Category: Infrastructure Resource Management

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Whats your take on open virtualization alliance and VMware?

Have you heard about the open virtualization alliance (OVA), their kernel based virtual machine (KVM) and their diverse membership list?

If not, here is a link to the OVA FAQ, also take a moment and read this here that talks about OVA along with some perspectives commentary from others as well as myself.

Virtual Servers and Virtual Machines

Figure 1: Generic representation of virtual machines (VMs) and virtualized environment

In a nutshell, OVA can be seen by the faithful as a move or ploy to catch up and buck the success trend of VMware. To those who are not on the VMware bandwagon, this could be seen as a move to level the playing field for virtual machines, kernels and servers.

Yet to others, this can be seen as DejaVu to past attempts at operating systems or other technology alliances to bring parity to the ranks of those not at the top of the technology list of a particular topic, product or theme. For example, a decade or two ago, there were the various Unix groups (remember SCO etc?) that were attempted involving the late Ray Norda of Novell fame in a quest to battle Microsoft among others.

The industry road side is littered with alliances that either still exist yet collecting dust or that faltered. For storage people does anybody remember Aperi and how those in the IBM lead storage management alliance were all singing Kumbaya around a virtual campfire and later partnering with SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association)? Speaking of SNIA, anybody remember the various supported solutions forums (SSFs) popular back in the early 2000s as a means to demonstrate and stimulate interoperability between different vendors technologies?

Alliances are not bad, however generally to be successful, they have to exist for the right reasons in addition to being well funded, have strong leadership that also means having clear objectives to minimize chances of compromise by committee. While we are talking about alliances, have you heard about the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA)? The ODCA alliance of which StorageIO is a member is a bit different than many IT related groups in that it is customer or non vendor focused. ODCA has good potential for doing some interesting things as long as they do not get bogged down in bureaucracy as is to often the case with industry driven trade groups, associations or alliances.

Open Data Center Alliance Member

Lets see how these and other alliances move forward or what becomes of them, not to mention the expanding awareness around virtualization, life beyond consolidation (and here).

Whats your take on OVA and other alliances?

Ok, nuff said for now.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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Are Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) getting too big?

Lets start out by clarifying something, that is in terms of context or scope, big means storage capacity as opposed to the physical packaging size of a hard disk drive (HDD) which are getting smaller.

So are HDDs in terms of storage capacity getting too big?

This question of if HDDs storage capacity getting too big to manage comes up every few years and it is the topic of Rick Vanovers (aka twitter @RickVanover Episode 27 Pod cast: Are hard drives getting to big?

Veeam community podcast guest appearance

As I discuss in this pod cast with Rick Vannover of Veeam, with the 2TB and even larger future 4TB, 8 to 9TB, 18TB, 36TB and 48 to 50TB drives not many years away, sure they are getting bigger (in terms of capacity) however we have been here before (or at least some of us have). We discuss how back in the late 90s HDDs were going from 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch (now they are going from 3.5 inch to 2.5 inch), and 9GB were big and seen as a scary proposition by some for doing RAID rebuilds, drive copy or backups among other things, not to mention if putting to many eggs (or data) in one basket.

In some instances vendors have been able to combine various technologies, algorithms and other techniques to RAID rebuild a 1TB or 2TB drive in the same or less amount of time as it used to take to process a 9GB HDD. However those improvements are not enough and more will be needed leveraging faster processors, IO busses and back planes, HDDs with more intelligence and performance, different algorithms and design best practices among other techniques that I discussed with Rick. After all, there is no such thing as a data recession with more information to be generated, processed, moved, stored, preserved and served in the future.

If you are interested in data storage, check out Ricks pod cast and hear some of our other discussion points including how SSD will help keep the HDD alive similar to how HDDs are offloading tape from their traditional backup role, each with its changing or expanding focus among other things.

On a related note, here is post about RAID remaining relevant yet continuing to evolve. We also talk about Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD) where in a single sealed HDD device there is flash and dram along with a spinning disk all managed by the drives internal processor with no external special software or hardware needed.

Listen to comments by Greg Schulz of StorageIO on HDD, HHDD, SSD, RAID and more

Put on your head phones (or not) and check out Ricks pod cast here (or on the head phone image above).

Thanks again Rick, really enjoyed being a guest on your show.

Whats your take, are HDDs getting to big in terms of capacity or do we need to leverage other tools, technology and techniques to be more effective in managing expanding data footprint including use of data footprint reduction (DFR) techniques?

Ok, nuff said for now.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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Cloud storage: Dont be scared, however look before you leap

Here is a link to a web cast on BrightTalk I will be doing live on Thursday June 9, 2011 at 1PM Pacific, 3PM Central or 4PM Eastern time lasting about 45 minutes. The web cast is titled: Cloud storage: Dont be scared, however look before you leap.

This web cast session takes a look at the state of public, private and hybrid cloud storage solutions and services including what you need to know to be prepared for a successful deployment. Topics to be covered include best practices, management and data protection in addition to navigating the hype and FUD associated with cloud storage today.

Cloud storage: Dont be scared, however look before you leap and do your homework

Check out the web cast either live or the replay later.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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Dude, is Dell going to buy Brocade?

Some IT industry buzz this week is around continued speculation (or here) of who will Dell buy next and will it be Brocade.

Brocade was mentioned as a possible acquisition by some in the IT industry last fall after Dell stepped back from the 3PAR bidding war with HP. Industry rumors or speculations are not new involving Dell and Brocade some going back a year or more (or here or here).

Dell

Last fall I did a blog post commenting that I thought Dell would go on to buy someone else (turned out to be Compellent and Insight One). Those acquisitions by Dell followed their purchases of companies including Scalent, Kace, Exanet, Perot, and Ocarina among others. In that post, I also commented that I did not think (at least at that time) that Brocade would be a likely or good fit for Dell given their different business models, go to market strategy and other factors.

Dell is clearly looking to move further up into the enterprise space which means adding more products and routes to market of which one is via networking and another involves people with associated skill sets. The networking business at Dell has been good for them along with storage to complement their traditional server and workstation business, not to mention their continued expansion into medical, life science and healthcare related solutions. All of those are key building blocks for moving to cloud, virtual and data storage networking environments.

