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Part II: Revisiting re:Invent 2014, Lambda and other AWS updates

server storage I/O trends

Part II: Revisiting re:Invent 2014 and other AWS updates

This is part two of a two-part series about Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent 2014 and other recent cloud updates, read part one here.

AWS re:Invent 2014

AWS re:Invent announcements

Announcements and enhancements made by AWS during re:Invent include:

  • Key Management Service (KMS)
  • Amazon RDS for Aurora
  • Amazon EC2 Container Service
  • AWS Lambda
  • Amazon EBS Enhancements
  • Application development, deployed and life-cycle management tools
  • AWS Service Catalog
  • AWS CodeDeploy
  • AWS CodeCommit
  • AWS CodePipeline

AWS Lambda

In addition to announcing new higher performance Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) compute instances along with container service, another new service is AWS Lambda. Lambda is a service that automatically and quickly runs your applications code in response to events, activities, or other triggers. In addition to running your code, Lambda service is billed in 100 millisecond increments along with corresponding memory use vs. standard EC2 per hour billing. What this means is that instead of paying for an hour of time for your code to run, you can choose to use the Lambda service with more fine-grained consumption billing.

Lambda service can be used to have your code functions staged ready to execute. AWS Lambda can run your code in response to S3 bucket content (e.g. objects) changes, messages arriving via Kinesis streams or table updates in databases. Some examples include responding to event such as a web-site click, response to data upload (photo, image, audio, file or other object), index, stream or analyze data, receive output from a connected device (think Internet of Things IoT or Internet of Device IoD), trigger from an in-app event among others. The basic idea with Lambda is to be able to pay for only the amount of time needed to do a particular function without having to have an AWS EC2 instance dedicated to your application. Initially Lambda supports Node.js (JavaScript) based code that runs in its own isolated environment.

AWS cloud example
Various application code deployment models

Lambda service is a pay for what you consume, charges are based on the number of requests for your code function (e.g. application), amount of memory and execution time. There is a free tier for Lambda that includes 1 million requests and 400,000 GByte seconds of time per month. A GByte second is the amount of memory (e.g. DRAM vs. storage) consumed during a second. An example is your application is run 100,000 times and runs for 1 second consuming 128MB of memory = 128,000,000MB = 128,000GB seconds. View various pricing models here on the AWS Lambda site that show examples for different memory sizes, times a function runs and run time.

How much memory you select for your application code determines how it can run in the AWS free tier, which is available to both existing and new customers. Lambda fees are based on the total across all of your functions starting with the code when it runs. Note that you could have from one to thousands or more different functions running in Lambda service. As of this time, AWS is showing Lambda pricing as free for the first 1 million requests, and beyond that, $0.20 per 1 million request ($0.0000002 per request) per duration. Duration is from when you code runs until it ends or otherwise terminates rounded up to the nearest 100ms. The Lambda price also depends on the amount of memory you allocated for your code. Once past the 400,000 GByte second per month free tier the fee is $0.00001667 for every GB second used.

Why use AWS Lambda vs. an EC2 instance

Why would you use AWS Lambda vs. provisioning an Container, EC2 instance or running your application code function on a traditional or virtual machine?

If you need control and can leverage an entire physical server with its operating system (O.S.), application and support tools for your piece of code (e.g. JavaScript), that could be an option. If you simply need to have an isolated image instance (O.S., applications and tools) for your code on a shared virtual on-premises environment then that can be an option. Likewise if you have the need to move your application to an isolated cloud machine (CM) that hosts an O.S. along with your application paying for those resources such as on an hourly basis, that could be your option. Simply need a lighter-weight container to drop your application into that’s where Docker and containers comes into play to off-load some of the traditional application dependencies overhead.

However, if all you want to do is to add some code logic to support processing activity for example when an object, file or image is uploaded to AWS S3 without having to standup an EC2 instance along with associated server, O.S. and complete application activity, that’s where AWS Lambda comes into play. Simply create your code (initially JavaScript) and specify how much memory it needs, define what events or activities will trigger or invoke the event, and you have a solution.

View AWS Lambda pricing along with free tier information here.

Amazon EBS Enhancements

AWS is increasing the performance and size of General Purpose SSD and Provisioned IOP’s SSD volumes. This means that you can create volumes up to 16TB and 10,000 IOP’s for AWS EBS general-purpose SSD volumes. For EBS Provisioned IOP’s SSD volumes you can create up to 16TB for 20,000 IOP’s. General-purpose SSD volumes deliver a maximum throughput (bandwidth) of 160 MBps and Provisioned IOP SSD volumes have been specified by AWS at 320MBps when attached to EBS optimized instances. Learn more about EBS capabilities here. Verify your IO size and verify AWS sizing information to avoid surprises as all IO sizes are not considered to be the same. Learn more about Provisioned IOP’s, optimized instances, EBS and EC2 fundamentals in this StorageIO AWS primer here.

Application development, deployed and life-cycle management tools

In addition to compute and storage resource enhancements, AWS has also announced several tools to support application development, configuration along with deployment (life-cycle management). These include tools that AWS uses themselves as part of building and maintaining the AWS platform services.

AWS Config (Preview e.g. early access prior to full release)

Management, reporting and monitoring capabilities including Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) for monitoring your AWS resources, configuration (including history), governance, change management and notifications. AWS Config enables similar capabilities to support DCIM, Change Management Database (CMDB), trouble shooting and diagnostics, auditing, resource and configuration analysis among other activities. Learn more about AWS Config here.

AWS Service Catalog

AWS announced a new service catalog that will be available in early 2015. This new service capability will enable administrators to create and manage catalogs of approved resources for users to use via their personalized portal. Learn more about AWS service catalog here.

AWS CodeDeploy

To support code rapid deployment automation for EC2 instances, AWS has released CodeDeploy. CodeDeploy masks complexity associated with deployment when adding new features to your applications while reducing human error-prone operations. As part of the announcement, AWS mentioned that they are using CodeDeploy as part of their own applications development, maintenance, and change-management and deployment operations. While suited for at scale deployments across many instances, CodeDeploy works with as small as a single EC2 instance. Learn more about AWS CodeDeploy here.

AWS CodeCommit

For application code management, AWS will be making available in early 2015 a new service called CodeCommit. CodeCommit is a highly scalable secure source control service that host private Git repositories. Supporting standard functionalities of Git, including collaboration, you can store things from source code to binaries while working with your existing tools. Learn more about AWS CodeCommit here.

AWS CodePipeline

To support application delivery and release automation along with associated management tools, AWS is making available CodePipeline. CodePipeline is a tool (service) that supports build, checking workflow’s, code staging, testing and release to production including support for 3rd party tool integration. CodePipeline will be available in early 2015, learn more here.

Additional reading and related items

Learn more about the above and other AWS services by actually truing hands on using their free tier (AWS Free Tier). View AWS re:Invent produced breakout session videos here, audio podcasts here, and session slides here (all sessions may not yet be uploaded by AWS re:Invent)

What this all means

AWS amazon web services

AWS continues to invest as well as re-invest into its environment both adding new feature functionality, as well as expanding the extensibility of those features. This means that AWS like other vendors or service providers adds new check-box features, however they also like some increase the depth extensibility of those capabilities. Besides adding new features and increasing the extensibility of existing capabilities, AWS is addressing both the data and information infrastructure including compute (server), storage and database, networking along with associated management tools while also adding extra developer tools. Developer tools include life-cycle management supporting code creation, testing, tracking, testing, change management among other management activities.

Another observation is that while AWS continues to promote the public cloud such as those services they offer as the present and future, they are also talking hybrid cloud. Granted you have to listen carefully as you may not simply hear hybrid cloud used like some toss it around, however listen for and look into AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), along with what you can do using various technologies via the AWS marketplace. AWS is also speaking the language of enterprise and traditional IT from an applications and development to data and information infrastructure perspective while also walking the cloud talk. What this means is that AWS realizes that they need to help existing environments evolve and make the transition to the cloud which means speaking their language vs. converting them to cloud conversations to then be able to migrate them to the cloud. These steps should make AWS practical for many enterprise environments looking to make the transition to public and hybrid cloud at their pace, some faster than others. More on these and some related themes in future posts.

The AWS re:Invent event continues to grow year over year, I heard a figure of over 12,000 people however it was not clear if that included exhibiting vendors, AWS people, attendees, analyst, bloggers and media among others. However a simple validation is that the keynotes were in the larger rooms used by events such as EMCworld and VMworld when they hosted in Las Vegas as was the expo space vs. what I saw last year while at re:Invent. Unlike some large events such as VMworld where at best there is a waiting queue or line to get into sessions or hands on lab (HOL), while becoming more crowded, AWS re:Invent is still easy to get in and spend some time using the HOL which is of course powered by AWS meaning you can resume what you started while at re:Invent later. Overall a good event and nice series of enhancements by AWS, looking forward to next years AWS re:Invent.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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November 2014 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

November 2014

Hello and welcome to this November Server and StorageIO update newsletter. Enjoy this edition of the Server and StorageIO update newsletter and watch for new tips, articles, StorageIO lab report reviews, blog posts, videos and podcasts along with in the news commentary appearing soon.

Cheers gs

Industry Trends and Perspectives

Storage trends

A few weeks ago I attended AWS re:invent 2014 in Las Vegas for a few days. For those of you who have not yet attended this event, I recommend adding it to your agenda. If you have interest in compute servers, networking, storage, development tools or management of cloud (public, private, hybrid), virtualization and related topic themes, you should check out AWS re:invent. For those who need a AWS primer or refresher visit here.

AWS made several announcements at re:invent including many around development tools, compute and data storage services. One of those to keep an eye on is cloud based Aurora relational database service that complement existing RDS tools. Aurora is positioned as an alternative to traditional SQL based transactional databases commonly found in enterprise environments (e.g. SQL Server, IBM DB2/UDB, Oracle among others). I will put some additional notes and perspectives together in a StorageIOblog post along with some video from AWS soon.

Commentary In The News

StorageIO news

Following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various venues. Cloud conversations continue to be popular including concerns about privacy, security and availability.

Over at Processor: Comments on Datacenters, Decide Whether To Build Or Not To Build, and controlling storage costs via insight and action. EdTechMagazine: has some comments on IaaS and Is Lean IT Here to Stay, while at CyberTrend perspectives on Better Servers for Better Business.

Across the pond over at the UK based Computerweekly comments on AWS launching Aurora cloud-based relational database engine, and hybrid cloud storage. Some comments on Overland Storage RAINcloud can be found at SearchStorage, while SearchDatabackup has some comments on Symantec break-up makeing sense for storage.

For those of you who speak Dutch, here is an interview (via it-infra.nl) I did when Holland earlier this year about storage and your business.

View other industry trends comments here

Tips and Articles

View recent as well as past tips and articles here

StorageIOblog posts

Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

View other recent as well as past blog posts here

In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts

    • Events & Activities

    November 11-13, 2014
    AWS re:Invent Las Vegas

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    December 11, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Performance

    December 10, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Decision Making

    December 9, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Virtual Server and Storage Decision Making

    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization

    November 13 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Storage

    November 11 10AM PT
    Google+ Hangout Dell BackupU

    November 11 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Data Centers

    Videos and Podcasts

    VMworld 2014 review
    Video: Click to view VMworld 2014 update

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Lenovo ThinkServer TD340
    Earlier this year I did a review of the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 in the StorageIO Labs (see the review here), in fact I ended up buying a TS140 after the review, and a few months back picked up yet another one. This StorageIOlab review looks at the Lenovo ThinkServer TD340 Tower Server which besides having a larger model number than the TS140, it also has a lot more capabilities (server compute, memory, I/O slots and internal hot-swap storage bays. Read more about the TD340 here.

    Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:
    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageio.com/ssd
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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    StorageIO Out and About Update – VMworld 2014

    StorageIO Out and About Update – VMworld 2014

    Here is a quick video montage or mash-up if you prefer that Cory Peden (aka the Server and StorageIO Intern @Studentof_IT) put together using some video that recorded while at VMworld 2014 in San Francisco. In this YouTube video we take a quick tour around the expo hall to see who as well as what we run into while out and about.

    VMworld 2014 StorageIO Update
    Click on above image to view video

    For those of you who were at VMworld 2014 the video (click above image) will give you a quick Dejavu memory of the sites and sounds while for those who were not there, see what you missed to plan for next year. Watch for appearances from Gina Minks (@Gminks) aka Gina Rosenthal (of BackupU)and Michael (not Dell) of Dell Data Protection, Luigi Danakos (@Nerdblurt) of HP Data Protection who lost his voice (tweet Luigi if you can help him find his voice). With Luigi we were able to get in a quick game of buzzword bingo before catching up with Marc Farley (@Gofarley) and John Howarth of Quaddra Software. Mark and John talk about their new solution from Quaddra which will enable searching and discovering data across different storage systems and technologies.  

    Other visits include a quick look at an EVO:Rail from Dell, along with Docker for Smarties overview with Nathan LeClaire (@upthecyberpunks) of Docker (click here to watch the extended interview with Nathan).

    Docker for smarties

    Check out the conversation with Max Kolomyeytsev of StarWind Software (@starwindsan) before we get interrupted by a sales person. During our walk about, we also bump into Mark Peters (@englishmdp) of ESG facing off video camera to video camera.

    Watch for other things including rack cabinets that look like compute servers yet that have a large video screen so they can be software defined for different demo purposes.

    virtual software defined server

    Watch for more Server and StorageIO Industry Trend Perspective podcasts, videos as well as out and about updates soon, meanwhile check out others here.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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    Is Computer Data Storage Complex? It Depends

    Is Computer Data Storage Complex? It Depends

    I often get asked, or, told that computer data storage is complex with so many options to choose from, apples to oranges comparison among other things.

    On a recent trip to Europe while being interviewed by a Dutch journalist in Nijkerk Holland at a Brouwer Storage Consultancy event I was presenting at, the question came up again about storage complexity. Btw, you can read the article on data storage industry trends here (its in dutch).

    I hesitated and thought for a moment and responded that in some ways it’s not as complex as some make it seem, although there is more to data storage than just cost per capacity. As I usually do when asked or told how complex data storage is my response is a mixed yes it (storage, data and information infrastructure) are complex, however lets put it in perspective which is storage any more complex than other things?

    Our conversation then evolved with an example that I find shopping for an automobile complex unless I know exactly what I’m looking for. After all there are cars trucks SUV’s used new buy lease different manufacturers makes and models speeds cargo capacity management tools and interfaces not to mention metrics and fuel.

    This is where I usually mention how IMHO buying a new car or vehicle is with all the different options, that is unless you know what you want, or know your selection criteria and options. Same with selecting a new laptop computer, tablet or smart phone, not to mention a long list of other things that to the outsiders can also seem complex, intimidating or overwhelming. However lets take a step back to look at storage then return to compare some other things that may be confusing to those who are not focused on them.

    Stepping back looking at storage

    Similar to other technologies, there are different types of data storage to meet various needs from performance to space capacity as well as support various forms of scaling.

    server and storage I/O flow
    Server and storage I/O fundamentals

    Storage options
    Various types of storage devices including HDD’s, SSHD/HHDD’s and SSD’s

    Storage type options
    Various types of storage devices

    Storage I/O decision making

    Storage options, block, file, object, ssd, hdd, primary, secondary, local and cloud

    Shopping for other things can be complex

    During my return trip to the US from the Dutch event, I had a layover at London Heathrow (LHR) and walking the concourse it occurred to me that while there are complexities involved with different technologies including storage, data and information infrastructures, there were other complexities.

    Same thing with shoes so any differ options not to mention cell phones or laptops and tablets, or how about tv’s?

    I wan to go on a trip do I book based on lowest cost for air fare then hotel and car rental, or do I purchase a package? For the air fare is it the cheapest yet that takes all day to get from point a to b via plane changes at points c d and e not to mention paying extra fees vs paying a higher price for a direct flight with extra amenities?

    Getting hungry so what to do for dinner, what type of cuisine or food?

    Hand Baggage options
    How about a new handbag or perhaps shoes?

    Baggage options
    How about a new backpack, brief case or luggage?

    Beverage options
    What to drink for a beverage, so many options unless you know what you want.

    PDA options
    Complexity of choosing what cell phone, PDA or other electronics

    What to read options
    How about what to read including print vs. online accessible content?

    How about auto parts complexity

    Once I got home from my European trip I had some mechanical things to tend to including replacing some spark plugs.

    Auto part options
    How about automobile parts from tires, to windshield wiper blades to spark plugs?

    Sure if you know the exact part number and assuming that part number has not changed, then you can start shopping for the part. However recently I had a part number based on a vehicle serial number (e.g. make, model, year, etc) only to receive the wrong part. Sure the part numbers were correct, however along the line somewhere the manufacture made a change and not all downstream vendors knew about the part change, granted I eventually received the correct part.

    Back to tech and data infrastructures

    Ok, hopefully you got the point from the above examples among many others in that we live in world full of options and those options can bring complexity.

    What type of network or server? How about operating system, browser, database, programming or development language as there are different needs and options?

    Sure there are many storage options as not everything is the same.

    Likewise while there can be simple answer with a trend of what to use before the question is understood (perhaps due to a preference) or explained, the best or applicable answer may be it depends. However saying it depends may seem complex to those who just want a simple answer.

    Closing Comments

    So is storage more complex than other technologies, tools, products or services?

    What say you?

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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    September October 2014 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    September and October 2014

    Hello and welcome to this joint September and October Server and StorageIO update newsletter. Since the August newsletter, things have been busy with a mix of behind the scenes projects, as well as other activities including several webinars, on-line along with in-person events in the US as well as Europe.

    Enjoy this edition of the Server and StorageIO update newsletter and watch for new tips, articles, StorageIO lab report reviews, blog posts, videos and podcasts along with in the news commentary appearing soon.

    Cheers gs

    Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Storage trends

    In September I was invited to do a key-note opening presentation at the MSP area CMG event. Theme for the September CMG event was "Flash – A Real Life Experience" with a focus of what people are doing, how testing and evaluating including use of hybrid solutions as opposed to vendor marketing sessions. My session was titled "Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities, Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips and can be found here. Thanks to Tom Becchetti an the MSP CMG (@mspcmg) folks for a great event.

    There are many facets to hybrid storage including different types of media (SSD and HDD’s) along with unified or multi-protocol access. Then there are hybrid storage that spans local and public clouds. Here is a link to an on-line Internet Radio show via Information Week along with on-line chat about Hybrid Storage for Government.

    Some things I’m working with or keeping an eye on include Cloud, Converged solutions, Data Protection, Business Resiliency, DCIM, Docker, InfiniBand, Microsoft (Hyper-V, SOFS, SMB 3.0), Object Storage, SSD, SDS, VMware and VVOL among others items.

    Commentary In The News

    StorageIO news

    A lot has been going on in the IT industry since the last StorageIO Update newsletter. The following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various venues. Cloud conversations continue to be popular including concerns about privacy, security and availability. Here are some comments at SearchCloudComputing: about moving on from cloud deployment heartbreak.

    Nand flash Solid State Devices (SSD) continue to increase in customer deployments, over at Processor, here are some here are some comments on Incorporating SSD’s Into Your Storage Plan. Also on SSD, here are some perspectives making the Argument For Flash-Based Storage. Some other comments over at Processer.com include looking At Disaster Recovery As A Service, tips to Avoid In Data Center Planning, making the most of Enterprise Virtualization, as well as New Tech, Advancements To Justify Servers. Part of controlling and managing storage costs is having timely insight, metrics that matter, here are some more perspectives and also here.

    Over at SearchVirtualStorage I have some comments on how to configure and manage storage for a virtual desktop environment (VDI) while over at TechPageOne there are perspectives on top reasons to switch to Windows 8. 

    Some other comments and perspectives are over at EnterpriseStorageForum including Top 10 Ways to Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency. At InfoStor there are comments and tips about Object Storage, while at SearchDataBackup I have some perspectives about Symantec being broken up.

    View other industry trends comments at the here

    Tips and Articles

    Recent Server and StorageIO tips and articles appearing in various venues include over at SearchCloudStorage a series of discussion often asked question pieces:

    Are you concerned with the security of the cloud?
    Is the cost of cloud storage really cheaper?
    What’s important to know about cloud privacy policy?
    Are more than five nines of availability really possible?
    What to look for enterprise file sync-and-share app?
    How primary storage clouds and cloud backup differ?
    What should I consider when using SSD cloud?
    What is difference between a snapshot and a clone?

    View other recent as well as past tips and articles here

    StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts

    • Events & Activities

    September 25, 2014
    MSP CMG – Flash and SSD performance

    October 8-10, 2014
    Nijkerk Netherlands Brouwer Seminar Series

    November 11-13, 2014
    AWS re:Invent Las Vegas

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    November 13 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Software Defined Storage

    November 11 10AM PT
    Google+ Hangout Dell BackupU

    November 11 9AM PT
    BrightTak – Software Defined Data Centers

    October 16 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Cloud Storage Decision Making

    October 15 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – Hybrid Cloud Trends

    October 7 11AM PT
    BackupU – Data Protection Management

    September 18 8AM CT
    Nexsan – Hybrid Storage

    September 18 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Converged Storage

    September 17 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – DCIM

    September 16 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – Data Center Convergence

    September 16 Noon PT
    BrightTalk – BC, BR and DR

    September 16 1PM CT
    StarWind – SMB 3.0 & Microsoft SOFS

    September 16 9AM PT
    Google+ Hangout – BackupU – Replication

    September 2 11AM PT
    Dell BackupU – Replication

    Videos and Podcasts

    Docker for Smarties
    Video: Docker for Smarties

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Enterprise 12Gbps SAS and SSD’s
    Better Together – Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy
    In this StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective thought leadership white paper we look at how enterprise class SSD’s and 12Gbps SAS address current and next generation tiered storage for virtual, cloud, traditional Little and Big Data environments. This report includes proof points running various workloads including Database TPC-B, TPC-E, Microsoft Exchange in the StorageIO Labs along with cache software comparing SSD, SSHD and HDD’s. Read the  white paper  compliments of Seagate 1200 12Gbs SAS SSD’s.

    Seagate SSD White Paper

    Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:
    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageio.com/ssd
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    August 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter




    Welcome to the August 2014 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization, software defined and data infrastructure topics. This past week I along with around 22,000 others attended VMworld 2014 in San Francisco. For those of you in Europe, VMworld Barcelona is October 14-16 2014 with registration and more information found here. Watch for more post VMworld coverage in upcoming newsletters, articles, posts along with other industry trend topics. Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter and look forward to catching up with you live or online while out and about this fall.

    Greg Schulz Storage I/OGreg Schulz @StorageIO

    August 2014 Industry trend and perspectives

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    StorageIO comments and perspectives in the news

    StorageIO in the news

    Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) remains a popular industry and IT customer topic, not to mention being one of the favorite themes of Solid State Device (SSD) vendors. SSD component and system solution vendors along with their supporters love VDI as the by-product of aggregation (e.g. consolidation) which applies to VDI is aggravation. Aggravation is the result of increased storage I/O performance (IOP’s, bandwidth, response time) from consolidating the various desktops. It should not be a surprise that some of the biggest fans encouraging organizations to adopt VDI are the SSD vendors. Read some of my comments and perspectives on VDI here at FedTech Magazine.

    Speaking of virtualizing the data center, software defined data centers (SDDC) along with software defined networking (SDN) and software defined storage (SDS) remain popular including some software defined marketing (SDM). Here are some of my comments and perspectives moving beyond the hype of SDDC.

    FCIA Fibre Channel Industry Association

    Recently the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) who works with the T11 standards body of both legacy or classic Fibre Channel (FC) as well as newer FC over Ethernet (FCoE) made some announcements. These announcements including enhancements such as Fibre Channel Back Bone version 6 (FC-BB-6) among others. Both FC and FCoE are alive and doing well, granted one has been around longer (FC) and can be seen at its plateau while the other (FCoE) continues to evolve and grow in adoption. In some ways, FCoE is in a similar role today to where FC was in the late 90s and early 2000s ironically facing some common fud. You can read my comments here as part of a quote in support of the announcement , along with my more industry trend perspectives in this blog post here.

    Buyers guides are popular with both vendors, VAR’s as well as IT organizations (e.g. customers) following are some of my comments and industry trend perspectives appearing in Enterprise Storage Forum. Here are perspectives on buyers guides for Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS), Unified Data Storage and Object Storage. EMC has come under pressure as mentioned in earlier StorageIO update newsletters to increase its shareholder benefit including spin-off of VMware. Here are some of my comments and perspectives that appeared in CruxialCIO. Read more industry trends perspectives comments on the StorageIO news page.

    StorageIO video and audio pod casts

    StorageIOblog postStorageIOblog post
    StorageIO audio podcasts are also available via
    and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIOblog posts and perspectives

    StorageIOblog post

    Despite being declared dead, traditional or classic Fibre Channel (FC) along with FC over Ethernet (FCoE) continues to evolve with FC-BB-6, read more here.

    VMworld 2014 took place this past week and included announcements about EVO:Rack and Rail (more on this in a future edition). You can get started learning about EVO:Rack and RAIL at Duncan Epping (aka @DuncanYB) Yellow Bricks site. VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) is at the heart of EVO which you can read an overview here in this earlier StorageIO update newsletter (March 2014).

    VMware VSAN
    VMware VSAN example

    Also watch for some extra content that I’m working on including some video podcasts articles and blog posts from my trip to VMworld 2014. However one of the themes in the background of VMworld 2014 is the current beta of VMware vSphere V6 along with Virtual Volumes aka VVOL’s. The following are a couple of my recent posts including primer overview of VVOL’s along with a poll you can cast your vote. Check out Are VMware VVOL’s in your virtual server and storage I/O future? and VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) along with (Part 2).

    StorageIO events and activities

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    The StorageIO calendar continues to evolve including several new events being added for September and well into the fall with more in the works including upcoming Dutch European sessions the week of October 6th in Nijkerk Holland (learn more here). The following are some upcoming September events. These include live in-person seminars, conferences, keynote and speaking activities as well as on-line webinars, twitter chats, Google+ hangouts among others.

    Sep 25 2014MSP CMGServer and StorageIO SSD industry trends perspectives and tipsTBA
    9:30AM CT
    Sep 18 2014InfoWorldHybrid Storage In GovernmentWebinar
    2:30PM ET
    Sep 18 2014Converged Storage and Storage ConvergenceWebinar
    9AM PT
    Sep 17 2014Data Center ConvergenceWebinar
    1PM PT
    Sep 16 2014Critical Infrastructure and Disaster RecoveryWebinar
    Noon PT
    Sep 16 2014Starwind SoftwareSoftware Defined Storage and Virtual SAN for Microsoft environmentsWebinar
    1PM CT
    Sep 16 2014Dell BackupUExploring the Data Protection Toolbox – Data and Application ReplicationGoogle+
    9AM PT
    Sep 2 2014Dell BackupUExploring the Data Protection Toolbox – Data and Application ReplicationOnline Webinar
    11AM PT

    Note: Dates, times, venues and subject contents subject to change, refer to events page for current status

    Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2014 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, software defined, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    Server and StorageIO Technology Tips and Tools

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    In addition to the industry trends and perspectives comments in the news mentioned above, along with the StorageIO blog posts, the following are some of my recent articles and tips that have appeared in various industry venues.

    Storage Acceleration

    Over at the new Storage Acceleration site I have a couple of pieces, the first is What, When, Why & How to Accelerate Storage and the other is Tips for Measuring Your Storage Acceleration.
    Meanwhile over at Search Storage I have a piece covering What is the difference between a storage snapshot and a clone? and at Search Cloud Storage some tips about  What’s most important to know about my cloud privacy policy?. Also with Software Defined in the news and a popular industry topic, I have a piece over at Enterprise Storage Forum looking at  Has Software Defined Jumped the Shark? Check out these and others on the StorageIO tips and articles page.

    StorageIO Update Newsletter Archives

    Click here to view earlier StorageIO Update newsletters (HTML and PDF versions) at www.storageio.com/newsletter. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along) by clicking here (Via Secure Campaigner site). View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    June 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter

    Server and StorageIO Update newsletter – June 2014

    Welcome to the June 2014 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics. June has been busy on many fronts with lots of activities, not to mention spring and summer are finally here in the Stillwater MN area.

    Speaking of busy, the spring rains came a month or two late, or the summer storms early as we will end up with one of the, if not rainiest Junes in history here in Stillwater MN area.

    Greg Schulz Storage I/OGreg Schulz @StorageIO

    Industry and Technology Updates

    There has also been plenty of activity in the Information Technology (IT) and in particular the data infrastructure sector (databases, file systems, operating systems, servers, storage, I/O networking, cloud, virtualization, SSD, data protection and DCIM among others). SANdisk announced their intention to buy SSD vendor Fusion IO for a $1.1 Billion dollars as part of a continued flash consolidation trend For example Cisco buys Whiptail, WD buys Virident, Seagate buys Avago/LSI Flash division among others (read more about flash SSD here). Even with flash SSD vendor and technology consolidation, this is in no way an indication of the health of the market. Quite the opposite in that flash SSD has a very bright future and we are still in the relative early phase or waves and flash will be in your future. The question remains how much, when, where, with what and from whom. Needless to say there is plenty of SSD related hardware and software activity occurring in the StorageIO labs as well as StorageIO.com/SSD;).

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    NetApp Updates

    In early June I was invited by NetApp to attend their annual analyst summit along with many others from around the world for a series of briefings, NDA updates and other meetings. Disclosure NetApp has been a client in the past and covered travel and lodging expenses to attend their event.

    While the material under NDA naturally can not be discussed, there was discussion around NetApp previously announced earnings, their continued relationship with IBM (for the E Series) along with the June product updates. Shortly after the NetApp event they announced enhancements to there ONTAP FAS based systems that followup to those released earlier this year. These recent enhancements NetApp claims as being their fastest FAS based systems ever.

    Given the success NetApp has had with their ONTAP FAS based systems including with FlexPod, it should not be a surprise that they continue to focus on those as their flagship offerings. What was clear from listening to CEO Tom Georgens is that NetApp as a company needs to offer, promote and sell the entire portfolio including E Series (disk, hybrid and all flash EF), StorageGrid (bycast), FlexPod and FAS among other tools (software defined storage management) and services (for legacy, virtual and cloud). Watch for some interesting updates and enhancements for the above and other things from NetApp in the future.

    Staying busy is a good thing

    What have I been doing during June 2014 to stay busy besides getting ready for summer fun (as well as preparing for fall industry events) including in and around the water?

    • Presented several BrightTalk Webinars (see events below) with more coming up
    • Release of new ITP white paper and StorageIO lab proof points with more in the works
    • More videos and pod casts, technology reviews including servers among other things
    • Moderated a software defined panel discussion at MSP area VMUG
    • Providing industry commentary in different venues (see below)
    • Not to mention various client consulting projects

    What’s in the works?

    Several projects and things are in the works that will show themselves in the coming weeks or months if not sooner. Some of which are more proof points coming out of the StorageIO labs involving software defined, converged, cloud, virtual, SSD, data protection and more.

    Speaking of Software Defined, join me for a free Spiceworks Webinar on July 2, Do More with Less Hardware Using Software Defined Storage Management (sponsored by Starwind Software). The webinar looks at the many faces and facets of virtualization and software defined storage and software defined storage management for Hyper-V environments. Learn more about the Hyper-V event here or here.

    In addition to the upcoming July 2 Hyper-V software defined storage webinar ( a recording for replay will be posted to the StorageIO.com/events page after the event), I also did a webinar on BrightTalk a few weeks covering software defined storage management. View the BrightTalk webinar replays by clicking the following links The Changing Face and Landscape of Enterprise Storage (June 11), The Many Facets of Virtual Storage and Software Defined Storage Virtualization (June 12), Evolving from Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (BC) to Business Resiliency (BR) recorded Jun 19.

    Watch for more StorageIO posts, commentary, perspectives, presentations, webinars, tips and events on information and data infrastructure topics, themes and trends. Data Infrastructure topics include among others cloud, virtual, legacy server, storage I/O networking, data protection, hardware and software.

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter and look forward to catching up with you live or online while out and about this spring.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    June 2014 Industry trend and perspectives

    Tips, commentary, articles and blog posts

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    StorageIO comments and perspectives in the news

    StorageIO in the news

    Toms Hardware: Comments on Selecting the Right Type, Amount and Location of Flash SSD to use 
    TechPageOne: Comments on best practices for virtual data protection
    SearchAWS: Comments on Google vs. AWS SSD which is better
    InfoStor: Comments on Cloud Appliance Buying Guide

    StorageIO video and audio pod casts

    StorageIOblog postStorageIOblog post
    StorageIO audio podcasts are also available via
    and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIOblog posts and perspectives

    StorageIOblog post

  • Is there an information or data recession, are you using less storage (with polls)
  • April and May 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter

    • StorageIO White Papers, Solution Briefs and StorageIO Lab reports

    White Paper

    New White Paper: StarWind Virtual SAN:
    Hardware Agnostic Hyper-Convergence for Microsoft Hyper-V
    Using less hardware with software defined storage management There is no such thing as an information recession with more data being generated, processed, moved, stored and retained longer. In addition, people and data are living longer as well as getting larger.

    Key to support various types of business environments and their information technology (IT) / ITC applications are cost effective, flexible and resilient data infrastructures that support virtual machine (VM) centric solutions. This StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective thought leadership white paper looks at addressing the needs of Microsoft Hyper-V environments to address economic, service, growth, flexibility and technology challenges.

    The focus is on how software defined storage management solutions unlock the full value of server-based storage for Hyper-V environments. Benefits include removing complexity to cut cost while enhancing flexibility, service and business systems resiliency along with disaster recovery without compromise. Primary audiences include Small Medium Business (SMB), Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) of larger organizations along with managed service providers (Cloud, Internet and Web) that are using Hyper-V as part of their solutions. Read more in this StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspective (ITP) white paper compliments of StarWind Software Virtual SAN (VSAN) for Microsoft Hyper-V.

    Remember to check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links on cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends from various sources.

    If you are interested in data protection including Backup/Restore, BC, DR, BR and Archiving along with associated technologies, tools, techniques and trends visit our storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ page.

    StorageIO events and activities

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    The StorageIO calendar continues to evolve, here are some recent and upcoming activities including live in-person seminars, conferences, keynote and speaking activities as well as on-line webinars, twitter chats, Google+ hangouts among others.

    October 10, 2014 Seminar: Server, Storage and IO Data Center Virtualization JumpstartNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    October 9, 2014 Seminar: Data Infrastructure Industry Trends and Perspectives – Whats The BuzzNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    October 8, 2014 Private Seminar – Contact Brouwer Storage ConsultancyNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    October 7, 2014 Seminar: Data Movement and MigrationNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    October 6, 2014 Seminar: From Backup and Disaster Recovery to Business Resiliency and ContinuanceNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    August 25-28, 2014VMworldTBASan Francisco
    August 7, 2014TBATBATBA
    July 2, 2014Starwind SoftwareLive webinar: Live Webinar: Do More with Less Hardware Using Software Defined Storage ManagementWebinar
    1PM CT
    June 26, 2014MSP VMUGModerate Live Panel Software Defined DiscussionPanel
    12:45PM CT
    June 17, 2014Dell BackupUExploring the Data Protection Toolbox – Data Footprint ReductionDell BackupU
    Online Webinar
    May 14, 2014 Seminar: Vendor Neutral Archiving for HealthcareNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 5-7, 2014EMC WorldLas Vegas
    April 23, 2014SNIA DSI EventKeynote: Enabling Data Infrastructure Return On Innovation – The Other ROIbackup, restore, BC, DR and archiving
    April 22, 2014SNIA DSI EventThe Cloud Hybrid “Homerun” – Life Beyond The Hypebackup, restore, BC, DR and archiving
    April 16, 2014
    		Open Source and Cloud Storage – Enabling business, or a technology enabler?Webinar
    9AM PT
    April 9, 2014
    		Storage Decision Making for Fast, Big and Very Big Data EnvironmentsWebinar
    9AM PT

    Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2014 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    StorageIO Update Newsletter Archives

    Click here to view earlier StorageIO Update newsletters (HTML and PDF versions) at www.storageio.com/newsletter. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along) by clicking here (Via Secure Campaigner site). View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    April and May 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter


    Server and StorageIO Update newsletter – April and May 2014

    Welcome to the April and May 2014 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics.

    The good news is that while spring is running late (as is this newsletter ;) here in the Stillwater MN area as well as other parts of the world, both are finally here. To say that a lot has been going on and things busy would be an understatement, however that is probably also the situation with you as well. So what has been going on during April and May 2014?

    Industry and Technology Updates

    Sony and Fujifilm (with their partner IBM) are trading marketing and proof of concept (POC) lab material in the efforts to show tape is still alive for data storage. Sony announced a month or so ago that it was moving the bar to 185TB per tape (without dedupe). Not to be out done, Fujifilm announced in late May that they in conjunction with IBM have a POC for a 154 TB LTO in the works.

    Greg Schulz Storage I/OGreg Schulz on break
    On the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) front, Seagate released a new 6TB device that they claim to be fast. I asked Seagate to send me one of the drives to see how fast it really is vs. their claims. While I have not completed all tests yet, what I can tell you is that the 6TB 3.5" 12Gbps SAS 7.2K RPM drive is like an american football linebacker or fullback. Its big, bulky, high-capacity, resilient with 10 to the 15 bit error rate (higher than normal high-capacity HDD’s) and fast.

    Sure the 6TB HDD is not in the speed race of a quick SSD or SSHD or 15K, however I was surprised at just how fast it is for its space capacity. Watch for a follow-up review in the not so distant future and if a WD 6TB drive were to show up on my door step can give some perspectives on that as well.

    As for SSD, they are following the trend paths of tape and HDD’s of increasing in space capacity, coming down in price and improving on resiliency. While I see HDD and even tape surviving for some time, granted in different roles, I’m also a firm believer that flash SSD in some form are in your future. The question is how much, when, where, with what and from whom. Needless to say there is plenty of SSD related hardware and software activity occurring in the StorageIO labs ;).

    Vendors and revenue earnings, is there storage slowdown?

    In other industry news and activity, vendor quarterly earnings are out and there is mixed information (see this recent post of if there is an information recession). IBM is one of those who have announced lowered storage related revenues as NetApp had mixed results (as did other vendors). In addition IBM is officially saying they are finally dropping the NetApp (FAS/ONTAP) based N series (was originally reported a week or so ago via Bloomberg). Note that IBM will continue to OEM NetApp E series (e.g. Engenio based). Some of you might remember (or do a Google search) that IBM indicated a few years back that it was De emphasizing the N series or moving away from it. Perhaps this time they really mean it while NetApp could move to embrace those VAR’s and IBM business partners to sell NetApp vs. IBM branded versions of the product. Here are some more perspectives appearing in SearchStorage. Watch for more about NetApp in a future follow-up post.

    In some other industry news, you might remember back in the February StorageIO update newsletter there was mention of Avago buying LSI. Now Avago is selling the flash business of LSI to Seagate for about $450M USD in the ongoing flash dance for cache and cash.

    Staying busy is a good thing

    What have I been doing during April and May 2014 to stay busy besides getting ready for spring and summer fun including in and around the water?

    • Attended NAB 2014 in Las Vegas where it is not just about archiving pertaining to data storage
    • Presented backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving including a keynote at the SNIA DSI conference
    • Was back in Las Vegas to attend EMCworld, I have some updates in the works from that event
    • Presented several BrightTalk Webinars (see events below) with more coming up in June
    • Release of new ITP white paper and StorageIO lab proof points with more in the works
    • More videos and pod casts, technology reviews including servers among other things
    • Participated including keynote at a vendor neutral archiving event in Europe
    • Providing industry commentary in different venues (see below) along with some writing
    • Not to mention various client consulting projects
    • Remember, work hard play hard, play hard and work hard!

    Whats in the works?

    Several projects and things are in the works that will show themselves in the coming weeks or months if not sooner. Some of which are more proof points coming out of the StorageIO labs involving software defined, converged, cloud, virtual, SSD, data protection and more.

    Speaking of Software Defined, join me for a free BrightTalk Webinar on June 12 on the many faces and facets of virtualization and software defined storage. Learn more about that event here as well as in the activities section down below.

    Watch for more StorageIO posts, commentary, perspectives, presentations, webinars, tips and events on information and data infrastructure topics, themes and trends. Data Infrastructure topics include among others cloud, virtual, legacy server, storage I/O networking, data protection, hardware and software.

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter and look forward to catching up with you live or online while out and about this spring.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    April and May 2014 Industry trend and perspectives

    Tips, commentary, articles and blog posts

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    StorageIO comments and perspectives in the news

    StorageIO in the news

    SearchStorage: Comments on IBM dropping N series, NetApp is still OEM to IBM
    InfoStor: Comments on Software Defined Storage: 10 Things You Need to Know
    SearchDataBackup: Comments about buying guides for enterprise Hard Disk Drives (HDD)
    SearchDataBackup: Conversation about data protection modernization
    InfoStor: Comments on cloud storage, 10 things you need to know
    InfoStor: Comments on Data Archiving: Life Beyond Compliance
    NetworkComputing: Comments on Sorting Through Storage Industry Hype
    StateTech: Comments on Secure Erasing HDDs and SSDs including planning in advance
    SNIA: Comments on CDMI Cloud Management Conformance Testing
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Hybrid Cloud Storage Tips
    NetworkComputing: Comments on Sorting Through Storage Industry Hype

    StorageIO tips and articles appearing in various venues

    StorageIO tips and articles

    Via InformationSecurityBuzz:  Dark Territories MH370 Do You Know Where Your Information Is? We still dont know 100% where the missing Malaysian airlines flight 370 is which amplifies the fact that there are still dar territories or gaps in coverage in this large world. Likewise there are gaps in coverage in many IT environments yet tools and technologies are available to gain better situational awareness and insight.

    Via The Virtualization Practice: This piece looks at the EMC ViPR V1.1 and SRM V3.0 (Software Defined Storage Management) announcements from earlier this year, along with links to earlier announcement and technology analysis. Note that EMC announced May 5, 2014 ViPR 2.0 along with their new Elastic Cloud Storage Appliance (ECS) among other enhancements at EMC World. Additional perspectives on ViPR 2.0, Elastic Cloud Storage Appliance and EMCworld announcement summary analysis can be found here in this video (with text) that I did (produced via TechTarget) while at EMCworld 2014. Watch for more coverage of ViPR 2.0 and other related new as well as updated items from EMCworld 2014 in upcoming posts, articles and commentary.

    Via InfoStor: Data Archiving: Life Beyond Compliance. Today many people think or assume based on what they hear that Archiving is only for regulatory archiving. Meanwhile some of you may remember a time before the regulatory compliance era of the early 2000s when Archiving was used as a general purpose tool, technology and solution to many IT data management storage challenges. This piece I did over at InfoStor looks at Data Archiving: Life Beyond Compliance and how Archiving is also a key technology that are part of Data Footprint Reduction (DFR) that also includes compression, dedupe, thin provisioning amount other techniques and tools. Here is a related Email Archiving piece (beyond compliance) from over at StateTech along with Practical tips in a piece over at VMware Communities.

    StorageIO video and audio pod casts

    StorageIOblog postStorageIOblog post
    Video conversation with Rob Emsley of EMC and me discussing data protection modernization moving beyond the product pitch!(Via TechTarget SearchDataBackup). In this conversation Rob and me talk about various aspects of data protection modernization including finding and fixing problems at the source, accidental architectures, using new (and old) things in new ways, rethinking data protection. However the conversation is a discussion about the topics, issues, trends, what can be done as opposed to a product pitch infomercial. Check out this video blog (vblog) of Rob and me via TechTarget SearchDataBackup, then weigh in with your comments.

    audioSNIA DSI David Dale
    Audio Podcast: Data Storage Innovation Conversation with SNIA Wayne Adams and David Dale
    In this episode, SNIA Chairman Emeritus Wayne Adams and current Chairman David Dale join me in a conversation from the Data Storage Innovation (DSI) 2014 conference event. DSI is a new event produced by SNIA targeted for IT professionals involved with data storage related topics, themes, technologies and tools spanning hardware, software, cloud, virtual and physical. In this conversation, we talk about the new DSI event, the diversity of new attendees who are attending their first SNIA event, along with other updates. Some of these updates include what is new with the SNIA Cloud Data Management Initiative (CDMI), Non Volatile Memory (think flash and SSD), SMIS, education and more. Listen in to our conversation in this podcast here as we cover cloud, convergence, software defined and more about data storage.

    audiocash coleman cleardb
    Audio Podcast: Catching up with Cash Coleman talking ClearDB, cloud database and Johnny Cash
    In this episode from the SNIA DSI 2014 event I am joined by Cashton Coleman (@Cash_Coleman). Cashton (Cash) is a Software architect, product mason, family bonder, life builder, idea founder along with Founder & CEO of SuccessBricks, Inc., makers of ClearDB. ClearDB is a provider of MySQL database software tools for cloud and physical environments. We talk about ClearDB, what they do and whom they do it with including deployments in cloud’s as well as onsite. For example if you are using some of the Microsoft Azure cloud services using MySQL, you may already be using this technology. However, there is more to the story and discussion including how Cash got his name, how to speed up databases for little and big data among other topics. Check out ClearDB and listen in to the conversation with Cash podcast here.

    audio
    Audio Podcast: Matt Vogt talks VMware vCOP in his first ever podcast
    In this episode from the Computex Rethink your Datacenter for 2017 planning and strategy event I am joined by Matt Vogt (@MattVogt). Matt is a Principal Architect with Computex Technology Solutions as well as certified VMware specialist and fellow vExpert. We talk about the role of automation for performance and capacity optimization along with how VMware vCop plays an important role. Listen in to learn more about how to gain insight and situational awareness to make informed decisions for your data infrastructure environment with Matt. Check out Matt’s blog here at blog.mattvogt.net and listen in to the podcast here.

    StorageIO audio podcasts are also available via
    and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIOblog posts and perspectives

    StorageIOblog post

  • Is there an information or data recession, are you using less storage (with polls)
  • Lenovo TS140 Server and Storage IO Review Part I here and Part II here
  • Nand flash SSD server storage I/O conversations: See more SSD stories here
  • Data Protection Diaries: March 31 World Backup Day is Restore Data Test, read more here
  • March 2014 StorageIO Update Newsletter: Click here to read more

    • StorageIO White Papers, Solution Briefs and StorageIO Lab reports

    White Paper

    New White Paper: Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD)
    Enterprise SSHD and Flash SSD – Better Together – Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy The question to ask yourself is not if flash Solid State Device (SSD) technologies are in your future. Instead the questions are when, where, using what, how to configure and related themes. SSD including traditional DRAM and NAND flash-based technologies are like real estate where location matters; however, there are different types of properties to meet various needs.

    This means leveraging different types of NAND flash SSD technologies in different locations in a complementary and cooperative aka hybrid way. In this StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective thought leadership white paper we look at how enterprise class Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD) and how they address current and next generation tiered storage for virtual, cloud, traditional Little and Big Data infrastructure environments. This includes providing proof points running various workloads including Database TPC-B, TPC-E and Microsoft Exchange in the StorageIO Labscomparing SSHD, SSD and different HDDs. Read more in this StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspective (ITP) white paper compliments of Seagate Enterprise Turbo SSHD. Read the companion blog post here that includes more proof points for large file transfer performance.

    Remember to check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links on cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends from various sources.

    If you are interested in data protection including Backup/Restore, BC, DR, BR and Archiving along with associated technologies, tools, techniques and trends visit our storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ page. For those who follow SSD and related technologies, we have organized a series of items at storageio.com/ssd.

    StorageIO events and activities

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    The StorageIO calendar continues to evolve, here are some recent and upcoming activities including live in-person seminars, conferences, keynote and speaking activities as well as on-line webinars, twitter chats, Google+ hangouts among others.

    June 12, 2014The Many Facets of Virtual Storage and Software Defined Storage VirtualizationWebinar
    9AM PT
    June 11, 2014The Changing Face and Landscape of Enterprise StorageWebinar
    9AM PT
    May 14, 2014Brouwer Storage ConsultancyKeynote – Healthcare Vendor Neutral Archiving SymposiumNijkerk Netherlands
    May 5-7, 2014EMC WorldLas Vegas
    April 23, 2014SNIA DSI EventKeynote: Enabling Data Infrastructure Return On Innovation – The Other ROIbackup, restore, BC, DR and archiving
    April 22, 2014SNIA DSI EventThe Cloud Hybrid “Homerun” – Life Beyond The Hypebackup, restore, BC, DR and archiving
    April 16, 2014Open Source and Cloud Storage – Enabling business, or a technology enabler?Webinar
    9AM PT
    April 9, 2014Storage Decision Making for Fast, Big and Very Big Data EnvironmentsWebinar
    9AM PT

    Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2014 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    StorageIO Update Newsletter Archives

    Click here to view previous StorageIO Update newsletters (HTML and PDF versions) at www.storageio.com/newsletter. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along) by clicking here (Via Secure Campaigner site). View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    March 2014 StorageIO Update Newsletter : Cisco Cloud, VMware VSAN and More

    Industry Trends Perspectives: Cisco Cloud and VMware VSAN

    Welcome to the March 2014 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics. Technically it is now spring here in North America and to say that we have had abnormal cold weather would be an understatement. However it is March with April just around the corner meaning plenty to do including several upcoming events (see below).

    Clouds and Cisco

    Some recent industry activity has included Cisco announcing its Cloud intentions (e.g. more than simply selling servers and networking hardware). So far the Cisco Cloud move appears to be more about hybrid and partner ecosystem including channels vs. going toes to toe with an Amazon Web Service (AWS). Cisco appears to playing the hybrid theme of being a technology supplier as well as provider or partner. Thus, it looks like for the near term the Cisco cloud target is not as much AWS as the likes of an IBM who recently added Softlayer or an HP.

    Greg Schulz Storage I/OGreg Schulz on break

    This will also be interesting to watch where along with how other Cisco partners such as EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, VCE and VMware participate. Keep in mind that some of these and other Cisco partners also have their own public, private and hybrid cloud initiatives, services along with being a supplier to each other.

    VMware VSAN Software Defined Storage

    Another industry activity involving servers storage I/O networking hardware software and virtualization (aka software defined) was the general announcement (GA) by VMware of Virtual SAN (VSAN). VMware VSAN went into public beta shortly after VMworld 2013 timeframe when many of us downloaded, installed and did various types of testing with it.

    For those not familiar with VSAN, it is added licensed software functionality for VMware that creates a cluster to host Virtual Machines (VMs) along with its own shared resilient storage solution (e.g. Software Defined Storage). How VSAN works is to use PCIe, SAS, SATA dedicated direct attached storage (DAS) including that are local to the VMware host server (physical machine or PM). The VMware host PMs support DAS Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Solid State Devices (SSD) including PCIe cards, drives or DIMMs, along with Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD). This local DAS storage is served and shared among the nodes (up to 32 host or PMs) per VSAN cluster balancing performance, availability (and resiliency) along with space capacity to host VM objects. Note that VM objects include VMDKs (e.g. virtual disks) and are not to be confused with the other type of object storage or access such as CDMI/SWIFT/S3/HTTP/REST.

    VMs (and those managing them) see in the VSAN cluster dats that are familiar with other VMware implementations including storage policies and other tools. Here is a link to a great piece by Patrick Schulz a data infrastructure systems engineer in Germany (no relation, at least not that I know of yet) where he shares his experiences with VSAN implementation.

    storage I/O vsan
    Generic VSAN example

    Instead of using an external iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) or FC over Ethernet (FCoE) shared SAN or NAS storage system / appliance to create the storage repository, local DAS is leveraged in groups spread across the hosts in the VSAN cluster (up to 32 nodes ). VSAN requires a percentage of SSD for each storage group on the host cluster nodes that a part is used for caching data which is persistently stored on HDD based media.

    VSAN software is licensed by the number of active sockets (not the cores) in the host servers (PM) that are in the cluster or by number of VDI users (guest VMs). For example if there are four servers two with one socket and two with dual sockets there would be six socket licenses. MSRP License cost per processor socket is $2,495 USD which also assumes core VMware licenses already exist. There are also a per guest VM license of $50 per VDI instance, as well as other optional license models and bundles with different features or upgrades.

    What is different with VSAN vs. other VMware clusters is that a) the storage is only accessible to VMs that are in the VSAN cluster (unless a VM exports and serves to others via NFS, iSCSI, etc which is a different conversation for another day). Another difference is that today VSAN leverage storage inside of servers or direct attached as opposed to using iSCSI, FC, FCoE SAN or NAS storage systems.

    Btw, the current maximum LUN, volume or target storage device size is 4TB so if you were thinking of taking a SAS attached storage system and creating a bunch of small LUNs, you might want to review that from a cost perspective, or at least for today.

    There is much more to VSAN including how it works, what it can and can not do, who it is for and whom should not use for different app’s, however IMHO besides lower-end, SMB, workgroup, departmental, VMware centric environments, the number one scenario today is VDI along with where converged solutions such as those from Nutanix, Simplivity and Tintri among others are playing.

    Watch for more StorageIO posts, commentary, perspectives, presentations, webinars, tips and events on information and data infrastructure topics, themes and trends. Data Infrastructure topics include among others cloud, virtual, legacy server, storage I/O networking, data protection, hardware and software.

    Check out our backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving (Under the resources section on StorageIO.com) for extra content.

    StorageIO Industry Trends and PerspectivesIndustry trends tips, commentary, articles and blog posts
    What is being seen, heard and talked about while out and about

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    StorageIO in the newsRecent StorageIO comments and perspectives in the news

    SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on automated storage tiering and flash
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Cloud-Storage Mergers and Acquisitions
    SearchDataBackup: Comments on near-CDP nudging true CDP from landscape
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Ways to Avoid Cloud Storage Pricing Surprises
    SearchDataBackup: Q&A: Snapshot, replication ‘great approach’ for data protection
    SearchDataBackup: Comments on LTFS-enabled products

    StorageIO tips and articles Recent StorageIO tips and articles in various venues

    InformationSecurityBuzz: Dark Territories – Do You Know Where Your Information Is?
    InformationSecurityBuzz: Rings Of Security For Data Protection Or For Appearance?
    SearchSolidStateStorage: Q&A on automated storage tiering and flash
    SpiceWorks: My copies were corrupted: The 3-2-1 data protection rule

    StorageIOblog postRecent StorageIOblog posts and perspectives

  • Missing MH370 reminds us, do you know where your digital assets are? Click to read more
  • Old School, New School, Current and Back to School – Click to read and view poll
  • USENIX FAST (File and Storage Technologies) 2014 Proceedings – Click to read more
  • Spring 2014 StorageIO Events and Activities Update Click to view
  • Review – iVMcontrol iPhone VMware management, iTool or iToy? Click to read more
  • February 2014 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    • Remember to check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links on cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends from various sources.

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities StorageIO activities (out and about)

    Seminars, symposium, conferences, webinars
    Live in person and recorded recent and upcoming events

    The StorageIO calendar continues to evolve, here are some recent and upcoming activities.

    129/78/148/103/1527/350/242/91 = 650

    June 12, 2014The Many Facets of Virtual Storage and Software Defined Storage VirtualizationWebinar
    9AM PT
    June 11, 2014The Changing Face and Landscape of Enterprise StorageWebinar
    9AM PT
    May 16, 2014 What you need to know about virtualization (Demystifying Virtualization)Nijkerk Holland
    May 15, 2014 Data Infrastructure Industry Trends: What’s New and TrendingNijkerk Holland
    May 14, 2014 To be announcedNijkerk Holland
    May 13, 2014 Data Movement and Migration: Storage Decision Making ConsiderationsNijkerk Holland
    May 12, 2014 Rethinking Business Resiliency: From Disaster Recovery to Business ContinuanceNijkerk Holland
    May 5-7, 2014EMC WorldLas Vegas
    April 22-23, 2014SNIA DSI Event

    Presenting – The “Cloud” Hybrid Home Run
    Life beyond they Hype

    		Santa Clara CA
    April 16, 2014Open Source and Cloud Storage – Enabling business, or a technology enabler?Webinar
    9AM PT
    April 9, 2014Storage Decision Making for Fast, Big and Very Big Data EnvironmentsWebinar
    9AM PT
    April 8, 2014NABNational Association Broadcasters (e.g. Very Big Fast data Event)Las Vegas
    March 27, 2014
    		Keynote: The 2017 Datacenter – PREPARING FOR THE 2017 DATACENTER SESSIONSEdina
    8:00AM
    Register Here

    Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2014 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    Thank you to the current StorageIoblog.com site sponsor advertisers

    Druva (End Point Data Protection)
    Unitrends (Enterprise backup solution and management tools)
    Veeam (VMware and Hyper-V virtual server backup and data protection tools).

    Contact StorageIO to learn about sponsorship and other partnership opportunities.

    Click here to view earlier StorageIO Update newsletters (HTML and PDF versions). Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along) and click here to subscribe to this news letter. View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Missing MH370 should remind us, do you know where your digital assets are?

    Storage I/O trends

    Missing MH370 should remind us, do you know where your digital assets are?

    I recently did a piece over at InformationSecurityBuzz called Dark Territories, Do You Know Where Your Information Is?

    Clouds and lack of insight awarness

    In that piece (click here), I bring up the topic of dark territories which with the recent missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 (e.g. MH370) reminds us that even with today’s 24×7 Internet of Things (IoT) connected world, there are still dark spot areas lacking in coverage or monitoring.

    Some of you might have heard of dark territories as a term used in days of old that refereed to parts of railroads or other transportation that were out of site with no command, control, monitoring or communications.

    Perhaps something that the tragedy of MH370 will remind us all is just how big this planet is, and not everything is connected or covered or monitored yet, or, at least that we know about or have access to.

    Excerpt from the piece:

    It might seem awkward today in this era of instant access to news, information as it happens, or in some cases before it happens how can we not know where something is?

    Between traditional media and social media, not to mention public on-line web sites, along with big data powered government (or private) surveillance using radar, cell-phone or other radio based, not to mention satellite tracking.

    Thus, how can we not know where things are?

    Do you know where your data and information are or have been?

    Do you have positive control over where you data and information have been?

    Is your data and information exposed to dark territories?

    With the recent disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 (MH 370) a Boeing 777 flying from Kula Lumpur to Beijing China, how can we not know where it is? After all, we all have public access to sites such as FlightAware and FlightRadar among many others, not to mention sites we in the public may not have access to. Same with using Cell phones or other forms of electronics, surely in the 7×24 non-stop, always connected world we should have insight and situational awareness about where things are always at, right?

    Wrong!

    Click here to read more.

    Do you have digital dark territory or security surveillance gaps in your environment?

    Dark Territory and digital data security

    How safe and secure are your digital assets and information resources including data, software applications, hardware and services?

    Are you securing your information and digital assets with rings or layers of defense?

    What about tracking where those items including data or hardware and software have been or do you have dark territory points of exposure

    Hopefully you are not one of those that I see at airports, coffee shops or at events who leave your computer or other digital assets alone, unattended while going to get a new beverage, or off to the rest room, talking on the phone? No worries, others will watch over your digital assets, right?

    Closing comments about MH370

    In the meantime condolences to those who lost friends and family including crew members on MH370. I only have flown MH a couple of times including over some dark or almost dark territories between the US and Asia and on to Australia in and out Kuala Lumpur which was a good experience. Also would like to extend thanks and best wishes to all of those involved in the search efforts so that someday we can learn what happened as well as to prevent it in the future.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Spring 2014 StorageIO Events and Activities Update

    Storage I/O trends

    Cloud Virtual Server Storage I/O and Networking events

    Speaking of Old School, New School, Current and Future School, here are some upcoming events including live in-person as well as virtual or online StorageIO activities. The following calendar also includes a series of one-day workshop sessions that are part of a week of seminars to be held in Nijkerk Netherlands being Organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy (learn more here).

    The current calendar which continues to be updated includes a mix of webinars (playback are available), and live events covering data infrastructure topics from cloud, virtual, physical and software defined across servers, storage I/O networking, SSD, performance, object storage and data protection among other related themes.

    June 19, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Evolving from Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (BC) to Business Resiliency (BR)Webinar
    9AM PT
    June 12, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		The Many Facets of Virtual Storage and Software Defined Storage Virtualization9AM PTWebinar
    June 11, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		The Changing Face and Landscape of Enterprise Storage9AM PTWebinar
    May 16, 2014 What you need to know about virtualization (Demystifying Virtualization)Nijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 15, 2014 Data Infrastructure Industry Trends: What’s New and TrendingNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 14, 2014 To be announcedNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 13, 2014 Data Movement and Migration: Storage Decision Making ConsiderationsNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 12, 2014 Rethinking Business Resiliency: From Disaster Recovery to Business ContinuanceNijkerk Holland
    Netherlands
    May 5-7, 2014EMC WorldLas Vegas
    April 22-23, 2014SNIA DSI EventTBASanta Clara CA
    April 16, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Open Source and Cloud Storage – Enabling business, or a technology enabler?9AM PT
    Webinar
    April 9, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Storage Decision Making for Fast, Big and Very Big Data Environments9AM PT
    Webinar
    April 8, 2014NABNational Association Broadcasters (e.g. Very Big Fast data Event)Las Vegas NV
    March 27, 2014
    		Keynote: The 2017 Datacenter – PREPARING FOR THE 2017 DATACENTER SESSIONSEdina MN
    8:00AM CT
    Register Here
    March 19, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Business Resiliency (BR), Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) Management9AM PT
    Webinar
    March 19, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Data Center Monitoring – Metrics that Matter for Effective Management7AM PT
    Webinar
    March 12, 2014
    Server and StorageIO BrightTalk Channel    		Hybrid Clouds – Bridging the Gap between public and private environments11AM PT
    Webinar

    View other recent and past activities along with new additions at the StorageIO.com/events page. Also check out recent commentary in the news here as well as tips and articles here.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Fall 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Storage I/O trends

    Fall 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Welcome to the Fall 2013 (joint September and October) edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics. It is fall (at least here in north America) which means conferences, symposium, virtual and physical events, seminars, webinars in addition to normal client project activities. Starting with VMworld back in late August, that event occurred in San Francisco which kicked off the fall (or back to school) season of activity. VMworld was followed with many other events including in-person along with virtual or on-line such as webinars, Google+ hangouts among others, not to mention all the briefings for vendor product announcements and updates. Check out the industry trends perspectives articles, comments and blog posts below that covers some activity over the past few months.

    VMworld 2013
    Congratulations to VMworld on the 10th anniversary of the event. With the largest installment yet of a VMworld in terms of attendance, there were also many announcements. Here are a synopsis of some of those announcements which of course included plenty of software defined marketing (SDM).

    CMG and Storage Performance
    During mid-September I was invited to give an industry trends and perspectives presentation to the Storage Performance Council (SPC) board. The SPC board were meeting in the Minneapolis area and I gave a brief talk about Metrics that Matter and importance of context with focus on applications. Speaking of the Minneapolis area, Tom Becchetti (@tbecchetti) organized a great CMG event hosted over at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. I gave a discussion around Technolutionary, technology evolution and revolution, using old and new things in new ways.

    Check out our backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving (Under the resources section on StorageIO.com) for various presentation, book chapter downloads and other content.

    SNW Fall 2013 Long Beach
    Talking about traveling, there was a quick trip out to Long Beach for the fall 2013 edition of Storage Networking World (SNW) where I had some good meetings and conversations with those who were actually there. No need to sugar coat it, likewise no need to kick sand in its face. Plain and simple, SNW is not the event it used to be has been a common discussion theme for several years which I had set my expectation accordingly.

    Some have asked me why I even spent time, money and resources to attend SNW?

    My answer is that I had some meetings to attend to, wanted to see and meet with others who were going to be there, and perhaps even say goodbye to an event that I have been involved with for over a decade.

    Does that mean I’m all done with SNW?

    Not sure yet as will have to wait and see what SNIA and IDG/Computerworld the event co-owners and producers put together for future events. However there are enough other events and activities to pick up the slack which is part of what has caused the steady decline in events like SNW among others.

    Perhaps it is time for SNIA to partner with another adjacent yet like-minded organization such as CMG to collaborate and try doing something like what was done in the early 2000s? That is SNIA providing their own seminars along with others such as myself who involved with both CMG, SNW and SNIA to beef up or set up a storage and I/O focused track at the CMG event.

    Beyond those items mentioned above, or in the following section, there are plenty of interesting and exciting things occurring in the background that I cant talk about yet. However watch for future posts, commentary, perspectives and other information down the road (and in the not so distant future).

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    StorageIO Industry Trends and PerspectivesIndustry trends perspectives and commentary
    What is being seen, heard and talked about while out and about

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    Storage I/O trends

    InfoStor: Perspectives on Data Dynamics file migration tool (Read more about StorageX later in this newsletter)
    SearchStorage: Perspectives on Data Dynamics resurrects StorageX for file migration
    SearchStorage: Perspectives on Cisco buying SSD storage vendor Whiptail

    Recent StorageIO Tips and Articles in various venues:

    21cIT:  Why You Should Consider Object Storage
    InfoStor:  HDDs Are Still Spinning (Rust Never Sleeps)
    21cIT:  Object Storage Is in Your Future, Even if You Use Files
    21cIT:  Playing the Name Game With Virtual Storage
    InfoStor:  Flash Data Storage: Myth vs. Reality
    InfoStor:  The Nand Flash Cache SSD Cash Dance
    SearchEnterpriseWAN:  Remote Office / ROBO backup and data protection for networking Pro’s
    TheVirtualizationPractice:  When and Where to use NAND Flash SSD for Virtual Servers
    FedTech:  These Data Center (DCIM) Tools Can Streamline Computing Resources

    Storage I/O posts

    Recent StorageIO blog post:

    Seagate Kinetic Cloud and Object Storage I/O platform (and Ethernet HDD)
    Cloud conversations: Has Nirvanix shutdown caused cloud confidence concerns?
    Cisco buys Whiptail continuing the SSD storage I/O flash cash cache dash
    WD buys nand flash SSD storage I/O cache vendor Virident
    EMC New VNX MCx doing more storage I/O work vs. just being more
    Is more of something always better? Depends on what you are doing
    VMworld 2013 Vmware, server, storage I/O and networking update (Day 1)
    EMC ViPR software defined object storage part II

    Check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links pertaining to cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends.

    Brouwer Storage Consultancy

    StorageIO in Europe (Netherlands)
    Spent over a week in the Netherlands where I presented three different seminar workshop sessions organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy who is celebrating their 10th anniversary in business. These sessions spanned five full days of interactive discussions with an engaged diverse group of attendees in the Nijkerk area who came from across Holland to take part in these workshops.

    Congratulations to Gert and Frank Brouwer on their ten years of being in business and best wishes for many more. Fwiw those who are curious StorageIO will be ten years young in business in about two years.

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Some observations from while in Europe:

    Continued cloud privacy concerns amplified by NSA and suspicion of US-based companies, yet many are not aware of similar concerns of European or UK-based firms from those outside those areas. While there were some cloud concern conversations over the demise of Nirvanix, those seemed less so then in the media or US given that at least in Holland they have seen other cloud and storage as a service firms come and go already. It should be noted that the US has also seen cloud and storage as a service startups come and go, however I think sometimes we or at least the media tends to have a short if not selective memory at times.

    In one of our workshops sessions we were talking about service level objectives (SLO), service level agreements (SLA), recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) among other themes. Somebody mentioned why the focus of time in RPO and questions why not a transactional perspective which I thought was a brilliant question. We had a good conversation in the group and concurred that while RPO is what the industry uses, that there also needs to be a transactional state context tie to what is inferred or assumed with RPO and RTO. Thus the importance of looking beyond just the point in time, however the importance of a transactional context or state, such as not just the time, however to a given transactional point.

    Note that transactional could mean database, file system, backup or data protection index or catalog, meta data repository or other entity. This is where some should be jumping up and down like Donkey in Shrek wanting to point out that is exactly what RTO and RPO refer to which would be great. However all to often what is assumed is not conveyed, thus those who don’t know, well, they assume or simply don’t know what others.

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Data Dynamics StorageX 7.0 Intelligent Policy Based File Data Migration – There is no such thing as a data or information recession . Likewise, people and data are living longer as well as getting larger. These span various use cases from traditional to personal or at work productivity. From little to big data content, collaboration including file or document sharing to rich media applications all of which are leveraging unstructured data. For example, email, word processing back-office documents, web and text files, presentations (e.g. PowerPoint), photos, audio and video among others. These macro trends result in the continued growth of unstructured Network Attached Storage (NAS) file data.

    Thus, a common theme is adding management including automated data movement and migration to carry out structure around unstructured NAS file data. More than a data mover or storage migration tool, Data Dynamics StorageX is a software platform for adding storage management structure around unstructured local and distributed NAS file data. This includes heterogeneous vendor support across different storage system, protocols and tools including Windows CIFS and Unix/Linux NFS.
    (Disclosure DataDynamics has been a StorageIO client). Visit Data Dynamics at www.datadynamicsinc.com/

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities StorageIO activities (out and about)

    Seminars, symposium, conferences, webinars
    Live in person and recorded recent and upcoming events

    Announcing: Backup.U brought to you by Dell

    Some on-line (live and recorded) events have include an ongoing series tied to data protection (Backup/restore, HA, BC, DR and Archiving) called Backup.U organized and sponsored by Dell Data Protection Software that you can learn more about at the landing page www.software.dell.com/backupu (more on this in a future post). In addition to data protection, some other events and activities including a BrightTalk webinar on storage I/O and networking for cloud environments (here).

    In addition to the above, check out the StorageIO calendar to see more recent and upcoming activities.

    Watch for more 2013 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    If you missed the Summer (July and August) 2013 StorageIO update newsletter, click here to view that and other previous editions as HTML or PDF versions. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along)

    and click here to subscribe to this news letter. View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    April 2013 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    StorageIO News Letter Image
    April 2013 News letter

    Welcome to the April 2013 edition of the StorageIO Update. This edition includes more on nand flash SSD, after all its not if, rather when, where, why, with what along with how much SSD is in your future. Also more on object storage, clouds, big data and little data, HDDs, SNW, backup/restore, HA, BC, DR and data protection along with data center topics and trends.

    You can get access to this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions.

    Click on the following links to view the April 2013 edition as (HTML sent via Email) version, or PDF versions.

    Visit the news letter page to view previous editions of the StorageIO Update.

    You can subscribe to the news letter by clicking here.

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update news letter, let me know your comments and feedback.

    Ok Nuff said, for now

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Spring SNW 2013, Storage Networking World Recap

    Storage I/O trends

    A couple of weeks ago I attended the spring 2013 Storage Networking World (SNW) in Orlando Florida. Talking with SNIA Chairman Wayne Adams and SNIA Director Leo Legar this was the 28th edition of the US SNW (two shows a year), plus the international ones. While I have not been to all 28 of the US SNWs, I have been to a couple of dozen SNWs in the US, Europe and Brazil going back to around 2001 as an attendee, main stage as well as breakout, and tutorial presenter (see here and here).

    SNW image

    For the spring 2013 SNW I was there for a mix of meetings, analyst briefings, attending the expo, doing some podcasts (see below), meeting with IT professionals (e.g. customers), VARs, vendors along with presenting three sessions (you can download them and others backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving).

    Some of the buzz and themes heard included big data was a little topic at the event, while cloud was in the conversations, dedupe and data footprint reduction (DFR) do matter for some people and applications. However also a common theme with customers including Media and Entertainment (M&E) is that not everything can be duped thus other DFR approaches are needed.

    There was some hype in and around hybrid storage along with storage hypervisors, which was also an entertaining panel discussion with HDS (Claus Mikkelsen aka @YoClaus), Datacore, IBM and Virstro.

    The theme of that discussion seemed for the most part to gravitate towards realities of storage virtualization and less about the hypervisor hype. Some software defined marketing hype I heard is that it is impossible to spend more than a million dollars on a server today. I guess with the applicable caveats, qualifiers and context that could be true, however I also know some vendors and customers that would say otherwise.

    Lunch
    Lunchtime at SNW Spring 2013

    Not surprisingly, there was an increase in vendors wanting to jump on the software defined and object storage bandwagons; however, customers tended to be curious at best, confused or concerned otherwise. Speaking of object storage, check out this podcast discussion with Cleversafe customer Justin Stottlemyer of Shutterfly and his 80PB environment.

    In addition to Cleversafe, heard from Astute (if you need fast iSCSI storage check them out), Avere has a new NAS for dummies book out, Exablox a storage system startup with emphasis on scalability, ease of use and NAS access and hybrid storage Tegile. Also, check out SwifTest for generating application workloads and measurement that had their customer Go Daddy presenting at the event. A couple of others to keep an eye on include Raxco with their thin provision storage reclamation tool, and Infinio with their NAS acceleration for VMware software tools among others.

    backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

    Here are the three presentations that I did while at the event:

    Analyst Perspective: Increase Your Return on Innovation (The New ROI) With Data Management and Dedupe
    There is no such thing as an information recession with more data to move, process and store, however there are economic challenges. Likewise, people and data are living longer and getting larger which requires leveraging data footprint reduction (DFR) techniques on a broader focus. It is time to move upstream finding and fixing things at the source to reduce the downstream impact of expanding data footprints, enabling more to be done with what you have.

    Analyst Perspective: Metrics that Matter – Meritage of Data Management and Data Protection
    Not everything in the data center or information factory is the same. This session recaps and builds off the morning increase your ROI with data footprint and data management session while setting the stage for the rethinking data protection (backup, BC and DR). Are you maximizing the return on innovation in how using new tools and technology in new ways, vs. using new tools in old ways? Also discussed performance capacity planning, forecasting analysis in cloud, virtual and physical environments. Without metrics that matter, you are flying blind, or perhaps missing opportunities to further drive your return on innovation and return on investment.

    Analyst Perspective: Time to Rethink Data Protection Including BC and DR
    When it comes to today’s data centers and information factories including physical, virtual and cloud, everything is not the same, so why treat business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR) and data protection in general the same? Simply using new tools, technologies and techniques in the same old ways is no longer a viable option. Since there is no such thing as a data or information recession, yet there are economic and budget challenges, along with new or changing threat risks, now is the time to review data protection including BC and DR including using new technologies in new ways.

    You can view the complete SNW USA spring 2013 agenda here.

    audio
    Podcasts are also available on

    Here are links to some podcasts from spring 2013 SNW:
    Stottlemyer of Shutterfly and object storage discussion
    Dave Demming talking tech education from SNW Spring 2013
    Farley Flies into SNW Spring 2013
    Talking with Tony DiCenzo at SNW Spring 2013
    SNIA Spring 2013 update with Wayne Adams
    SNIA’s new SPDEcon conference

    Also, check out these podcasts from fall 2012 US and Europe SNWs:
    Ben Woo on Big Data Buzzword Bingo and Business Benefits
    Networking with Bruce Ravid and Bruce Rave
    Industry trends and perspectives: Ray Lucchesi on Storage and SNW
    Learning with Leo Leger of SNIA
    Meeting up with Marty Foltyn of SNIA
    Catching up with Quantum CTE David Chapa (Now with Evault)
    Chatting with Karl Chen at SNW 2012
    SNW 2012 Wayne’s World
    SNW Podcast on Cloud Computing
    HDS Claus Mikkelsen talking storage from SNW Fall 2012

    Storage I/O trends

    What this all means?

    While busy, I liked this edition of SNW USA in that it had a great agenda with diversity and balance of speaker sessions (some tutorials, some vendors, some IT customers, and some analysts) vs. too many of one specific area.

    In addition to the agenda and session length, the venue was good, big enough, however not spread out so much to cause loss of the buzz and energy of the event.

    This SNW had some similar buzz or energy as early versions granted without the hype and fanfare of a startup industry or focus area (that would be some of the other events today)

    Should SNW go to a once a year event?

    While it would be nice to have a twice a year venue for convenience, practicality and budgets say once would be enough given all the other conferences and venues on the agenda (or that could be).

    The next SNW USA will be October 15 to 17 2013 in Long Beach California, and Europe in Frankfurt Germany October 29-30 2013.

    Thanks again to all the attendees, participants, vendor exhibitors, event organizers and SNIA, SNW/Computerworld staffs for another great event.

    Ok, nuff said

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

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