE September 2011

Enterprise VSAwould exponentiallydrive down costsimprove manageabilityand result in landscape-changingbusiness enablement

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate

deduplication into their backup process The benefi ts they report are immediate and

signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

using remote replication reduced administration timemdashall while lowering overall costs

and improving the bottom line

Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

to disk backup They are acknowledged technical leaders In fact our DXi6500 was

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Get more bang for your backup today

Faster performance Easier deployment Lower cost

provide higher pleading competi

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

information easier to manage We can do more together

Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

categoRIze aRcHIVe IMage dIScoVeR deStRoY

copy2011 Iron Mountain Incorporated All rights reserved Iron Mountain and the design of the mountain are registered trademarks of Iron Mountain Incorporated in the US and other countries

choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

bull Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120

bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

bull Ideal backup target for VMs

Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

hosted file sharing and archiving

bull FREE 100GB of ReadyNAS Vault offsite archive

ReadyNASreg Pro 4

ReadyNASreg Pro 2

Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization

Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 10: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

EMC has taken a small step toward this approach with its new PCIe cardbut itrsquos modest at best

The server vendors are well positioned because they now own advancedstorage technologies as well as server platforms But they still seem lessinclined to innovate VMware has taken an important step with its VSAbut itrsquos not clear if they have a grand vision of merging virtual server andstorage into a common stack And even with their tight connection toEMC VMware has very little storage DNA Enterprise VSA is up for grabsand the vendor that gets it right will be the next big player 2

Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder of Voices of IT (wwwVoicesofITcom)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE September 2011

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

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Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 11: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Up to 85 of computing capacity sits idle in distributed environmentsA smarter planet needs smarter infrastructureLetrsquos build a smarter planet ibmcomdynamic

IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at ldquoCopyright and trademark informationrdquo at wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

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signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

using remote replication reduced administration timemdashall while lowering overall costs

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Faster performance Easier deployment Lower cost

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

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Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

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Solutions featuring

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with a single tool

Manage Scale

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

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Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

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Scan to see a snapshot

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

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bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

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bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 12: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

cGetting real

with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE September 2011

HOOSING A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM to use with virtualized servers is one of themost critical architecture choices yoursquoll have to make and one of themost challenging There are many options available but therersquos no singletype of networked storage thatrsquos hands down the best for virtual serversEach environment is different and what works well for one may not workwell for another

the best storage for virtual

servers

Pros and cons of

FC iSCSI and NAS

Itrsquos a given that virtual servers need a good shared data storage system All the major networked storage

protocols will work with virtual machines but some arebetter than others in certain environments BY ERIC SIEBERT

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

gt

Quantumrsquos DXi-Series Appliances with deduplication provide higher performance at lower cost than the leading competitor

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate

deduplication into their backup process The benefi ts they report are immediate and

signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

using remote replication reduced administration timemdashall while lowering overall costs

and improving the bottom line

Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

to disk backup They are acknowledged technical leaders In fact our DXi6500 was

just nominated as a ldquoBest Backup Hardwarerdquo fi nalist in Storage Magazinersquos Best

Product of the Year Awardsmdashitrsquos both faster and up to 45 less expensive than the

leading competitor

Get more bang for your backup today

Faster performance Easier deployment Lower cost

provide higher pleading competi

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

information easier to manage We can do more together

Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

categoRIze aRcHIVe IMage dIScoVeR deStRoY

copy2011 Iron Mountain Incorporated All rights reserved Iron Mountain and the design of the mountain are registered trademarks of Iron Mountain Incorporated in the US and other countries

choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

bull Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120

bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

bull Ideal backup target for VMs

Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

hosted file sharing and archiving

bull FREE 100GB of ReadyNAS Vault offsite archive

ReadyNASreg Pro 4

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Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization

Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

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See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 13: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Fibre Channel (FC) has been the traditional choice for virtualization butiSCSI and network-attached storage (NAS) have become increasingly popularalternatives that can provide good performance for more limited budgetsLetrsquos look at the characteristics of each networked storage type and reviewits pros and cons

FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGEFor performance and reliability itrsquos hard to beat FC storage but the perform-ance comes at a price in terms of both dollars and complexity Because ofits deep roots in the data center FC is generally the most popular storagechoice for larger virtual environmentsbased mainly on its speed (currently8 Gbps with 16 Gbps becoming avail-able) and reliability FC storage net-works tend to be isolated and thusmore secure than Ethernet-basedstorage devices But Fibre Channelrequires special host bus adapters(HBAs) and switches that are moreexpensive than comparable Ethernetcomponents

So implementing a Fibre Channelnetwork from scratch can be costlyAlso FC environments are more complex to implement and manage astheir configuration is very different from a traditional network infrastruc-ture While most companies have staff with network administration skillsmany donrsquot have the same resources for FC storage-area network (SAN)administration Designing and managing a SAN architecture usually requires specialized training that can further add to the expense of implementation

Advantages of using FC storagebull Commonly deployed enterprise storage architecture many

environments may have existing SANsbull Typically the best performing storage due to higher available

bandwidthbull Isolated FC fabrics are more secure logical unit number (LUN)

zoning and masking can be used to control access

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

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13 STORAGE September 2011

Designing and managing a SANarchitecture usuallyrequires specializedtraining that can further add to the expense ofimplementation

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Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

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To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 14: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Quantumrsquos DXi-Series Appliances with deduplication provide higher performance at lower cost than the leading competitor

Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Important Data Yourstrade

Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit wwwquantumcomdxi

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate

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signifi cantmdashfaster backup and restore 90+ reduction in disk needs automated DR

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Our award-winning DXireg-Series appliances deliver a smart time-saving approach

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Preserving The Worldrsquos Most Importan

Contact us to learn more at (8

copy2011 Quantum Corporation All rights reserved

Q

d

s

u

a

O

t

j

P

le

G

F

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

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Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

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bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 15: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

bull Able to boot from FC storage (boot from SAN) so local host storage isnrsquot needed

bull Block-level storage that can be used with VMware vSphere VMFS volumes

Disadvantages of using FC storagebull Typically the most expensive storage option to implement from scratchbull Requires specialized and expensive components such as switches

cables and HBAsbull May be complex to implement and manage typically requires dedicated

storage administratorsbull Fewer security controls available authentication and encryption are

complicated to implement

If you plan on having many high disk IO virtual machines (VMs) runningon your hosts then you should seriously consider using FC storage for maxi-mum performance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is also an option thatallows you to run FC storage over traditional Ethernet components but itcan be just as expensive to implement as it requires 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) networking and special switching gear

If you already have an FC SAN in your environment then using it with virtualization just makes sense And expanding an existing SAN is mucheasier and cheaper than implementing a new one You really canrsquot gowrong with FC storage if your budget can afford it and you can handle the management complexity

iSCSI STORAGEiSCSI storage is a popular and solid alternative to Fibre Channel iSCSI is a block-based storage like FC but it uses traditional Ethernet network com-ponents for connectivity between hosts and storage devices Because youcan use existing Ethernet components iSCSI is often much cheaper to implement iSCSI works by using a client called an initiator to send SCSIcommands over a local-area network (LAN) to SCSI devices (called targets)located on a storage device

iSCSI initiators can be software or hardware based Software initiatorsuse device drivers that are built into the hypervisor to use Ethernet networkadapters and protocols to write to a remote iSCSI target Hardware initiatorsuse a dedicated iSCSI HBA that combines a network adapter a TCPIP offload

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE September 2011

gt

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

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Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

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Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

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bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