Dell has also done some interesting acquisitions around management and service or workflow tools with Scalent and Kace not to mention their scale out NAS file system (excuse me, big data) solutions via Exanet and data footprint reduction tools with Ocarina, all of which have plays in the enterprise, cloud and traditional Dell markets.

But what about Brocade?

Is it a good fit for Dell?

Dell certainly could benefit from owning Brocade as a means of expanding their Ethernet and IP businesses beyond OEM partnerships, like HP supplementing their networking business with 3COM and IBM with Blade networks.

However, would Dell acquiring Brocade disrupt their relationships with Cisco or other networking providers?

If Dell were to make a bid for Brocade, would Huawei (or here) sit on the sidelines and watch or jump in the game to stir things up?

Would Cisco counter with a deal Dell could not refuse to tighten their partnership at different levels perhaps even involving something with the UCS that was discussed on a recent Infosmack episode?

How would EMC, Fujitsu, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp and Oracle among others, all of who are partners with Brocade respond to Dell now becoming their OEM supplier for some products?

Would those OEM partnerships continue or cause some of those vendors to become closer aligned with Cisco or others?

Again the question, will Huawei sit back or decide to enter the market on a more serious basis or continue to quietly increase their presences around the periphery?

Brocade could be a good fit for Dell giving them a networking solution (both Ethernet via the Foundry acquisition along with Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)) not to mention many other pieces of IP including some NAS and file management tools collecting dust on some Brocade shelf somewhere. What Dell would also get is a sales force that knows how to sell to OEMs, the channel and to enterprise customers, some of whom are networking (Ethernet or Fibre Channel) focused, some who have broader diverse backgrounds.

While it is possible that Dell could end up with Brocade along with a later bidding battle (unless others just let a possible deal go as is), Dell would find itself in new and unfamiliar waters similar to Brocade gaining its feet moving into the Ethernet and IP space after having been comfortable in the Fibre Channel storage centric space for over a decade.

While the networking products would be a good fit for Dell assuming that they were to do such a deal, the diamond in the rough so to speak could be Brocade channel, OEM and direct sales contact team of sales people, business development, systems engineers and support staff on a global basis. Keep in mind that while some of those Brocadians are network focused, many have connected servers and storage from mainframe to open systems across all vendors for years or in some cases decades. Some of those people who I know personally are even talented enough to sell ice to an Eskimo (that is a sales joke btw).

Sure the Brocadians would have to be leveraged to keep selling what they have done, a task similar to what NetApp is currently facing with their integration of Engenio.

However that DNA could help Dell set up more presences in organizations where they have not been in the past. In other words, Dell could use networking to pull the rest of their product lines into those accounts, vars or resellers.

Hmmm, does that sound like another large California based networking company?

Dell

After all, June is a popular month for weddings, lets see what happens next week down in Orlando during the Dell Storage Forum as some have speculated might be a launching pad for some type of deal.

Here are some related links to more material:

  • HP Buys one of the seven networking dwarfs and gets a bargain
  • Dell Will Buy Someone, However Not Brocade (At least for now)
  • While HP and Dell make counter bids, exclusive interview with 3PAR CEO David Scott
  • Acadia VCE: VMware + Cisco + EMC = Virtual Computing Environment
  • Did someone forget to tell Dell that Tape is dead?
  • Data footprint reduction (Part 1): Life beyond dedupe and changing data lifecycles
  • Data footprint reduction (Part 2): Dell, IBM, Ocarina and Storwize
  • What is DFR or Data Footprint Reduction?
  • Could Huawei buy Brocade?
  • Has FCoE entered the trough of disillusionment?
  • More on Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
  • Dude, is Dell doing a disk deal again with Compellent?
  • Post Holiday IT Shopping Bargains, Dell Buying Exanet?
  • Back to school shopping: Dude, Dell Digests 3PAR Disk storage
  • Huawei should buy brocade
  • NetApp buying LSIs Engenio Storage Business Unit

    • Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    StorageIO going Dutch: Seminar for Storage and I/O professionals

    Data and Storage Networking Industry Trends and Technology Seminar

    Greg Schulz of StorageIO in conjunction with or dutch parter Brouwer Storage Consultancy will be presenting a two day seminar for Storage Professionals Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th of May 2011 at Ampt van Nijkerk Netherlands.

    Brouwer Storage ConsultanceyThe Server and StorageIO Group

    This two day interactive education seminar for storage professionals will focus on current data and storage networking trends, technology and business challenges along with available technologies and solutions. During the seminar learn what technologies and management techniques are available, how different vendors solutions compare and what to use when and where. This seminar digs into the various IT tools, techniques, technologies and best practices for enabling an efficient, effective, flexible, scalable and resilient data infrastructure.

    The format of this two seminar will be a mix of presentation and interactive discussion allowing attendees plenty of time to discuss among themselves and with seminar presenters. Attendees will gain insight into how to compare and contrast various technologies and solutions in addition to identifying and aligning those solutions to their specific issues, challenges and requirements.

    Major themes that will be discussed include:

    • Who is doing what with various storage solutions and tools
    • Is RAID still relevant for today and tomorrow
    • Are hard disk drives and tape finally dead at the hands of SSD and clouds
    • What am I routinely hearing, seeing or being asked to comment on
    • Enabling storage optimization, efficiency and effectiveness (performance and capacity)
    • What do I see as opportunities for leveraging various technologies, techniques,trends
    • Supporting virtual servers including re-architecting data protection
    • How to modernize data protection (backup/restore, BC, DR, replication, snapshots)
    • Data footprint reduction (DFR) including archive, compression and dedupe
    • Clarifying cloud confusion, don’t be scared, however look before you leap

    In addition this two day seminar will look at what are some new and improved technologies and techniques, who is doing what along with discussions around industry and vendor activity including mergers and acquisitions. Greg will also preview the contents and themes of his new book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC) for enabling efficient, optimized and effective information services delivery across cloud, virtual and traditional environments.

    Buzzwords and topic themes to be discussed among others include:
    E2E, FCoE and DCB, CNAs, SAS, I/O virtualization, server and storage virtualization, public and private cloud, Dynamic Infrastructures, VDI, RAID and advanced data protection options, SSD, flash, SAN, DAS and NAS, object storage, application optimized or aware storage, open storage, scale out storage solutions, federated management, metrics and measurements, performance and capacity, data movement and migration, storage tiering, data protection modernization, SRA and SRM, data footprint reduction (archive, compress, dedupe), unified and multi-protocol storage, solution bundle and stacks.

    For more information or to register contact Brouwer Storage Consultancy

    Brouwer Storage Consultancy
    Olevoortseweg 43
    3861 MH Nijkerk
    The Netherlands
    Telephone: +31-33-246-6825
    Cell: +31-652-601-309
    Fax: +31-33-245-8956
    Email: info@brouwerconsultancy.com
    Web: www.brouwerconsultancy.com

    Brouwer Storage Consultancey

    Learn about other events involving Greg Schulz and StorageIO at www.storageio.com/events

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Using Removable Hard Disk Drives (RHDDs)

    Removable hard disk drives (RHDD) are a form of removable media which includes magnetic tape that address many common use cases. Usage scenarios include enabling bulk data portability for larger environments or for D2D backup where the media needs to be physically moved offsite for small and mid sized environments. RHDDs include among others those from Imation such as the Odyssey (which is what I use) and the Prostor RDX (OEMed by Imation and others). RHDD, tape along with other forms of portable media including those that use flash by being removable and portable presumable should have some extra packaging protection to safeguard against static shock in addition to supporting encryption capabilities.

    Compared to disks including RHDD, tape for most and particularly larger environments should have an overall lower media cost for parking, preserving and when needed serving inactive or archived data (e.g. the changing roll of tape from day to back up to archive). Of course your real costs will vary by use in addition to how combined with data footprint reduction and other technologies.

    A big benefit of RHDDs is that they are random meaning data can be searched and found quickly vs. tape media which has great sequential or streaming capabilities if you have a system that can support that ability. The other benefit of RHDD is that depending on their implementation, they should plug and play with your systems appearing as disk without any extra drivers or configuration or software tools making for ease of use. Being removable they can be used for portability such as sending data to a cloud or MSP as part of an initial bulk copy, or sending data offset or taking home as part of an offsite backup, data protection or BC/DR strategy as well as being used for archiving. The warning with RHDD is their cost per TByte will generally be higher than compared to tape as well as having to have a docking station or specific drive interface depending on specific product and configuration.

    RHDD are a great compliment to traditional fixed or non removable disk, Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) and Solid State Device (SSD) based storage as well as coexist with cloud or MSP backup and archive solutions. The smaller the environment the more affordable using RHDD become vs. tape for backup and archive operations or when portability is required. Even if using a cloud or managed service provider (MSP) backup provider, network bandwidth costs, availability or performance may limit the amount of data that can be moved in a cost effective way. For example placing an archive and gold or master copy of your static data on a RHDD that may be kept on site in a safe off-site place and then sending data that is routinely changed to the cloud or MSP provider (think full local and offsite plus partial full and incremental in the cloud).

    By leveraging archiving and data footprint reduction (DFR) techniques including dedupe and compression, you can stretch your budget by sending less data to cloud or MSP services while using removable media for data protection. You would be surprised how many TBytes of data can be kept in a safe deposit box. For my own business, I have used RHDDs for several years to keep gold master copies as well as archives offsite as part of a disk to disk (D2D) or D2D2RHDD strategy. The data protection strategy is also complimented by sending active data to a cloud backup MSP (encrypted of course). It might be belt and suspenders, however it is also eating my own dog food practicing what I talk about and the approach has proven itself a few times.

    Here are some related links to more material:
    Removable disk drives vs. tape storage for small businesses
    The pros and cons of removable disk storage for small businesses
    Removable storage media appealing to SMBs, but with caveats
    StorageIO Momentus Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) Moments

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    StorageIO Momentus Hybrid Hard Disk Drive (HHDD) Moments

    This is the third in a series of posts that I have done about Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDDs) along with pieces about Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Solid State Devices (SSDs). Granted the HDD received its AARP card several years ago when it turned 50 and is routinely declared dead (or read here) even though it continues to evolve along SSD maturing and both expanding into different markets as well as usage roles.

    For those who have not read previous posts about Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDDs) and the Seagate Momentus XT you can find them here and here.

    Since my last post, I have been using the HHDDs extensively and recently installed the latest firmware. The release of new HHDD firmware by Seagate for the Momentus XT (SD 25) like its predecessor SD24 cleaned up some annoyances and improved on overall stability. Here is a Seagate post by Mark Wojtasiak discussing SD25 and feedback obtained via the Momentus XT forum from customers.

    If you have never done a HDD firmware update, its not as bad or intimidating as might be expected. The Seagate firmware update tools make it very easy, that is assuming you have a recent good backup of your data (one that can be restored) and about 10 to 15 minutes of time for a couple of reboots.

    Speaking of stability, the Momentus XT HHDDs have been performing well helping to speed up accessing large documents on various projects including those for my new book. Granted an SSD would be faster across the board, however the large capacity at the price point of the HHDD is what makes it a hybrid value proposition. As I have said in previous posts, if you have the need for speed all of the time and time is money, get an SSD. Likewise if you need as much capacity as you can get and performance is not your primary objective, then leverage the high capacity HDDs. On the other hand, if you need a balance of some performance boost with capacity boost and a good value, then check out the HHDDs.

    Image of Momentus XT courtesy of www.Seagate.com

    Lets shift gears from that of the product or technology to that of common questions that I get asked about HHDDs.

    Common questions I get asked about HHDDs include:

    What is a Hybrid Hard Disk Drive?

    A Hybrid Hard Disk Drive includes a combination of rotating HDD, solid state flash persistent memory along with volatile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in an integrated package or product. The value proposition and benefit is a balance of performance and capacity at a good price for those environments, systems or applications that do not need all SSD performance (and cost) vs. those that need some performance in addition to large capacity.

    How the Seagate Momentus XT differs from other Hybrid Disks?
    One approach is to take a traditional HDD and pair it with a SSD using a controller packaged in various ways. For example on a large scale, HDDs and SSDs coexist in the same tiered storage system being managed by the controllers, storage processors or nodes in the solution including automated tiering and cache promotion or demotion. The main difference however between other storage systems, tiering and pairing and HHDDs is that in the case of the Momentus XT the HDD, SLC flash (SSD functionality) and RAM cache and their management are all integrated within the disk drive enclosure.

    Do I use SSDs and HDDs or just HHDDs?
    I have HHDDs installed internally in my laptops. I also have HDDs which are installed in servers, NAS and disk to disk (D2D) backup devices and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) along with external SSD and Removable Hard Disk Drives (RHDDs). The RHDDs are used for archive and master or gold copy data protection that go offsite complimenting how I also use cloud backup services as part of my data protection strategy.

    What are the technical specifications of a HHDD such as the Seagate Momentus XT?
    3Gbs SATA interface, 2.5 inch 500GB 7,200 RPM HDD with 32MB RAM cache and integrated 4GByte SLC flash all managed via internal drive processor. Power consumption varies depending what the device is doing such as initial power up, idle, normal or other operating modes. You can view the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB (ST95005620AS which is what I have) specifications here as well as the product manual here.


    One of my HHDDs on a note pad (paper) and other accessories

    Do you need a special controller or management software?
    Generally speaking no, the HHDD that I have been using plugged and played into my existing laptops internal bay replacing the HDD that came with those systems. No extra software was needed for Windows, no data movement or migration tools needed other than when initially copying from the source HDD to the new HHDD. The HHDD do their own caching, read ahead and write behind independent of the operating system or controller. Now the reason I say generally speaking is that like many devices, some operating systems or controllers may be able to leverage advanced features so check your particular system capabilities.

    How come the storage system vendors are not talking about these HHDDs?
    Good question which I assume it has a lot to do with the investment (people, time, engineering, money and marketing) that they have or are making in controller and storage system software functionality to effectively create hybrid tiered storage systems using SSD and HDDs on different scales. There have been some packaged HHDD systems or solutions brought to market by different vendors that combine HDD and SSD into a single physical package glued together with some software and controllers or processors to appear as a single system. I would not be surprised to see discrete HHDDs (where the HDD and flash SSD and RAM are all one integrated product) appear in lower end NAS or multifunction storage systems as well as for backup, dedupe or other system that requires large amounts of capacity space and performance boost now and then.

    Why do I think this? Simple, say you have five HHDDs each with 500GB of capacity configured as a RAID5 set resulting in 2TByte of capacity. Using as a hypothetical example the Momentus XT yields 5 x 4GByte or 20GByte of flash cache helps accelerate write operations during data dumps, backup or other updates. Granted that is an overly simplified example and storage systems can be found with hundreds of GByte of cache, however think in terms of value or low cost balancing performance and capacity to cost for different usage scenarios. For example, applications such as bulk or scale out file and object storage including cloud or big data, entertainment, Server (Citrix/Xen, Microsoft/HyperV, VMware/vSphere) and Desktop virtualization or VDI, Disk to Disk (D2D) backup, business analytics among others. The common tenets of those applications and usage scenario is a combination of I/O and storage consolidation in a cost effective manner addressing the continuing storage capacity to I/O performance gap.

    Data Center and I/O Bottlenecks

    Storage and I/O performance gap

    Do you have to backup HHDDs?
    Yes, just as you would want to backup or protect any SSD or HHD device or system.

    How does data get moved between the SSD and the HDD?
    Other than the initial data migration from the old HDD (or SSD) to the HHDD, unless you are starting with a new system, once your data and applications exist on the HHDD, it automatically via the internal process of the device manages the RAM, flash and HDD activity. Unlike in a tiered storage system where data blocks or files may be moved between different types of storage devices, inside the HHDD, all data gets written to the HDD, however the flash and RAM are used as buffers for caching depending on activity needs. If you have sat through or listened to a NetApp or HDS use of cache for tiering discussion what the HHDDs do is similar in concept however on a smaller scale at the device level, potentially even in a complimentary mode in the future? Other functions performed inside the HHDD by its processor includes reading and writing, managing the caches, bad block replacement or re vectoring on the HDD, wear leveling of the SLC flash and other routine tasks such as integrity checks and diagnostics. Unlike paired storage solutions where data gets moved between tiers or types of devices, once data is stored in the HHDD, it is managed by the device similar to how a SSD or HDD would move blocks of data to and from the specific media along with leveraging RAM cache as a buffer.

    Where is the controller that manages the SSD and HDD?
    The HHDD itself is the controller per say in that the internal processor that manages the HDD also directly access the RAM and flash.

    What type of flash is used and will it wear out?
    The XT uses SLC (single level cell) flash which with wear leveling has a good duty cycle (life span) and is what is typically found in higher end flash SSD solutions vs. lower cost MLC (multi level cell)

    Have I lost any data from it yet?
    No, at least nothing that was not my own fault from saving the wrong file in the wrong place and having to recover from one of my recent D2D copies or the cloud. Oh, regarding what have I done with the HDDs that were replaced by the HHDDs? They are now an extra gold master backup copy as of a particular point in time and are being kept in a safe secure facility, encrypted of course.

    Have you noticed a performance improvement?
    Yes, performance will vary however in many cases I have seen performance comparable to SSD on both reads and writes as long as the HDDs keep up with the flash and RAM cache. Even as larger amounts of data are written, I have seen better performance than compared to HDDs. The caveat however is that initially you may see little to marginal performance improvement however over time, particularly on the same files, performance tends to improve. Working on large tens to hundreds of MByte size documents I noticed good performance when doing saves compared to working with them on a HDD.

    What do the HHDDs cost?
    Amazon.com has the 500GB model for about $100 which is about $40 to $50 less than when I bought my most recent one last fall. I have heard from other people that you can find them at even lower prices at other venues. In the theme of disclosures, I bought one of my HHDDs from Amazon and Seagate gave me one to test.

    Will I buy more HHDDs or switch to SSDs?
    Where applicable I will add SSDs as well as HDDs, however where possible and practical, I will also add HHDDs perhaps even replacing the HDDs in my NAS system with HHDDs at some time or maybe trying them in a DVR.

    What is the down side to the HHDDs?
    Im generating and saving more data on the devices at a faster rate which means that when I installed them I was wondering if I would ever fill up a 500GB drive. I still have hundreds of GBytes free or available for use, however I also am able to cary more reference data or information than in the past. In addition to more reference data including videos, audio, images, slide decks and other content, I have also been able to keep more versions or copies of documents which has been handy on the book project. Data that changes gets backed up D2D as well as to my cloud provider including while traveling. Leveraging compression and dedupe, given that many chapters or other content are similar, not as much data actually gets transmitted when doing cloud backups which has been handy when doing a backup from a airplane flying over the clouds. A wish for the XT type of HHDD that I have is for vendors such as Seagate to add Self Encrypting Disk (SED) capabilities to them along with applying continued intelligent power management (IPM) enhancements.

    Why do I like the HHDD?
    Simple, it solves both business and technology challenges while being an enabler, it gives me a balance of performance for productivity and capacity in a cost effective manner while being transparent to the systems it works with.

    Here are some related links to additional material:
    Data Center I/O Bottlenecks Performance Issues and Impacts
    Has SSD put Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) On Endangered Species List?
    Seagate Momentus XT SD 25 firmware
    Seagate Momentus XT SD25 firmware update coming this week
    A Storage I/O Momentus Moment
    Another StorageIO Hybrid Momentus Moment
    As the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) continues to spin
    Has SSD put Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) On Endangered Species List?
    Funeral for a Friend
    As the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) continues to spin
    Seagate Momentus XT product specifications
    Seagate Momentus XT product manual
    Technology Tiering, Servers Storage and Snow Removal
    Self Encrypting Disks (SEDs)

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Spring 2011 Server and StorageIO News Letter

    StorageIO News Letter Image
    Spring 2011 Newsletter

    Welcome to the Spring 2011 edition of the Server and StorageIO Group (StorageIO) newsletter. This follows the Winter 2011 edition.

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

     

    Click on the following links to view the Spring 2011 edition as an HTML or PDF or, to go to the newsletter page to view previous editions.

    Follow via Goggle Feedburner here or via email subscription here.

    You can also subscribe to the news letter by simply sending an email to newsletter@storageio.com

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

    Cheers gs

    Nuff said for now

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Happy Earth Day 2011

    Let me keep this simple, efficient and effective, Happy Earth Day 2011 April 22, 2011.

    Be smart, practical, conscious, aware, recycle, cut down on waste, work smarter and more effective.

    Ok, nuff said for now, go hug a tree, your computer, hybrid car, droid, ipad, spouse, partner, kid, dog, cat or whatever suits your needs.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive

    Given the buzz about big data and conversations or confusion around clouds along with virtualizing virtually anything possible, Green IT has fallen off the Buzzword Bingo Bandwagon.

    Green IT like so many other buzzwords and trends typically go through a hype cycle before getting tired, worn out, or disillusioned (see here and here). Often these buzzwords will go to Some Day Isle for some rest and recuperation before reappearing later as part of a second or third buzzword wave either making it to broad adoption which means the plateau of profitability (for vendors or vars) and productivity (for customers) or disappearing.

    Some Day Isle for those not familiar with it is a visional or fictional place that some day you will go to, a wishful happy place so to speak that is perfect for hyperbole R and R. After some R and R, these trends, technologies or techniques often reappear well rested and ready for the next wave of buzz, FUD, hype and activity.

    Keep in mind that industry adoption (e.g. everybody is talking about it) can differ from industry deployment (e.g. some people have actually paid for, deployed and using the technology) to broad customer adoption (e.g. many people are actually paying for, deploying and using the technology on a routine basis).

    Confusion still reigns around Green IT not surprising given the heavy dose of Green Washing that has occurred.

    Consequently Green IT themes or pitches often fall on deaf ears as people have either become numb or ignore the Green washing hype or FUD. For example many people will skip reading this post because the word Green is in the title assuming that it is another CO2 or related themed piece missing out on the other themes or messages here. Unfortunately as I have discussed in the past, there remains a Green Gap that results in missed opportunities for vendors, vars, service providers, IT organizations along with those who would like to see environmental benefits or change.

    Another example of a Green gap is messaging around energy avoidance as being efficient vs. using energy in a more productive or effective manner (doing more work with the same or fewer resources) shown in the figure below.

    Tiered Storage
    Expanding focus from energy avoidance to energy usage effectiveness

    In routine conversations with IT professionals it is clear that the Green Gap and thus missed opportunities will continue for some time until the business and economic values of efficient, effective, smart and productive IT are understood to have environmental benefits as a by product and thus being Green. Watch for more missed messaging around CO2 and related themes popular with so called Greenies (or if you prefer environmentalists) that miss the mark with most business and IT organizations.

    Business and thus IT are driven by economics and as such will invest where they can reduce complexity and costs, become more efficient and effective while increasing productivity and reducing waste by working smarter. In other words, by changing how information services are delivered in a smarter more effective efficient manner maximizes what resources are used enabling more to be done in a denser footprint (budget, people staffing, management, power, cooling, floor space) that have positive environmental benefits. Put another way, a benefit for IT organizations to remove complexity results in lower costs, by becoming more efficient and effective reducing waste results in better productivity and fewer missed opportunities meaning enhanced profits. The net result is that environmental concerns get a free ride or being funded as a result of IT organizations improving their productivity which of course should have a business benefit.

    Efficient and Optimized IT Wheel of Oppourtunity
    Wheel of Opportunity: Various techniques and technologies for infrastructure optimization

    Efficient and effective IT (aka the other Green IT) that links to common technology and business issues with the benefit of helping the environment can be accomplished using a combination approaches. The approaches for enabling an efficient, effective, smarter and productive IT environment includes from a generic perspective various technologies, techniques and best practices shown in the wheel of opportunity figure.

    For example:

    Here are some related links for additional reading:

    Also check out my book for enabling efficient, effective and smart IT The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) including a free sample chapter download here.

    Ok, nuff said for now, go hug a tree, your computer, hybrid car, droid, ipad or whatever suits your needs.

    Cheers gs

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

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    The data storage prayer

    On a lighter note.

    For those who follow or are involved with data storage religiously with a passion, then this is for you. As for others who do not get or understand what this is about, just ask those who are devout data storage followers.

    Now I lay my data to sleep
    I pray the lord my backups to keep
    If a disk should die before I wake
    I hope like heck RAID works and my resume is up to date

    Nuff said, now get back to work or what ever it was you were doing before reading this and best wishes!

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Is FCoE Struggling to Gain Traction, or on a normal adoption course?

    Here is an article by Drew Robb over at Enterprise Storage Forum about Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and its state of adoption. Drews article includes comments and perspectives from myself around where FCoE is going and why it is on a long road and not a sprint for a short temporal technology play (e.g. not a quick passing fad or bandwagon trend).

    If you measure FCoE adoption in months, sure, its been slow to gain adoption and deployment similar to how Ethernet, Fibre Channel (FC) and even iSCSI took time to evolve. Part of the time involved is for developing the standards, implementing the technology as well as expanding the capabilities of the new tools. Another part of the time required for technologies that are targeted to be around for a decade or more include ecosystem maturity, education not to mention customers being comfortable with along with having budget to buy the new items.

    I have previously said that FCoE was in the trough of disillusionment and depending on your view, that could be either entering, exiting or there to stay. Not surprisingly some cheerleaders thought that saying FCoE was in the trough of disillusionment was being cynical, while some cynics were cheerleading.

    My point around FCoE is that any technology or paradigm that goes through a hype cycle that will actually have long term legs or be around for years if not decades goes through a post initial hype disillusionment phase before reappearing. Technologies or trends that go through the trough of disillusionment that will eventually reappear sometimes go to Some Day Isle for rest and relaxation (R and R). Some Day Isle for those not familiar with it is a visional or fictional place that some day you will go to, a wishful happy place so to speak that is perfect for hyperbole R and R. After some R and R, these trends, technologies or techniques often reappear well rested and ready for the next wave of buzz, fud, hype and activity.

    Certainly there have been and will continue to be more battles or matches tied to early deployments along with plenty of hype or FUD. After all, if FCoE were to simply pack up and go away like some cynics or naysayers suggest, what will they have to talk, blog, write or speak about? Similarly if FCoE magically goes mainstream tomorrow, the cheerleaders will have to find a new bandwagon or Shiny New Toy (SNT) to rally around.

    Also as I have said in the past, its not if, rather when FCoE will be deployed in yours or your customers environment along with how and using what tools or technologies. Another question to pose around FCoE as a converged technology is will you use it in a true converged manner meaning adapting how server, storage and networking resources are managed including best practices? Or, will you use FCoE in a hybrid SAN or LAN mode using traditional SAN and LAN management practice and separate teams perhaps even battling over who owns the tools or technology.

    Fwiw, in case you did not pick up on it from my previous posts, tips, articles and coverage in books, I think that FCoE has a very bright future as does NAS and iSCSI along with shared SAS as complimentary technologies when used for the applicable scenario.

    What is your take, Is FCoE struggling to gain traction?

    Is FCoE on a normal technology evolution path and timeline?

    Is it too early to tell what the future holds for FCoE?

    Is FCoE too little to late and if so why?

    Ok, nuff said for now.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    StorageIO V20.11 (2011) events seminars and web casts schedule

    The V20.11 (e.g. 2011 or follow up from V20.10) Server and StorageIO (StorageIO) out and about events schedule continues to evolve.

    In the meantime, here are a few (actually a couple dozen) seminars and web casts currently on the event calendar for 2011 that I will be speaking or presenting at. Topics and themes include Server and Storage Optimization, Clouds, Virtualization, Data Protection Modernization (HA, BC, DR, Backup/restore) along with Data Footprint Reduction (DFR including archive, compression, dedupe), End to End (E2E) Management, efficient IT data centers (and storage) among other related items.

    Later this summer watch for the release of my new book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC) as well as keep an eye on the StorageIO events page for additional events or details to appear. Also check out the news page for commentary on industry activities, announcements, trends or related topics in addition to the tips (or articles) page. You can also view videos, webinars and pod casts along with news letters containing links from while out and about during 2011 activities (or from past events).

    WhenVenueEvent Name Location
    Nov 10, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerLos Angeles, CA
    Nov 8, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerSeattle, WA
    Nov 3, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerDenver, CO
    Nov 1, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerChicago, IL
    Sept 29, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerMinneapolis, MN
    Aug 4, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerSan Francisco, CA
    Jul 28, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerHouston, TX
    Jul 21, 2011 Event keynote Speaker: Data Center Summit: Virtualization, Business Continuity and Cloud ComputingRaleigh, NC
    Jun 28, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerBoston, MA
    June 23, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerNew York City
    June 21, 2011 Event keynote Speaker: Data Center Summit: Virtualization, Business Continuity and Cloud ComputingTampa, FL
    May 18, 2011Keynote: 2011 Virtualization Best PracticesIrvine, CA
    May 12, 2011Keynote: 2011 Virtualization Best PracticesChicago, IL
    May 10, 2011Keynote: 2011 Virtualization Best PracticesDallas, TX
    May 5, 2011Keynote: 2011 Virtualization Best PracticesNew York, NY
    May 3, 2011Keynote: 2011 Virtualization Best PracticesBoston, MA
    Apr 28, 2011 Data Center Summit BC and DR Track Key note speaker: Protect, preserve and server your organizations essential applications and information services in an affordable mannerDallas, TX
    Apr 12, 2011 Event keynote Speaker: Data Center Summit: Virtualization, Business Continuity and Cloud ComputingSt. Louis, MO
    Mar 29, 2011WebcastCloud and Virtual BC/DRWebcast
    Mar 24, 2011WebcastTapes Evolving Data Storage RoleWebcast
    Mar 15, 2011Wildfire GrilleKeynote: Virtualization, storage and the enterprise cloudEden Prairie, MN
    Feb 10, 2011 Guest participant – Enabling safe and secure SaaSOn demand eSeminar
    Jan 31, 2011century CollegeCloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking: Industry TrendsMahtomedi MN
    Jan 12, 2011 Presenter – E2E Awareness and insight for cloud, virtualized and legacy IT environments
    See more here including viewing the webcast    		Virtual event
    More information

    Watch here for more events updates and information as well as signup for the free StorageIO news letter here.

    Nuff said for now, look forward to seeing as well as hearing from you while out and about during 2011.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and coming summer 2011 Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    NetApp buying LSIs Engenio Storage Business Unit

    Storage I/O trends

    This has been a busy week as on Monday Western Digital (WD) announced that they were buying the disk drive business from Hitachi Ltd. (e.g. HGST) for about $4.3 billion USD. The deal includes about $3.5B in cash and 25 million WD common shares (e.g. $750M USD) which will give Hitachi Ltd. about ten (10) percent ownership in WD along with adding two Hitachi persons onto the WD board of directors. WD now moves into the number one hard disk drive (HDD) spot above Seagate (note Hitachi is not selling HDS) in addition to giving them a competitive positioning in both the enterprise HDD as well as emerging SSD markets.

    Today NetApp announced that they have agreed to purchase portions of the LSI storage business known as Engenio for $480M USD.

    The business and technology that LSI is selling to NetApp (aka Engenio) is the external storage system business that accounted for about $705M of their approximate $900M+ storage business in 2010. This piece of the business represents external (outside of the server) shared RAID storage systems that support Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and emerging FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) with SSD, SAS and FC high performance HDDs as well as high capacity HDDs. NetApp has block however there strong suit (sorry netapp guys) is file while Engenio strong suit is block that attaches to gateways from NetApp as well as others in addition to servers for scale out NAS and cloud.

    What NetApp is getting from LSI is the business that sells storage systems or their components to OEMs including Dell, IBM (here and here), Oracle, SGI and TeraData (a former NCR spin off) among others.

    What LSI is retaining are their custom storage silicon, ICs, PCI RAID adapter and host bus adapter (HBA) cards including MegaRAID, 3ware along with SAS chips, SAS switches, PCI SSD card and the Onstor NAS product they acquired about a year ago. Other parts of the LSI business which makes chips for storage, networking and communications vendors is also not affected by this deal.

    In other words, the sign in front of the Wichita LSI facility that used to say NCR will now probably include a NetApp logo once the deal closes.

    For those not familiar, Tom Georgens current CEO of NetApp is very familiar with Engenio and LSI as he used to work there (after leaving a career at EMC). In fact Mr. Georgens was part of the most recent attempt to spin the external storage business out of LSI back in the mid 2000s when it received the Engenio name and branding. In addition to Tom Georgens, Vic Mahadevan the current NetApp Chief Strategy Officer recently worked at LSI and before that at BMC, Compaq and Maxxan among others.

    What do I mean by the most recent attempt to spin the storage business out of LSI? Simple, the Engenio storage business traces its lineage back to NCR and what become known as Symbiosis Logic that LSI acquired as part of some other acquisitions.

    Going back to the late 90s, there was word on the street that the then LSI management was not sure what to do with storage business as their core business was and still is making high volume chips and related technologies. Current LSI CEO Abhi Talwalkar is a chip guy (nothing wrong with that) who honed his skills at Intel. Thus it should not be a surprise that there is a focus on the LSI core business model of making their own as well as producing silicon (not the implant stuff) for IT and consumer electronics (read their annual report).

    As part of the acquisition, LSI has already indicated that they will use all or some of the cash to buy back their stock. However I also wonder if this does not open the door for Abhi and his team to do some other acquisitions more synergic with their core business.

    What does NetApp get:

    • Expanded OEM and channel distribution capabilities
    • Block based products to coexist with their NAS gateways
    • Business with an established revenue base
    • Footprint into new or different markets
    • Opportunity to sell different product set to existing customers

    NetApp gets an OEM channel distribution model to complement what they already have (mainly IBM) in addition to their mainly direct sales and with VARs. Note that Engenio went to an all OEM/distribution model several years ago maintaining direct touch support for their partners.

    Note that NetApp is providing financial guidance that the deal could add $750M to FY12 which is based on retaining some portion of the existing OEM business however moving into new markets as well as increasing product diversity with existing direct customers, vars or channel partners.

    NetApp also gets to address storage market fragmentation and enable OEM as well as channel diversification including selling to other server vendors besides IBM. The Engenio model in addition to supporting Dell, IBM, Oracle, SGI and other server vendors also involves working with vertical solution integrator OEMs in the video, entertainment, High Performance Compute (HPC), cloud and MSP markets. This means that NetApp can enter new markets where bandwidth performance is needed including scale out NAS (beyond what NetApp has been doing). This also means that NetApp gets a product to sell into markets where back end storage for big data, bulk storage, media and entertainment, cloud and MSP as well as other applications leverage SAS, iSCSI or FC and FCoE beyond what their current lineup offers. Who sells into those spaces? Dell, HP, IBM, Oracle, SGI and Supermicro among others.

    What does LSI get:

    • $480M USD cash and buy back some stock to keep investors happy
    • Streamline their business or open door for new ones
    • Perhaps increase OEM sales to other new or existing customers
    • Perhaps do some acquisitions or be acquired

    What does Engenio get:
    A new parent that hopefully invest in the technology and marketing of the solution sets as well as leverage or take care of the installed base of customers

    What do the combined Engenio and NetApp OEMs and partners get:
    With combination of the organizations, hopefully streamlined support, service, and marketing, product enhancements to address new or different needs. Possibly comfort in knowing that Engenio now has a home and its future somewhat known.

    What about the Engenio employees?
    The reason I bring this up is wondering what happens to those who have many years invested and their LSI stock which I presume they keep hoping that the sale gives them a future return on their investment or efforts. Having been in similar acquisitions in the past, it can be a rough go however if the acquirer has a bright future, than enough said.

    Some random thoughts:

    Is this one of those industry trendy, sexy, cool everybody drooling type deals with new and upcoming technology and marketing buzz?
    No

    Is this one of those industry deals that has good upside potential if executed upon and leveraged?
    Yes

    Netapp already has a storage offering why do they need Engenio?
    No offense to NetApp, however they have needed a robust block storage offering to complement their NAS file serving and extensive software functionality to move into to different markets. This is not all that different from what EMC needed to do in the late 90s extending their capabilities from their sole cash cow platform Symmetrix to acquire DG to have a mid range offering.

    NetApp is risking $480M on a business with technologies that some see or say is on the decline, so why would they do such a thing?
    Ok, lets set the technology topics aside, from a pure numbers perspective, lets take two scenarios and Im not a financial person so go easy on me please. What some financial people have told me with other deals is that its sometimes about getting a return on cash vs. it not doing anything. So with that and other things in mind, say NetApp just lets $480M sit in the bank, can they get 12 per cent or better interest? Probably not and if they can, I want the name of that bank. What that means is that for a five year period, if they could get that rate of return (12 percent), they would only make $824M-480M=$344M on the investment (I know, there are tax and other financial considerations however lets keep simple). Now lets take another scenario, assume that NetApp simply rides a decline of the business at say a 20 percent per year rate (how many business are growing or in storage declining at 20 percent per year?) for five years. That works out to about a $1.4B yield. Lets take a different scenario and assume that NetApp can simply maintain an annual run rate of $700-750M for that five years, that works out to around $3.66B-480M=$3.1B revenue or return on investment. In other words, even with some decline, over a five year period, the OEM business pays for the deal alone and perhaps helps funds investment in technology improvement with the business balance being positive upside.

    Now both of those are extreme scenarios so lets take something more likely such as NetApp being able to simply maintain a 700-750M run rate by keeping some of the OEM business, finding new markets for challenge and OEM as well as direct, expanding footprint into their markets. Now that math gets even more interesting. Having said all of that, NetApp needs to keep investing in the business and products to get those returns which might help explain the relative low price to run rate.

    Is this a good deal for NetApp?
    IMHO yes, as long as NetApp does not screw it up. If NetApp can manage the business, invest in it, grow into new markets instead of simple cannibalization, they will have made a good deal similar to what EMC did with DG back in the late 90s. However NetApp needs to execute, leverage what they are buying, invest in it and pick up new business to make up for the declining business with some of the OEMs.

    With several hundred thousand systems or controllers having been sold over the years (granted how many are actually running is your guess as good as mine), NetApp has a footprint to leverage with their other products. For example, should IBM, Dell or Oracle completely walk away from those installed footprints, NetApp can move in with firmware or other upgrades to support plus up sell with their NAS gateways to add value with compression, dedupe, etc.

    What about NetApps acquisition track record?
    Fair question although Im sure the NetApp faithful wont like it. NetApp has had their ups and downs with acquisitions (Topio, Decru, Spinaker, Onaro, etc), perhaps with this one like EMC in the late 90s who bought DG to overcome some rough up and down acquisitions can also get their mojo on. (See this post).While we are on the topic of acquisitions, NetApp recently bought Akorri and last year Bycast which they now call StorageGrid that has been OEMd in the past by IBM. Guess what storage was commonly used under the IBM servers running the Bycast software? If you guessed XIV you might want to take a mulligan or a do over. Btw, HP also has OEMd the Bycast software. If you are not familiar with Bycast and interested in automated movement, tiering, policy management, objects and other buzzwords, ping your favorite NetApp person as it is a diamond in the rough if leveraged beyond healthcare capabilities.

    What does this mean for Xyratex and Dothill who are NetApp partners?
    My guess is that for now, the general purpose enclosures would stay the same (e.g. Xyratex) until there is a business case to do something different. For the high density enclosures, that could be a different scenario. As for others, we will have to wait and see.

    Will NetApp port OnTap into Engenio?
    The easiest and fastest thing is to do what NetApp and Engenio OEM customers have already been doing, that is, place the Engenio arrays behind the NetApp fas vfiler. Note that Engenio has storage systems that speak SAS to HDDs and SSDs as well as able to speak SAS, iSCSI and FC to hosts or gateways. NetApp has also embraced SAS for back end storage, maybe we will see them leverage a SAS connection out of their filers in the future to SAS storage systems or shelves instead of FC loop?

    Speaking of SAS host or server attached storage, guess what many cloud, MSP, high performance and other environment are using for storage on the back end of their clusters or scale out NAS systems?
    Yup, SAS.

    Guess what gap NetApp gets to fill joining Dell, HP, IBM and Oracle who can now give a choice of SAS, iSCSI or FC in addition or NAS?
    Yup, SAS.

    Care to guess what storage vendor we can expect to hear downplay SAS as a storage system to server or gateway technology?
    Hmm

    Is this all about SAS?
    No

    Will this move scare EMC?
    No, EMC does not get scared, or at least that is what they tell me.

    Will LSI buy Fusion IO who has or is filing their documents to IPO or someone else?
    Your guess or speculation is better than mine. However LSI already has and is retaining their own PCIe SSD card.

    Why only $480M for a business that did $705M in 2010?
    Good question. There is risk in that if NetApp does not invest in the product, marketing, relationships that they will not see the previous annual run rate so it is not a straight annuity. Consequently NetApp is taking risk with the business and thus they should get the reward if they can run with it. Another reason is that there probably were not any investment bankers or brokers running up the price.

    Why didnt Dell buy Engenio for $480M?
    Good question, if they had the chance, they should have however it probably would not have been a good fit as Dell needs direct sales vs. OEM sales.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

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

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