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April and May 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter
Server and StorageIO Update newsletter – April and May 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Greg Schulz on break
Is there an information or data recession? Are you using less storage? (With Polls)
Is there an information or data recession? Are you using less storage? (With Polls)
Is there an information recession where you are creating, processing, moving or saving less data?
Are you using less data storage than in the past either locally online, offline or remote including via clouds?
IMHO there is no such thing as a data or information recession, granted storage is being used more effectively by some, while economic pressures or competition enables your budgets to be stretched further. Likewise people and data are living longer and getting larger.
In conversations with IT professionals particular the real customers (e.g. not vendors, VAR’s, analysts, blogalysts, consultants or media) I routinely hear from people that they continue to have the need to store more information, however they’re data storage usage and acquisition patterns are changing. For some this means using what they have more effectively leveraging data footprint reduction (DFR) which includes (archiving, compression, dedupe, thin provision, changing how and when data is protected). This also means using different types of storage from flash SSD to HDD to SSHD to tape summit resources as well as cloud in different ways spanning block, file and object storage local and remote.
A common question that comes up particular around vendor earnings announcement times is if the data storage industry is in decline with some vendors experience poor results?
Look beyond vendor revenue metrics
As a back ground reading, you might want to check out this post here (IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand) which candidly should be common sense.
If all you looked at were a vendors revenues or margin numbers as an indicator of how well such as the data storage industry (includes traditional, legacy as well as cloud) you would not be getting the picture.
What needs to be factored into the picture is how much storage is being shipped (from components such as drives to systems and appliances) as well as delivered by service providers.
Looking at storage systems vendors from a revenue earnings perspective you would get mixed indicators depending on who you include, not to mention on how those vendors report break of revenues by product, or amount units shipped. For example looking at public vendors EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Nimble and Oracle (among others) as well as the private ones (if you can see the data) such as Dell, Pure, Simplivity, Solidfire, Tintri results in different analysis. Some are doing better than others on revenues and margins, however try to get clarity on number of units or systems shipped (for actual revenue vs. loaners (planting seeds for future revenue or trials) or demos).
Then look at the service providers such as AWS, Centurlylink, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft Rackspace or Verizon (among others) you should see growth, however clarity about how much they are actually generating on revenues plus margin for storage specific vs. broad general buckets can be tricky.
Now look at the component suppliers such as Seagate and Western Digital (WD) for HDDs and SSHDs who also provide flash SSD drives and other technology. Also look at the other flash component suppliers such as Avago/LSI whose flash business is being bought by Seagate, FusionIO, SANdisk, Samsung, Micron and Intel among others (this does not include the systems vendors who OEM those or other products to build systems or appliances). These and other component suppliers can give another indicator as to the health of the industry both from revenue and margin, as well as footprint (e.g. how many devices are being shipped). For example the legacy and startup storage systems and appliance vendors may have soft or lower revenue numbers, however are they shipping the same or less product? Likewise the cloud or service providers may be showing more revenues and product being acquired however at what margin?
What this all means?
Look at revenue numbers in the proper context as well as in the bigger picture.
If the same number of component devices (e.g. processors, HDD, SSD, SSHD, memory, etc) are being shipped or more, that is an indicator of continued or increased demand. Likewise if there is more competition and options for IT organizations there will be price competition between vendors as well as service providers.
All of this means that while IT organizations budgets stay stretched, their available dollars or euros should be able to buy (or rent) them more storage space capacity.
Likewise using various data and storage management techniques including DFR, the available space capacity can be stretched further.
So this then begs the question of if the management of storage is important, why are we not hearing vendors talking about software defined storage management vs. chasing each other to out software define storage each other?
Ah, that’s for a different post ;).
So what say you?
Are you using less storage?
Do you have less data being created?
Are you using storage and your available budget more effectively?
Please take a few minutes and cast your vote (and see the results).
Sorry I have no Amex or Amazon gift cards or other things to offer you as a giveaway for participating as nobody is secretly sponsoring this poll or post, it’s simply sharing and conveying information for you and others to see and gain insight from.
Do you think that there is an information or data recession?
How about are you using or buying more storage, could there be a data storage recession?
Some more reading links
IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand
Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
Is There a Data and I/O Activity Recession?
Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
The Human Face of Big Data, a Book Review
Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage?
Little data, big data and very big data (VBD) or big BS?
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
Enterprise SSHD and Flash SSD Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy
Enterprise SSHD and Flash SSD 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.
Introducing Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD)
Solid State Hybrid Disks (SSHD) are the successors to previous generation Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD) that I have used for several years (you can read more about them here, and here).
While it would be nice to simply have SSD for everything, there are also economic budget realities to be dealt with. Keep in mind that a bit of nand flash SSD cache in the right location for a given purpose can go a long way which is the case with SSHDs. This is also why in many environments today there is a mix of SSD, HDD of various makes, types, speeds and capacities (e.g. different tiers) to support diverse application needs (e.g. not everything in the data center is the same).
However, If you have the need for speed and can afford or benefit from the increased productivity by all means go SSD!
Otoh if you have budget constraints and need more space capacity yet want some performance boost, then SSHDs are an option. The big difference however between today’s SSHDs that are available for both enterprise class storage systems and servers, as well as desktop environments is that they can accelerate both reads and writes. This is different from their predecessors that I have used for several years now that had basic read acceleration, however no write optimizations.
Better Together: Where SSHDs fit in an enterprise tiered storage environment with SSD and HDDs
As their names imply, they are a hybrid between a nand flash Solid State Device (SSD) and traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) meaning a best of situation. This means that the SSHD are based on a traditional spinning HDD (various models with different speeds, space capacity, interfaces) along with DRAM (which is found on most modern HDDs), along with nand flash for read cache, and some extra nonvolatile memory for persistent write cache combined with a bit of software defined storage performance optimization algorithms.
Btw, if you were paying attention to that last sentence you would have picked up on something about nonvolatile memory being used for persistent write cache which should prompt the question would that help with nand flash write endurance? Yup.
Where and when to use SSHD?
In the StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective thought leadership white paper I recently released compliments of Seagate Enterprise Turbo SSHD (that’s a disclosure btw ;) enterprise class Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD) were looked at and test driven in the StorageIO Labs with various application workloads. These activities include being in a virtual environment for common applications including database and email messaging using industry standard benchmark workloads (e.g. TPC-B and TPC-E for database, JetStress for Exchange).
Conventional storage system focused workloads using iometer, iorate and vdbench were also run in the StorageIO Labs to set up baseline reads, writes, random, sequential, small and large I/O size with IOPs, bandwidth and response time latency results. Some of those results can be found here (Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware?) with other ongoing workloads continuing in different configurations. The various test drive proof points were done in the comparing SSHD, SSD and different HDDs.
Data Protection (Archiving, Backup, BC, DR) | Staging cache buffer area for snapshots, replication or current copies before streaming to other storage tier using fast read/write capabilities. Meta data, index and catalogs benefit from fast reads and writes for faster protection. |
Big Data DSS | Support sequential read-ahead operations and “hot-band” data caching in a cost-effective way using SSHD vs. slower similar capacity size HDDs for Data warehouse, DSS and other analytic environments. |
Email, Text and Voice Messaging | Microsoft Exchange and other email journals, mailbox or object repositories can leverage faster read and write I/Os with more space capacity. |
OLTP, Database | Eliminate the need to short stroke HDDs to gain performance, offer more space capacity and IOP performance per device for tables, logs, journals, import/export and scratch, temporary ephemeral storage. Leverage random and sequential read acceleration to compliment server-side SSD-based read and write-thru caching. Utilize fast magnetic media for persistent data reducing wear and tear on more costly flash SSD storage devices. |
Server Virtualization | Fast disk storage for data stores and virtual disks supporting VMware vSphere/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, Xen and others. Holding virtual machines such as VMware VMDKs, along with Hyper-V and other hypervisor virtual disks. Compliment virtual server read cache and I/O optimization using SSD as a cache with writes going to fast SSHD. For example VMware V5.5 Virtual SAN host disk groups use SSD as a read cache and can use SSHD as the magnetic disk for storing data while boosting performance without breaking the budget or adding complexity. Speaking of Virtual, as mentioned the various proof points were run using Windows systems that were VMware guests with the SSHD and other devices being Raw Device Mapped (RDM) SAS and SATA attached, read how to do that here. Hint: If you know about the VMware trick for making a HDD look like a SSD to vSphere/ESXi (refer to here and here) think outside the virtual box for a moment on some things you could do with SSHD in a VSAN environment among other things, for now, just sayin ;). |
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) | SSHD can be used as high performance magnetic disk for storing linked clone images, applications and data. Leverage fast read to support read ahead or pre-fetch to compliment SSD based read cache solutions. Utilize fast writes to quickly store data enabling SSD-based read or write-thru cache solutions to be more effective. Reduce impact of boot, shutdown, and virus scan or maintenance storms while providing more space capacity. |
Table 1 Example application and workload scenarios benefiting from SSHDs
Test drive application proof points
Various workloads were run using Seagate Enterprise Turbo SSHD in the StorageIO lab environment across different real world like application workload scenarios. These include general storage I/O performance characteristics profiling (e.g. reads, writes, random, sequential or various IOP size) to understand how these devices compare to other HDD, HHDD and SSD storage devices in terms of IOPS, bandwidth and response time (latency). In addition to basic storage I/O profiling, the Enterprise Turbo SSHD was also used with various SQL database workloads including Transaction Processing Council (TPC); along with VMware server virtualization among others use case scenarios.
Note that in the following workload proof points a single drive was used meaning that using more drives in a server or storage system should yield better performance. This also means scaling would be bound by the constraints of a given configuration, server or storage system. These were also conducted using 6Gbps SAS with PCIe Gen 2 based servers and ongoing testing is confirming even better results with 12Gbs SAS, faster servers with PCIe Gen 3.
Copy (read and write) 80GB and 220GB file copies (time to copy entire file)
SQLserver TPC-B batch database updates
Test configuration: 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Turbo SSHD (ST600MX) 6 Gbps SAS, 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Enhanced 15K V4 (15K RPM) HDD (ST600MP) with 6 Gbps SAS, 500GB 3.5” 7.2K RPM HDD 3 Gbps SATA, 1TB 3.5” 7.2K RPM HDD 3 Gbps SATA. Workload generator and virtual clients ran on Windows 7 Ultimate. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Database was on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64 bit) 14 GB DRAM, Dual CPU (Intel x3490 2.93 GHz)), with LSI 9211 6Gbps SAS adapters with TPC-B (www.tpc.org) workloads. VM resided on separate data store from devices being tested. All devices being tested with SQL MDF were Raw Device Mapped (RDM) independent persistent with database log file (LDF) on a separate SSD device also persistent (no delayed writes). Tests were performed in StorageIO Lab facilities by StorageIO personal.
SQLserver TPC-E transactional workload
Test configuration: 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Turbo SSHD (ST600MX) 6 Gbps SAS, 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Enhanced 15K V4 (15K RPM) HDD (ST600MP) with 6 Gbps SAS, 300GB 2.5” Savio 10K RPM HDD 6 Gbps SAS, 1TB 3.5” 7.2K RPM HDD 6 Gbps SATA. Workload generator and virtual clients Windows 7 Ultimate. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 database was on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64 bit) 14 GB DRAM, Dual CPU (E8400 2.99GHz), with LSI 9211 6Gbps SAS adapters with TPC-E (www.tpc.org) workloads. VM resided on separate SSD based data store from devices being tested (e.g., where MDF resided). All devices being tested were Raw Device Mapped (RDM) independent persistent with database log file on a separate SSD device also persistent (no delayed writes). Tests were performed in StorageIO Lab facilities by StorageIO personal.
Microsoft Exchange workload
Test configuration: 2.5” Seagate 600 Pro 120GB (ST120FP0021 ) SSD 6 Gbps SATA, 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Turbo SSHD (ST600MX) 6 Gbps SAS, 600GB 2.5” Enterprise Enhanced 15K V4 (15K RPM) HDD (ST600MP) with 6 Gbps SAS, 2.5” Savio 146GB HDD 6 Gbps SAS, 3.5” Barracuda 500GB 7.2K RPM HDD 3 Gbps SATA. Email server hosted as guest on VMware vSphere/ESXi V5.5, Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 Service Pack 1 64 bit, 8GB DRAM, One CPU (Intel X3490 2.93 GHz) LSI 9211 6 Gbps SAS adapter, JetStress 2010 (no other active workload during test intervals). All devices being tested were Raw Device Mapped (RDM) where EDB resided. VM on a SSD based separate data store than devices being tested. Log file IOPs were handled via a separate SSD device.
Read more about the above proof points along view data points and configuration information in the associated white paper found here (no registration required).
What this all means
Similar to flash-based SSD technologies the question is not if, rather when, where, why and how to deploy hybrid solutions such as SSHDs. If your applications and data infrastructures environment have the need for storage I/O speed without loss of space capacity and breaking your budget, SSD enabled devices like the Seagate Enterprise Turbo 600GB SSHD are in your future. You can learn more about enterprise class SSHD such as those from Seagate by visiting this link here.
Watch for extra workload proof points being performed including with 12Gbps SAS and faster servers using PCIe Gen 3.
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved
Chat with Cash Coleman talking ClearDB, cloud database and Johnny Cash
Podcast 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).
Introducing Cashton (Cash) Coleman and ClearDB
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. In our conversation 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.
If you are a database person, you will want to listen to what Cash has to say about boosting performance and getting more value out of your physical hardware or cloud services. On the other hand if you are a storage person, listen in to get some insight and ideas on to address database performance and resiliency. For others who just like to listen to new trends, technology talk, or hear about emerging companies to keep an eye on, you wont want to miss the podcast conversation.
Topics and themes discussed:
Check out ClearDB and listen in to the conversation with Cash podcast here.
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved
Nand flash SSD NVM SCM server storage I/O memory conversations
Updated 8/31/19
The SSD Place NVM, SCM, PMEM, Flash, Optane, 3D XPoint, MRAM, NVMe Server, Storage, I/O Topics
Now and then somebody asks me if I’m familiar with flash or nand flash Solid State Devices (SSD) along with other non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies and trends including NVM Express (NVMe).
Having been involved with various types of SSD technology, products and solutions since the late 80s initially as a customer in IT (including as a lunch customer for DEC’s ESE20 SSD’s), then later as a vendor selling SSD solutions, as well as an analyst and advisory consultant cover the technologies, I tell the person asking, well, yes, of course.
That gave me the idea as well as to help me keep track of some of the content and make it easy to find by putting it here in this post (which will be updated now and then).
Thus this is a collection of articles, tips, posts, presentations, blog posts and other content on SSD including nand flash drives, PCIe cards, DIMMs, NVM Express (NVMe), hybrid and other storage solutions along with related themes.
Also if you can’t find it here, you can always do a Google search like this or this to find some more material (some of which is on this page).
Flash SSD Articles, posts and presentations
The following are some of my tips, articles, blog posts, presentations and other content on SSD. Keep in mind that the question should not be if SSD are in your future, rather when, where, with what, from whom and how much. Also keep in mind that a bit of SSD as storage or cache in the right place can go a long way, while a lot of SSD will give you a benefit however also cost a lot of cash.
- NVMe overview and primer – Part I
- Part II – NVMe overview and primer (Different Configurations)
- Part III – NVMe overview and primer (Need for Performance Speed)
- Part IV – NVMe overview and primer (Where and How to use NVMe)
- Part V – NVMe overview and primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)
- PCIe Server I/O Fundamentals
- If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
- NVMe Wont Replace Flash By Itself
- Via Computerweekly – NVMe discussion: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
- Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
- Via GizModo: Comments on Intel Optane 800P NVMe M.2 SSD
- Via InfoStor: 8 Big Enterprise SSD Trends to Expect in 2017
- Why NVMe Should Be in Your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow’s Data Center Today (StorageIO Guest Post Via Micron.com)
- Via SearchStoragae: Comments on Top 10 Tips on Solid State Storage Adoption Strategy
- Via J Metz’s Blog – Vendor neutral bibliography of material by subject matter for NVMe
- Via InfoStor – SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
- StorageIOblog: Get in the NVMe SSD game (if you are not already)
- Via J Metz’s Blog – Vendor neutral learning NVMe A Program of Study
- Via StorageIOblog: VMware vSAN v6.6
- Via StorageIOblog: Cisco announces 32Gb FC and NVMe fabrics
- Via Pure Storage: Announces new NVMe storage
- Via Micron Blog (Guest Post by Greg Schulz): What’s next for NVMe and your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow Today
- Via ChannelProSMB: Comments on NVMe (and SSD) and server storage I/O
- EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
- SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on How to add solid-state storage to your enterprise data storage systems
- Microsoft TechNet: Understand the cache in Storage Spaces Direct
- Microsoft Technet: Don’t do it: consumer-grade solid-state drives (SSD) in Storage Spaces Direct
- Why Micron NVMe SSDs (Via Micron.com)
- New Path to Storage I/O Performance and Resiliency With NVMe (Via Micron.com)
- How NVMe Will Revolutionize Server and Storage I/O(Via Micron.com)
- How to Prepare for the NVMe Server Storage I/O Wave (Via Micron.com)
- Why NVMe Should Be in Your Data Center (Via Micron.com)
- NVMe U2 (8639) vs. M2 interfaces (Via Gamersnexus)
- Enmotus FuzeDrive MicroTiering (StorageIO Lab Report)
- EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I (Via StorageIOBlog)
- Part II – EMC DSSD D5 Direct Attached Shared AFA (Via StorageIOBlog)
- NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI & SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet! (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
- Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates (Via StorageIOblog)
- Microsoft and Intel showcase Storage Spaces Direct with NVM Express at IDF ’15 (Via TechNet)
- MNVM Express solutions (Via SuperMicro)
- Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Via StorageIOblog)
- PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
- RoCE updates among other items (Via InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) December Newsletter)
- NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
- What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
- MSP CMG, Sept. 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities – Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips)– PDF
- Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
- PMC Announces Flashtec NVMe SSD NVMe2106, NVMe2032 Controllers With LDPC (Via TomsITpro)
- Exclusive: If Intel and Micron’s “Xpoint” is 3D Phase Change Memory, Boy Did They Patent It (Via Dailytech)
- Intel & Micron 3D XPoint memory — is it just CBRAM hyped up? Curation of various posts (Via Computerworld)
- How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do (Part I)?
- How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? (Part II)
- I/O Performance Issues and Impacts on Time-Sensitive Applications (Via CMG)
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 5 Hot Storage Technologies to Watch
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 10-Year Review of Data Storage
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Where All-Flash Storage Makes No Sense
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Top Tips for Enterprise SSD Form Factor Selection and Deployment
- Who Will Be Top Of Storage World?
- Intel announces new processors
- Server Storage I/O CI, HCI overview
- Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Overview
- SSD, flash and NVM Trends
- Top Tips for Enterprise SSD Form Factor Selection and Deployment
- StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective White Paper: Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD) aka Turbo Drives
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Software-Defined Storage Tips
- Via EnterpriseStorageForum: What SSD form factor is best
- Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
- Via StorageIOlab (ITCentralStation): Intel NVMe 750 SSD review
- Via Microsoft Technet: Don’t do it: consumer-grade solid-state drives (SSD) in Storage Spaces Direct
- EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
- SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on How to add solid-state storage to your enterprise data storage systems
- StorageIOblog: Some server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
- StorageIOblog: Get in the NVMe SSD game (if you are not already)
- Doridmen.com: Transcend SSD360S Review with tips on using ATTO and Crystal benchmark tools
- Webinar and Blog: 12Gb SAS SSD Enabling Server Storage I/O Performance and Effectiveness Webinar
- Enmotus FuzeDrive MicroTiering (StorageIO Lab Report
- Microsoft TechNet: Understand the cache in Storage Spaces Direct
- Via StorageIOlab (ITCentralStation): Intel NVMe 750 SSD review
- Via Microsoft Technet: Don’t do it: consumer-grade solid-state drives (SSD) in Storage Spaces Direct
- EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
- SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on How to add solid-state storage to your enterprise data storage systems
- StorageIOblog: Some server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
- StorageIOblog: Get in the NVMe SSD game (if you are not already)
- Doridmen.com: Transcend SSD360S Review with tips on using ATTO and Crystal benchmark tools
- Webinar and Blog: 12Gb SAS SSD Enabling Server Storage I/O Performance and Effectiveness Webinar
- Via Micron Blog (Guest Post by Greg Schulz): What’s next for NVMe and your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow Today
- AFA over NVMe Fabric (Via Zstor)
- Enmotus FuzeDrive MicroTiering (StorageIO Lab Report)
- Microsoft TechNet: Understand the cache in Storage Spaces Direct
- Via CustomPCreview: Samsung SM961 PCIe NVMe SSD Shows Up for Pre-Order
- StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective White Paper: Seagate 1200 Enterprise SSD (12Gbps SAS) with proof points (e.g. Lab test results)
- Companion: Seagate 1200 12Gbs Enterprise SAS SSD StorgeIO lab review (blog post part I and Part II)
- NewEggBusiness: Seagate 1200 12Gbs Enterprise SAS SSD StorgeIO lab review Are NVMe m.2 drives ready for the limelight?
- Google (Research White Paper): Disks for Data Centers (vs. just SSD)
- CMU (PDF White Paper): A Large-Scale Study of Flash Memory Failures in the Field
- Via ZDnet: Google doubles Cloud Compute local SSD capacity: Now it’s 3TB per VM
- EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I (Via StorageIOBlog)
- Part II – EMC DSSD D5 Direct Attached Shared AFA (Via StorageIOBlog)
- NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI & SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet! (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
- Here’s why Western Digital is buying SanDisk (Via ComputerWorld)
- HP, SanDisk partner to bring storage-class memory to market (Via ComputerWorld)
- Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates (Via StorageIOblog)
- Microsoft and Intel showcase Storage Spaces Direct with NVM Express at IDF ’15 (Via TechNet)
- PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
- Seagate Grows Its Nytro Enterprise Flash Storage Line (Via InfoStor)
- New SAS Solid State Drive First Product From Seagate Micron Alliance (Via Seagate)
- Wow, Samsung’s New 16 Terabyte SSD Is the World’s Largest Hard Drive (Via Gizmodo)
- Samsung ups the SSD ante with faster, higher capacity drives (Via ITworld)
- PMC Announces Flashtec NVMe SSD NVMe2106, NVMe2032 Controllers With LDPC (Via TomsITpro)
- New SATA SSD powers elastic cloud agility for CSPs (Via Cbronline)
- Toshiba Solid-State Drive Family Features PCIe Technology (Via Eweek)
- SanDisk aims CloudSpeed Ultra SSD at cloud providers (Via ITwire)
- Everspin & Aupera reveal all-MRAM Storage Module in M.2 Form Factor (Via BusinessWire)
- Intel, Micron Launch “Bulk-Switching” ReRAM (Via EEtimes)
- Exclusive: If Intel and Micron’s “Xpoint” is 3D Phase Change Memory, Boy Did They Patent It (Via Dailytech)
- Intel & Micron 3D XPoint memory — is it just CBRAM hyped up? Curation of various posts (Via Computerworld)
- NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
- What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
- MSP CMG, September 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips) – PDF
- Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
- Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends (Via Processor)
- Market ripe for embedded flash storage as prices drop (Via Powermore (Dell))
- 2015 Tech Preview: SSD and SMBs (Via ChannelProNetworks )
- How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals (Via StorageIOBlog)
- Processor: Comments on What Abandoned Data Is Costing Your Company
- Processor: Comments on Match Application Needs & Infrastructure Capabilities
- Processor: Comments on Explore The Argument For Flash-Based Storage
- Processor: Comments on Understand The True Cost Of Acquiring More Storage
- Processor: Comments on What Resilient & Highly Available Mean
- Processor: Explore The Argument For Flash-Based Storage
- SearchCloudStorage What should I consider when using SSD cloud?
- StorageSearch.com: (not to be confused with TechTarget, good site with lots of SSD related content)
- StorageSearch.com: What kind of SSD world… 2015?
- StorageSearch.com: Various links about SSD
- FlashStorage.com: (Various flash links curated by Tegile and analyst firm Actual Tech Media [Scott D. Lowe])
- StorageSearch.com: How fast can your SSD run backwards?
- Seagate has shipped over 10 Million storage HHDD’s (SSHDs), is that a lot?
- Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
- Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
- Cisco buys Whiptail continuing the SSD storage I/O flash cash cache dash
- EMC VFCache respinning SSD and intelligent caching (Part I)
- Flash Data Storage: Myth vs. Reality (Via InfoStor)
- Have SSDs been unsuccessful with storage arrays (with poll)?
- How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do (Part I)?
- How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? (Part II)
- I/O Performance Issues and Impacts on Time-Sensitive Applications (Via CMG)
- IBM buys flash solid state device (SSD) industry veteran TMS
- Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be
- Is SSD Only for Performance?
- NetApp EF540, something familiar, something new
- Researchers and marketers don’t agree on future of nand flash SSD
- Server and Storage IO Memory: DRAM and nand flash
- Some of my experiences with Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) series of posts based on what I use in my laptops and others systems including Seagate Momentus XT here, here, here, and here (along with Samsung SSD 512GB 840 that I upgraded from a 256GB 830).
- What, When, Why & How to Accelerate Storage (Via Storage Acceleration)
- Tips for Measuring Your Storage Acceleration (Via Storage Acceleration)
- Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
- Speaking of SSDs (with poll) With Poll, Cast Your Vote Here
- Spiceworks SSD and related conversation here and here, profiling IOPs here, and SSD endurance here.
- SSD is in your future, How, when, with what and where you will be using it (PDF Presentation)
- SSD for Virtual (and Physical) Environments: Part I Spinning up to speed on SSD (Via TheVirtualizationPractice), Part II, The call to duty, SSD endurance, Part III What SSD is best for you?, and Part IV what’s best for your needs.
- IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand
- SSD, flash and DRAM, DejaVu or something new?
- The Many Faces of Solid State Devices/Disks (SSD)
- The Nand Flash Cache SSD Cash Dance (Via InfoStor)
- The Right Storage Option Is Important for Big Data Success (Via FedTech)
- Viking SATADIMM: Nand flash SATA SSD in DDR3 DIMM slot?
- WD buys nand flash SSD storage I/O cache vendor Virident (Via VMware Communities)
- What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do
- When and Where to Use NAND Flash SSD for Virtual Servers (Via TheVirtualizationPractice)
- Why SSD based arrays and storage appliances can be a good idea (Part I)
- Why SSD based arrays and storage appliances can be a good idea (Part II)
- Q&A on Access data more efficiently with automated storage tiering and flash (Via SearchSolidStateStorage)
- InfoStor: Flash Data Storage: Myth vs. Reality (Via InfoStor)
- Enterprise Storage Forum: Not Just a Flash in the Pan (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
SSD Storage I/O and related technologies comments in the news
The following are some of my commentary and industry trend perspectives that appear in various global venues.
- Comments on using Flash Drives To Boost Performance (Via Processor)
- Comments on selecting the Right Type, Amount & Location of Flash Storage (Via Toms It Pro)
- Comments Google vs. AWS SSD: Which is the better deal? (Via SearchAWS)
- Tech News World: SANdisk SSD comments and perspectives.
- Tech News World: Samsung Jumbo SSD drives perspectives
- Comments on Why Degaussing Isn’t Always Effective (Via StateTech Magazine)
- Processor: SSD (FLASH and RAM)
- SearchStorage: FLASH and SSD Storage
- Internet News: Steve Wozniak joining SSD startup
- Internet News: SANdisk sale to Toshiba
- SearchSMBStorage: Comments on SanDisk and wireless storage product
- StorageAcceleration: Comments on When VDI Hits a Storage Roadblock and SSD
- Statetechmagazine: Boosting performance with SSD
- Edtechmagazine: Driving toward SSDs
- SearchStorage: Seagate SLC and MLC flash SSD
- SearchWindowServer: Making the move to SSD in a SAN/NAS
- SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments SSD marketplace
- InfoStor: Comments on SSD approaches and opportunities
- SearchSMBStorage: Solid State Devices (SSD) benefits
- SearchSolidState: Comments on Fusion-IO flash SSD and API’s
- SeaarchSolidStateStorage: Comments on SSD industry activity and OCZ bankruptcy
- Processor: Comments on Plan Your Storage Future including SSD
- Processor: Comments on Incorporate SSDs Into Your Storage Plan
- Digistor: Comments on SSD and flash storage
- ITbusinessEdge: Comments on flash SSD and hybrid storage environments
- SearchStorage: Perspectives on Cisco buying SSD storage vendor Whiptail
- StateTechMagazine: Comments on all flash SSD storage arrays
- Processor: Comments on choosing SSDs for your data center needs
- Searchsolidstatestorage: Comments on how to add solid state devices (SSD) to your storage system
- Networkcomputing: Comments on SSD/Hard Disk Hybrids Bridge Storage Divide
- Internet Evolution: Comments on IBM buying flash SSD vendor TMS
- ITKE: Comments on IBM buying flash SSD vendor TMS
- Searchsolidstatestorage: SSD, Green IT and economic benefits
- IT World Canada: Cloud computing, dot be scared, look before you leap
- SearchStorage: SSD in storage systems
- SearchStorage: SAS SSD
- SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on Access data more efficiently with automated storage tiering and flash
- InfoStor: Comments on EMC’s Light to Speed: Flash, VNX, and Software-Defined
- EnterpriseStorageForum: Cloud Storage Mergers and Acquisitions: What’s Going On?
Check out the Server StorageIO NVM Express (NVMe) focus page aka www.thenvmeplace.com for additional related content. nterested in data protection, check out the data protection diaries series of posts here, or cloud and object storage here, and server storage I/O performance benchmarking here. Also check out the StorageIO events and activities page here, as well as tips and articles here, news commentary here, along out newsletter 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
Data Protection Diaries: March 31 World Backup Day is Restore Data Test Time
World Backup Day Generating Awareness About Data Protection
This World Backup Day piece is part of my ongoing Data Protection Diaries series of posts (www.dataprotecitondiaries.com) about trends, strategies, tools and best practices spanning applications, archiving, backup/restore, business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BR), cloud, data footprint reduction (DFR), security, servers, storage and virtualization among other related topic themes.
Different threat risks and reasons to protect your digital assets (data)
March 31 is World Backup Day which means you should make sure that your data and digital assets (photos, videos, music or audio, scanned items) along with other digital documents are protected. Keep in mind that various reasons for protecting, preserving and serving your data regardless of if you are a consumer with needs to protect your home and personal information, or a large business, institution or government agency.
Why World Backup Day and Data Protection Focus
By being protected this means making sure that there are copies of your documents, data, files, software tools, settings, configurations and other digital assets. These copies can be in different locations (home, office, on-site, off-site, in the cloud) as well as for various points in time or recovery point objective (RPO) such as monthly, weekly, daily, hourly and so forth.
Having different copies for various times (e.g. your protection interval) gives you the ability to go back to a specific time to recover or restore lost, stolen, damaged, infected, erased, or accidentally over-written data. Having multiple copies is also a safeguard incase either the data, files, objects or items being backed up or protected are bad, or the copy is damaged, lost or stolen.
Restore Test Time
While the focus of world backup data is to make sure that you are backing up or protecting your data and digital assets, it is also about making sure what you think is being protected is actually occurring. It is also a time to make sure what you think is occurring or know is being done can actually be used when needed (restore, recover, rebuild, reload, rollback among other things that start with R). This means testing that you can find the files, folders, volumes, objects or data items that were protected, use those copies or backups to restore to a different place (you don’t want to create a disaster by over-writing your good data).
In addition to making sure that the data can be restored to a different place, go one more step to verify that the data can actually be used which means has it be decrypted or unlocked, have the security or other rights and access settings along with meta data been applied. While that might seem obvious it is often the obvious that will bite you and cause problems, hence take some time to test that all is working, not to mention get some practice doing restores.
Data Protection and Backup 3 2 1 Rule and Guide
Recently I did a piece based on my own experiences with data protection including Backup as well as Restore over at Spiceworks called My copies were corrupted: The 3-2-1 rule. For those not familiar, or as a reminder 3 2 1 means have more than three copies or better yet, versions stored on at least two different devices, systems, drives, media or mediums in at least one different location from the primary or main copy.
Following is an excerpt from the My copies were corrupted: The 3-2-1 rule piece: Not long ago I had a situation where something happened to an XML file that I needed. I discovered it was corrupted, and I needed to do a quick restore. “No worries,” I thought, “I’ll simply copy the most recent version that I had saved to my file server.” No such luck. That file had been just copied and was damaged. “OK, no worries,” I thought. “That’s why I have a periodic backup copy.” It turns out that had worked flawlessly. Except there was a catch — it had backed up the damaged file. This meant that any and all other copies of the file were also damaged as far back as to when the problem occurred. Read the full piece here. |
Backup and Data Protection Walking the Talk
Yes I eat my own dog food meaning that I practice what I talk about (e.g. walking the talk) leveraging not just a 3 2 1 approach, actually more of a 4 3 2 1 hybrid which means different protection internals, various retention’s and frequencies, not all data gets treated the same, using local disk, removable disk to go off-site as well as cloud. I also test candidly more often by accident using the local, removable and cloud copies when I accidentally delete something, or save the wrong version.
Some of my data and applications are protected throughout the day, others on set schedules that vary from hours to days to weeks to months or more. Yes, some of my data such as large videos or other items that are static do not change, so why backup them up or protect every day, week or month? I also align the type of protection, frequency, retention to meet different threat risks, as well as encrypt data. Part of actually testing and using the restores or recoveries is also determining what certificates or settings are missing, as well as where opportunities exist or needed to enhance data protection.
Closing comments (for now)
Take some time to learn more about data protection including how you can improve or modernize while rethinking what to protect, when, where, why how and with what.
In addition to having copies from different points in time and extra copies in various locations, also make sure that they are secured or encrypted AND make sure to protect your encryption keys. After all, try to find a digital locksmith to unlock your data who is not working for a government agency when you need to get access to your data ;)…
Learn more about data protection including Backup/Restore at www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ where there are a collection of related posts and presentations including:
- 5 Tips for Factoring Software into Disaster Recovery Plans
- Remote office backup, archiving and disaster recovery for networking pros
- Securing your information assets and data, what about your storage?
- 3 Questions to Help SMBs Plan a Backup Strategy
- Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!
- Data Protection Modernization, More than swapping out media
- Cloud storage: Dont be scared, however look before you leap
- Virtual, Cloud and IT Availability, its a shared responsibility and common sense
Also check out the collection of technology and vendor / product neutral data protection and backup/restore content at BackupU (disclosure: sponsored by Dell Data Protection Software) that includes various webinars and Google+ hangout sessions that I have been involved with.
Watch for more data protection conversations about related trends, themes, technologies, techniques perspectives in my ongoing data protection diaries discussions as well as read more about Backup and other related items at www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/.
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved
March 2014 StorageIO Update Newsletter : Cisco Cloud, VMware VSAN and More
Industry Trends Perspectives: Cisco Cloud and VMware VSAN
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USENIX FAST (File and Storage Technologies) 2014 Conference Proceedings
USENIX FAST (File and Storage Technologies) 2014 Conference Proceedings
In case you missed it, the 12th annual USENIX conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST) was recently held in Santa Clara, CA.
Big Data, Little Data, Fast SSD and Erasure Code Data
If like me you are interested in FAST related technologies, trends, tools and related research, check out the conference PDF proceedings here.
You can also go here to the USENIX FAST site to view additional information about the sessions along with other download material.
The PDF format proceedings contain over 320 pages of content including some good white papers and information covering RAID and Erasure code, Big Data and Little Data, Cloud and Virtualization, Flash, DRAM, SSD, Filesystem performance, metrics, measurement and related software along with plenty of file system related material.
Heads up though, these are not your usual vendor high-level marketing white papers rather what you would expect from a technical conference such as FAST as you can see in the above index with abstracts.
So add the 2014 USENIX FAST Proceedings to your reading list.
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved
Its Award Season: Time for 2014 top VMware and virtualization blog voting
Its Award Season: Time for 2014 top VMware and virtualization blog voting
It’s that time of the year again for award season including with the recently wrapped up 2014 Winter Olympic (and benchmarking games), the academy awards and many others. That also means it is time again for the annual top VMware, Virtualization, Storage and related blogs voting now taking place until March 17th over at Eric Siebert (aka @ericsiebert) vsphere-land.com site that then appears on his vLaunchPad site. There is plenty of new school, as well as some old school and a few current or future school theme blogs represented with some being more VMware specific while others are cloud, virtual, server, storage, networking, development or other related themes.
Click on the above image to cast your vote
My StorageIOblog.com has been on the vLaunchPad site for a few years now as well as having syndicated content that also appears via some of the other venues listed there.
Thus as this is a peoples choice process, I’m asking if you can take a few moments and cast your vote here (thank you in advance) which I hope includes StorageIOblog.com as part of the top ten, in addition to being nominated in the Storage, Podcast and Independent blogger categories.
In addition to mine, you will also find many of my fellow VMware vExperts among others at the vLaunchpad site so check them out as well.
Ok, nuff said (other than thanks for reading)
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
February 2014 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter Data Infrastructure Insights
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DataCenter
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved
Server Storage I/O Network Benchmark Winter Olympic Games
Server Storage I/O Network Benchmark Winter Olympic Games
It is time for the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi Russia where competitors including some athletes come together in what has become a mix of sporting and entertainment engaging activities.
Games of inches and seconds, performance and skill
Some of these activities including real Olympic game events are heavier on sports appeal, some with artistic and others pure entertainment with a mix of beauty, braun and maybe even a beast or two. Then there are those events that have been around since the last ice age, while others being post global warming era.
Hence some have been around longer than others showing a mix of old, new in terms of the sports, athletes not to mention technology and their outfits.
I mean how about some of the new snow boarding and things on skis being done, can you image if they brought in as a new "X" sport roller derby on the short speed skating track sponsored by Red Bull or Bud light? Wait, that sounds like the Red Bull Crashed Ice event (check this out if not familiar with) think motto cross, hockey, down hill on ice. How about getting some of the south African long distance sprinters to learn how to speed skate, talk about moving some gold metal as in medals back to the african continent! On the other hand, the current powers to be would lodge protest, change the benchmark or rules to stay in power, hmm, sound familiar with IT?
Ok, enough of the fun stuff (for now), let’s get back on track here (catch that pun?).
Metrics that matter, winners and losers
Since these are the Olympics, lets also remember that there still awards for personal and team winners (along with second and third place), after all, if all Olympians were winners, there would be no losers and if no losers, how could there be a winner?
Who or what decides the winners vs. losers involves metrics that matter, something that also applies to servers, storage I/O networking hardware, software and services.
In the case of the Olympics, some of the sports or events are based on speed or how fast (e.g. time) something is done, or how much is accumulated or done in that amount of time while in other events the metrics that matter may be more of a mystery based on judging that maybe subjective.
The technologies to record times, scores, movements and other things that go into scoring have certainly improved, as have the ability for fans to engage and vote their choice, or opposition via social media venues from twitter to face book among others.
What about server storage I/O networking benchmarks
There could easily be an Information Technology (IT) or data infrastructure benchmarking Olympics with events such as faster server (physical, virtual or cloud, personal or consortium team), storage, I/O and networking across hardware, software or services. Of course there would be different approaches favored by the various teams with disputes, protests and other things sometimes seen during Olympic games. One of the challenges however is what would be the metrics that matter particularly to the various marketing groups of each organization or their joint consortium?
Just like with sports, which of the various industry trade groups or consortiums would be the ruling party or voice for a particular event specifying the competition criteria, scoring and other things. What happens when there is a break away group that launches their own competing approach yet when it comes time for the IT benchmarking Olympics, which of the various bodies does the Olympic committee defer to? In case you are not familiar with in sports there are various groups and sub-groups who can decide the participants for various supports perhaps independent of an overall group, sound like IT?
Let the games begin
So then the fun starts, however which of the events are relevant to your needs or interest, sure some are fun or entertaining while others are not practical. Some you can do yourself, while others are just fun to watch, both the thrill of victory and agony of defeat.
This is similar to IT industry benchmarking and specmanship competitions, some of which is more relevant than others, then there are those that are entertaining.
Likewise some benchmarks or workload claims can be reproduced to confirm the results or claims, while others remain more like the results of figure skating judges.
Hence some of the benchmark games are more entertaining, however for those who are not aware or informed, they may turn out to be more misinformation or lead to poor decision-making.
Consequently benchmarks and metrics that matter are those that most closely aging with what your environment is or will be doing.
If your environment is going to be running a particularly simulation or script, than so be it, otoh, look for comparisons that are reflective.
On the other hand, if you can’t find something that is applicable, then look at tools and results that have meaning along with relevance, not to mention that provide clarity and repeatable. Being repeatable means that you can get access to the tools, scripts or scenario (preferably free) to run in your own environment.
There is a long list of benchmarks and workload simulation tools, as well as traces available, some for free, some for fee that apply to components, subsystems or complete application systems from server, storage I/O networking applications and hardware. These include those for Email such as Microsoft Exchange related, SQL databases, , LoginVSI for VDI, VMmark for VMware, Hadoop and HDFS related for big data among many others (see more here).
Apples to Apples vs. Apple pie vs. Orange Jello
Something else that matters are apples to apples vs. apples to oranges or worse, apple pie to orange Jello.
This means knowing or gaining insight into the pieces as we as how they behave under different conditions as well as the entire system for a baseline (e.g normal) vs. abnormal.
Hence its winter server storage I/O networking benchmark games with the first event having been earlier this week with team Brocade taking on Cisco. Here is a link to a post by Tony Bourke (@tbourke) that provides some interesting perspectives and interactions, along with a link here to the Brocade sponsored report done by Evaluator Group.
In this match-up, Team Brocade (with HP servers, Brocade switches and an unnamed 16GFC SSD storage system) take on Team Cisco and their UCS (also an un-named 16GFC SSD system that I wonder if Cisco even knows whose’s it was?). Ironic that it was almost six years to the date that there was a similar winter benchmark wonder event when NetApp submitted an SPC result for EMC (read more about that cold day here).
The Brocade FC (using HP servers and somebody’s SSD storage) vs. Cisco FCoE using UCS (and somebody else’s storage) comparison is actually quite entertaining, granted it can also be educational on what to do or not do, focus on or include among others things. The report also raises many questions that seem more wondering why somebody won in an ice figuring skating event vs. the winner of a men’s or women’s hockey game.
Closing thoughts (for now)
So here’s my last point and perspective, let’s have a side of context with them IOPs, TPS, bandwidth and other metrics that matter.
Take metrics and benchmarks with a grain of salt however look for transparency in both how they are produced, information provided and most important, does it matter or is it relevant to your environment or simply entertaining.
Lets see what the next event in the ongoing server storage I/O networking benchmark 2014 winter Olympic games will be.
Some more reading:
SPC and Storage Benchmarking Games
Moving Beyond the Benchmark Brouhaha
More storage and IO metrics that matter
Its US Census time, What about IT Data Centers?
March Metrics and Measuring Social Media (keep in mind that March Madness is just around the corner)
PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware?
You can also take part in the on-going or re-emerging FC vs. FCoE hype and fud events by casting your vote here and see results below.
Note the following poll is from a previous StorageIOblog post (Where has the FCoE hype and FUD gone? (with poll)).
Disclosure: I used to work for Evaluator Group after working for a company called Inrange that competed with, then got absorbed (via CNT and McData) into Brocade who has been a client as has Cisco. I also do performance and functionality testing, audits, validation and proof of concepts services in my own as well as in client labs using various industry standard available tools and techniques. Otoh, not sure that I even need to disclose anything however its easy enough to do so why not ;).
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
StorageIO data infrastructure industry vendors links page updated with over 1,200 entries
StorageIO data infrastructure industry vendors links page updated with over 1,200 entries
Is your company, organization or one that you are a fan of, or represent listed on the StorageIO industry links page?
The StorageIO industry links page has been updated with over thousand different industry related companies, vendors, vars, trade groups, part and solution suppliers along with cloud and managed service providers. The common theme with these industry links is information and data infrastructures which means severs, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, applications and tools, services, products and related items for traditional, virtual and cloud environments.
The industry links page is accessed from the StorageIO main web page via the Tools and Links menu tab, or via the URL https://storageio.com/links. An example of the StorageIO industry links page is shown below with six different menu tabs in alphabetical order.
Know of a company, service or organization that is not listed on the links page, if so, send an email note to info at storageio.com. If your company or organization is listed, contact StorageIO to discuss how to expand your presence on the links page and other related options.
Visit the updated StorageIO industry links page and watch for more updates, and click here to learn more about the links page.
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
Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!
Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!
This is the first of a three-part series discussing how and why vendors are keeping backup alive, read part two here.
Some vendors, Value Added Resellers (VARs), pundits (consultants, analysts, media, bloggers) and their followers want backup to not only be declared dead, they also want to attend (or send flowers) to the wake and funeral not to mention proof of burial so to speak.
Yet many of these same vendors, VARs and their pundits also are helping or causing backup to staying alive.
Sure there are plenty of discussion including industry adoption and customer deployment around modernizing backup and data protection that are also tied to disaster recovery (DR), business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and business resiliency (BR).
On the other hand the usual themes are around talking about product or technology deployment to modernize backup by simply swapping out hardware (e.g. disk for tape, cloud for disk), applying data footprint reduciton (DFR) including archiving, compression and dedupe or, another common scenario of switching from one vendors tool to another.
How vendors are helping backup staying alive?
One of the routine things I hear from vendors among others is that backup needs to move from the 70’s or 80’s or 90’s to the current era when the John Travolta and Oliva Newton John movie Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees song "Stayin Alive" appeared (click here to hear the song via Amazon).
Some vendors keep talking and using the term backup instead of expanding the conversation to data protection that includes backup/restore, business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR) along with archiving and security. Now let’s be that we can not expect something like backup to be removed from the vocabulary overnight as its been around for decades, hence it will take time.
IMHO: The biggest barrier to moving away from backup is the industry including vendors, their pundits, press/media, vars and customers who continue to insist on using or referring to back up vs. expanding the conversation to data protection. – GS @StorageIO |
Until there’s a broad focus on shifting to and using the term data protection including backup, BC, DR and archiving, people will simply keep referring to what they know, read or hear (e.g. backup). On the other hand if the industry starts putting more focus on using data protection with backup, people will stat following suit using the two and over time backup as a term can fade away.
Taking a step back to move forward
Some of the modernizing backup discussions is actually focused on take a step back to reconsider why, when, where, how and with what different applications, systems and data gets protected. certainly there are the various industry trends, challenges and opportunities some of which are shown below including more facts to protect, preserve and service for longer periods of time.
Likewise there are various threat risks or scenarios to protect information assets from or against, not all of which are head-line news making event situations.
Not all threat risks are headline news making events
There is an old saying in and around backup/restore, BC, DR, BR and HA of never letting a disaster go to waste. What this means is that if you have never noticed, there is usually a flurry of marketing and awareness activity including conversations about why you should do something BC, DR and other data protection activities right around, or shortly after a disaster scenario. However not all disasters or incidents are headline news making events and hence there should be more awareness every day vs. just during disaster season or situations. In addition, this also means expanding the focus on other situations that are likely to occur including among others those in the following figure.
Continue reading part two of this series here to see what can be done about shifting the conversation about modernizing data protection. Also check out conversations about trends, themes, technologies, techniques perspectives in my ongoing data protection diaries discussions (e.g. www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/).
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
All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved