I/O Networking Archives

February 22, 2017November 26, 2023

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 6/13/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links P to T to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Packeteer.com WAFS and networking solutions (Bought Tacit)
packetlight.com CWDM and DWDM networking solutions
Panasas.com Clustered storage solution
pancetera.com Virtual machine backup software (Bought by Quantum)
Panduit.com Networking and cable management
panzura.com Cloud storage access software
paraccel.com Business and data analytics
paragon-software.com Storage management and backup tools
parallels.com VDI and desktop virtualization and cloud tools
parascale.com Clustered and cloud storage software
pcisig.com PCI trade group (PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express/PCIe)
penguincomputing.com HPC servers, storage and hosting
pergamumsystems.com Archive solutions (Stealth)
Permabit.com Data archiving solutions
Pernixdata Server and storage I/O cache optimization for virtual servers
perotsystems.com Hosting and managed service provider (Bought by Dell)
pgp.com Security tools (Bought by Symantec)
PHDvirtual Data protection tools
Pillardata.com Data storage solutions – (Bought by Oracle)
pineapp.com Email, archive solutions, web and data protection
Piviot3.com IP Storage
Pivotal Labs Big Data, PaaS development tools, EMC/VMware spinout
plasmon.com (Now called Alliance Storage Technologies) Optical Storage Solutions
plextoramericas.com SSD and other storage solutions
plianttechnology.com Solid state storage devices (SSD) – (Bought by SANdisk)
Pluribus Networks Converged and software defined network management
pmc-serria.com Storage networking component supplier
pny.com Memory componets and technology
Pogoplug Cloud storage
PolyServe.com Clustered storage solutions (Sold to HP)
Polargy Data Center facilaties, HVAC and DCIM solutions
power.org Power Processor trade group
Mushkin SSD Solutions
Peak Cloud Cloud and storage services
PowerFile.com Data archiving solutions
powerware.com UPS and power conditioning systems
procedo.com Archiving and migration solutions
proceedtechnologies.com SAP consulting
profusionbackups.com Cloud and managed backup service solution
progeny.net VAR and specialized IT systems
prolexic.com Distributed denial of service tools
promise.com RAID storage systems
Prostorsystems.com Removable disk storage (See RDX Alliance)
Proxim.com Wireless networking
proximaldata.com SSD caching and tiering software
pt.com Communications hardware and software
puresi.com aka Puresilicon SSD storage solutions
purestorage.com SSD based storage
Puppet Labs IT Automation and DCIM tools for physical, Cloud and Virtual

qlogic.com Host bus adapters and switches
qsantechnology.com iSCSI IP storage
Qstart Technologies Data protection storage including LTFS based systems
Quadric Software Data protection software
qualstar.com Tape backup and archive solutions (Aka Qstar)
quantum.com Tape drives and libraries
quest.com IT and data management solution tools (Bought by Dell)
Qumulo Stealth storage startup
qwest.com (Century Link) Telephone and data networking, managed services provider
racemi.com Repurposing management tools
Rackable.com Now SGI
Rackspace.com Managed services and hosting
www.rackwise.com Data center management tools
raidinc.com Storage systems
raidundant.com Storage systems
Rainfinity.com File virtualization (Bought by EMC)
rainstor.com Big data management tools
rapidio.org RapidIO Trade Group
Raritan Data center and DCIM tools
rasilient.com Storage subsystem vendor
Ravello VMware optimization and management tools
Raxco Data, storage and systems management tools
rebit.com Backup and data protection solutions
RecordNation Digital Data Storage and Records Management
redbend.com Mobile device and application management
redbooks.ibm.com IBM Red books and Red pieces technical articles
Redhat.com Linux provider (Bought Gluster)
Reduxio Hybrid storage with data services
reflexphotonics.com Optical connectivity solutions
Reldata.com Storage systems (Renamed Starboard)
remote-backup.com Remote backup software
renewdata.com Data management and compliance tools
repliweb.com Web and content distribution
Retrospect Data Protection Software Tools
revivio.com Data Protection Software (Assets Bought by Symantec)
rightscale.com Amazon cloud computing management tools
rimage.com CD/DVD production technologies
risingtidesystems.com VAR
Ritek.com Storage solutions
rittal.com Enclosures and cabinets
riverbed.com Wide area file access acceleration solution
rjssoftware.com Document capture and management
rmsource.com Cloud backup solutions
rnanetworks.com Virtual memory management solutions (Bought by Dell)
rocketdivision.com iSCSI technologies
rorke.com VAR
rpath.com Data center automation
rsa.com Security division of EMC
safemediacorp.com Internet security and intrusion detection tools
safenet-inc.com Data protection focused VAR
Sagecloud Cloud storage, deep cold archive
samsung.com Various technologies including SSD memory
sanblaze.com Embedded storage and emulation solutions
SANbolic.com Storage, server and cloud management tools
sand-chip.com Chip design
SANDforce.com SSD storage solutions – (Bought by LSI)
sandial.com Defunct SAN startup
SANdisk.com SSD memory components
sandpiperdata.com Data migration services
sanmina-sci.com Contract manufacturer (Virtual Factory) for various OEM/VARs
sanovi.com Disaster recovery management tools
sanpulse.com SRA and automation tools
sanrad.com Storage networking routers (Bought by OCZ)
sans.org Security related web site
sansdigital.com VAR
sap.com Information management tools and applications
sas.com Statistical analysis software
sata-io.org Serial ATA trade organization
SavageIO High performance storage solutions
savvis.com Cloud, managed service provider and hosting (Bought by Centurylink)
sbbwg.org Storage Bridge Bay Working Group
scalable-systems.com Data warehouse consulting and tools
scalecomputing.com Clustered storage management software
scalemp.com Virtualization technology for scale out computing
scalent.com Virtual IT data center management tools
scality.com Email and sharepoint cloud storage
schoonerinfotech.com SSD based database management solutions
scsita.org SCSI and SAS trade group
seagate.com Disk drives
Sealpath Data and information protection tools
seanodes.com Distributed storage
sec.gov Site about compliance items including CFR 17a-4
securedatainnovations.com Data protection and security tools
sentilla.com Data center performance management tools
sepaton.com Disk based backup solutions
serialata.org Serial ATA trade association
servicemesh.com Cloud, datacenter transformation and devops tools
servicenow.com ITIL data center management tools
1servosity.com Cloud data protection
servoy.com Cloud development tools
ServPath.com Hosting services
seven10storage.com Disaster recovery and archiving software
sgi.com Storage, server and data management hardware, software, tools
sherpasoftware.com Email archiving
shop.bellmicro.com Distributor (Bought by Avnet)
siber.com Data protection and security tools
sidusdata.com Managed service and cloud provider
siemon.com Storage networking infrastructure items
sigmasol.com Value added reseller (VAR)
Signiant.com Data management tools
silexamerica.com Mobile device and server connectivity
SiliconImage.com Digital Video components
SiliconStor.com Storage networking silicon
siliconvalleypr.com IT technologies press/media and analyst relations firm
silveradotech.com VAR
silver-peak.com Wide area data and file services (WAFS, WADM, WADS)
SilverSky Cloud security
simpletech.com Storage solutions including USB portable devices
simplivity.com Convergence and virtualization solutions
simplycontinuous.net Data protection and cloud backup
siriuscom.com VAR
site-vault.com On-line backup server provider (BSP) managed service provider (MSP)
skyera.com SSD storage solutions
skytap.com Public and private cloud application development tools
Smart421 Smart421 AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
smartm.com PC card and other memory module components
smc.com Storage and networking components
smithmicro.com Mobile data management tools
smmdirect.com Memory devices
snapappliances.com NAS Storage solutions (Now Adaptec)
snia.org Storage Networking Industry Association
snseurope.com U.K. & European Storage Networking News
snwusa.com SNIA and Computerworld conference
softek.com Storage management solutions (formerly Fujitsu Softek, Sold to IBM)
softlayer.com Cloud infrastructure services (IaaS) (Bought by IBM)
softnas.com ZFS based opensource NAS solutions
softricity.com Virtualization management tools (Bought by Microsoft)
Sogeti.com Data management tools
solarflare.com 10Gb Ethernet networking
solarwinds.com IT management tools (Bought TekTools, Hyper9 and others)
solidaccess.com Solid state storage (SSD) solutions
soliddata.com Solid State Disk solutions
solidfire.com iSCSI SSD optimized for hosting and cloud providers
Solix.com Database archiving software
solutiontechnology.co.uk Storage networking training
sonasoft.com Email archiving, backup and data protection
sonnettech.com External storage solutions
sony.com Storage devices
sophos.com Data protection and security tools
sorrento.com Optical networking
sparebackup.com Backup data protection solutions
sparkweave.com Private cloud archive and file sharing
spec.org SPEC benchmarks
spectralogic.com Tape library and disk based backup solutions
spiceworks.com Online community and management software tools
spirent.com Storage networking test equipment
Spiron.com Data discovery, classification, lifecycle management (formerly Identity Finder)
Splice Communications Splice Communications AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
splunk.com DCIM and log management tools
spotcloud.com Cloud services clearing house
spraycool.com IT Data center and component cooling
springsoft.com Bought by Synopsys
spsoftglobal.com Software development
spyrus.com Security tools
ssswg.org IEEE Storage Systems Standards Work Group
starboardstorage.com Unified storage solutions (Formerly Reldata, now ceased operations)
startech.com IT/AV technolgie equipment from enclosures to KVM and more
starwindsoftware.com iSCSI storage management solutions
stcroixsolutions.com VAR
stec-inc.com SSD storage (Bought by WD)
Steeleye.com HA software
Stellar Data Protection tools
storagetek.com Disk, tape, data management software (Bought by Sun)
stonebranch.com File transfer tools
stonefly.com Storage networking routers (Aka DNF)
storability.com Storage management software (Bought by STK)
storactive.com Data protection solutions
storagecraft.com Data protection tools
storagefusion.com Storage resource analysis (SRA) tools
storageio.net Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
storageiogroup.com Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
storagemadeeasy.com Hybrid and personal cloud management tools and dashboards
Storagemonkeys.com Storage community site
storagenetworking.org Storage Networking Users Groups also known as SNUGs
storageperformance.org Storage Performance Council information
www.storagesearch.com Venue for information about various storage and related topics
storcase.com Data Archive solutions (Bought by Crudata)
store-age.com Storage management software (Bought by LSI)
storediq.com eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by IBM)
Storewize.com Real time data compression (Bought by IBM)
Storix.com Data backup solutions
storlife.com CAS object archive storage
stormagic.com Storage virtualization and data movement software
storserver.com Backup and data protection solutions
storsimple.com Cloud storage access solutions (Bought by Microsoft)
storspeed.com NAS/NFS optimization solutions (Missing in action)
stratascale.com Cloud, hosting and management solutions
stratus.com High availability storage and servers
sugarsync.com Backup and data protection solutions
sun.com Storage networking hardware and software (Bought by Oracle)
sunbeltsoftware.com End point data protection security tools
sungard.com Data protection and cloud services
superlumin.com Application caching tools
supermicro.com Server and storage solutions
surdoc.com Cloud storage and backup
surgient.com Cloud computing solutions
svlg.net Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Swiftstack Private cloud solutions
swifttest.com NFS and CIFS storage testing solutions
sybase.com Database solutions
sycamorenetworks.com Networking solutions
Symantec.com Data and storage management software
symbolicio.com stealth startup
symform.com Cloud storage and backup
syncsort.com Information Management tools
synnex.com Distributor
Synnex IT Solutions
synology.com SMB storage solutions
synopsys.com Computer technology development and manufacturing
SysAid Data center, DCIM and ITSM tools
t10.orgscsi-3.htm ANSI T10 (SCSI information) site
t11.org ANSI T11 page for Fibre Channel information
t3media.com Cloud storage and video platform tools
tableausoftware.com Data analytics software tools
tacit.com WAN file system accelerator (Bought by Packeteer)
tacitnetworks.com Wide area file access acceleration solution (Bought by Packeteer)
tandberg.com Data management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
tapeandmedia.com Information about magnetic tape media
tapepower.com Site for tape topics
tarmin.com Archiving solutions
teamdrive.com Cloud storage
teamquest.com IRM management and capacity management tools
TeamViewer.com Remote support and Online meeting software
techdata.com Distributor
tegile.com Storage system solutions
tehutinetworks.net High speed iSCSI adapters
tek-tools.com SRM storage management software (Bought by Solarwinds)
TelecityGroup AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
tellabs.com Networking components
Telx AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
teneros.com Email archiving and management solutions
teracloud.com Capacity planning and resource management software
teradata.com Large scale database and data warehouse systems
teradici.com PC over IP technologies
teranetics.com Ethernet chips
Terascala Data analytics and management solutions
ter.de Optical storage libraries
terracloudinc.com Cloud services
TerraScale.com Scalable storage and server solutions
Verizon/Terremark Cloud, hosting and managed services
Tevron Application Response Time Monitoring
texmemsys.com Solid State Disk storage
thebci.org Business Continuity Institute
thecus.com Multi-protocol storage
thegreengrid.org Industry Trade Group
The Padcaster Apple iPad tools
thepluggllc.com Data center energy efficient floor tiles
theq3.com Data storage security solutions
thinkaheadit.com aka Ahead Value added reseller
thinkaheadit.com Value added reseller (VAR)
thirdbrigade.com Intrusion detection security tools (Bought by Trend Micro)
thirdio.com SSD solutions
tiaonline.org Telecommunications Industry Association
tidalsoftware.com IT Management software tools (Bought by Cisco)
timespring.com Continuous data protection solutions
tintri.com NFS and NAS storage optimized for VMware
tivoli.com Data management software
Softbank Telecom Corp. AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
Primary Data and Tonian Stealth data virtualization startup