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SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 16: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

engine (TOE) and a SCSI adapter into one device to help improve the per-formance of the host server While software initiators work just fine inmost cases hardware initiators offer slightly better IO performance anduse less host resources You can also boot from hardware initiators in addition a new technology called iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) will letyou boot using a software initiator if the installed network interface card(NIC) and hypervisor support it

iSCSI performs very well on 1 Gbps Ethernet networks but switching to10 Gbps can give it a huge boost and put it on par with (or better than) FCMost hypervisors support 10 Gbps iSCSI but the cost may be so high that it will be just as expensive as FC to implement The biggest risks to usingiSCSI are the additional CPU overhead when using software initiators(which can be mitigated with hardware initiators) and the more fragile and volatile network infrastructure it relies on The latter issue can be addressed by completely isolating iSCSI traffic from other network traffic

Advantages of iSCSI storagebull Lower cost alternative to FC storage that uses standard Ethernet

components iSCSI storage arrays also tend to cost less than FC arraysbull Software initiators can be used for ease of use and lower cost

hardware initiators offer maximum performancebull Block-level storage (like FC) that can be used with vSphere

VMFS volumesbull Speed and performance is greatly increased with 10 Gbps Ethernetbull No special trainingskills needed to implement and manage the

technologybull Supports authentication (CHAP) and encryption for security as well

as multipathing for increased throughput and reliabilitybull Can be deployed more quickly than FC

Disadvantages of iSCSI storagebull Because iSCSI is most commonly deployed as a software protocol

it adds to CPU overhead vs using hardware-based initiatorsbull Performance is typically less than that of FC SANsbull Typically doesnrsquot scale as high as FC storage systemsbull Network latency and non-iSCSI network traffic can diminish

performance

iSCSI also offers more variety and greater flexibility when it comes to

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

16 STORAGE September 2011

Your Information is at RiskProtect What Matters Most

As the amount of information your organization has to manage and protect continues to grow the challenge

of managing the potential risk increases exponentially How can you ensure your organizationrsquos information

is not at risk Partner with the company thousands have trusted to store protect and manage their

information regardless of format mdash Iron Mountain With unmatched experience putting us at your side makes

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Safeguard your Information Visit us at ironmountaincom

categoRIze aRcHIVe IMage dIScoVeR deStRoY

copy2011 Iron Mountain Incorporated All rights reserved Iron Mountain and the design of the mountain are registered trademarks of Iron Mountain Incorporated in the US and other countries

choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

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bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

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Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

remote offices

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

hosted file sharing and archiving

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Learn more atwwwnetgearcombusiness_storage

NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization

Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

bull Enterprise hard disks

bull Embedded offsite archive

Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

bull Reduces operating expenses through automation

Simplebull Easy installation

bull Painless remote management

bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

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The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

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See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

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bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 17: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

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choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

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bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

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Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

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NETGEARreg is Smart IT Not Big IT

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Backup and Cloud Computing

Reliablebull 5 year warranty

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

vendors

bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

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Simplebull Easy installation

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bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

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STORAGE

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 18: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

choosing data storage devices You can purchase a range of iSCSI storageproducts from small dedicated iSCSI storage devices for less than $2000to large enterprise-class devicesKeep in mind that when it comes to performance you generally getwhat you pay for If you have a largenumber of VMs and heavy workloadsyou need to spend more for a storagesystem iSCSI is a great choice formany companies that want afford-ability and simplicity While iSCSI isoften criticized for its performance a dedicated properly configured iSCSI system can perform nearly as wellas a Fibre Channel setup and will be adequate for many environments

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE September 2011

If you have a largenumber of VMs andheavy workloadsyou need to spendmore for a storagesystem

nEWER TECHNOLOGIES are now available such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) that offer alternativearchitecture choices while providing big boosts in performance andthroughput FCoE provides encapsulation of a native Fibre Channel(FC) frame into an Ethernet frame to bring together the benefits ofFC architecture over an Ethernet infrastructure FCoE can eliminatethe need for costly Fibre Channel hardware 10 GbE provides a hugespeed boost over conventional 1 Gbps Ethernet but requires networkinterface cards (NICs) and switches that are specifically designed for 10 Gbps

FCoE and 10 GbE are directly related to each other as you can onlyrun FCoE on 10 Gbps networks Converged network adapters (CNAs)combine the two technologies onto a single network adapter elimi-nating the need for separate FC and Ethernet adapters CNAs reducethe number of server adapters cables and switch ports requiredwhich can help reduce expenses FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs are greattechnologies but like any new tech they can be expensive to imple-ment for early adopters

Emerging techs FCoE 10 GbE and CNAs

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

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Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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Fluid Data storage helps you

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Manage Scale

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

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Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

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requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 19: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

NASThe big difference between iSCSI and NAS (specifically NFS) is the type ofprotocol used to write data to the storage device iSCSI uses a block proto-col and data is written in blocks by the virtual host to the storage deviceThe host server is responsible for maintaining the disk file system on thestorage device just as it would with local disk NAS on the other hand usesa file-sharing protocol and the host server simply communicates with thestorage device that maintains the disk file system

With NAS yoursquore essentially offloading the storage device functions re-sponsible for writing data to the drives from the host server to the storagedevice NAS uses a special software NFS client built into the hypervisor thatuses a network adapter in the host to communicate with the NFS server

All the major virtualization platforms support using NAS devices for theirvirtual machines Because NFS is a widely supported protocol there aremany different options for using NAS storage with your virtual hosts Thesecan range from taking a standard physical server and converting it into anNAS server using virtual NAS software or using a dedicated storage appli-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE September 2011

IO VIRTUALIZATION is increasingly being used with server virtualizationIt enables a single physical IO adapter to appear as multiple virtualnetwork adapters (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs) One of the challenges with server virtualization is that hosts require a largenumber of IO adapters to connect to both data and storage net-works A typical host may have six to eight NICs used for general network connectivity and at least two NICs or HBAs to connect tostorage networks IO virtualization lets you consolidate many IOadapters on a host into a single adapter or two that can handle all IOrequirements IO virtualization is implemented in several differentways Companies like Xsigo Systems Inc emulate HBAs and NICsover either standard Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics Virtensys takes adifferent approach and uses a PCIe extension adapter to connect toan appliance that contains shared IO adapters Both approaches cangreatly simplify host IO connectivity and reduce hardware costs andhost power consumption

IO virtualization

gt

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NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

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ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

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copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

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Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

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with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

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requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

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Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

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Getting real with the cloud

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 20: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Products shown above are GSA compliant

ReadyNASreg Pro 6 ReadyNASreg 3100 2100 4200 3200 (Top to Bottom)

The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware fans and internal power supplies and does not include external power supplies or software Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty The warranty is only validfor the original purchaser and cannot be transferred

NETGEAR the NETGEAR logo Connect with Innovation ReadyNAS ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks andor registered trademarks of NETGEAR Inc andor its subsidiaries in the United States andor othercountries Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s) Information is subject to change without notice copy 2010 NETGEAR Inc All rights reserved

Backup Restore and Disaster Recoverybull Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec

Acronis or StorageCraft

bull Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120

bull Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore

bull ReadyNASreg Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery

Virtualizationbull Build affordable virtualization solutions in small or

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bull VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified

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Cloud Computingbull Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local and

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Reliablebull 5 year warranty

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Affordablebull A fraction of the cost of traditional

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bull No consultants required no new training or licenses needed

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Simplebull Easy installation

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bull Embedded VPN remote access

bull Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

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Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

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40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

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Getting real with the cloud

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Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

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Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 21: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

ance The costs and performance characteristics with each option can varygreatly dedicated appliances offer the best performance at the greatest cost

Almost every storage vendor offers a NAS storage device that supportsNFS With block storage devices allocating storage will consume the fullspace right away but with NAS ca-pacity grows as data is written to itRegardless of your budget you caneasily find a good NAS device that willmeet your requirements

In most cases NAS wonrsquot equal theperformance of a Fibre Channel SANbut a properly architected NAS systemcan meet the performance needs ofmost workloads Similar to iSCSI NAS uses NICs to communicate withstorage devices which may mean a 1 Gbps speed limit but newer 10 GbpsNICs offer a huge speed increase ifyou can bear the cost The perform-ance of NAS is nearly the same as iSCSI As long as the CPU doesnrsquot becomea bottleneck the maximum throughput of both iSCSI and NAS is limited bythe available network bandwidth

Advantages of NASbull Many NAS storage devices use thin provisioning by default which

can help conserve disk spacebull File locking and queuing are handled by the NAS device which can

result in better performance vs iSCSIFC where locking and queuing are handled by the host server

bull NAS doesnrsquot have a single disk IO queue like block storage devices which can result in greater performance NAS performance is based on the bandwidth of the network connection and the capabilities of the disk array

bull Can be less costly to implement than FC storage as it uses standard Ethernet components NAS arrays tend to cost less than FC arrays

bull No special trainingskills are needed to implement and manage the technology

bull Expanding virtual datastores is done easily by increasing the disk on the NFS server datastores will automatically increase accordingly

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE September 2011

In most cases NASwonrsquot equal the performance of aFibre Channel SANbut a properly archi-tected NAS systemcan meet the per-formance needs ofmost workloads

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 22: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

bull Snapshots cloning and so on are done at the file system level instead of the LUN level which can offer greater flexibility and more granular support

Disadvantages of NASbull Booting directly from a shared storage device isnrsquot supported with

NAS devicesbull There is CPU overhead as the hypervisor must use a software client

to communicate with the NAS serverbull Some vendors donrsquot recommend NAS storage for certain sensitive

transactional applications due to latency that can occurbull Support for new virtualization features sometimes lags vs block

storage devicesbull NAS doesnrsquot support multipathing from a host to the NAS server

only a single TCP session will be opened to a NAS datastore which may limit performance

You shouldnrsquot be discouraged by some of the disadvantages of usingNAS as they may only apply to specific circumstances or result from poorlyarchitected NAS solutions With a properly sized solution that can handlethe VM workloads on your hosts NAS is usually as good a choice as a block-storage device In the past NAS had limited support from virtualization butitrsquos now fully supported

AND THE WINNER IS There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a storage device foryour virtual environment but decisions ultimately come down to simplefactors such as budget performance and capacity Many storage devicesnow come with direct integration support for virtualization so this can alsobe a big factor VMware vStorage APIs offer many benefits that allow fortighter integration between the storage device and the hypervisor as wellas offload many storage-related tasks from the hypervisor to the storagearray

Another area of concern is support While Microsoft Hyper-V has prettybroad support for just about any storage array supported by WindowsVMware has a strict hardware compatibility guide that lists all supportedstorage devices One reason for this is that VMware has very deep API integration and the guide ensures that storage devices have been tested

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE September 2011

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

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bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

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SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 23: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

with vSphere It also lists the various integration features supported foreach array

While Fibre Channel is a well-established storage platform donrsquot beafraid to try iSCSI or NAS devices as more affordable alternatives With a wide variety of iSCSI and NAS products to choose from yoursquoll have to research their capabilities and scalability to ensure that theyrsquoll meet yourrequirements Storage is the most critical design decision yoursquoll make foryour virtual environment so spend the time researching the alternatives to understand the different technologies and features that are available 2

Eric Siebert is an IT industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience whonow focuses on server administration and virtualization Hersquos the author ofVMware VI3 Implementation and Administration (Prentice Hall 2009) and Maximum vSphere (Prentice Hall 2010)

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

23 STORAGE September 2011

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 24: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

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See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

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See ad page 28

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bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 25: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE September 2011

BACKUP WAS one of the firstservices offered by cloud storagevendors and itrsquos still the mostpopular way of using cloudstorage Once considered anoption for only smaller companiessome enterprises are now usingcloud backup for remote officeand desktoplaptop dataprotection archival and off-siting of backups to supplementexisting in-house backup services

Cloud backup is

READYEnterprise

for the Cloud backup services have seen increased adoption by SMBsbut with a choice of methods and tighter controls cloud backupis now also a viable enterprise alternative BY JACOB GSOEDL

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

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SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 26: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

The benefits of backing up to the cloud are compelling no need forbackup infrastructure minimal IT resource requirements and usage-basedpricing that becomes part of your monthly operational expenses But thebenefits are offset by security concerns and restore challenges especiallyif a lot of data must be restored from the cloud With accelerated adoptionof cloud services cloud-based backup options have substantially increasedgiving companies several alternatives

bull Backup managed service providers (MSPs)bull Cloud-enabled backup applicationsbull Cloud gateways

CLOUD CONSIDERATIONSRegardless of the alternative your company opts for this list of key features and considerations will help determine the right product for your environment

Security Security is still the main reason companies steer clear ofcloud services To address security concerns cloud backup products must adhere to the minimum following best practices

bull Data must be encrypted during transit usually via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection if the Internet is the transport

bull Data must be stored encrypted in the cloud via a state-of-the-art encryption protocol such as 256-bit AES encryption

bull The cloud service provider must support strong enforceable authentication with features like password expiration and complexity

Encryption key management must be clearly understood most cloudservice providers defer key management to users with the benefit that encryption keys are unavailable within the cloud But with encryption keymanagement the responsibility of users the cloud service provider wonrsquotbe able to help if the keys are mismanaged or lost preventing access tothe data Because encryption keys are critical some companies put themin an escrow account as protection against loss or corruption

Compliance There may also be compliance issues related to usingcloud backup For public companies or industries that are subject to additional regulatory requirements only cloud service providers that adhere to SSAE 16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) should be consideredSAS 70SSAE 16 is an audit standard for service providers where an exter-nal auditor evaluates controls and processes and prepares a report thatrsquos

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

26 STORAGE September 2011

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

Fluid Data storage helps you

save time and slash costs data e ciently

on a single platform

with a single tool

Manage Scale

Automate

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bullbullbullbull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull

bullbullbullbull bullbull bullbullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull bullbull

Dell Compellent Storage

Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

with a single toolAutomate

Scan to see a snapshot

of customer success

with Dell Compellent

storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 27: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

shared with the service providerrsquos customers Because therersquos a Type Iand Type II SAS 70SSAE 16 examination itrsquos crucial to confirm that theservice provider performs the more stringent Type II audit Only a Type IIaudit report expresses the auditorrsquos opinion on whether the controls testedoperated effectively enough to provide reasonable assurance that thecontrol objectives were achieved during the period specified For instanceSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audits usually only rely on Type II audit reports

You should also understand the scope of the audit report and what itcovers Many smaller MSPs are quick to declare SAS 70SSAE 16 compliance

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

27 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup optionsThe pros and cons

Cloud BackupOption

Managed serviceprovider (MSP)

Cloud-enabledbackupapplications

Cloud gateways

Pros

bull Simplicitybull Cost-effectivebull Few on-premises IT

resource requirements

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

bull Cost-effective

bull Works with any backup application that supports backup to disks

bull Extends and supplements existing backup infrastruc-ture and processes

bull Except for backup data location control remains with the customer

Cons

bull Complete dependency on the MSP for all aspects of the backup

bull Control is handed off to the MSP

bull Requires a cloud-enabled backup application

bull Little impact on IT resource requirements

bull Introduction of an additionalIT infrastructure component that needs to be managed

bull Higher cost

bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull bull

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See a Webinar on

Dell Compellent Storage

Solutions featuring

Fluid Data Technology E cientVirtualStoragecom

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on a single platform

with a single tool

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storage

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 28: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

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See a Webinar on

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Solutions featuring

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save time and slash costs data e ciently

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Manage Scale

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by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

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A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 29: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

by providing data center or Amazon (if the MSP uses Amazon on the back-end) SAS 70SSAE 16 reports which usually arenrsquot sufficient While a datacenter SAS 70SSAE 16 report addresses physical controls it has no bear-ing on operational controls of the MSP in relation to change managementprogram development and access grants Therefore itrsquos highly recom-mended to request the latest SAS 70SSAE 16 report from the cloud serviceprovider prior to signing with the service and to have the report reviewedby the internal and external auditors

Hybrid vs pure cloud backups Ina pure cloud backup scenario agentson protected servers and desktopsperform backups directly to the cloudQuick setup and minimal maintenanceare benefits of this service A purecloud backup product is best-suitedfor personal backups and backups forsmaller firms with limited amounts of data to protect (typically a few ter-abytes) The drawbacks of backing updirectly into the cloud are perform-ance and bandwidth challenges be-cause of latency and bandwidth limits of available Internet connectionsthese shortcomings are most important when restoring data

Latency and limited bandwidth are mitigated by hybrid cloud backupproducts that use an on-premises disk or gateway as the initial backuptarget from which the data is replicated to the cloud The on-premises intermediary usually caches the most recent backups for on-premises restores minimizing tedious recoveries from the cloud it also movesdata into the cloud asynchronously For a pure cloud backup solutionwithout the on-premises intermediary for quick restores itrsquos essential to understand all restore options including the ability to have backupsshipped to you on a disk or NAS device restore options become more relevant as the amount of data stored in the cloud grows Similarly someMSPs accept the initial full backup on an external storage device (knownas ldquoseedingrdquo) to avoid a time-consuming first backup over the Internet

Efficiency Backup processes that are OK for on-premises backupsmay be unacceptable for cloud backups For instance the ability to performsub-file backups of changes to files is an indispensable feature in a cloud

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE September 2011

A pure cloud backupproduct is best-suited for personalbackups and back-ups for smaller firms with limitedamounts of data toprotect (typically afew terabytes)

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 30: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

backup product With email personal folder files (PST files) that can growbeyond gigabytes and large Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presenta-tions spanning tens of megabytes being able to only back up file changesto the cloud rather than complete files is a non-negotiable feature for acloud backup product Similarly the ability to perform continuous incre-mental backups minimizes the amount of traffic for each backup The traditional weekly full and daily incremental backup discipline frequentlyused for on-premises backups doesnrsquot work for backing up data into thecloud Limited network bandwidth makes efficiency one of the primaryvirtues in a cloud backup product So anything that can help reduce theamount of data to be moved into the cloud is critical

Compression and source-side deduplication are two technologies thathelp minimize the amount of traffic sent into the cloud Data deduplicationreduces bandwidth usage and also helps cut the cost of backing up to thecloud Because cloud storage pricing is usually based on gigabytes storedcompression and dedupe are instru-mental in lowering monthly fees Tomaximize data reduction some MSPsdeduplicate on the source side andone more time in the cloud While thescope of source-side dedupe may belimited to a single or few hosts dedupein the cloud can be performed againstall data resulting in significant addi-tional data reduction

ldquoWe deduplicate and compress before we send data across and wededuplicate one more time once data is in the cloudrdquo said Karen Jaworskisenior director of product marketing at i365 a Seagate company and back-up MSP

Transport Besides source-side dedupe cloud backup products differ inthe way they manage available bandwidth The ability to limit and throttlebandwidth while backups are in progress helps minimize the impact onusers and other apps sharing the Internet connection Moreover being ableto configure multiple bandwidth limits for different times of the day helpsoptimize the balance between backup performance and the impact on otherusers Some cloud service providers such as ATampT give customers theoption to use a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuit instead of the

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

30 STORAGE September 2011

Because cloud storage pricing isusually based ongigabytes storedcompression anddeduplication areinstrumental in lowering monthlyfees

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 31: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Internet this option is relatively cost-effective for customers who alreadyuse MPLS The quality of service (QoS) feature of MPLS lets users labelbackup data as low-priority traffic eliminating the impact on other usersand applications altogether This is especially attractive for midsized andlarge companies with many users and a lot of protected data

BACKUP MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERSHanding off backups to a managed service provider is the quickest way ofgetting backups into the cloud and the method with the fewest internal IT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE September 2011

Cloud backup checklistKey features

Feature

Encryption of data in transitand at rest in the cloud

SAS 70SS AE16 Type II compliance of the cloud service provider

Data deduplication

Hybrid cloud backup option

Getting data in and out of thecloud via physical device

Incremental forever

Sub-file-level backup ofchanged files

Bandwidth features

Reason for relevance

Prevents access to the data by cloud serviceprovider staff and other unauthorized users

Ensures the service provider has strong IT controls in place a must-have for public companies and for industries with additional regulatory requirements

Reduces storage cost source-side deduplicationalso reduces bandwidth requirements

Cached on-premises backups eliminate long restore times of a pure cloud backup solution

Options of initial ldquoseedingrdquo of backups and deliveryof restore data via physical disk to minimize initialbackup and restore times

Ensures efficient ongoing backups

Minimizes the amount of data to be backed upespecially with large files

Throttling and scheduling to minimize the impactof backups on other users

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

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Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

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Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

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SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 32: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

wwwnexsancom

THE NEW NEXSAN E-SERIES

ACTIVE DRAWER TECHNOLOGYManage without heavy lifting

60 DRIVES IN 4U3X the capacity at 13rd the power

NEXT GEN CONTROLLERLatest dual RAID engine is fast times two

EASY EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-CLASS

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORAGE EXPERIENCETM

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 33: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

requirements MSP offerings are available as pure cloud backup productswhere the user installs agents on desktops and servers that directly backup data into the cloud theyrsquore also available as hybrid cloud backup prod-ucts where the cloud service vendor provides a managed on-premisesgateway to store backup data locally before replication into the cloud

MSP offerings range from con-sumer small officehome office(SOHO) and small- and medium-sizedbusiness (SMB) products to cloudbackup services targeted at the enterprise ldquoWhile the sweet spot forcloud-based backup is still the smallto midsized company larger enterpriseshave started leveraging the cloud tosupplement internal backups espe-cially for DR [disaster recovery] remote office and end-user data protectionrdquo said David Chapa senioranalyst at Milford Mass-based Enter-prise Strategy Group (ESG)

Consumer backup services were popularized by Mozy (now part of EMCCorp) and Carbonite Theyrsquore pure cloud backup products licensed to pro-tect a single desktop or laptop and may not have all the features expectedin a business backup product For instance the Carbonite service doesnrsquotoffer deduplication ldquoDeduplication is less required in our target marketwhere the average amount of protected data is less than 50 GBrdquo said PeteLamson general manager of Carbonitersquos Small Business Group Both Car-bonite (with Carbonite Business) and Mozy (with MozyPro) have expandedtheir offerings into businesses While Carbonite targets small businesseswith a simple and highly affordable backup service MozyPro is aimed atsmall and large businesses alike

Joining Carbonite with a focus on small companies with up to 50 usersis Symantec Corp with Backup Execcloud which is now in beta in NorthAmerica with general availability slated for this fall ldquoBackup Execcloudhas centralized management and provides global visibility to protectedhosts and we try to make backup as simple as possiblerdquo said DavidMitchell product manager for Symantecrsquos hosted endpoint protection

For enterprises IBM has rebranded and renamed its managed backup

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

33 STORAGE September 2011

Handing off backupsto a managed serviceprovider is the quick-est way of gettingbackups into thecloud and themethod with thefewest internal ITrequirements

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 34: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

service offerings with a focus on resilience SmartCloud Resilience TheIBM product spans the data protection spectrum from backup and recoveryto archival and DR

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Corsquos enterprise Electronic Vaulting Service is amanaged server backup product powered by Asigra Software HPrsquos MobileInformation Protection uses Autonomy Connected Backup which HP hasjust made available as PC Backup Services for the SOHO and SMB marketsand is available through channel partners

i365 has been offering managedbackups since 1997 and the companyhas one of the most complete andfeature-rich cloud backup offeringsaddressing the needs of small andlarge companies Available as pureservice software and physical andvirtual appliances it can be deployedon-premises in a hybrid arrangementor as a pure cloud backup product

Iron Mountain Inc has one of thestrongest brands in the backup worldbut its cloud message changed withthe sale of its Connected Backup andLiveVault backup software to AutonomyIron Mountain is currently focusing onbackup services rather than softwaredevelopment

ldquoWe continue to offer cloud back-up services for businessesrdquo said Ken Rubin senior vice president andgeneral manager of the Iron Mountainhealthcare service ldquoFor the healthcare and financial services sectors weprovide advanced solutions for instance for hospitals we offer a managedbackup product with tight integration with all major PACS [picture andarchival communication system] systemsrdquo

CLOUD-ENABLED BACKUP APPS AND GATEWAYSWhile small companies are more likely to opt for the MSP approach largercompanies are more apt to extend their existing backup infrastructure

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoFor the healthcareand financial servicessectors we provideadvanced solutionsfor instance forhospitals we offer amanaged backupproduct with tightintegration with allmajor PACS [pictureand archival com-munication system]systemsrdquo

mdashKEN RUBIN senior vice president and general manager Iron

Mountain healthcare service

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 35: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

into the cloud using either their existing backup software or a cloud gate-way The incentives to expand the backup infrastructure into the cloudrange from replacing off-site tapes with backups in the cloud to leveragingthe cloud for backup jobs that can be performed more cost-effectively

Cloud support in commercial backup applications varies considerablyCommVault Systems Inc has added extensive cloud support and supportsa wide range of cloud service providers (ATampT Amazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace) Supported cloud providers appear as additional backupmedia and all backup features suchas deduplication are available whenbacking up to the cloud Archival intothe cloud with stub support for on-demand retrieval of archived data andblock-based replication of changesinto the cloud for recovery into acompute cloud service such as Ama-zon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are just a couple of features that distin-guish CommVault Simpana Similar toCommVault both Symantec BackupExec and NetBackup support backingup into the cloud but they currentlyonly support Nirvanix Arkeia NetworkBackup supports replication of back-up sets into Amazon and Nirvanix

EMC Avamar and NetWorker currently donrsquot have out-of-the-box inte-gration with cloud service providers Instead EMC is selling Avamar toMSPs ldquoWe decided on Avamar to power our enterprise backup service because of its efficient source-side deduplication and scalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo said Dick Mulvihill co-founder and managing partner at Hexistor Data Protection Service LLC a Chicago-based backup MSP

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) doesnrsquot currently support directbackups into the cloud ldquoWersquore working with cloud gateway manufacturerssuch as Riverbed for cloud backup support cloud backup gateways aresimple and quick to set up and have the advantage of locally cachedbackups for quick restoresrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage software development at Tivoli

Cloud gateways that move data into cloud storage are available from

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE September 2011

ldquoWe decided onAvamar to powerour enterprise backup servicebecause of its effi-cient source-sidededuplication andscalable AvamarData Store gridrdquo

mdashDICK MULVIHILL co-founder and managing partner Hexistor Data

Protection Service LLC

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 36: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Nasuni Corp Panzura Inc Riverbed Technology Inc StorSimple Inc Twin-Strata Inc and others While some gateways are touted as hybrid cloudstorage products to extend on-premises storage into the cloud RiverbedWhitewaterrsquos focus is exclusively on cloud backup Available in differentconfigurations for small businesses to large enterprises traditional back-up applications back up to the Whitewater gateway appliance which thendeduplicates compresses encrypts and asynchronously moves data intosupported cloud providers (which currently include ATampT Amazon and Nirvanix) The StorSimple gateway stands out because of its extensivesupport of Microsoft SharePoint

CLOUD BACKUP GOES MAINSTREAMBackup to the cloud is moving from a niche application into the mainstreamespecially in the SOHO and SMB sectors and itrsquos being used increasinglyby larger companies to supplement their existing backup infrastructureThe increased adoption of cloud services by public companies and evengovernment agencies suggests that security concerns with cloud servicesare slowly abating However proper due diligence must be taken whenevaluating cloud backup such as implementing solid backup processesand strong controls to avoid unpleasant surprises 2

Jacob Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for business systemsHe can be reached at jgsoedlyahoocom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

36 STORAGE September 2011

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

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bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 37: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE September 2011

TO SAY NETAPP INC outscored Dell Inc on the latest QualityAwards survey for midrange arrays is something of an over-

statement With the slimmest possible margin separatingthemmdash001mdashthe two data storage behemoths duked it out in

every rating category sharing honors along the way and finishing in a neardead heat With all scores tallied NetApp topped Dell with a score of 660vs 659 Obviously both vendorsrsquo products are highly regarded by their customers even as that trust and loyalty has been earned via two distinctroutes NetApp is a networked storage pioneer while Dell has successfullyleveraged partnerships and acquisitions to build an impressive portfolio

NetApp nudges Dell for top midrangearray spotDell plus Compellent proved to be a strong combination but not quite strong enough to overtake NetApp on our sixthQuality Awards survey for midrange arrays BY RICH CASTAGNA

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

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bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

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bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

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  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 38: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE September 2011

NetApp and Dell led a generally strong groupof eight midrange vendors and their productlines Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) with anoverall 647 wasnrsquot far behind the leadersand IBMrsquos 640 was also just a bit off thepace Rounding out the field were EMC Corp(631) Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co (625) OracleCorp (597) and first-timer Nexsan Corp(566) (For more information about ourprocess and surveyed products see ldquoAboutthe Quality Awardsrdquo and ldquoProducts in the surveyrdquo below)

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

OVERALL RANKINGS

P R O D U C T S I N T H E S U R V E YThe following vendors and midrange array model lines were included in the Quality Awards survey Thenumber of responses for each finalist is included in parentheses after the product names

Overall rankings

Acer AS2040 or AMS 21002300

BlueArc Corp Titan 20003000 Series Mercury

DataDirect Networks Inc S2A Series

Dell Inc CX Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series or Dell Compellent Storage Center (93)

Dot Hill Systems Corp AssuredSAN 3000 Series

EMC Corp Clariion CX SeriesVNX Series (184)

Fujitsu Eternus DX400 Series

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co EVA Series P4000Series 3PAR E200 or F200F400 (129)

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) USP VM or AMS Series (65)

IBM Storwize V7000 DS3950 DS4000 DS5000 or DS6000 (84)

Infortrend ESVA E60 or F60 Series

NEC Corp D3D4D8 Series

NetApp Inc FAS200FAS900FAS2000 (124)

Nexsan Corp E-Series SATABeast SASBeast (15)

Oracle Sun Storage 6000 or 7000 Series (43)

Overland Storage SnapSAN S2000

Pillar Data Systems Axiom 300500600 (survey conducted before the

Oracle acquisition)

Reldata Inc 9240i

SGI Corp InfiniteStorage 400050006000 Series

Xiotech Corp Emprise (ISE) 70009000 Series

Received too few responses to be included among the finalists

660 NetApp

659 Dell

647 Hitachi

640 IBM

631 EMC

625 HP

597 Oracle

566 Nexsan

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

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See ad page 32

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bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 39: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

A B O U T T H E Q U A L I T Y AWA R D S The Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identi-fy and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Results are derived from a survey ofqualified readers who assess products in five main categories sales-force competence initial product quality product features product reliability and technical support Our methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminatesmarket share as a factor Indeed our objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendorname reputation or size Products are rated on a scale of 100 to 800 where 800 is the best score A total of 457 respon-dents provided 797 midrange storage array evaluations

Setting the table forits close competi-tion NetApp bestedDell in the sales-force competencecategory by a scanttwo-hundredths of a point 640 to 638The two vendorsevenly divvied upthe six statementsin the category NetApp showed its strength with asales team thatrsquosknowledgeable andreps who under-stand customersrsquobusinesses and interests Dellrsquos reps scored high for taking time to learntheir customersrsquo industries and for their flexibility and willingness to negotiate HDSrsquo 631 placed it third just trailing the leaders on most of the category statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Smart sales Thehighest overall average for a singlestatement in thiscategory was a 636for ldquoThe vendorrsquossales support teamis knowledgeablerdquo

Four vendorsscored 600 or betteron all six statements NetApp Dell HDS and EMC

The worst scores across the board were for ldquoMysales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo (586)

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoEveryone compares themselves to NetAppWhat does that sayrdquo mdashSURVEY RESPONDENT

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

640 NetApp

638 Dell

631 Hitachi

625 EMC

614 IBM

586 HP

583 Oracle

526 Nexsan

Sales-force competence

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 40: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE September 2011

Pre-sales activitiesand inking contractsare the pregameshow with the realkickoff happeningwhen the gear getsuncrated Midrangevendorsmdashled by NetApprsquos solid 674for initial productqualitymdashare appar-ently doing a goodjob of creating awinning first im-pression as theoverall average forthis category wassecond highest (justtrailing the numbersfor product reliabili-ty) Dell once againfinished second with an equally impressive 668 HP tallied a 660 for astrong third-placing showing NetApp scored highest for four of the sixstatements with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

HDSrsquos 695 for ldquoThis product wasinstalled withoutany defectsrdquo wasthe highest singlestatement score forall categories in thesurvey

NetApprsquos first-place finish was achieved with top scores forgetting up and running quickly requiring littlevendor intervention needing only a reasonableamount of professional services and ease of use

All eight products totaled scores higher than600 only the second time that has happened insix surveys

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoOur HDS AMS 2300 is rock solidrdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

HEAVY HITTERSHDS 94

Nexsan 90

EMC 79

NetApp 72

Oracle 71

IBM 64

HP 58

Dell 46

Initial product quality

Respondentsrsquo average installed capacity (in TB) with midrange arrays vendors

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

674 NetApp

668 Dell

660 HP

658 IBM

647 Hitachi

633 EMC

604 Nexsan

601 Oracle

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 41: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE September 2011

Some claim theparity amongmidrange arrays isso great that therersquoslittle difference intheir features Thatmay be true forcore capabilitiesbut therersquos still considerable differ-entiation amongvendorrsquos wares NetApp won theproduct featurescategory with a 663 score that wasenough to squeakby strong showingsby HDS (655) andDell (652) NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statementsincluding those for snapshot (682) mirroring (679) and replication (661) capabilities which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Second-place HDS had the higheststatement score in the category for all products a 688 for ldquoThis productrsquos capacity scales tomeet my needsrdquo

Dell came in thirdwith top scores for overall satisfaction with features (671) and management features (663)

Along with the top three finishers IBM had 600-plus scores for all category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoThe technology behind DellCompellent is very good the three tier technology can move heavily used data to tier 1(fast disks)rdquo

mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product features

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT FEATURES

663 NetApp

655 Hitachi

652 Dell

641 IBM

625 EMC

617 HP

616 Oracle

505 Nexsan

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 42: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE September 2011

The true test of anymidrange storageproduct is how wellit fares over an extended period of time In all butone of the pastmidrange surveysthe overall averagefor reliability wasthe highest amongall categoriesmdashwhich is also thecase this time(645) Dellrsquos 675 putit on top ahead ofNetApp (669) andHDS (666) withinstriking distancewere IBM EMC and HP Dell scored highest on four of the five statementsceding to HDS only for the statement related to applying patches nondis-ruptively With the exception of HDS all products had their lowest scoresfor the nondisruptive patching statement NetApprsquos second-place finish resulted from trailing Dell by just a few hundredths of a point on severalstatements

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

All products had average scores of600-plus in the reliability category

Dell was tops formeeting service-level requirementshaving very littledowntime needingfew unplannedpatches and providing comprehensive upgradeadvice

IBM EMC and HP joined the three leaders byscoring 600-plus on all five category statements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoNetAppReliable and f lexiblerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Product reliability

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

PRODUCT RELIABILITY

675 Dell

669 NetApp

666 Hitachi

652 IBM

647 EMC

640 HP

609 Nexsan

602 Oracle

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 43: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Things will breakbut the vendor thatresponds fast andwith a good fix willplease any datastorage pro Dellsnared its secondcategory win withan average score of662 splitting theeight tech supportstatements withsecond-place Net-App (657) HDS andIBM tied for thirdeach tallying aver-ages of 635 Dellrsquosstrengths were delivering supportas promised rarelyrequiring problemescalation solvingissues in a timely manner and having well-versed support personnel Net-App led for doing a good job training its partners providing good trainingand documentation and taking ownership of problems when they arise

B R E A K I N G D OW NT H E N U M B E R S

Dellrsquos 693 for ldquoVendor suppliessupport as contrac-tually specifiedrdquo was the highest rating for any statement in thiscategory its 691 forldquoSupport personnelare knowledgeablerdquowas the second highest

The two leadersrsquo statement scores were remark-ably consistent for Dell its eight scores had arange of 060 for NetApp the range was 049

Besides Dell and NetApp HP was the only vendor to receive scores of 600-plus for allstatements

W H AT T H E Y rsquo R E S AY I N G

ldquoDell support is excellent every timerdquo mdash S U RV E Y R E S P O N D E N T

Technical support

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE September 2011

400 450 500 550 600 650 700

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

662 Dell

657 NetApp

635 Hitachi

635 IBM

624 HP

622 EMC

586 Nexsan

584 Oracle

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 44: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE September 2011

A true test of customersrsquo satisfaction iswhether they would come back for more Often these results donrsquot jibe with the cate-gory scores but NetApp and Dell again leadthe pack with solid scores that should gener-ate some repeat business Among NetAppusers 87 said that knowing what they knownow they would make the same purchaseagain Dell users were nearly as loyal with86 ready to repeat their purchases IBM(82) and EMC (81) users were similarly inclined with HP (78) HDS (77)Oracle (67) and Nexsan (60) rounding out the field

On past Quality Awards surveys midrange users have reported generallypositive reviews for their systems of choice and the scores from this surveyreinforce those impressions The midrange segment is the fastest growingslice of the storage array pie so another survey of mostly positive resultsis good news for both users and vendors 2

Rich Castagna (rcastagnastoragemagazinecom) is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

BUY AGAIN

87 NetApp

86 Dell

82 IBM

81 EMC

78 HP

77 Hitachi

67 Oracle

60 Nexsan

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 45: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE September 2011

HERE SEEMS TO be a new category of data storage system on the horizon acloud-enabled storage array The broad market isnrsquot using this terminologyyet but while some call it tiering others a gateway or a hybrid cloud theyall have one thing in common a low-risk opportunity for end users to sticktheir toe in the water and experiment with cloud storage infrastructures

Traditional storage vendors are using cloud as a storage tier within thestorage array perhaps the best known is EMC Corp tiering to the cloudusing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) with its Celerra product lineIn that system cloud is treated as a storage tier for long-term archivingof infrequently accessed data Wersquore also seeing F5 Networks Inc take a similar approach with its ARX product line in which it tiers file data tothe cloud

Similarly on the gateway front we have Panzura Inc StorSimple Incand TwinStrata Inc offering systems that can be used as on-premisesstorage systems or as a gateway to cloud service providers And withthese systems the way cloud services are leveraged can be configured in multiple ways Cloud can be the primary storage target with the gate-way only holding cached data to eliminate the latency associated withstoring data off site (These systems also typically encrypt dedupe com-press and provide snapshot functionality) Alternately data can be pinnedwith the local system holding the primary copy of the data and the cloudbeing used as a disaster recovery (DR) target This approach gives cloudskeptics a low-risk option to test cloud services because the primarydata stays on site and the remote copy is encrypted This is much moreaffordable than using array-based remote copy tools and maintaining aremote site yourself

Therersquos also an emerging category of software to consider designed forvirtual use It can leverage storage capacity and characteristics regardless of whether itrsquos on site or in the cloud creating a stretch or geo-distributed

hot spots | terri mcclure

Curious about cloud Consider thesesimple safe ways to get started

Cloud-enabled storage arrays are among the ways that cautious end users are testing the cloud without the worry

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 46: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

46 STORAGE September 2011

cluster There are different capabilities of cloud services depending on whichtype of storage media is assigned to it and these software programs recog-nize that for users Some of the gateways probably fall into this category sotherersquos bound to be a bit of overlap but as storage increasingly becomesmore virtualized and more of a software-layered-on-commodity-hardwareplay this is an area to watch Gluster with its software-only offering hasmade a notable early start here

Why do you believe that public cloud computing services willhave little or no impact on your organizationrsquos IT strategy over the next five years (Multiple responses accepted)

Data securityPrivacy concerns

Feel like we would be giving up too much control

Too much invested in currentIT infrastructure and staff

Cloud computing offerings need to mature

Satisfied with existing infrastructure and process

Have plenty of in-houseskilled resources

Regulatory complianceAudit concerns

Data availabilityRecovery concerns

Company philosophyagainst outsourcing

Performance concerns

Donrsquot see any financial or operational benefits

Network connectivity cost

SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group

43

32

32

29

28

27

25

21

20

20

19

17

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 47: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE September 2011

HYBRID SHMYBRIDTo buy into the hybrid cloud message you first need to buy into privateclouds And the jury is still out on what exactly constitutes a private cloudIs it simply that your IT department has deployed virtualization and trans-formed to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Others will tell you thatyou must meet very strict criteria having to do with RESTful APIs globalnamespaces and scalable object stores owned and operated by IT We (recalling my storage vendor days) used to represent the storage-area network (SAN) in PowerPoint charts with a cloud and describe it with a lotof the attributes we use to describe cloud today Indeed many definitionsof the SAN could also match the description of a private storage cloud And a cloud-enabled array may not even be a part of an overarching cloudstrategy it may just be a safe easy way to enable remote replication datarecovery services

Why do I think this cloud-enabled array approach may be a big part of IT strategy over the next few years Thatrsquos one part of this equation thatrsquossimple to answer IT is a combination of people processes and technologyFor existing storage users who want to stay with legacy arrays or keep ex-isting processes in place using cloud as a storage tier behind what appearsto be a conventional array gives them the extensibility and price points ofcloud without radically altering processes or having to retrain staff Or forthose users who need a more comprehensive DR strategy but canrsquot afford aremote site system and the staff to manage it using tools within a storagearray and turning some dials to mirror encrypted data to the cloud is lowrisk and affordable Cloud-enabled storage arrays are bridging technologytying the present to the future and a familiar safe way to test a cloudstrategy 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Milford Mass

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 48: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE September 2011

tHERErsquoS NO QUESTION IO is the next frontier the computer industry must con-quer Wersquove met the compute challenge reaffirming Moorersquos Law over andover again as the industry doubles processing power every 12 months to 18months Memory speeds have also kept pace with the CPU so processorsand RAM can feed each other at similar speeds In the realm of networkingthe technologies seem to enjoy a big kick every three years to five yearsWith 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) in the volume implementation stage and 40 Gig parts already available wersquore swimming in bandwidth

But all those advances may be held up by one laggard IO Itrsquos beencausing havoc with application performance and putting a dent in produc-tivity for years

To see why we need to get down to basics IO is the transfer of data to or from a device thatrsquos handled by the file system or operating systemmaking an IO call For data storage itrsquos a SCSI call that goes through theHBANICCNA and over the network to the SCSI device The command isprocessed by the arrayrsquos storage controller and data is extracted from thedisks and placed on the network or data is written to the disks An IO problem generally means it takes too long to read from or write to thedisks This IO gap has existed for at least three decades and it gets widerevery year with little being done about it

Until nowNAND flash memory chips may be the solution that finally closes the IO

gap Flash memory promises to be the best solution to the IO problemwersquove seen in three decades With solid-state storage wersquore able to feedthe computememory complex traversing the network and the buses with data moving at speeds that can keep the entire system working atpeak efficiency

The implications are profound In many ways VMware and other hypervi-

readwrite | arun taneja

IO The next frontierProcessors get faster networking tech takes it up

a notch and bus designs keep up the pace butthey may all be dragged down if we canrsquot

find a fix for slow IO performance

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 49: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

sors are in a near stall state the easy applications are already running asvirtual machines (VMs) but the IO problem must first be resolved to getmission-critical applications into the server virtualization fold No IT shopwill move a latency-sensitive IO-bound application thatrsquos been fine-tunedto run on a dedicated server to the VM environment until the IO character-istics are equal or better on the VM side

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performance computing (HPC)seismic bio pharmaceutical media and entertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbledor stopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue The impli-cations for solving the IO dilemmaare enormous

While solid-state is seen as thesolution where and how itrsquos usedto solve the IO problem is still un-certain The easiest way to get intothe game is solid-state storage inhard disk form factor that can pluginto a traditional array Thatrsquos theeasiest way to get a quick boostbut itrsquos only a partial solution The arrayrsquos controller which was never designed for such powerful devices quickly becomes a bottleneck DellEMC Hewlett-Packard Hitachi IBM and practically all data storage vendorsoffer this alternative

To deal with this ldquoconstrictionrdquo in the storage array controller a numberof vendors have developed controllers that are designed from the groundup to deal with solid-state drives (SSDs) These arrays can accelerate latency-sensitive apps by 4x to 10x Vendors in this category include GridIron SystemsSolidFire Violin Memory and others

Flash can also be used to grab the IO before it reaches a storage arrayand cut out all the travel updown the buses to the HBANICCNA andacross the network fabric For this alternative the flash memory is imple-mented on a PCIe card thatrsquos slotted into the server Latency-sensitive datais kept in the flash memory on the card and the relevant IO is trapped bythe card and handled locally The driver in this case is crucial and is gener-

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE September 2011

Demanding appsmdashlike high-performancecomputing (HPC) seismic bio pharma-ceutical media andentertainment andweather forecastingmdashare hobbled orstopped dead in their tracks because of the IO issue

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 50: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

ally supplied by the card vendor Performance is outstanding because noextraneous latency-adding devices get in the way Think of this approach asmemory being made to look like a disk The biggest downside is that the IOperformance is only available to the server that holds the solid-state cardVendors in this category include IO Turbine (which is in the process of beingacquired by Fusion-io) Fusion-io VeloBit and others

Still another approach is to use flash memory as a cache that front endsa storage array such as NetApprsquos Flash Cache Here the cache is designedto be smart enough to hold that portion of the data thatrsquos frequently re-quested by the applications Instead of a small number of SSD drives thatthe array itself could hold the benefit of flash is now applicable to data inthe entire array

Variations on these approaches are coming fast and furious For examplewersquove seen products from vendors like Alacritech and Avere Systems thatuse a combination of DRAM flash and hard disk drives (HDDs) in a packagethat front ends a number of NAS boxes to essentially breathe new life intoold NAS systems The variations are as many as there are creative entrepre-neurs and it remains to be seen which approaches will ultimately prevail

Itrsquos high time we solved the IO problem HDDs have been the mainstayin data storage shops for as long as one can remember But fundamentalchanges are occurring now that will forever change how IO is done Theperformance and productivity gains yoursquoll see wonrsquot just be incrementaltheyrsquoll blow your mind 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president at Taneja Group an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies He can bereached at arunttanejagroupcom

STORAGE

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE September 2011

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 51: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

High satisfaction among cloud backup users Nearly 25 of our 244 respondents use cloud backupmdasha fairly high number giventhe uneasiness about sending data offsite and the relative newness of this incar-nation of cloud storage Sixty-five percent of cloud backup users are very satisfiedor satisfied with the services theyrsquore using and 49 expect to expand their useRespondents send an average of 42 of their backups to the cloud and maintainan average of 126 TB of backup data in the ether While touted as ideal for mobileuser and remote-office backup the heavy use case is for data center backup (58)Users still rely on the servicersquos software for access (58) but 47 use an in-houseappliance or array to stage backups before theyrsquore shipped to the service The topreason for not using cloud backup Nervous about sending data into a public cloudThe most recognized cloud backup services are Amazon (10) Symantec (7) andEMC (6) Google IBM Iron Mountain and Microsoft were all at 5 mdashRich Castagna

ldquo Works well for remote sales laptop users but too expensive for data center backup due to the bandwidth required and the time to restore in a catastropherdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE September 2011

29

Does your company currently use any cloud storage services for backup

Say better data security would convince them to try

a cloud backup service

12

12

23

39

2

2

5

5

More than 50 TB

41 TB to 50 TB

31 TB to 40 TB

21 TB to 30 TB

11 TB to 20 TB

6 TB to 10 TB

2 TB to 5 TB

Less than 1 TB

0 10 20 30 40

How much data does your company havestored with cloud storage backup services

Yes 24No

76

Why doesnrsquot your company use a cloud backup service

51 Not comfortable sending our data into a public cloud

46 Our current backup setup is adequate

30 Communications bandwidth isnrsquot adequate at this time

27 Concerned about restoring large amounts of data

21 Wersquore currently evaluating cloud backup services

18 Cloud backup services are too expensive

16 Worried that a cloud backup service may go out of business

Multiple responses permitted

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 52: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

Getting real with the cloud

Hello virtual storage

Choosing storage for

virtual servers

Cloud backup isenterprise ready

Quality AwardsMidrange arrays

Cloud-enabledstorage arrays

Breaking the IO bottleneck

Cloud backup

Sponsorresources

52 STORAGE September 2011

STORAGE

COMING IN

OctoberWhat storage

managers are buyingThis is the ninth year of our exclusiveStorage Purchasing Intentions Surveythat asks data storage managers howthey plan to spend their budgets thetechnologies theyrsquore implementing orevaluating and other initiatives andissues under consideration We analyzethe current results and compare themto past data to determine emergingstorage buying trends

Storage networking decisionsWersquoll take a look at some of the storage networking technologies thatare likely to have the most impact incurrent and future data centers Wersquollconsider how FCoE will fit in if FibreChannel is really dead how Ethernet ispoised to dominate and whether newtechs like virtual IO are really ready

The state of solid-stateSolid-state storage has carved out afairly specialized and still rather smallniche in the storage ecosystem but ithas certainly established itself as aviable alternative Wersquoll look at whattechnologies are working now themost popular and effective imple-mentations of solid-state technologyand what to expect both near-termand further down the road

And donrsquot miss our monthly columns andcommentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Vice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen JoyceContributing Editors

Tony Asaro James Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl W Curtis Preston

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienSenior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia LeliiSenior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssociate Site Editor Megan Kellett

Assistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanEditorial Assistant Hillary OrsquoRourke

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Senior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Heather Darcy

Assistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd Erickson

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Senior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

TechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Associate Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

STORAGE

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 53: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 4

bull Preventing Data Overload

bull Smarter Storage Management

See ad page 24

bull Whitepaper Snapshot Management amp Source-Side Dedupe are Vital to Modern DataProtection

bull Top 5 Challenges for Virtual Server Data Protection

See ad page 28

bull Fluid Data Storage A How To Guide

bull 7 Ways Compellent Optimizes VMware Server Virtualization

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 54: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 7

bull IDC Analyst Connections Enterprise Customers Embrace

bull IDC Modernizing Backups to Accelerate the Journey to Virtualization

bull IDC Disaster Recovery Improving Time-to-Readiness

See ad page 11

bull Confidently maximize virtual investments with IBMIntegrated Service Management

bull Analyst Whitepaper Storage-efficient Data Protection and Retention

See ad page 17

bull Compliant Media Management Best Practices Guide

bull Guide to Improving Your Tape Storage Practices

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources
Page 55: Storage Mag Online Sept 2011 Final

SPONSOR RESOURCES

See ad page 20

bull ReadyNASreg 3200 Boosts Financial Services Firm Productivity by Supporting 20 VirtualMachines Cutting Rack Space by 80 and Costs by Over 50

bull Server Virtualization A Game-Changer For SMB Customers

See ad page 32

bull Nexsan E-Series

See ad page 14

bull Deduplication for Dummies

bull E-Guide Dedupe Dos and Donts Data Deduplication Technology Best Practices

  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Lets get real about the cloud
  • The impact of virtual storage appliances
  • The best storage for virtual servers Pros and cons of FC iSCSI and NAS
  • Cloud backup is ready for the enterprise
  • Quality Awards VI NetApp nudges Dell for top midrange array spot
  • Curious about cloud Consider these simple safe ways to get started
  • IO The next frontier
  • High satisfaction among cloud backup users
  • Editorial mastheadOctober preview
  • Sponsor resources