storagemagonlinedec2012finalv8
TRANSCRIPT
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backup deduplication • Spectra logic SweepS tape library awar
Castagna:
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Managing the information that drives the enterprise
Vol. 11 No. 10 December 2012
Storage
Hot Technologies for 2013Find out which techs will reshape storage in 2013.
cloud file-Sharing
and Sync ServiceS
Server-Side flaSh cache
SnapShot-baSed backupS
cloud-baSed diSaSter recovery
Storage SyStemS for
virtual environmentS
all-flaSh Storage arrayS
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From our SponSorS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 3
e di t or i a l | rich castagna
I t’s survey season once again, and it seems as i every vendor and analyst
frm has some new tale to spin based on numbers gleaned rom polling IT
pros or perhaps just plucked out o thin air.
Try this one on or size: Gartner says 4.4 million IT jobs—1.9 million
o them in the U.S.—will be created by 2015 in support o big data. Wow,
right? But wait, there’s more. The press release announcing this employment
windall goes on to say, “Every big data-related role in the U.S. will create em-
ployment or three people outside o IT, so over the next our years a total o 6 million jobs in the U.S. will be generated by the inormation economy.”
So, something called “big data” that nobody seems to be able to actually de-
fne will create millions o jobs in just a ew years. For all we know, Gartner
might be using a pretty loose defnition o big data that could include hiring
new baristas at the Starbucks where the sotware engineering team uels up on
Venti Americanos. Without some context, it’s kind o hard to evaluate Gart-
ner’s prediction. I could tell you that small data is poised to create 10 million
jobs by the end o 2013. I just made that up, but you get the point; and, by the
way, it eels pretty good to make such sweeping, and positive, predictions.But i you keep reading Gartner’s press release, you don’t get much o a
chance to bask in the rosy glow o the prospect o widespread employment:
“But there is a challenge. There is not enough talent in the industry. Our public
and private education systems are ailing us. Thereore, only one-third o the IT
jobs will be flled.”
Oo! We just went rom millions o new jobs to ailing education systems
Ss, s Vendors and their cohorts at the big IT think tanks offer a steadystream of predictions and survey data; but is any of it useful?
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 4
e di t or i a l | rich castagna
in two paragraphs o a press release. Gartner giveth and Gartner taketh away,
I guess.
So what’s the point o all this predicting and then hedging? I think they just like to say “big data ” a lot, and make it sound like it’s more than just an IT
thing—it’s woven into the abric o our lives and i you want to be “there” and
help create millions o jobs, you should buy a lot o big data stu. Gartner’s
beating that big data drum pretty relentlessly, which must be music to the ears
o its storage and IT vendor clients.
All o that is a lot o prognosticating, so let’s get to the actual polling. Lately,
a lot o storage vendors are conducting their own surveys: some are scientifc,
a ew are science projects and others are pure sci-f. But regardless o the cred-
ibility and merits o vendor surveys, it’s interesting to observe the spin they put on the results. For example, i I sell
storage systems and my survey reveals
that 73% o companies don’t use storage,
is that a good thing because I have a huge
untapped market or bad news because
nobody needs my product?
Symantec does a number o vendor
surveys, including an annual disaster re-
covery/data protection survey that typi-cally reveals that a huge number o re-
sponding companies are playing Russian
roulette with their data. But I’m guessing that rom Symantec’s perspective, the
more companies out there using prayer as their primary means o data protec-
tion, the better. Ater all, Symantec has backup apps, archivers, replicators and
just about every handy tool you’d want in your data protection kit.
Another vendor survey—this one conducted at VMworld by solid-state stor-
age vendor STEC—notes that 62% o respondents have solid-state storage in-
stalled. That makes it sound like a lot o solid-state storage has been sold andonly 38% are doing without, and who knows how many o them are interested
in ash? STEC’s release describing the results also says, “Just 5% believe SSDs
provide a competitive advantage, while 60% cite higher IOPS and aster re-
sponse time.” Speed thrills, but it seems that competitive advantage isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be. Still, the STEC vendor survey has no trouble seeing the silver
lining: “These survey results reect the belie that next-generation applications
a ss ss:s s, sjs s
s-.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 5
e di t or i a l | rich castagna
across industries require enterprise SSDs with consistent, real-world peror-
mance so that companies can achieve higher IOPS and aster response times.”
OK, so i a survey shows that nobody’s using your product, it proves there’sa crying need or that product. And i a survey shows that everyone’s using your
product, it proves there’s a crying need or more o your product. It’s a classic
win-win … or the vendors at least. I you’re a user trying to fgure out i you
need the product and who’s using it, it’s not much help.
My avorite vendor survey tidbit comes rom Symantec’s State o Inorma-
tion Survey: “Forty-two percent o business inormation is hard to fnd.” Does
that mean nobody’s looking or the other 58%? n
Rich castagna is editorial director of TechTarget’s Storage Media Group.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 7
s t or a ge r e vol ut i on | jon t oi go
AreCent artiCLe in Nature should have all data storage watchers
breathing a little easier. The story detailed the latest theo-
ries rom an astronomical study conducted by a group o re-
searchers at Michigan State University establishing, among
other things, that multiple black holes could keep company
within a cluster o the Milky Way galaxy without, you know, shredding the ab-
ric o the universe.
The scientists reported the discovery o a pair o black holes in the M22cluster (part o the Sagittarius constellation approximately 10,000 light years
away), and presented data that there may be between fve and 100 black holes
in that same location. They urther suggested that these phenomena may not be
as quick to eject their brethren into open space at anything like the rate previ-
ously thought—thereby reducing the likelihood, I suppose, that I’ll encounter a
random black hole the next time I’m warping through the ether in my starship.
By now you must be asking yoursel, “How does black-hole behavior theory
relate to storage?”
Well, there are always lessons to be gleaned rom nature, especially when itcomes to data storage technology. Since the recession, and even a bit beore the
economy went south, we were seeing a lot o merger and acquisition activity
in the storage realm. A lot o smaller innovators were gobbled up by big three-
or-our-letter-goliath vendors (the metaphorical “black holes” in the storage
universe).
The “knee nippers and ankle biters” like 3PAR, Data Domain, EqualLogic,
t s sNot-so-heavenly bodies are scooping up smaller data storage companies threatening innovationin the storage universe.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 8
s t or a ge r e vol ut i on | jon t oi go
Isilon, Engenio, BlueArc, LetHand Networks and many others went to the
likes o Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, EMC, IBM and HDS. Sun/STK was ab-
sorbed by Oracle and, as o this writing, rumors are ying about that NetAppmight ollow suit.
Below the level o the array, we witnessed disk drive makers Hitachi GST
and Samsung HDD collapsing into the gravitational pull o Western Digital and
Seagate, respectively. Along with Toshiba, that leaves us with three disk drive
manuacturers.
In the wake o these acquisitions, and with the feld o available sources
or storage technology shrinking exponentially, many o us wondered whether
consumers would ever again see a storage marketplace characterized by multi-
ple sources o fnished goods and com-ponentry, or any kind o signifcant
innovation given the kind o de acto
cartel that was orming. We could only
hope that, as in prior theories around
black holes, the industry would ex-
plode in time, ejecting the big goliaths
into space and opening up opportuni-
ties or newer and perhaps more origi-
nal thinking—sort o another big bang.Now it seems that our black hole
metaphor is a bit less encouraging. Sci-
entists say the black holes may actually
coexist peaceully or a very long time. Moreover, they speculate that the black
holes may be transerring energy to adjacent stars, reducing their density and
slowing their evolution as well as the production o surrounding planets. By a
metaphorical extension to storage, it seems that a cartel o storage companies
could potentially coexist or some time, increasing the heat around ideas and
technologies that do little to reduce the cost or increase the efciency o data storage inrastructure. We may be stuck with tactical ideas like deduplication,
compression, thin provisioning and so on or the oreseeable uture—ideas that
don’t address the root causes o the explosion in storage capacity demand, but
instead only provide temporary and short-lived relie rom symptoms.
We’ll see some new cobbling together o technology in the kits oered by
the Big Three or Big Four storage “black holes.” They’ve already taken the idea
b , ss s s hgSt Ss hdds
ws d S, s.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 9
s t or a ge r e vol ut i on | jon t oi go
advanced by X-IO and blended ash SSD read caching with hard disk opera-
tions to improve IOPS per watt. And we hear EMC is actually incentivizing
its sales orce to promote Spectra Logic tape libraries to its clientele—a nodto the huge sucking sound we’ve been hearing isn’t just Hopkinton’s share o
the storage market growing bigger relative to its ellow black holes, but EMC’s
customers’ wallets emptying ater years o practicing their vendor’s “disk or
everything” dogma.
“A ull suite o enterprise storage solutions,” to paraphrase EMC’s marketec-
ture, must now include tape technology. Who knew?
Still, when you see the new hurdles that have impeded the expedient market
delivery o plug-and-play Linear Tape File System (LTFS) mass storage reposi-
tories—the eort to have SNIA sprinkle holy water on IBM’s code to producethe one true LTFS so IBM’s interests in the technology they developed are pre-
served—you can’t help but wonder i the black holes aren’t slowing the evolu-
tion o storage technology in general.
I console mysel that all is not lost, that we’re not entering any sort o Dark
Age in the history o storage. Ater all, the Michigan State scientists conceded
their theories were just that: theory. In act, the radio signals they’ve been ana-
lyzing might not have been generated by black holes in the M22 cluster at all.
They may be detecting the noise generated by galaxies that are some distance
“in back o or behind” the M22 cluster, misreading the signals as the emana-tions o black holes.
The black holes o storage may not establish any sort o stable nexus, but
may interact violently, building proprietary capabilities into their wares that
lock in customers and lock out competition until, at last, they’re ejected rom
data centers into open space, enabling the evolution o new solar systems o
storage wares rom wannabe black holes.
You know: like the way it has been up ’til now. n
Jon William toigo is a 30-year IT veteran, CEO and managing principal of Toigo Partners Interna-tional, and chairman of the Data Management Institute.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
cover art
storAgen
december 2012 11
by sr
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
our annuaL Hot data storage technologies orecast cites the practical applica-
tions o techs that are available and ready now, rather than oohing and ahing
over a list o science projects that may never leave the lab. That’s not to say ourtech picks lack pizzazz; they represent some o the most exciting technologies
that are at the core o data center transormation, including solid-state storage,
storage clouds, virtualization and data protection.
In 2013, we think a lot o data storage shops will sidestep spinning disk in
avor o all-ash arrays—the prices are plunging and the perormance is jaw-
dropping. Solid-state will also become a key tool or caching apps and data to
hot Storage techS for 2013 t x r cw py pv r rrm d cr.n All-flAsh storAge ArrAys
n cloud-bAsed dIsAster recovery
n snApshot-bAsed bAckups
n server-bAsed flAsh cAche
n storAge systems for vIrtuAlenvIronments
n cloud-bAsed fIle-shArIngAnd sync servIces
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 12
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
help speed up hard disk systems.
Cloud storage services will fgure prominently in many companies’ disaster
recovery (DR) plans, oering inexpensive virtual collocations and near-instan-taneous recoveries. But as fle share and sync services continue to prolierate,
the cloud will also create a little stress or storage managers.
Nightlies and weeklies may disappear rom many backup operations in the
coming year as more companies turn to snapshot-based backups. And a lot o
the data they’ll be backing up will be stored on systems specifcally designed or
virtualized server environments.
aLL-fLasH storage arraysWith price the major obstacle to implementing solid-state storage, arrays
packed exclusively with ash have taken time to catch on. But a bevy o start-
ups oering lower prices have made all-ash arrays a reality, and acquisitions
by storage giants could push them even deeper into enterprises in the coming
year.
Simply put, the need or speed has created a market or ash systems. Top-
tier, all-solid-state drive (SSD) arrays can deliver 500,000 IOPS to 1,000,000
IOPS, and even “second-tier” arrays oer 100,000 IOPS to 200,000 IOPS at a
raction o the price or a top-tier box.“When you think o an all-SSD array, you’re thinking about how you can
pack the greatest amount o IOPS or storage perormance into the smallest
orm and with the smallest investment,” said Je Byrne, a senior analyst and
consultant at Hopkinton, Mass.-based Taneja Group.
The cost o an all-SSD array is exorbitantly high on a dollar-per-GB basis,
but the scales tip in its avor i dollars per IOPS is the measurement. So the best
use cases or all-SSD storage arrays are environments that rely on applications
requiring sustained high perormance.
“Those would be things like data analytics, digital imaging, [virtual desktopinrastructure] VDI, database applications, fnancial trading systems and gam-
ing websites,” Byrne said. The applications also eature high transactional vol-
ume and highly random I/O, which justifes the all-SSD array high cost per GB.
All-SSD storage platorms have come rom startups, including Kaminario,
Nimbus Data, Pure Storage, SolidFire, Skyera, Tegile Systems, Violin Memory
and Whiptail Technologies, among others. But they’ll soon have company. EMC
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 13
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
Corp. acquired XtremIO last May and plans to release its all-ash “Project X”
system in mid-2013. And IBM is already in the market with a slate o all-ash
systems it acquired when it bought Texas Memory Systems in August 2012. Arrays rom the top-tier vendors will set you back between $16 and $20 per
GB. Midtier ash arrays still etch a premium price at $3 to $8 per GB. Today’s
enterprise spinning disk array prices are typically below $2 per GB.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 14
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
All-SSD storage vendors are working to bring down the cost o their arrays,
as well as perecting the overall array designs or greatest efciency and cost
eectiveness.One way o reducing cost is by using multi-level cell (MLC) instead o the
more expensive single-level cell (SLC) ash. SLC ash is more durable and
reliable, with a liecycle o a 100,000 write cycles. MLC has a liecycle o ap-
proximately 10,000 write cycles, but vendors have improved the perormance
and durability o MLC through sotware and better ways o writing data. Data
reduction technologies can also help lower the price by eectively increasing
the amount o usable storage space.
As ash prices drop and the use o MLC becomes more pervasive in 2013,
we’ll see ash arrays move rom niche environments to traditional enterpriseapplications, even replacing spinning disk systems.
CLoud-based disaster reCoveryCloud-based DR may be an ideal disaster-proofng option or both small and
medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprise-scale companies. Any orga-
nization can easily and inexpensively ship copies o its data to a cloud storage
service. Using server virtualization, when local operations are disrupted, new
virtual servers can be stood up in the cloud to access the stored data.“Essentially, cloud-based disaster recovery takes traditional recovery assets,
such as storage systems dedicated or data backup, and relocates them into a
cloud-based storage environment provided by a third-party frm,” said Paul Kir-
van, an independent consultant and DR expert.
Storage magazine’s recent Purchasing Intentions survey ound companies
are still approaching cloud storage with caution, but approximately 12% o re-
spondents said they’re using the cloud or DR.
And a March 2012 Forrester Research Inc. survey commissioned by IBM
noted that large organizations can beneft by looking to an outside cloud DR vendor. According to the Cambridge, Mass.-based research frm, 23% o en-
terprises were expanding or upgrading implementations o cloud DR (also re-
erred to as disaster recovery as a service) or planning to implement it within
12 months.
Forrester also ound that an additional 36% o those surveyed expressed in-
terest in the technology, and that more than hal o respondents considered it
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 15
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
a “top hardware/IT inrastructure priority.”
“IT managers who have not yet investigated the possibility o sending some
o their recovery to the cloud are behind the times; it’s time to start planning,”Forrester concluded in its study.
Turning to an outside vendor can oer cloud DR users the reedom o not
having to construct and maintain the inrastructure needed to support a DR
plan, which can avor smaller organizations that may not have the sta or re-
sources to build such a system on their own.
Kirvan said turning to cloud DR still requires resolving how data needs to
be stored beore taking action. That includes deciding whether to use synchro-
nous or asynchronous replication to the cloud (which could be critical i band-
width is at a premium), whether to retain any backup tapes that are in use and what type o data—or example, databases, applications or other critical inor-
mation—should be copied to the cloud, he said.
“[Cloud-based DR services] provide a cost-eective secondary backup and
recovery solution that supplements existing backup and recovery arrange-
ments,” Kirvan said. “An ideal strategy is to establish a hybrid confguration
that blends both on-site and cloud DR resources.”
snapsHot-based baCkupsThe integration o array-based snapshots with backup sotware allows users
to manage snapshots as part o the backup process. Historically, array-based
snapshots have relied on management sotware sold by the storage hardware
vendor, and as such, had to be managed separately. In 2012 this changed, with
a number o backup sotware vendors announcing the ability to manage array-
based snapshots.
“More and more backup and recovery suites are including the capabilities
to control and catalog array-based snapshots,” said Rachel Dines, an analyst at
Forrester Research. “Furthermore, some solutions can recover individual flesand objects rom a snapshot. That means, or the frst time, snapshots can be
truly integrated into the data protection strategy.”
According to Greg Schulz, ounder and analyst at Stillwater, Minn.-based
StorageIO, this development addresses challenges users have aced when using
each technology.
“The challenge with snaps has been managing what is protected, something
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 16
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
that legacy tools do a good job with,” Schulz said. “On the ip side, the chal-
lenge with traditional backup is the time and resources needed to capture or
collect the data and then copy it somewhere.”Forrester Research’s Dines said that snapshot backup helps users meet
backup windows and recover data aster—two issues IT pros have cited as a
growing problems or years. “Snapshot backups allow users to virtually elimi-
nate backup windows by taking a snapshot and using that as the backup,” she
said. “Snapshot backups can also be rapidly mounted and used almost immedi-
ately—much aster than restoring rom a traditional backup.”
The concept o using snapshots as part o a data protection strategy isn’t
new. Many IT shops have used array-based snapshots as a rapid recovery strat-
egy while also creating backups o their data. However, the integration o snap-shot and backup allows users to streamline that approach.
“2012 and 2013 are important or snap-backs because the technology is now
there or some vendors, and [early adopters] have seen the products mature,”
Dines said. “The time is right to rethink backups using snap-backs as part o
modernizing data protection to fnd and fx problems, rather than swapping
out media like at tires on a car.”
StorageIO’s Schulz agreed that snapshot backups were an important step
toward modernizing data protection and said that “snapshot backups are, or
should be, hot because they [enable users to] rethink how, when and what in-ormation is protected.” He went on to say that the marriage o snapshot tech-
nology with the management capabilities o backup sotware is a “perect ex-
ample o technology convergence” taking advantage o the best aspects o each.
server-based fLasH CaCHeServer-based ash cache became a hot topic in the storage world with the
launch o EMC’s VFCache, and the perormance-boosting technology picked
up momentum as additional major vendors, such as Dell Inc. and NetApp Inc.,unveiled similar oerings.
The push toward server-side ash cache by storage vendors essentially vali-
dated the market staked out by trailblazers such as Fusion-io Inc., with its io-
Turbine sotware or virtual environments and directCache or physical serv-
ers, LSI Corp., OCZ Technology Group Inc., SanDisk Corp. and VeloBit Inc.
“It’s hot now, and it’s only going to get hotter because it’s a relatively simple
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 17
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
addition to a server,” said Dennis Martin, president at Demartek LLC in Ar-
vada, Colo. “It doesn’t require application changes or changes to the back-end
storage system, and it provides a signifcant boost in storage perormance.”Putting the cache in the application server rather than the storage system
reduces the latency associated with the network hop. To urther minimize la-
tency, server-based ash caches oten use PCI Express (PCIe) cards connected
directly to the CPU and system memory rather than SAS/SATA-based SSDs.
Caching sotware generally determines the most requently accessed data and
automatically shits a copy to the ash cache. Algorithms dier by vendor, but
read caches typically require a warm-up period to achieve optimal perormance.
n- :5 s ’ up and Comers taking tHeir temperature
Big data torag W ai a a a i aa a wa’qi a i i … a w’ i
waii.
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mlc wa a i i i 2012, ’ i tlca w a i , ai i a i i’ a.
Virtal I/O t w i i wa-i -w (sdn), wa i’ a, w ’ a ii i w.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 18
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
For instance, EMC’s VFCache write-through, or read, cache might need 30
or 60 minutes to fll with data rom an Oracle Corp. database. The initial data
writes go rom the application server to the storage array, and the PCIe cardpopulates on an asynchronous basis to prevent application slowdown. I/O flter
driver sotware, which installs on the server, determines i a data request can
be ulflled via the PCIe card.
Another, more complex type o server-based ash cache, such as Dell’s Fluid
Cache (due out next year), aims to accelerate both the reads and the writes. A
read/write cache is more work or the vendor than a read-only cache because
the writes take place beore the data is written to the back-end storage system
and the sotware needs to ensure the data is protected, Martin said.
One o the key questions surrounding server-based caches is the degree to which they work with third-party storage systems. VFCache, or instance, tech-
nically works with any server or external storage system, but EMC spelled out
plans to deeply integrate the cache with its storage management and Fully Au-
tomated Storage Tiering (FAST) technologies. Industry analysts expect most
server-based ash cache sotware to ultimately work best and aord the most
sophisticated eatures when used with the same vendor’s storage systems.
storage systems for virtuaL environmentsServer virtualization prompts organizations to adopt networked storage and
pushes storage vendors to change the way storage is provisioned and managed.
That trend is accelerating as virtual servers become more ingrained in the data
center, virtualization spreads to desktops and VMware Inc. gives server admin-
istrators more control over storage.
Major storage vendors are working more closely than ever with VMware to
tie into its storage eatures, startups are developing storage systems that can be
set up rom within vCenter or easy provisioning and management, and con-
verged stacks keep popping up to better integrate virtual machines (VMs) and storage.
More than ever, control o storage is being shared by virtual servers and
server administrators. VMware is driving this trend with its virtual storage
appliances (VSAs) and uture eatures such as vFlash, vSAN and vVols.
Almost every storage vendor has changed the way its products are sold and
managed as a result o server virtualization. The major storage vendors support
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 19
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
vStorage APIs or Array Integration (VAAI) and are working on ways to pro-
vision storage without LUNs, RAID groups and mount points. They also have
reerence architectures, integrated stacks or both that combine storage, com-pute, networking and server virtualization to make it easier or users to manage
storage or VMs.
Startups Nutanix Inc., Scale Computing and SimpliVity Corp. sell what they
call “hyper-converged” systems that put capacity, computing and pre-installed
VMs in one box. Other newcomers, such as Tegile Systems Inc. and Tintri Inc.
designed storage systems specifcally to support VMs.
Adoption o another hot storage technology, solid-state, has been driven
largely by the need or better storage perormance or a VDI. Storage peror-
mance had been the biggest obstacle to implementing VDI, but companies aregetting around that now by implementing SSDs in their storage arrays dedi-
cated to virtual desktops.
VSA technology has been around or a while, with DataCore Sotware,
Hewlett-Packard Co.’s LetHand and others oering similar products or years.
But VMware’s VSA push will likely prompt organizations to take a closer look.
VSAs use a virtual machine in the host to connect to an onboard RAID control-
ler and make that storage available to other hosts through iSCSI or NAS.
The need to manage storage or VMs has brought about a new industry buzz
phrase, “sotware-defned storage,” a takeo on sotware-defned networks.Sotware-defned storage has no agreed upon defnition yet, but you can expect
vendors to commonly use it to describe how they work with VMs.
CLoud-based fiLe-sHaring and synC serviCesFile-sharing and syncing services are growing at such a rate that more than 30
vendors now oer products. The driving orce behind cloud-based fle sharing
is the mobile worker who is becoming more dependent on portable devices,
such as smartphones and tablets. Those users want to collaborate and accessdocuments stored on desktops or laptops using any mobile device, rom any
location at any time.
Companies like Box, Citrix’s ShareFile, Dropbox, Egnyte Inc., Nomadix
Inc., SugarSync Inc., Syncplicity Inc. and YouSendit Inc. are some o the early
companies to provide cloud-based apps that sync data rom desktops, laptops
and mobile devices or instant access or collaboration purposes.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 20
cove r s t or y | hot s t or a ge t e chs for 2 0 1 3
New companies continue to join the market. Startup Maginatics Inc. came
out o stealth recently with its MagFS online fle-sharing platorm that uses a
distributed fle system and cloud storage so end users with multiple end-pointdevices can access data rom a shared namespace. Nasuni Corp. and Scality are
two o the latest vendors to deliver oerings as part o their larger platorms or
cloud-based mobile access.
SMBs were the frst to show interest in cloud fle-sharing/syncing services,
but now it’s pervasive in enterprises too. Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain said he’s
fnding interest in cloud fle sharing rom larger organization, prompting the
launch o the company’s enterprise version, EgnytePlus, to increase syncing
capabilities and support more users.
“We’re getting pulled more and more into larger enterprises,” Jain said.Like most cloud deployments, online fle-sharing services can be imple-
mented in three ways: via public, private or hybrid models. File-sharing ven-
dors oer a public option in which the provider takes ull responsibility or the
ull service. Vendors also oer a sotware license option where users can in-
stall their own hardware behind the frewall to ensure security. The hybrid ap-
proach melds on-premises fle sharing with a public cloud fle-sharing service.
While many companies originally turned to cloud fle sharing just to allow
employees to access fles remotely rom smartphones and tablets, IT managers
ound that as an added beneft they could replace some on-premises fle serv-ers. This reduces virtual private network (VPN) costs and the challenge o man-
aging geographically remote workers.
It’s clear mobile devices are changing the way employees collaborate and ac-
cess documents, and companies now are orced to accommodate this change.
“The old way o fle sharing doesn’t work or the mobile workorce,” said Terri
McClure, a senior analyst at Milord, Mass.-based Enterprise Strategy Group. n
Andrew Burton, Rich Castagna, Todd Erickson, John Hilliard, Sonia Lelii, Dave Raffo and Carol Sliwa
contributed to this article.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 21
data deduplication
data dedupLiCation is the process o eliminating redundant data by comparing
new segments with segments already stored and only keeping one copy. The
technology can lead to a signifcant reduction in required storage space, espe-cially in situations where redundancy is high. As a result, data deduplication
has frmly established itsel in the backup market. But not every data center
uses deduplication. For example, Storage magazine’s most recent Purchasing
Intentions survey ound that more than 60% o data centers haven’t added data
deduplication technology to their backup operations.
by gr Crmp
data dedupe technology today and tomorrowi my m k d ddpcr ckp rd rvr, ’ vv cy,d r r py cmp v y dd ddp r ckp pr.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 22
data deduplication
dedupLiCation reLuCtanCeThe level o resistance to deduplication may come as a surprise to many in
the storage industry. While it appears to be a maturing technology and theterm “deduplication” is so commonly used, it’s easy to assume the technology
is in use everywhere. The reality, as the survey shows, is that data deduplica-
tion is still an emerging technology with plenty o market let to be captured.
This is good news or vendors that are still trying to enter into or expand their
presence in the purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) market, and it’s what’s
driving the next generation o deduplication devices.
WHere data dedupLiCation is todayBeore looking at the latest developments in data deduplication, it makes sense
to look at the current state o deduplication and to understand the reasons
behind the resistance. While some backup applications have added deduplica-
tion capabilities, most companies begin to use the technology when it’s hosted
on some sort o backup appliance or PBBA. This appliance typically comprises
three parts: sotware, hardware and storage capacity. Data sent to the device
is analyzed by the deduplication sotware as it’s received or ater it’s stored, so
redundant data can be identifed and eliminated.
This process highlights many o the reasons or the lack o deduplicationtraction. First, the data center must have enough data to make buying a PBBA
realistic. With hard drive capacities now reaching 3 TB to 4 TB, a small server
with our or fve o those drives may provide all the backup capacity a smaller
data center needs without having to resort to deduplication or the expense o
a PBBA.
Second, deduplication only provides a return i there’s redundant data being
backed up. An increasing number o data centers are using some orm o an in-
cremental orever strategy like VMware’s Changed Block Tracking (CBT). Not
only does CBT reduce the amount o data transerred, it signifcantly reducesthe amount o redundant data that would be stored a second time.
Third, a lack o trust remains a big area o concern or data centers. Most
deduplication technologies have been vetted, but as PBBAs grow in capacity,
reliability and perormance, problems can appear. The time it takes the dedu-
plication engine to determine i data is redundant will impact perormance and
an inaccurate identifcation can lead to additional capacity being used anyway
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 23
data deduplication
or worse i net new data isn’t properly stored.
The reliability o the system and the data it stores is a big concern since data
deduplication is a technology that, by deault, tries to not store data. A mistakecould be catastrophic and many data centers still aren’t ready to put their trust
in the technology.
Perormance problems typically stem rom a deduplication system not be-
ing designed correctly . Deduplication lookups are a lot like traditional data-
base lookups. The more deduplicated data a dedupe systems stores, the more
lookups need to occur, and as more lookup processes occur it takes longer or
new data to be written to the system. For these reasons most deduplication
vendors try to store as much o their index as possible in DRAM, which helps
perormance but can increase the price o the PBBA. Even with more DRAM,as the unit scales in capacity, eventually the PBBA will begin caching some o
its lookup index to disk, which hurts perormance.
Some vendors are turning to solid-state drives (SSDs) to augment DRAM
and help with lookup perormance. The problem is that SSDs, while they can
improve perormance, add to the overall cost o the system. But again, as over-
all system capacity scales, the problem may crop up again as operations out-
grow the SSD capacity, causing the system to once again cache to hard disk.
dedupLiCation appLianCe aLternativesThe PBBA deduplication market has also been impacted by the growing suc-
cess o the appliance vendors’ three biggest competitors: backup sotware,
cloud storage and tape. It used to be that PBBA vendors and tape sotware ven-
dors were best o riends and a perect complement to each other. Then backup
sotware developers began to develop their own deduplication code and add
support or VMware’s CBT technologies. That means backup sotware could be
coupled with just about any standalone disk array and be able to provide similar
unctionality to the PBBA.There are limitations to the backup sotware approach. First, a user would
have to commit ully to one sotware application to gain maximum deduplica-
tion efciency. This rarely happens in larger data centers as multiple backup
solutions are used daily. Second, while backup sotware vendors like to justiy
the expense o their deduplication modules by coupling them with the cheap-
est disk prices that can be ound, an investment still has to be made in a reliable
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 24
data deduplication
disk platorm. The absolute cheapest disk won’t be reliable enough or most
data centers. Finally, there’s the unpredictability o backup server CPU loading
and memory utilization when backup and dedupe are combined.
d sDeDupLICATIOn Isn’T useD j a aia a a a;
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 25
data deduplication
Cloud storage is now a trusted backup target and many vendors have solved
the challenge created by the limited bandwidth o the cloud by oering on-
premises appliances or data centers that act as a cache or backup data that willultimately go to a cloud storage service. In many cases, these systems store the
local copy in its native, undeduplicated orm; all subsequent copies are repli-
cated to the cloud where they may or may not be deduplicated.
The cloud alternative brings a ew additional eatures that are compelling.
Cloud storage is a pay-as-you-grow type o arrangement where storage is paid
or on a monthly basis, and users never
have to experience the cost o a orklit
upgrade. The second eature, which is
growing in popularity, is the ability tostart a server remotely, either on the on-
premises appliance or in the cloud. This
brings a new level o availability to busi-
nesses that may not have invested in it in
the past.
While cloud is relatively new, the
other alternative—tape—is relatively old,
at least in data center terms. Tape tech-
nology is making a comeback as a new generation o IT proessionals experience it or the frst time. They’re fnding
tape has matured, and is now aster and more reliable than previous genera-
tions. Tape has always enjoyed a cost-per-gigabyte advantage over disk—a gap
that deduplication reduced to some extent. But with recent updates, tape has
once again widened that price delta and is by ar the most cost-eective backup
storage media available.
tHe next generation of data dedupLiCationData deduplication vendors are adding capabilities to their products to help
increase its adoption rate and to fght o challenges rom alternatives like the
cloud, tape and even regular disk in a server. PBBAs are evolving rom just disk
storage systems with deduplication sotware to truly complete data protection
devices that can be integrated into applications and backup sotware or im-
proved efciency and management.
t s j s-
- s, s, s s ss- s .
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 26
data deduplication
■n i ccc. PBBA vendors are improving accuracy and efciency
by developing specifc algorithms that understand how certain applications
store data and how to best parse that data into segments that will correctly identiy redundancy. This sotware integration also allows or certain applica-
tions or backup sotware to directly control interactions with the PBBA so that
two separate processes no longer need to be run. The application or backup
sotware can trigger a backup to the device and then control which subcompo-
nents will be replicated to another device o-site.
■n i cll. Some PBBA vendors are improving this integra-
tion urther by leveraging their supportive sotware modules to make sure that
some deduplication preight checking o data is done prior to sending thatdata across the network to eliminate obviously redundant data. This spreads
the data deduplication processing workload between the application server and
the deduplication appliance, which should lessen the load on the appliance and
resolve some o the scaling issues mentioned earlier.
■n Cl . Cloud and even tape support are also on ap-
pliance vendors’ integration lists. Many deduplication appliances can already
replicate to an identical appliance. Now vendors are adding the ability to rep-
licate their data to a cloud service, saving customers the cost and maintenanceo a second system. It also keeps cloud providers rom having to develop their
own hybrid appliances.
In similar ashion, tape is being integrated into these devices as either a spill-
over or additional capacity or to make an image copy o the PBBA in case o a
disaster. The spillover integration is most interesting, as it slows the growth in
the disk capacity o the appliance.
■n gll lc. As noted earlier, deduplication is only efcient i
redundant data is sent to it. The efciency is reduced as more individual appli-ances are deployed because they can’t compare data segments with each other.
Vendors are addressing this shortcoming by bringing a scale-out storage capa-
bility to deduplication where a single, global deduplication process runs across
all the systems. This allows or maximum identifcation opportunity while re-
ducing costs.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 27
data deduplication
■n b lh. Data deduplication technology vendors are
also fne-tuning their deduplication algorithms so redundancy checking can be
done more efciently. These vendors are learning that the typical frst-in/frst-out process common in a caching environment isn’t appropriate or a dedupli-
cation appliance. Better algorithms lead to devices that create smaller indexes,
use less RAM and allow the system to scale to higher capacities.
■n vlz pbba. Finally, some PBBA providers are dropping the physi-
cal appliance requirement and shiting to a sotware appliance option. This is
the PBBA with deduplication delivered as a virtual machine allowing it to inte-
grate directly into the environment with no physical installation, and no addi-
tional power and cooling requirements. A virtualized PBBA creates many new possibilities or PBBA vendors. They
can move into smaller markets because the purchase price o the solution is sig-
nifcantly less than that o hardware-based products. They also allow the virtual
appliance to be installed in the cloud so that users can replicate data to it. For
larger enterprises, it makes branch-ofce deployment easier and less expensive
since there’s no physical hardware to implement and maintain.
promising deveLopments for data dedupeBased on the current level o adoption, data deduplication or backup still has
signifcant ground to gain in the data center. PBBAs with enhanced integra-
tion to existing applications will broaden deduplication’s appeal by making
the backup process less complicated. Virtualizing PBBAs and delivering them
as virtual appliances will lower the cost o adoption and make them more a-
ordable or smaller data centers. And integration with tape systems will make
deduplication and PBBAs more cost eective or larger enterprises. Reducing
complexity and cost are the keys to widespread adoption; as vendors continue
to ocus on these key areas, deduplication and deduplicating appliances willbecome the dominant frst tier in data protection. n
geoRge cRump is president of Storage Switzerland, an IT analyst firm focused on storage and
virtualization.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 28
quality awards: tape libraries
by Rc C
Spectra logicSnareS midrangeand enterpriSe tape libraryawardS t v d rQy awrd r p rrd p r’ r r rvcd ry, d spcr lc
cm p wc.
it seems WHen Spectra Logic Corp. is in it, the company wins it. The “it” in this
case is the Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com Quality Awards or tape li-
braries. Ater ailing to garner enough responses to qualiy or last year’s Qual-ity Awards, Spectra Logic came roaring back with top fnishes in both the mid-
range and enterprise tape library groups.
Spectra Logic prevailed over some very tough competition in both groups.
Looking at this year’s results and those o the past six surveys, the broader story
is how satisfed users are with their tape storage systems, underscoring how
vendors continue to produce high-quality and innovative products.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 29
OVeRALL RATInGsenTeRpRIse spcr lc d vr vr m r v rpr
w cr 6.84. i’ cd vr r w’v vr d r -rpr p rr, r spcr’ w rcrd 7.40. t rd m spcr
ccd rp qy, d cd m ’ w. orc Crp. pcd
cd w d 6.32 j d ibM (6.28). ibM d p r vry
Qy awrd p rry rvy d. orc’ prrmc ry mprv,
m p-r y c. a vdr rd w, vr vr
r w y rd d. spcr lc dmd m rd w
cr vry r cry, r rm 7.17 r prdc qy
“w” 6.59 r prdc r.
MIDRAnGe spcr lc’ prrmc mdr rp— p d pr—
qy mprv: t cmpy rcvd v mk r
mdr d w r Qy awrd. t m, spcr d
w ibM d hw-Pckrd (hP) C., d d y 0.12 p pr
r. ibM cd rmrk r vr p r r
vr cr. a v vdr/prdc wr r, prdc vr vr
cr ’ w’v vr r mdr p rr. u rp
wp v mdr p r ym r cr, spcr lc -
prvd r, w hP ( prdc qy) d ibM (prdc ry)
k p r r w.
quality awards: tape libraries
overall
ratingS:
enterpriSe
tape
librarieS
overall
ratingS:
midrange
tape
librarieS
6.58
5.94
6.35
6.46
6.49
Spectra Logic
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Dell
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
6.84
5.99
6.26
6.28
6.32
Spectra Logic
Oracle
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 30
sALes-FORCe COMpeTenCeenTeRpRIse i’ d my m prc r -
r/vdr rp. W 6.94 cr cry, spcr lc w ppr kw-w. o wy cr, spcr rckd p w 7.00-p
r r m rd v kwd m (7.24) d
(7.00). i j md w r m w pr 6.94 r r
kwd cmr’ dr d . ibM d hP d r
cd w cr 6.20, d y wr y r vdr r cr 6.00
r r x cry m. hP’ p mrk (6.44) w r kw c -
mr’ dr, w ibM’ w r v kwd ppr m (6.49).
MIDRAnGe spcr lc (6.66) cppd crw m mdr p rry
vdr, w ibM (6.39), D ic. (6.32) d hP (6.29) cy cd d. Prv
xpr cm rpr d mdr z, spcr crd
r cry m, w prcr r c w p-
pr m (6.84) d r kp cmr’ r rm (6.78). ibM d D d
6.00-p r, w y vry c cr. ibM’ p mrk w r
kw cmr’ dr, d D’ r cm r ppr m.
t vr vr r v vdr/prdc r rvy w 6.28—
cmv cr cr Qy awrd p rry rvy. hP w j r
pc, w y -6.00 cr d 6.67 r ppr m.
quality awards: tape libraries
6.94
5.71
6.04
6.20
6.20
Spectra Logic
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Oracle
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
6.66
5.76
6.29
6.32
6.39
Spectra Logic
IBM
Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
SaleS-force
competence:
enterpriSe
tape librarieS
SaleS-force
competence:
midrange
tape librarieS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 31
InITIAL pRODuCT QuALITYenTeRpRIse t r xprc w p r ym w “pwr ”
wc prd d mc p r pc. spcr lc r rd r cr vry vry, v vdr rd 7.17 cry cr w
r 7.00 r r r x cry m. t ppd y
c y—y d —spcr lc’ 7.50 cp rvy . b vdr
d prdc dd vry w crc cry, w cd-pc orc (6.48) wd
cy y ibM (6.44). t vr m cr cr v vdr w
6.63 r “t prdc y .” orc’ r w (6.64) w r prdc
rqr dy rv, w ibM’ p mrk (6.55) w r .
MIDRAnGe hP prvd mdr rp r prdc qy w 6.71
r dy dcd xrmy c r, w y 0.06 p
pr ibM, spcr d D, d orc r pc. hP ry wp
cry, yd spcr r “t prdc w y ” y m 0.04 mr.
hP’ p rd wr rd r (6.77) d y cr (6.76). a
prdc crd prcry w r d cr, w m
cr r prdc r w 6.14 d 6.77 r vr cry vr-
6.53 r v vdr— m r mprv rck rcrd dvr
qy prdc.
quality awards: tape libraries
7.17
6.11
6.34
6.44
6.48
Spectra Logic
Oracle
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
initialproduct
quality:
enterpriSe
tape
librarieS
6.71
6.25
6.53
6.55
6.59
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Spectra Logic
Dell
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
initialproduct
quality:
midrange
tape
librarieS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 32
pRODuCT FeATuResenTeRpRIse i prdc qy prvd r mpr, p rry’ -
r r m . spcr lc rmpd cry , j ry, orc 6.59 6.56—ry dd . orc cppd p rd r r
m: prdc c (6.83), vr r m r’ d (6.65)
d prvd dq prrmc (6.62). spcr crd r v -
m, w r-7.00 r d d jc p cy (6.95). a rp, r
vdr/prdc rd vry w w cmv vr cr 6.43. hP’
mrk (6.60) w r vr r ; ibM’ w r w-dd prdc (6.53); d
Qm Crp. r p 6.50 r c p d d jc.
MIDRAnGe spcr lc rckd p r 6.59 w mdr rp’ r
cry mr vcry w v r, j 0.02 vr hP. t w vdr
p cry m w hP p p r vr r ,
mm r, r rc d prrmc. spcr rd r d/
jc p, rpry, c d w dd. ibM’ r rd-pc
w d y 6.71 r d/jc ccy; D’ r-pc w
w rd y rdy 6.74 r r m r’ d. t d/jc
m crd cr rd, d vr vr r prdc
w 6.39, q yr’ .
quality awards: tape libraries
6.59
6.26
6.35
6.38
6.56
Spectra Logic
Oracle
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
6.59
5.99
6.34
6.47
6.57
Spectra Logic
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Dell
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
product featureS:
midrange
tape
librarieS
product
featureS:
enterpriSe
tape
librarieS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 33
pRODuCT ReLIABILITYenTeRpRIse tm r p rry’ ry. spcr lc r
wd r vrwm pprv y rd cmpy’ rpr rr r v m prdc ry cry, cd cp
7.06 cr r m rvc-v rqrm d rqr w pd pc
r pd. W d spcr lc’ cry vr (6.78), w vry rpc
cr, wr orc (6.21) d ibM (6.20) c cd d rd, rpcvy.
orc’ rd, 6.41, w r rvc-v m, w ibM’ p mrk w
r rry c ckp r. hP, j d ibM w cry cr
6.16, rd rvc-v m (6.42) w.
MIDRAnGe ibM crd cry w r prdc ry w cr v m (d y spcr lc ). i’ cd m ibM cm r
cry. ibM’ mrk wr rd r rqr w pd pc/
pd (6.75) d rry c ckp r (6.73). spcr dd
hP r cd pc, w r cm rvc-v d pd
pc m; hP, j 0.02 d spcr, d cr r w
m. J m p prd D rm p r d w
6.00-p cr r cry m, cd r rqr w
pd pc d rry c ckp r.
quality awards: tape libraries
6.78
5.98
6.16
6.20
6.21
Spectra Logic
Oracle
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
product
reliability:
enterpriSe
tape
librarieS
6.55
5.79
6.26
6.35
6.37
IBM
Spectra Logic
Hewlett-Packard
Dell
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
product
reliability:
midrange
tape
librarieS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 34
TeCHnICAL suppORT enTeRpRIse Mcc dvc—cd p r ym—w ccp r
r r, prmp c c ppr. hw vdr’ ppr m prrm c c w pv r xprc d dppm. spcr lc ’
dpp r; wp p r ym cc ppr -
m w r cry vr 6.74. spcr w y c
w cr r rm 6.61 6.89. i p mrk r ppy ppr pcd
crc d rcvd r cr 6.78 r rvc, kwd ppr
pr d r r. orc’ cd-pc (6.29) cm rm r
r kwd rd-pry prr (6.57) d ppr pr (6.53). ibM’
cr w r kwd ppr pr m (6.38).
MIDRAnGe a rp, mdr p rry vdr rd vr
cr r cc ppr w’v y Qy awrd rvy. idvdy,kd spcr lc c , d d cry -
m wy w cr 6.74. a vdr d prdc wr rd y
r prvd ppr crcy rd, w spcr’ 6.89 d pck. ibM’
6.47 w d r cd pc cr wr pd dw y y m-
w wkr r r r— w xcp spcr, vdr r-
cvd r w r r r m. hP d 6.00-p cr, d
rd-pc d y 6.70 r dvr ppr prmd.
quality awards: tape libraries
6.74
5.87
6.20
6.22
6.29
Spectra Logic
Oracle
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Quantum
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
technical
Support:
enterpriSe
tape
librarieS
6.74
5.91
6.31
6.41
6.47
Spectra Logic
IBM
Hewlett-Packard
Dell
Oracle
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.00
technical
Support:
midrange
tape
librarieS
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 35
WOuLD YOu BuY THIs pRODuCT AGAIn? o r q Qy awrd rvy k rpd
y wd y prdc v w y’v xprcd w . o, r- q d’ j w vr rk d cry cr, m
rd, prc “y” rp w ry cy r rvy r.
quality awards: tape libraries
pRODuCTs In THe suRVeY t w vdr/md rpr-c d mdr p rr wr cdd Qy
awrd rvy. t mr rp r c w pr.
etrri Hewlett-Packard ESL/EML Series (43) • IBM TS3400 or TS3500 (52) • Oracle (Sun) StorageTek SL500/SL3000/SL8500 (38)
• Overland Storage NEO 8000 Series* • Qualstar TLS or XLS Series* • Quantum Scalar i500/i2000/i6000 or PX720 (24) • Spectra Logic
64K/t120/t200/t380/t680/t950 r t-fy (17)
Midrag Dell PowerVault Tape Backup 124T/114T or TL4000/TL2000 or ML6000 Series (88) • Hewlett-Packard MSL Series (65) • IBM
TS3100, TS3200 or TS3310 (52) • Oracle (Sun) StorageTek SL24 or SL48 (16) • Overland Storage NEO 200s/400s or NEO 2000e Series or
NEO 4000e Series* • Qualstar RLS Series* • Quantum M Series, PX502, Scalar i40/i80 or Scalar 24/50* • Sony (all models)* • Spectra
Logic 20K/T24/T50 (20) • Tandberg Data StorageLibrary T24/T40/T80/T120/T160 or StorageLoader Series*
* Received too few responses to be included among the finalists
ABOuT THe suRVeY t storage mz/srcsr.cm Qy awrd r dd dy d rcz prdc v
prv r qy d ry c . R r drvd rm rvy qd rdr w prdc v m
cr: -rc cmpc, prdc qy, prdc r, prdc ry d cc ppr. or mdy
crpr cy vd p m mrk r cr. idd, r jcv dy m r prdc
mrk rrd vdr m, rp r z. Prdc r rd c 1.00 8.00, wr 8.00 cr. a
378 rpd prvdd 468 p rry v.
Spectra Logic
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Oracle
Quantum
90%
71%
76%
83%
88%
0 20 40 60 80 100
enterpriSe
tape librarieS:
would you buy
thiS product
again?
Hewlett-Packard
Spectra Logic
IBM
Dell
Oracle
0 20 40 60 80 100
91%
56%
84%
88%
90%midrange
tape librarieS:
would you buy
thiS product
again?
Rich castagna is editorial director of TechTarget’s Storage Media Group.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 36
hot s p ot s | ja s on b uffi ngt on
p s There are several ways to back up private cloud data,but none of them is ideal.
for years, miCrosoft’s model was “I we build it, someone else
will back it up.” It resulted in backup vendors creating their
own database agents or apps like Exchange and SharePoint and
lots o third-party support disclaimers. So Microsot created
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) as a ramework that backup
and data storage vendors could use, and things started getting better. But VSS
adoption was slow at frst and allowed some latitude in its implementation, so
Microsot shipped its own backup product—System Center Data ProtectionManager (SCDPM)—that gave users another choice. It also taught Microsot
quite a bit about backup in the real world, and VSS improved because o it.
Today, almost every backup app or Windows starts with the VSS ramework
and builds on it.
Why the history lesson? Because some companies are regressing to an “i
we launch new virtualized services, hopeully someone else may back it up”
attitude as they adopt private cloud architectures. The challenge isn’t what a
private or hybrid cloud architecture should look like, but the disconnect be-
tween most private cloud implementations and backup applications and theirinability to integrate.
A private cloud takes the resource-maximizing capabilities o a highly vir-
tualized inrastructure and adds elasticity (based on load) while enabling new
models or provisioning. In its most advanced models, virtualized services and
applications are assigned a service-level agreement (SLA) or quality o service,
e.g., gold, silver or bronze. Depending on the service rating, the underlying
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 37
hot s p ot s | ja s on b uffi ngt on
inrastructure might use aster disk or provision more processors/memory and
so on. That’s fne until it comes to backup.
There are a couple o common models or private cloud backup servicestoday:
1. b c: o z ll h c . Data protection
apps optimized or virtualization workloads oten tout an auto-discovery ea-
ture that essentially watches the hypervisor hosts and adds any newly created
virtual machines to a deault backup job. Where’s the service level in that ap-
proach? In eect, auto-discovery jobs say, “No matter how you defne the im-
portance o those virtualized resources, it’s one size fts all or backing them
up.” A little oversimplifed maybe, but not by much.
2. ml c: e c c l, h h
c h . In this case, the storage admin has traded up rom the older
methodologies o server and storage provisioning to a private cloud portal.
Based on business needs, a sel-service tool that abstracts most details can be
used to fnd out within seconds what new virtualized services are being brought
online. The admin then uses the backup tool’s interace, navigates to the pool
o host servers managed by the private cloud, explicitly identifes the newly cre-
ated resources, and confgures the backup and recovery policies appropriate tothat data or resource. It’s a wholly disconnected experience that’s essentially
three steps orward and two steps back.
These alternatives are relative extremes, but there aren’t a lot o solutions in
the middle ground. Instead, data protection and recovery SLAs should be attri-
butes o the provisioning methodology.■● With gold, silver and bronze service levels, bronze might be backed up
weekly to disk and backups would expire ater one year.■●
Silver might be backed up every our hours to disk and weekly to tape, andhave a three-year retention.■● Gold could be near-continuous protection with automatic replication to a
secondary site or disaster recovery.
The challenge with this approach is that it requires extra levels o interac-
tion that aren’t currently oered by most vendors or, in some cases, enabled
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 38
hot s p ot s | ja s on b uffi ngt on
by the private cloud management stack. Since I picked on Microsot initially,
I’ll give them a nod or the System Center portolio that includes private cloud
provisioning (VMM) and monitoring tools (SCOM), but also includes DPM orbackup and (most importantly) the System Center Orchestrator or automation.
Automation is the key. It requires private cloud portals to provide some
extensibility so backup and other inrastructure support services have visibility
into the defned tiers o service oered by the portal. In an ideal state, when
service levels are defned, data protection SLAs should also be defned, similar
to how both Microsot and VMware allow additional wizards or tabs in their
user interaces or vendors to integrate with.
It also requires the runbook automation logic to provide interaction with
the backup oering. For example, when the runbook or provisioning a new application is executed, backup confguration should simply be some o the
steps. Within a runbook world, this is ideally done through an “integration
pack” created by the backup vendor, but it can also be achieved through ge-
neric insertions into a runbook automated workow (which might simply run
a command line) to execute the backup app’s unctionality. The latter approach
takes additional work on the part o the backup vendor and solid partnering by
private cloud vendors in publishing best practice guides.
In a perect world, visibility into the portal enables a “best” possible solution.
While not perect, augmenting one’s private cloud automation with backup vendors’ processes yields a “better” approach by aligning with the provision-
ing process. Either o those approaches is better than the “good” approach used
by smart IT pros who add integration on a case-by-case basis because it hasn’t
been published by the vendors. And all o these processes are better than the
one-size-fts-all or custom-tailored approaches that many private cloud inra-
structures are dealing with today. n
Jason Buffington is a senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. He focuses primarily on data
protection, Windows Server infrastructure, management and virtualization. He blogs at Centralized-Backup.com and tweets as @JBuff .
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 39
ScSi Smb sDon’t look now, but a lot of storage system innovationis coming from midrange iSCSI vendors.
r e a d/ wr i t e | je ff b ol e s
big enterprise storage iron has always hogged the data storage
limelight. For many IT pros, the high end o the storage ood
chain—with its soaring throughput rates, huge disk counts
and stunning perormance—came to represent the entire
storage market.
But times change, and that’s no longer the case. I you’ve ollowed some
o the storage industry’s recent announcements and innovations, it’s clear the
emphasis has shited to iSCSI storage eatures and to vendors pursuing a ardierent market than the traditional enterprise.
As I’ve noted beore, the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and
small and medium-sized business (SMB) storage markets have become hot-
beds o innovation or the industry. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that vendors are
delivering a greater breadth o eatures in their storage systems, with capa-
bilities ranging rom auto-tiering to WAN optimization and serious storage
management.
Most o the innovation is coming with iSCSI storage system implementa-
tions. iSCSI now has an exceptional track record in this market, with Equal-Logic and LetHand paving the way or iSCSI’s SMB/SME success. Meanwhile,
the ability to do almost all storage operations in sotware, as well as deeply
manipulate the TCP/IP-based I/O path, is giving vendors some serious room
or innovation.
Let’s take a look at a ew examples.
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 40
r e a d/ wr i t e | je ff b ol e s
ac m ic.’ (ami) st. I you remember American
Megatrends as a BIOS manuacturer, you might be surprised that it’s also in
the iSCSI array business. We recently did some hands-on testing o its 3400iarray. While oering a traditional dual-controller architecture with drive scal-
ing, AMI has also built in some interesting innovations. One is dynamic auto-
tiering with a twist: rather than just auto-tier between disk speeds, it carves up
15K disks into three zones and optimizes data placement on the disk, eectively
short-stroking to give the hottest data the best perormance. The company has
some secret sauce or replication, too. AMI has added WAN optimization or
replicated data with deduplication and compression that runs on the storage
controller itsel. This is normally a pricey third-party oering.
ng s ic. NexGen has perormance-accelerated its storage system
using a combination o ash technology and rotating disk. NexGen’s approach
involves parking all data on ash or maximum perormance and then trickling
cold data down to hard disk storage, while deduplicating the data to make the
most o both storage tiers. But going beyond perormance and capacity optimi-
zation, NexGen delivers a unique “Storage QoS” eature that guarantees cer-
tain levels o perormance (IOPS) or a particular storage volume. Not many
vendors in the iSCSI storage space can boast the perormance or depth o stor-
age interaction insight to make this happen. NexGen’s innovative approachshould let it take on more workloads without administrators worrying about
overloading their storage system.
scl C. Scale Computing started with a highly cost-eective scale-
out iSCSI storage oering, including iSCSI and NAS, but recently turned its
attention to “hyper-convergence.” Using its scale-out architecture and the ex-
ibility o iSCSI, it’s built in a virtualization layer that allows virtual machines
(VMs) to run on top o the storage nodes. iSCSI’s exibility has allowed Scale
Computing to pull o nity tricks inside o its scale-out clusters to keep every-thing looking like one seamless entity with easy VM access rom any cluster
node. The Scale Computing cluster can still be used as standard iSCSI or fle
storage, even while running VMs.
iSCSI is a mature storage technology today, and those lacking iSCSI expe-
rience may still have a ew misconceptions about the technology. These key
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Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 41
r e a d/ wr i t e | je ff b ol e s
points might help in determining whether iSCSI is a ft or your organization.
■● iSCSI is a ully mature and extremely efcient protocol. There’s otenenough resident network interace card processing power and CPU cycles
let over to make iSCSI perormance adequate or almost any workload. And
because it uses standard SCSI commands, you’ll fnd some o the broadest
support or new VMware eatures that are increasingly based on standard
SCSI interactions.■● Oten, iSCSI can be deployed with better multipathing exibility than other
protocols, providing greater availability protection and bandwidth. It’s the
closest you’ll get to a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN without FC.
■● iSCSI does require some design considerations. It’s best to deploy iSCSI across dedicated switches that can isolate and protect your iSCSI SAN and
allow you to eectively monitor trafc. Still, you probably won’t need spe-
cialized storage aisles or other complexity—the switches can sit top o rack
or right next to your iSCSI gear.
iSCSI storage systems are currently setting the pace or ast innovation and
new eature introduction. That level o innovation can make it challenging to
do head-to-head comparisons. You should frst set your goals or perormance
and scalability, and then look at the broad landscape o iSCSI eatures to make your wish list. With the wide variety o oerings on the market and rapid inno-
vation, chances are there’s an iSCSI vendor out there delivering a product that
will help you cost-eectively extend the capabilities o your IT inrastructure. n
Jeff Boles is a senior analyst at Taneja Group.
7/28/2019 StoragemagOnlineDec2012FINALv8
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/storagemagonlinedec2012finalv8 42/43
Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
storAgen
december 2012 42
s na p s hot
Mltirotocol array favord for fficicyad covic
arry cm ck d r x v rd r w, m y’r mr ppr w vr r w 63% r rpd
rpr mprc rry. b m p v mp d r
ym: 44% v w v ym, w 37% v x r mr. ur c r m
r r mprc: mr c cpcy z (31%), ’ cpr
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nas. hw’ wrk ? Pry w: o c 1 5 wr 5 “vry d”r rp rd vrd 4.1, w 42% r r mprc 5. —Rich Catagna
what haS been the greateSt benefit of the
multiprotocol array in your Shop?
0 20 40 60 80 100
29% Cheaper to combine file and block in one box
27%Expected administration would be easier thanmanaging two separate arrays
2% Didn’t have the space (or other resources) for two systems
11% Other
31% Needed to use capacity more efficiently
63%
percent of
reSpondentS have
multiprotocol
arrayS inStalled
what’S themain reaSon
you Selected a
multiprotocol
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8% 37%
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7/28/2019 StoragemagOnlineDec2012FINALv8
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/storagemagonlinedec2012finalv8 43/43
Slly SurveyS and
predctonS
the black holeS
of Storage
hot technologeS
for 2013
State of back up
deduplcaton
Spectra logc
weepS tape lbrary
Qualty awardS
prvate cloudbackup needS to
get better
SMb productS
booSt iScS tech
unfed Storage:
beSt of both
worldS?
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