topgun-tech.com Data Infrastructure Resource (Server, Storage, SANs)

top500.org Top 500 super compute sites
topio.com Data protection software (Bought by NetApp)
topspin.com InfiniBand Technology (Bought by Cisco)(
Toshiba.com Server and storage solutions
tpc.org Transaction processing performance council
translattice.com Distributed and elastic database and automation tools
Tredent.com WAN optimization solutions
TrendMicro.com Security and anti virus tools
trianz.com VAR
tributary.com Datra protection soultion tools including virtual, disk and tape-
trilogytechnologies.ie Managed services provider
tritondata.com IT services and VAR
trunkbow.com Cloud, mobile and networking services
trustedcomputinggroup.org Trusted computing industry trade group
trusteddatasolutions.com VAR
trustedid.com ID theft protection
trustware.com Internet and data protection security tools
turnkeylinux.org Turnkey Linux appliance –
tusc.com VAR
twinstrata.com BC/DR analysis and cloud access software
tw telecom tw telecom AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
TSO logic DCIM and data center power energy management tools
tzolkin.com DNS and High Availability solutions

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments
Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
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
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

February 22, 2017November 3, 2024

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links U to Z to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

ubuntu.com Opensource Linux software and cloud tools
unisys.com Server, storage and managed services
unitedlayer.com Collocation and hosting services
unitrends.com Data protection solutions
updraftplus.com/ WordPress Updraft Cloud Backup Plugin
uptimeinstitute.org Uptime Institute
uptimesoftware.com Capacity management tools
Logicalis IT solutions and managed services
us.logicalis.com Cloud, managed and data center services
usb.org USB trade association
uscolo.com Co-location facility and hosting service
usenix.org LISA and data center forums
usgbc.org United States Green Building Council
v3sys.com VDI and desktop cloud solutions
vadiumtech.com Security and encryption tools
varonis.com Unstructured data management and protection
vaultive.com Cloud encryption for hosted exchange
vaultize.com Cloud backup, file and data sharing
vaultstor.com Data protection and cloud storage services
vaultus.com Cloud, colo and manged service hosting –
vbridges.com Virtual desktop management tools
vce.com Converged infrastructure solutions
vdbench vdbench storage testing/workload generation tool
veeam.com Virtual server data protection, reporting, monitoring, cap planning
vellosystems.com Cloud infrastructure technology solutoins –
velobit.com SSD cache software (Bought by WD)
veloxum.com VM performance management tools Added 11/30/10
vembu.com Backup data protection tools
Venus Venus AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
venyu.com Cloud hosting
verari.com Blade servers and blade storage
verdiem.com Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) and energy reporting tools
vericept.com Network monitoring software
Veritest.com Third party testing service

verity.com Data search, discovery, classification
versant.com Object database management solutions
vertinsys.com Server I/O virtualization
Vibe AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
victorinox.com Swiss army knife and USB thumb drive
viewfinity.com Rights management, audit and compliance
vigitrust.com Security management tools
vikingmodular.com FLASH SSD storage solutions
violin-memory.com FLASH SSD storage solutions
vion.com Value added reseller
vipreantivirus.com Security, data loss, data leak prevention
virident.com SSD based database management solutions (Bought by WD)
viridity.com Data center and infrastructure resource management (IRM) tools
virsto.com Server virtualization management tools (Bought by VMware)
virtensys.com Virtual I/O and I/O virtualization (IOV)
virtualinstruments.com SAN probes/analyzers (Formerly Finisar Analyzer tools)
VirtualIron.com Server virtualization (Bought by Oracle)
VirtunetSystems Storage I/O acceleration and cache tools for VMware
virtuon-inc.com Cloud, virtualization IT consulting and staffing
visi.com Managed service provider, cloud and hosting service
VisionSolutions.com BC, DR and data protection solutions
visualstorageintelligence.com Cross vendor cloud storage reporting and srmprovider
vitesse.com Storage networking component supplier
vivisimo.com eDiscovery and search
vizoncore.com Virtualization tools and data protection for virtual servers
vizrt.com Video management software tools
vkernel.com VM performance tools (Bought by Quest, bought by Dell)
vmc.com Cloud consulting and outsourcing
vmturbo.com Cloud and virtualization workload management
vmware.com Server virtualization software (Bought by EMC)
Vocus Vocus AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
voltaire.com InfiniBand Technology
vontu.com Data loss prevention tools (Bought by Symantec)
Vormetric Data security solutions
votela.com Specialized network service provider
vscalesystems.com Virtual and converged networking and consulting
vssmonitoring.com Network monitoring
vwsolutions.com Backup and data protection solutions
vyatta.com Cloud and virtual networking, IOV
wanova.com Desktop management solutions
wasabisystems.com iSCSI storage
wdc.com Western Digital Disk drives
WedgeNetworks.com Security solutions
whiptailtech.com Flash SSD solutions (Bought by Cisco)
Microsoft Skydrive Cloud storage
windspring.com Data management and DFR for mobile access
wipro.com Business services
workscomputing.com VAR
wovensystems.com High speed networking switches
wwt.com VAR/Systems integrator
wysdm.com SRA and DPM management tools (Bought by EMC)
Xencode.com Various open tools
XenData Digital Archive solutions
xenos.com Archive and data footprint reduction solutions
xfpmsa.org 10Gb multi-source trade group
xiotech.com Renamed XIO: Storage sub-systems and software
xirin.com Storage adapter (iSCSI) and chip vendor
xosoft.com BC/DR and data protection replication tools (Bought by CA)
xsigo.com I/O virtualization and service oriented connectivity – (Bought by Oracle)
xtreemfs.org scaleout filesystem
xtremio.com SSD startup – Bought by EMC
xyratex.com Storage enclosures, subsystems, test equipmen, Lustre software (Bought by Seagate)t
xyxel.com Networking technologies for cloud and consumer
yorktel.com video solutions
Yosemitetech.com Backup software (Bought by Barracuda)
yousendit.com Cloud backup, storage and file sharing
zadarastorage.com iSCSI cloud storage
zenoss.com Converged, Virtual systems and cloud monitoring, DCIM
Zentera Private cloud and IaaS solutions
zerto.com Data protection for virtual environments
Zetera.com Storage over IP alternative to iSCSI
zetta.net Cloud storage solutions
zettapoint.com Database management tools
zintrus.com Systems development
zirtu.com VDI management tools and platform
zlti.com Email archive and management solutions
zmanda.com Open source data backup
zoho.com Online and cloud management solutions
zyrion.com Network and systems monitoring and management

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments
Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
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
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 22, 2017November 26, 2023

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

www.10gea.org 10Gb Ethernet industry trade organization
www.1394ta.org 1394 (Firewire) trade association
www.3com.com Networking equipment (Bought by HP)
www.3leafnetworks.com I/O virtualization
www.3par.com Clustered storage systems (Bought by HP)
www.3tera.com IT Cloud management tools (Bought by CA)
www.4blox.com Data center design services
www.4blox.com Linux iSCSI target optimization stack
www.4bridgeworks.com aka Bridgeworks SAN networking and connectivity solutions
www.80plus.org Energy efficient power supply trade group

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments

Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
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
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 21, 2017November 26, 2023

Six plus data center software defined management dashboards tools

Software defined data infrastructure management insight tools

server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/17/2018

Managing data infrastructures involves using software defined management dashboards tools. Recently I found in my inbox a link to a piece 6 Dashboards for Managing Every Modern Data Center that caught my attention. I was hoping to see who the six different datacenter technologies, dashboard solutions tools were instead of finding list of dashboard considerations for modern data centers and data infrastructures.

Turns out the piece was nothing more than a list of six items featured as part of the vendors (Sunbird) piece about what to look for in a dashboard (e.g. their product). Sure there were some of the usual key performance indicator (KPI) associated with or related to IT Service Management (ITSM), Data Center Infrastructure (Insight/Information) Management (DCIM), Configuration and Change management databases (CMDB), availability, capacity and Performance Management Databases (PMDB) among others.

Space
Inventory
Connectivity
Change
Environment
Power

Dashboard Discussions

Keep in mind however that there are many different types of dashboards (and consoles), some are active along with analytics including correlation, others are passive simply displaying. The focus area also various from physical data center facilities, to applications, to data infrastructures or components such as servers, storage, I/O networks, clouds, virtual, containers among others modern data centers.

Data Infrastructures (hardware, software, services, servers, storage, I/O and networks)

This is where some context comes into play as there are different types of dashboards for various audience, technology and focus areas (e.g. domains) across data infrastructure (and other entities). For example do a google search of “dashboard” and see what appears, or “IT dashboard”, “data center dashboard” vs. “datacenter dashboard” among others.

Additional KPIs include:

Performance, availability, Capacity and Economic (PACE) attributes
Service Level Objectives (SLO), Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), Recovery Point Objectives (SLO)
IT Service Management (ITSM) and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)
Configuration and Change Management (e.g. things part of CMDB)
Performance, availability and capacity (e.g. things part of PMDB)
Various focus and layers, cross domain functionality views
Costs management including subscriptions, licenses and others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Dashboard Options

For those of you who have made it this far, while not a comprehensive list, the following are some examples of vendors, services or solutions that either are, or have an association with data center, as well as data infrastructure management. Some dashboards or tools are homogenous in that they only work within a given area of focus such as particular cloud, service provider, vendor or solution set. Others are heterogeneous or federated working across different services, solutions, vendors and domain focus areas. Think of these as software defined management (SDM), or, software defined data infrastructure (SDDI) management, software defined data center (SDDC) management among other variations for the modern information factory.

There is a mix of tools that run on site (e.g. on premise) or via cloud services (e.g. manager your on site from the cloud). Likewise, some are for fee, others subscription and some are open source. In addition some of the tools are turnkey while others are do it yourself (DiY) or allow you to customize. Also keep in mind that depending on what your tradecraft (skills, experience, expertise) interest area is, these may or may not be applicable to you, while relevant to others. For example some such as Spiceworks tend to be more helpdesk focused while others on other data center or data infrastructure areas.

There are dashboards for or from AWS, Canonical (Ubuntu), Dell including EMC, Google, HPE, IBM, Microsoft System Center and Azure, NetApp, OpenStack, Oracle, Rackspace, Redhat, Rightscale, Servicenow, Softlayer, Suse and VMware among others.

Blue Medora (various data infrastructure monitoring)
Cloudkitty (open source cloud rating and chargeback)
Collectd (data infrastructure collection and monitoring)
cPanel and whm (web and hosting dashboards)
data infrastructure sddi cpanel

Dashbuilder (customize your dashboard)
Datadog (super easy to get access, download, install, configure and use)
Domo (various data infrastructure monitoring tools)
Extrahop (still waiting to be able to download and try their bits vs. watching a demo)
Firescope (data infrastructure insight and awareness)
Freezer (open source dashboard tools)
Komprise (interesting solution, would like try, however lots of gated material)
Nagios (data infrastructure monitoring)
Openit (data infrastructure tracking, report, monitoring)
Opvizor (data infrastructure monitoring and reporting)

storageio datadog dashboard

Panorama9 (various data infrastructure monitoring and reporting)
Quest (various tools)
Redhat Cloudforms (openstack and cloud management)
Rrdtools (data collection, logging and display)
Sisense (insight and awareness tools)
Solarwinds Server Application Monitor (SAM) among other tools
Teamquest (various monitoring, management, capacity planning tools)
Turbomomic (software defined data infrastructure insight tools)
Virtual Instruments (various monitoring and insight awareness along with analytics)

In addition to the above, there are tools such as Splunk among others that also provide insight and awareness to help avoid flying blind while managing your data center or data infrastructure.

Where to learn more

Learn more via the following links.

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

E2E Awareness and insight for IT environments

Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and IRM

The Value of Infrastructure Insight – Enabling Informed Decision Making

More storage and IO metrics that matter

Whats a data infrastructure?

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What this all means

Without insight and awareness you are flying blind, how can you make informed decisions about your information factory, data infrastructures, data center along with applications. There are different focus areas for various audiences up and down the stack layers in data infrastructures and data centers. Key is having insight and awareness including knowing what are some different tool options.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 19, 2017November 26, 2023

Do you want a side of serverless BS (SLBS) for your data infrastructure fud?

Did you want a side of SLBS with your software or hardware FUD?

server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/17/2018

Did you want a side of serverless bs (SLBS) with your software or hardware FUD?

A few years ago a popular industry buzzword term theme included server less and hardware less.

It turns out, serverless BS (SLBS) and hardware less are still trendy, and while some might view the cloud or software-defined data center (SDDC) virtualization, or IoT folks as the culprits, it is more widespread with plenty of bandwagon riders. SLBS can span from IoT to mobile, VDI and workspace clients (zero or similar), workstations, server, storage, networks. To me what’s ironic is that many purveyors of of SLBS also like to talk about hardware.

Whats the issue with SLBS?

Simple, on the one hand, there is no such thing as software that does not need hardware somewhere in the stack. Second, many purveyors of SLBS are solutions that in the past would have been called shrink-wrap. Thirdly IMHO SLBS tends to take away from the real benefit or story of some solutions that can also prompt questions or thoughts of if there are other FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) or MUD (marketing uncertainty doubt). Dare to be different, give some context about what your server less means as opposed to being lumped in with other SLBS followers.

Data Infrastructures (hardware, software, services, servers, storage, I/O and networks)

Moving beyond SLBS

Can we move beyond the SLBS and focus on what the software or solution does, enables, its value proposition vs. how it is dressed, packaged or wrapped?

IMHO it does not matter who or why SLBS appeared or even that it exists, rather clarifying what it means and what it does not mean, adding some context. For example, you can acquire (buy, rent, subscribe) software without a server (or hardware). Likewise, you can get the software that comes bundled prepackaged with hardware (e.g. tin-wrapped), or via a cloud or other service.

The software can be shrink wrapped, virtual wrapped or download to run on a bare metal physical machine, cloud, container or VMs. Key is the context of does the software come with, or without hardware. This is an important point in that the software can be serverless (e.g. does not come with, or depend on specific hardware), or, it can be bundled, converged (CI), hyper-converged (HCI) among other package options.

software wrapping, packaging tin-wrapped software
Software needs hardware, hardware need software, both get defined and wrapped

All software requires some hardware somewhere in the stack. Even virtual, container, cloud and yes, software-defined anything requires hardware. What’s different is how much hardware is needed, where it is located, how is it is used, consumed, paid for as well as what the software that it enables.

Whats the point?

There are applications, solutions and various software that use fewer servers, less hardware, or runs somewhere else where the hardware including servers are in the stack. Until the next truly industry revolutionary technology occurs, which IMHO will be software that no longer requires any hardware (or marketing-ware) in the stack, and hardware that no longer needs any software in the stack, hardware will continue to need software and vice versa.

This is where the marketing-ware (not to be confused with valueware) comes into play with a response along the lines of clouds and virtual servers or containers eliminate the need for hardware. That would be correct with some context in that clouds, virtual machines, containers and other software-defined entities still need some hardware somewhere in the stack. Sure there can be less hardware including servers at a given place. Hardware still news software, the software still needs hardware somewhere in the stack.

Data Infrastructure stack layers (hardware and software get defined with increasing value)

Show me some software that does not need any hardware anywhere in the stack, and I will either show you something truly industry unique, or, something that may be an addition to the SLBS list.

Add some context to what you are saying; some examples include that your software:

works with your existing hardware (or software)
does not need you to buy new or extra hardware
can run on the cloud, virtual, container or physical
requires fewer servers, less hardware, less cloud, container or virtual resources
is the focus being compatible with various data infrastructure resources
can be deployed and packaged as shrink-wrap, tin-wrapped or download
is packaged and marketed with less fud, or, fudless if you prefer

In other words, dare to be different, stand out, articulate your value proposition, and add some context instead of following behind the SLBS crowd.

Where to learn more

EMCworld 2015 How Do You Want Your Storage Wrapped?

Software Defined Storage Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Algorithms + Data Structures

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

Whats a data infrastructure?

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What this all means

Watch out for getting hung up on, or pulled into myths about serverless or hardware less, at least until hardware no longer needs software, and software no longer needs hardware somewhere in the stack. The other point is to look for solutions that enable more effective (not just efficient or utilization) use of hardware (as well as software license) resources. Effective meaning more productive, getting more value and benefit without introducing bottlenecks, errors or rework.

The focus does not have to be eliminating hardware (or software), rather, how to get more value out of hardware costs (up front and recurring Maintenance) as well as software licenses (and their Maintenance among other fees). This also applies to cloud and service providers, how to get more value and benefit, removing complexity (and costs will follow) as opposed to simply cutting and compromising.

Next time somebody says serverless or hardware less, ask them if they mean fewer servers, less hardware, making more effective (and efficient) use of those resources, or if they mean no hardware or servers. If the latter, then ask them where their software will run. If they say cloud, virtual or container, no worries, at least then you know where the servers and hardware are located. Oh, and by the way, just for fun, watch for vendors who like to talk serverless or hardware less yet like to talk about hardware.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 11, 2017November 26, 2023

Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

server storage I/O trends

Big Files and Lots of Little File Processing and Benchmarking with Vdbench – Need to test, validate, compare, contrast or simply apply workload to file systems, NAS or other file-based access? Want the flexibility and simplicity to software define your benchmark workload to meet various needs? For example, millions of small files or thousands of large 5GB, 10GB, 15GB (or larger) files with various read, write size and access patterns spanning a single directory, or many with various depths? Do you want the flexibility for different platforms including Windows, *NIX, bare metal, container, virtual or cloud without a bulk tool using simple scripts that produce lots of insightful results? Then you will want to check this post out.

Breaking the VMware ESXi 5.5 ACPI boot loop on Lenovo TD350 – Ever have a VMware host server go into a boot loop and purple screen of death (PSD) then displaying a message about ACPI or similar? After spending time searching and applying many filters to sift through the noise of false positive matches, finally found the simple fix (e.g. a BIOS setting) to break the VMware ESXi vSphere boot loop, or at least on a Lenovo server.

Cloud and Object Storage

Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview (Part I) – This is one of the perennial favorites that while new features have been added with others extended, the post series still provides a good overview, primer or refresher of various Amazon Web Services (AWS) services including how they work. Interesting in learning more about Microsoft and Azure, then check out this, this, this and this.

Cloud Conversations: AWS EFS Elastic File System (Cloud NAS) – This is a companion to the above AWS as well as other cloud post series that looks at AWS Elastic File System. Note that other cloud service providers have also added NAS file access support, some are intra (e.g. inside AWS cloud), others are inter-cloud (e.g. inside and outside cloud) such as Azure (can work with external Windows Servers using SMB3). Even OpenStack has added NAS file with Manila folders and Ceph with CephFS among others. So when some people tell you that NAS and file access are dead particular for cloud, remind them of the increasing number of services and software stacks that are adding new services to allow their solution to be compatible with existing environments or applications.

Server Storage I/O performance

Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB – If you have used the free tool HammerDB (e.g. Hammora) for driving database workloads, simulations or benchmarks you should recall that the resulting statistics are rather lacking. Sure there is a nice GUI chart that shows current executing transactions per second (TPS) along with some very simple counters in the log. However compared to some other tools such as sysbench, Quest Benchmark Factory and YCSB among others, the Hammer metrics are rather lacking. In this post I show how you can collect some more metrics from SQL Server if you have to use HammerDB. View more server storage I/O performance benchmark and monitoring tools resources here.

Windows Server 2016

Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 – Microsoft released into general availability Windows Server 2016 and this post looks at some of the new features along with functionality including Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica (SR) as well as other enhancements. With these new and enhanced features Windows Servers increase their interoperability with Azure, as well as supporting aggregated hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), disaggregated converged (CI) as well as traditional workloads along with Hyper-V (and containers). One of the other new enhancements in Windows Server 2016 which now uses ReFS (Reliable File System) as its default file system that you can read more about here. RIP Windows SIS (Single Instance Storage), or at least in Server 2016 With Windows Server 2016 Microsoft removed single instance storage replacing with new capabilities that you can read more about in the this post.

Garbage data in garbage data out

Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage? There is a classic IT expression of garbage data in results in garbage data (or information out) in that your algorithms and data structures (which equals programs e.g. Niklaus Wirth) are only as good as the data they work on. What this means then is that if there is a large amount of big data then there can also be a big garbage in and garbage out problem unless addressed.

Hard product vs. soft product – Hard product refers to something such as hardware, software or a service resource that is obtained and then joined with other resources in a particular way to create a soft product. Not to be confused with software, the soft product is the result or how resources get defined that give some ability or benefit. Think of a soft product as for how airlines can use the same airplane, serve the same coca cola, have same seats, yet their soft product is the service experience of how those are delivered, as well as how you find and buy or use them. Another way of thinking about it is hard products are the ingredients for a recipe, the recipe defines how those ingredients result in some food dish.

how many IOPs can an HDD or SSD do

Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? – This is part of a multi-post series looking at how many IOPs (or bandwidth) various HDD and SSDs can do handling different workloads. Of course, your results will vary with configuration settings, tools among other considerations. However, some of the older rules of thumb (RUT) about RPM and other considerations for HDDs have changed and continue to do so. As an example of how HDDs continue to evolve check out this popular post from the 2016 list Which Enterprise HDDs to use for a Content Server Platform.

Part II: What I did with Lenovo TS140 in my Server and Storage I/O Review – This is a popular post series of some things I have done with a Lenovo TS140 including defining with various software as well as hardware. This is a great price performer value system that several years ago after testing one Lenovo sent me, I returned that to Lenovo and bought several of them to join my other systems.

Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources – This is a collection of various server, storage I/O and networking hardware, software as well as services tools, techniques as well as tips for benchmarking, comparing, simulation, testing, gaining insight across cloud, virtual, container and legacy resources. Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I) – This is one of the tools found on the server, storage I/O benchmarking and performance resources page. Diskspd is a tool developed by Microsoft as an alternative to using Iometer, vdbench, fio.exe, SQLIO among many others, plus, it is on github.

server storage I/O nvme and ssd

The NVM (Non Volatile Memory) and NVMe Place – Interesting and adoption in nand flash, nvram, 3D XPoint among other SSD and Non-volatile Memory (NVM) continues. Another popular post that you can find at thenvmeplace.com is this NVMe overview and primer – Part I. There is a growing interest, awareness and deployment adoption around NVM Express (NVMe) the new protocol for accessing NVMs and SSDs. Some of the common conversations and questions I encounter is confusion between NVM and NVMe, too which the answer is one (the former) are the media or devices, the other is the access method alternative to using AHCI/SATA or SCSI (e.g. SAS, iSCSI, FCP, SRP) among others.

VMware VVOLs and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) continue to gain adoption and this post is part of an overview and primer. If you want to go deeper into VVOL as well as see some adoption insights check out Eric Sieberts post here over at vsphere-land.com

Welcome to the Object Storage Center page – This is a micro site that has a primer and overview of cloud as well as object storage along with an expanding list of links to various resources, tips, technologies, tools, trends and industry activity.

Where To Learn More

www.storageio.com particular if you have not been there for awhile to check out the new streamlined look and navigation to various content including Server StorageIO update newsletters (free subscription) among other resources.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What this all means and wrapping up

Some of the popular posts for 2016 are perennial favorites and based on experience will probably appear on the 2017 list. However there are also several new posts that appeared in 2016 that I suspect will also appear on the 2017 version of the above list, along with new content from 2017.

Thank you to all of you who frequent StorageIOblog.com as well as StorageIO.com along with our various micro sites including server storage I/O performance and benchmarking resources, thenvmeplace.com, thessdplace.com, cloud and objectstoragecenter.com, data protection diaries among others.

Also thank you for viewing various partner venues and syndicates with extra ones appearing throughout 2017. Watch for more content in the coming weeks, months and throughout 2017 on software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) along with server, storage I/O, networking, hardware, software, cloud, container, data protection and related topics, trends, technologies, tools and tips.

Again, thank you

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 11, 2017March 7, 2022

Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017

Congratulations and welcome new and returning fellow 2017 vExperts

server storage I/O trends

The other day VMware announced the 2017 list of vExperts which you can view here.

Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017.

In its ninth year, it is an honor to now have been named a vExpert for eight consecutive years.

Where To Learn More

Learn more about and view the list of 2017 VMware vExperts here.

What this all means and wrapping up

Thank you VMware and all of those involved with the vExpert process, as well as congratulations and best wishes to all new and returning vExperts. I’m Looking forward to being involved and participating in the VMware vExpert community for yet another year.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio.

February 4, 2017March 7, 2022

What Does Converged Infrastructure CI Hyperconverged HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

What Does CI and HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/17/2018

Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) along with Cluster or Cloud In Box (CIB) are popular trend topics that have gained both industry and customer adoption as part of data infrastructures. Data Infrastructures exists to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of legacy and software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) is to provide a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective.

Business, IT Information, Data and other Infrastructures

Put another way, data infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, process, move, secure and serve data as well as their applications for information services delivery. Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

As part of data infrastructures, CI, CIB and HCI enable simplified deployment of resources (servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software) across different environments. What do these various approaches (CI, HCI, CiB) mean for a hyperconverged (and converged) storage environment? What are the key concerns and considerations related specifically to storage? Most importantly, how do you know that you’re asking the right questions in order to get to the right answers?

Join me on March 15 at 10:00 AM PT for a live (free) webinar organized by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) Ethernet Storage Forum (ESF). In this webinar (What Does Hyperconverged Mean to Storage) I will be joined by SNIA ESF chair John Kim of Mellanox to discuss moving beyond the hype to prepare, plan and make decisions for deploying CI, CiB and HCI.

Some of the server, storage I/O and related topics we will be discussing during the webcast include:

What are the storage considerations for CI, CIB and HCI

Fast applications and fast servers need fast server storage I/O

Fast NVM storage including NVMe, flash and SSD

Networking and server storage I/O considerations

How to avoid aggravation-causing aggregation (bottlenecks)

Aggregated vs. desegregated vs. hybrid converged

Planning, comparing, benchmarking and decision-making

Data protection, management and east-west I/O traffic

Application and server I/O north-south traffic

Where To Learn More

SNIA ESF organized webinar on BrightTalk March 15, 2017

StorageIO.com (events, news, tips, resources) and StorageIOblog.com

Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC)

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

For many environments some form of converged, desegregated, aggregated or hyper-converged solution or approach will part of their data infrastructures. Join the SNIA ESF folks and me on March 15, 2017 (bring your questions) to discuss CI and HCI storage I/O topics, trends, technologies and themes.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 4, 2017October 18, 2024

If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

If NVMe is the answer, then what are the various questions that should be asked?

Some common questions that NVMe is the answer to include what is the difference between NVM and NVMe?

Is NVMe only for servers, does NVMe require fabrics and what benefit is NVMe beyond more IOPs.

Lets take a look at some of these common NVMe conversations and other questions.

Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

Some of the main feature and benefits of NVMe among others include:

- Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
- Lower CPU used to handle larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
- Higher I/O activity rates (IOPS) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
- Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
- Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
- Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
- Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
- Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
- Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

NVM and Media memory matters

Whats the differences between NVM and NVMe? Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) which as its name implies is persistent electronic memory medium where data is stored. Today you commonly know about NVMs as NAND flash Solid State Devices (SSD), along with NVRAM among others emerging storage class memories (SCM).

Emerging SCM such as 3D XPoint among other mediums (or media if you prefer) have the premises of boosting both read and write performance beyond traditional NAND flash, closer to DRAM, while having durability also closer to DRAM. For now let’s set the media and mediums aside and get back to how they or will be accessed as well as used.

server storage I/O NVMe fundamentals

Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

NVM Express (e.g. NVMe) is a standard industry protocol for accessing NVM media (SSD and flash devices, storage system, appliances). If NVMe is the answer, then depending on your point of view, NVMe can be (or is) a replacement (today or in the future) for AHCI/SATA, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). What this means is that NVMe can coexist or replace other block SCSI protocol implementations (e.g. Fibre Channel FCP aka FCP, iSCSI, SRP) as well as NBD (among others).

Similar to the SCSI command set that is implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI (IP), FCP (Fibre Channel), SRP (InfiniBand), SAS) NVMe as a protocol is now implemented using PCIe with form factors of add-in cards (AiC), M.2 (e.g. gum sticks aka next-gen form factor or NGFF) as well as U.2 aka 8639 drive form factors. There are also the emerging NVMe over Fabrics variants including FC-NVMe (e.g. NVMe protocol over Fibre Channel) which is an alternative to SCSI_FCP (e.g. SCSI on Fibre Channel). An example of a PCIe AiC that I have include the Intel 750 400GB NVMe (among others). You should be able to find the Intel among other NVMe devices from your prefered vendor as well as different venues including Amazon.com.

NVM, flash and NVMe SSD
Left PCIe AiC x4 NVMe SSD, lower center M.2 NGFF, right SAS and SATA SSD

The following image shows an NVMe U.2 (e.g. 8639) drive form factor device that from a distance looks like a SAS device and connector. However looking closer some extra pins or connectors that present a PCIe Gen 3 x4 (4 PCIe lanes) connection from the server or enclosure backplane to the devices. These U.2 devices plug into 8639 slots (right) that look like a SAS slot that can also accommodate SATA. Remember, SATA can plug into SAS, however not the other way around.

NVMe U.2 8639 drive NVMe 8639 slot
Left NVMe U.2 drive showing PCIe x4 connectors, right, NVMe U.2 8639 connector

What NVMe U.2 means is that the 8639 slots can be used for 12Gbps SAS, 6Gbps SATA or x4 PCIe-based NVMe. Those devices in turn attach to their respective controllers (or adapters) and device driver software protocol stack. Several servers have U.2 or 8639 drive slots either in 2.5” or 1.8” form factors, sometimes these are also called or known as “blue” drives (or slots). The color coding simply helps to keep track of what slots can be used for different things.

Navigating your various NVMe options

If NVMe is the answer, then some device and component options are as follows.

NVMe device components and options include:

- Enclosures and connector port slots
- Adapters and controllers
- U.2, PCIe AIC and M.2 devices
- Shared storage system or appliances
- PCIe and NVMe switches

If NVMe is the answer, what to use when, where and why?

Why use an U.2 or 8639 slot when you could use PCIe AiC? Simple, your server or storage system may be PCIe slot constrained, yet have more available U.2 slots. There are U.2 drives from various vendors including Intel and Micro, as well as servers from Dell, Intel and Lenovo among many others.

Why and when would you use an NVMe M.2 device? As a local read/write cache, or perhaps a boot and system device on servers or appliances that have M.2 slots. Many servers and smaller workstations including Intel NUC support M.2. Likewise, there are M.2 devices from many different vendors including Micron, Samsung among others.

Where and why would you use NVMe PCIe AiC? Whenever you can and if you have enough PCIe slots of the proper form factor, mechanical and electrical (e.g. x1, x4, x8, x16) to support a particular card.

Can you mix and match different types of NVMe devices on the same server or appliance? As long as the physical server and its software (BIOS/UEFI, operating system, hypervisors, drivers) support it yes. Most server and appliance vendors support PCIe NVMe AiCs, however, pay attention to if they are x4, x8 both mechanical as well as electrical. Also, verify operating system and hypervisor device driver support. PCIe NVMe AiCs are available from Dell, Intel, Micron and many other vendors.

Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

Keep in mind that context is important when discussing NVMe as there are devices for attaching as the back-end to servers, storage systems or appliances, as well as for front-end attachment (e.g. for attaching storage systems to servers). NVMe devices can also be internal to a server or storage system and appliance, or, accessible over a network. Think of NVMe as an upper-level command set protocol like SCSI that gets implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI, FCP, SRP).

How can NVMe use PCIe as a transport to use devices that are outside of a server? Different vendors have PCIe adapter cards that support longer distances (few meters) to attach to devices. For example, Dell EMC DSSD has a special dual port (two x4 ports) that are PCIe x8 cards for attachment to the DSSD shared SSD devices.

Note that there are also PCIe switches similar to SAS and InfiniBand among other switches. However just because these are switches, does not mean they are your regular off the shelf network type switch that your networking folks will know what to do with (or want to manage).

The following example shows a shared storage system or appliance being accessed by servers using traditional block, NAS file or object protocols. In this example, the storage system or appliance has implemented NVMe devices (PCIe AiC, M.2, U.2) as part of their back-end storage. The back-end storage might be all NVMe, or a mix of NVMe, SAS or SATA SSD and perhaps some high-capacity HDD.

NVMe and server storage access
Servers accessing shared storage with NVMe back-end devices

NVMe and server storage access via PCIe
NVMe PCIe attached (via front-end) storage with various back-end devices

In addition to shared PCIe-attached storage such as Dell EMC DSSD similar to what is shown above, there are also other NVMe options. For example, there are industry initiatives to support the NVMe protocol to use shared storage over fabric networks. There are different fabric networks, they range from RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based as well as Fibre Channel NVME (e.g. FC-NVME) among others.

An option that on the surface may not seem like a natural fit or leverage NVMe to its fullest is simply adding NVMe devices as back-end media to existing arrays and appliances. For example, adding NVMe devices as the back-end to iSCSI, SAS, FC, FCoE or other block-based, NAS file or object systems.

NVMe and server storage access via shared PCIe
NVMe over a fabric network (via front-end) with various back-end devices

A common argument against using legacy storage access of shared NVMe is along the lines of why would you want to put a slow network or controller in front of a fast NVM device? You might not want to do that, or your vendor may tell you many reasons why you don’t want to do it particularly if they do not support it. On the other hand, just like other fast NVM SSD storage on shared systems, it may not be all about 100% full performance. Rather, for some environments, it might be about maximizing connectivity over many interfaces to faster NVM devices for several servers.

NVMe and server storage I/O performance

Is NVMe all about boosting the number of IOPS? NVMe can increase the number of IOPS, as well as support more bandwidth. However, it also reduces response time latency as would be expected with an SSD or NVM type of solution. The following image shows an example of not surprisingly an NVMe PCIe AiC x4 SSD outperforming (more IOPs, lower response time) compared to a 6Gb SATA SSD (apples to oranges). Also keep in mind that best benchmark or workload tool is your own application as well as your performance mileage will vary.

NVMe using less CPU per IOP
SATA SSD vs. NVMe PCIe AiC SSD IOPS, Latency and CPU per IOP

The above image shows the lower amount of CPU per IOP given the newer, more streamlined driver and I/O software protocol of NVMe. With NVMe there is less overhead due to the new design, more queues and ability to unlock value not only in SSD also in servers with more sockets, cores and threads.

What this means is that NVMe and SSD can boost performance for activity (TPS, IOPs, gets, puts, reads, writes). NVMe can also lower response time latency while also enabling higher throughput bandwidth. In other words, you get more work out of your servers CPU (and memory). Granted SSDs have been used for decades to boost server performance and in many cases, delay an upgrade to a newer faster system by getting more work out of them (e.g. SSD marketing 202).

NVMe maximizing your software license investments

What may not be so obvious (e.g. SSD marketing 404) is that by getting more work activity done in a given amount of time, you can also stretch your software licenses further. What this means is that you can get more out of your IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, VMware and other software licenses by increasing their effective productivity. You might already be using virtualization to increase server hardware efficiency and utilization to cut costs. Why not go further and boost productivity to increase your software license (as well as servers) effectiveness by using NVMe and SSDs?

Note that fast applications need fast software, servers, drivers, I/O protocols and devices.

Also just because you have NVMe present or PCIe does not mean full performance, similar to how some vendors put SSDs behind their slow controllers and saw, well slow performance. On the other hand vendors who had or have fast controllers (software, firmware, hardware) that were HDD or are even SSD performance constrained can see a performance boost.

Additional NVMe and related tips

If you have a Windows server and have not overridden, check your power plan to make sure it is not improperly set to balanced instead of high performance. For example using PowerShell issue the following command:

PowerCfg -SetActive “381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e”

Another Windows related tip if you have not done so is enable task manager disk stats by issuing from a command line “diskperf –y”. Then display task manager and performance and see drive performance.

Need to benchmark, validate, compare or test an NVMe, SSD (or even HDD) device or system, there are various tools and workloads for different scenarios. Likewise those various tools can be configured for different activity to reflect your needs (and application workloads). For example, Microsoft Diskspd, fio.exe, iometer and vdbench sample scripts are shown here (along with results) as a starting point for comparison or validation testing.

Does M.2. mean you have NVMe? That depends as some systems implement M.2 with SATA, while others support NVMe, read the fine print or ask for clarification.

Do all NVMe using PCIe run at the same speed? Not necessarily as some might be PCIe x1 or x4 or x8. Likewise some NVMe PCIe cards might be x8 (mechanical and electrical) yet split out into a pair of x4 ports. Also keep in mind that similar to a dual port HDD, NVMe U.2 drives can have two paths to a server, storage system controller or adapter, however both might not be active at the same time. You might also have a fast NVMe device attached to a slow server or storage system or adapter.

Who to watch and keep an eye on in the NVMe ecosystem? Besides those mentioned above, others to keep an eye on include Broadcom, E8, Enmotus Fuzedrive (micro-tiering software), Excelero, Magnotics, Mellanox, Microsemi (e.g. PMC Sierra), Microsoft (Windows Server 2016 S2D + ReFS + Storage Tiering), NVM Express trade group, Seagate, VMware (Virtual NVMe driver part of vSphere ESXi in addition to previous driver support) and WD/Sandisk among many others.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

NVMe is in your future, that was the answer, however there are the when, where, how, with what among other questions to be addressed. One of the great things IMHO about NVMe is that you can have it your way, where and when you need it, as a replacement or companion to what you have. Granted that will vary based on your preferred vendors as well as what they support today or in the future.

If NVMe is the answer, Ask your vendor when they will support NVMe as a back-end for their storage systems, as well as a front-end. Also decide when will your servers (hardware, operating systems hypervisors) support NVMe and in what variation. Learn more why NVMe is the answer and related topics at www.thenvmeplace.com

Ok, nuff said, for now.

January 21, 2017November 26, 2023

January 2017 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

Volume 17, Issue I

Hello and welcome to first 2017 issue of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Now that we are past the holidays, year-end crunch, post new years activity including NFL football playoffs, its time to get back on track for the new year and new things.

There is a lot going on, in and around data infrastructure server, storage, and I/O networking connectivity from a hardware, software, and services perceptive. From consumer to small/medium business (SMB), enterprise to web-scale and cloud-managed service providers, physical to virtual, spanning structured database (aka “little data”) to unstructured big data and very big fast data, a lot is happening today.

Watch for more coverage involving data infrastructures as well as other related topics in future newsletters, at StorageIOblog.com as well as in different venues and events.

In This Issue

Commentary in the news

Tips and Articles

StorageIOblog posts

Events and Webinars

Industry Activity Trends

Resources and Links

Connect and Converse With Us

About Us

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Cheers GS

Industry Activity Trends

Recent Industry News and Activity includes:

Broadcom buying Brocade for $5.5B USD (if you missed last fall)
Cavium QLogic expands 10GbE connectivity for server and storage I/O
HPE announces enhancements to flash-ready HPE StoreVirtual 3200
HPE buying scaleable HCI vendor Simplivity for $650 million USD (Cash)
LinBit and SUSE providing open source high availability (HA) solutions
StorageCraft (data protection software) acquires Exablox (object storage)
Teradata has launched their big data database on Azure

StorageIOblog Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside Data Centers)

SDx (Software Defined) Summit London UK

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

Overview Review of Microsoft ReFS (Reliable File System) and resource links

September and October 2016 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

StorageIO Commentary in the news

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via InfoStor: 10 Top Data Storage Applications
Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
Via InfoStor: 10 Top Data Storage Applications
Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
Via HPE: Decision guide: Public cloud versus on-prem storage
Via InfoStor: Six Ways to Boost Data Storage Performance

View more Server, Storage and I/O trends and perspectives comments here

StorageIO Tips and Articles

Recent and past Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

Via FutureReadyOEM: When to implement ultra-dense storage
Via InfoStor: Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends
Via InfoStor: SSD Trends, Tips and Topics

Check out these resources techniques, trends and tools. View more tips and articles here

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

April 3-7, 2017 – Seminars – Dutch workshop seminar series – Nijkerk Netherlands

March 15, 2017 – Webinar – SNIA/BrightTalk – HyperConverged (HCI) and Storage – 10AM PT

January 26 2017 – Seminar – Presenting at Wipro SDx Summit London UK

January 11, 2017 Webinar – Redmond Magazine
Dell Software – Presenting – Tailor Your Backup Data Repositories to Fit Your Needs

December 13 VMware webinar – vSAN, HCIBench, vSAN Observer and healthcheck

December 7, 2016 11AM PT – BrightTalk Webinar: Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

See more webinars and activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

Useful links and pages:
Microsoft TechNet – Various Microsoft related from Azure to Docker to Windows
storageio.com/links – Various industry links (over 1,000 with more to be added soon)
objectstoragecenter.com – Cloud and object storage topics, tips and news items
OpenStack.org – Various OpenStack related items
storageio.com/protect – Various data protection items and topics
thenvmeplace.com – Focus on NVMe trends and technologies
thessdplace.com – NVM and Solid State Disk topics, tips and techniques
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

Ok, nuff said, for now.

January 21, 2017November 26, 2023

Data Infrastructure Primer Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

Data Infrastructure Primer Overview

Data Infrastructure Primer Overview

Updated 1/17/2018

Data Infrastructure Primer Overview looks at the resources that combine to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of data infrastructures is to provide a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective. Put another way, data infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, process, move, secure and serve data as well as their applications for information services delivery. Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

Various Types and Layers of Infrastructures

Depending on your role or focus, you may have a different view than somebody else of what is infrastructure, or what an infrastructure is. Generally speaking, people tend to refer to infrastructure as those things that support what they are doing at work, at home, or in other aspects of their lives. For example, the roads and bridges that carry you over rivers or valleys when traveling in a vehicle are referred to as infrastructure.

Similarly, the system of pipes, valves, meters, lifts, and pumps that bring fresh water to you, and the sewer system that takes away waste water, are called infrastructure. The telecommunications network. This includes both wired and wireless, such as cell phone networks, along with electrical generating and transmission networks are considered infrastructure. Even the airplanes, trains, boats, and buses that transport us locally or globally are considered part of the transportation infrastructure. Anything that is below what you do, or that supports what you do is considered infrastructure.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure overview

Figure 1 Business, IT Information, Data and other Infrastructures

This is also the situation with IT systems and services where, depending on where you sit or use various services, anything below what you do may be considered infrastructure. However, that also causes a context issue in that infrastructure can mean different things. For example in figure 1, the user, customer, client, or consumer who is accessing some service or application may view IT in general as infrastructure, or perhaps as business infrastructure.

Those who develop, service, and support the business infrastructure and its users or clients may view anything below them as infrastructure, from desktop to database, servers to storage, network to security, data protection to physical facilities. Moving down a layer (lower altitude) in figure 1 is the information infrastructure which, depending on your view, may also include servers, storage, and I/O hardware and software.

To help make a point, let’s think of the information infrastructure as the collection of databases, key-value stores, repositories, and applications along with development tools that support the business infrastructure. This is where you may find developers who maintain and create real business applications for the business infrastructure. Those in the information infrastructure usually refer to what’s below them as infrastructure. Meanwhile, those lower in the stack shown in figure 1 may refer to what’s above them as the customer, user, or application, even if the real user is up another layer or two.

Whats inside a data infrastructure
Context matters in the discussion of infrastructure. So for our of server storage I/O fundamentals, the data infrastructures support the databases and applications developers as well as things above, while existing above the physical facilities infrastructure, leveraging power, cooling, and communication network infrastructures below.

SDDI and Data Infrastructure building blocks

Figure 2 Data Infrastructure fundamental building blocks (hardware, software, services).

Figure 2 shows the fundamental pillars or building blocks for a data infrastructure, including servers for computer processing, I/O networks for connectivity, and storage for storing data. These resources including both hardware and software as well as services and tools. The size of the environment, organization, or application needs will determine how large or small the data infrastructure is or can be.

For example, at one extreme you can have a single high-performance laptop with a hypervisor running OpenStack; along with various operating systems along with their applications leveraging flash SSD and high-performance wired or wireless networks powering a home lab or test environment. On the other hand, you can have a scenario with tens of thousands (or more) servers, networking devices, and hundreds of petabytes (PBs) of storage (or more).

In figure 2 the primary data infrastructure components or pillar (server, storage, and I/O) hardware and software resources are packaged and defined to meet various needs. Software-defined storage management includes configuring the server, storage, and I/O hardware and software as well as services for use, implementing data protection and security, provisioning, diagnostics, troubleshooting, performance analysis, and other activities. Server storage and I/O hardware and software can be individual components, prepackaged as bundles or application suites and converged, among other options.

Figure 3 shows a deeper look into the data infrastructure shown at a high level in figure 2. The lower left of figure 2 shows the common-to-all-environments hardware, software, people, processes, and practices that include tradecraft (experiences, skills, techniques) and “valueware”. Valueware is how you define the hardware and software along with any customization to create a resulting service that adds value to what you are doing or supporting. Also shown in figure 3 are common application and services attributes including performance, availability, capacity, and economics (PACE), which vary with different applications or usage scenarios.

Data Infrastructure components

Figure 3 Data Infrastructure server storage I/O hardware and software components.

Applications are what transform data into information. Figure 4 shows how applications, which are software defined by people and software, consist of algorithms, policies, procedures, and rules that are put into some code to tell the server processor (CPU) what to do.

SDDI and SDDC server storage I/O

Figure 4 How data infrastructure resources transform data into information.

Application programs include data structures (not to be confused with infrastructures) that define what data looks like and how to organize and access it using the “rules of the road” (the algorithms). The program algorithms along with data structures are stored in memory, together with some of the data being worked on (i.e., the active working set). Additional data is stored in some form of extended memory storage devices such as Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) solid-state devices (SSD), hard disk drives (HDD), or tape, among others, either locally or remotely. Also shown in figure 4 are various devices that do input/output (I/O) with the applications and server, including mobile devices as well as other application servers.

Bringing IT All Together (for now)

Software Defined Data Infrastructure overview

Figure 5 Data Infrastructure fundamentals “big picture”

A fundamental theme is that servers process data using various applications programs to create information; I/O networks provide connectivity to access servers and storage; storage is where data gets stored, protected, preserved, and served from; and all of this needs to be managed. There are also many technologies involved, including hardware, software, and services as well as various techniques that make up a server, storage, and I/O enabled data infrastructure.

Server storage I/O and data infrastructure fundamental focus areas include:

Organizations: Markets and industry focus, organizational size
Applications: What’s using, creating, and resulting in server storage I/O demands
Technologies: Tools and hard products (hardware, software, services, packaging)
Trade craft: Techniques, skills, best practices, how managed, decision making
Management: Configuration, monitoring, reporting, troubleshooting, performance, availability, data protection and security, access, and capacity planning

Where To Learn More

View additional Data Infrastructure and related topics via the following links.

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
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

What This All Means

Whether you realize it or not, you may already be using, rely upon, affiliated with, support or otherwise involved with data infrastructures. Granted what you or others generically refer to as infrastructure or the data center may, in fact, be the data infrastructure. Watch for more discussions and content about as well as related technologies, tools, trends, techniques and tradecraft in future posts as well as other venues, some of which involve legacy, others software-defined, cloud, virtual, container and hybrid.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

January 21, 2017March 7, 2022

SDx Summit London UK (Planning and Enabling Your Journey to Software Defined)

Planning and Enabling Your Journey to Software Defined)

server storage I/O trends

Will 2017 be there year of all software-defined X (e.g. SDx) where X can be everything from data centers (SDDC), data infrastructures (SDDI), infrastructure (SDI), storage (SDS), network (SDN) or marketing (SDM) among others? What about IoT, IoD, ByoD, ByoL (bring your own license), MaaS (metal as a service), clouds, containers, object storage, OpenStack, Mesos, Docker, Kubernetes, NVMe, flash SSD, SCM (Storage Class Memory) among other buzzword bingo terms, technologies and trends, will 2017 be there year for those among others?

What is safe to say is that the above buzzword items, topics, trends, technologies, tools and techniques are in your future, what varies is when, where, how, why, with what and whom to assist you on your journey.

On January 26 2017 join me and others at the Savoy hotel in London UK for the SDx summit organized by Wipro.

My presentation titled Planning and Enabling Your Journey to SDx will have a theme of Transiting from Hype and Marketing Hope to Deployment and Management. In other words, moving beyond SDBS and SDM to how to prepare, plan and what you can do today including hybrid deployments. Some of the topics, themes, trends, technologies, tools and tips in my discussion will include among others:

Software Defined Management and Data Protection
How to pack and prepare for your Software Defined Journey
Be prepared, plan for the unexpected, manage your journey
Learn the local language, expand your trade craft (skills)
Moving and migrating (brownfield) vs. start from scratch (greenfield)
ByoD, DiY, IoD, IoT, Cloud and Container conversations
What you can do today to prepare for your upcoming journey

Where To Learn More

Learn more and register here for the London UK SDx summit.

What This All Means

Regardless of if 2017 will be the year of SDx or any of the other industry popular buzz term trends, technologies and techniques, it is time to start planning as well as preparing. This means identifying questions, concerns and learning about the new tools and technologies that can be used in new ways, while also leveraging old things in new ways to enable a resilient, scalable, flexible as well as cost-effective data infrastructure. For those of you in the London UK area, learn more about the SDx summit organized by Wipro here and hope to see you there.

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

January 3, 2017March 7, 2022

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

Updated 2/2/2018

server storage I/O trends

Will 2017 be there year of solid state device (SSD), all flash, or all Non-volatile memory (NVM) based storage data centers and data infrastructures?

Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor looking at SSD trends, tips and related topics. SSDs of some type, shape and form are in your future, if they are not already. In my InfoStor piece, I look at some non-volatile memory (NVM) and SSD trends, technologies, tools and tips that you can leverage today to help prepare for tomorrow. This also includes NVM Express (NVMe) based components and solutions.

By way of background, SSD can refer to solid state drive or solid state device (e.g. more generic). The latter is what I am using in this post. NVM refers to different types of persistent memories, including NAND flash and its variants most commonly used today in SSDs. Other NVM mediums include NVRAM along with storage class memories (SCMs) such as 3D XPoint and phase change memory (PCM) among others. Let’s focus on NAND flash as that is what is primarily available and shipping for production enterprise environments today.

Continue reading about SSD, flash, NVM and related trends, topics and tips over at InfoStor by clicking here.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

thessdplace.com
thenvmeplace.com
storageio.com/news
storageio.com/tips
InfoStor – SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources

What This All Means

Will 2017 finally be the year of all flash, all SSD and all NVM including emerging storage class memories (SCM)? Or as we have seen over the past decade increasing adoption as well as deployment in most environments, some of which have gone all SSD or NVM. In the meantime it is safe to say that NVMe, NVM, SSD, flash and other related technologies are in your future in some shape or form as well as quantity. Check out my piece over at InfoStor SSD trends, tips and related topics.

What say you, are you going all flash, SSD or NVM in 2017, if not, what are your concerns or constraints and plans?

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and <a “https://storageioblog.com/book1”>Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

January 3, 2017March 7, 2022

Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

server storage I/O trends

IMHO there is no doubt that cloud and object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

Granted, what type of cloud and object storage or service along with for work or entertainment are some questions.

Likewise, what are your cloud and object storage concerns (assuming you already have heard the benefits)?

Some other questions include when, where for different applications workload needs, as well as how and with what among others.

Keep in mind that there are many aspects to cloud storage and they are not all object, likewise, there are many facets to object storage.

Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor titled Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends that looks at the above among other items including:

Is cloud storage cheaper than traditional storage?
How do you access cloud object storage from legacy block and file applications?
How do you implement on-site cloud storage?
Is enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) safe and secure?
Does cloud storage need to be backed up and protected?
What geographic location requirements or regulations apply to you?

When it comes to cloud computing and, in particular, cloud storage, context matters. Conversations are necessary to discuss concerns, as well as discuss various considerations, options and alternatives. People often ask me questions about the best cloud storage to use, concerns about privacy, security, performance and cost.

Some of the most common cloud conversations topics involve context :

Public, private or hybrid cloud; turnkey subscription service or do it yourself (DIY)?
Storage, compute server, networking, applications or development tools?
Storage application such as file sync and share like Dropbox?
Storage resources such as table, queues, objects, file or block?
Storage for applications in the cloud, on-site or hybrid?

Continue reading Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends over at InfoStor.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

objectstoragecenter.com
storageio.com/news
storageio.com/tips
InfoStor – Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends

What This All Means

As I mentioned above, cloud and object storage are in your future, granted your future may not rely on just cloud or object storage. Take a few minutes to check out some of the conversation topics, tips and trends in my piece over at InfoStor Cloud Storage Concerns, Considerations and Trends along with more material at www.objectstoragecenter.com.

Btw, what are your questions, comments, concerns, claims or caveats as part of cloud and object storage conversations?

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links U to Z

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Software defined data infrastructure management insight tools

Dashboard Discussions

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Dashboard Options

Where to learn more

What this all means

Share this:

Did you want a side of SLBS with your software or hardware FUD?

Whats the issue with SLBS?

Moving beyond SLBS

Whats the point?

Where to learn more

What this all means

Share this:

Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

Where To Learn More

What this all means and wrapping up

Share this:

Congratulations and welcome new and returning fellow 2017 vExperts

Where To Learn More

What this all means and wrapping up

Share this:

What Does CI and HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

NVM and Media memory matters

Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

Navigating your various NVMe options

Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

NVMe and server storage I/O performance

NVMe maximizing your software license investments

Additional NVMe and related tips

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Volume 17, Issue I

In This Issue

Share this:

Data Infrastructure Primer Overview

Various Types and Layers of Infrastructures

Bringing IT All Together (for now)

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Planning and Enabling Your Journey to Software Defined)

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this:

Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

Share this: