IT Infrastructure Topics Archives

July 31, 2012May 8, 2022

Oracle, Xsigo, VMware, Nicira, SDN and IOV: IO IO its off to work they go

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives

In case you missed it, VMware recently announced spending $1.05 billion USD acquiring startup Nicira for their virtualization and software technology that enables software defined networks (SDN). Also last week Oracle was in the news getting its hands slapped by for making misleading advertisement performance claims vs. IBM.

On the heals of VMware buying Nicira for software defined networking (SDN) or what is also known as IO virtualization (IOV) and virtualized networking, Oracle is now claiming their own SDN capabilities with their announcement of intent to acquire Xsigo. Founded in 2004, Xsigo has a hardware platform combined with software to enable attachment of servers to different Fibre Channel (SAN) and Ethernet based (LAN) networks with their version of IOV.

Now its Oracle who has announced that it will be acquiring IO, networking, virtualization hardware and software vendor Xsigo founded in 2004 for an undisclosed amount. Xsigo has made its name in the IO virtualization (IOV) and converged networking along with server and storage virtualization space over the past several years including partnerships with various vendors.

Technology buzzwords and buzz terms can often be a gray area leaving plenty of room for marketers and PR folks to run with. Case in point AaaS, Big data, Cloud, Compliance, Green, IaaS, IOV, Orchestration, PaaS and Virtualization among other buzzword bingo or XaaS topics. Since Xsigo has been out front in messaging and industry awareness around IO networking convergence of Ethernet based Local Area Networks (LANs) and Fibre Channel (FC) based Storage Area Networks (SANs), along with embracing InfiniBand, it made sense for them to play to their strength which is IO virtualization (aka IOV).

Too me and among others (here and here and here) it is interesting that Xsigo has not laid claims to being part of the software defined networking (SDN) movement or the affiliated OpenFlow networking initiatives as happens with Nicira (and Oracle for that matter). In the press release that the Oracle marketing and PR folks put out on a Monday morning, some of the media and press, both trade industry, financial and general news agency took the Oracle script hook line and sinker running with it.

What was effective is how well many industry trade pubs and their analysts simply picked up the press release story and ran with it in the all too common race to see who can get the news or story out first, or before it actually happens in some cases.

Image of media, news papers

Too be clear, not all pubs jumped including some of those mentioned by Greg Knieriemen (aka @knieriemen) over at SpeakinginTech highlights. I know some who took the time to call, ask around, leverage their journalistic training to dig, research and find out what this really meant vs. simply taking and running with the script. An example of one of those calls that I had was with Beth Pariseu (aka @pariseautt) that you can read her story here and here.

Interesting enough, the Xsigo marketers had not embraced the SDN term sticking with the more known (at least in some circles) VIO and VIO descriptions. What is also interesting is just last week Oracle marketing had their hands slapped by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) NAD after IBM complained about unfair performance based advertisements on ExaData.

Hmm, I wonder if the SDN police or somebody else will lodge a similar complaint with the BBB on behalf of those doing SDN?

Both Oracle and Xsigo along with other InfiniBand (and some Ethernet and PCIe) focused vendors are members of the Open Fabric initiative, not to be confused with the group working on OpenFlow.

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives

Here are some other things to think about:

Oracle has a history of doing different acquisitions without disclosing terms, as well as doing them based on earn outs such as was the case with Pillar.

Oracle use Ethernet in the servers and appliances as well as has been an adopter of InfiniBand primarily for node to node communication, however also for server to application.

Oracle is also an investor in Mellanox the folks that make InfiniBand and Ethernet products.

Oracle has built various stacks including ExaData (Database machine), Exalogic, Exalytics and Database Appliance in addition to their 7000 series of storage systems.

Oracle has done earlier virtualization related acquisitions including Virtual Iron.

Oracle has a reputation with some of their customers who love to hate them for various reasons.

Oracle has a reputation of being aggressive, even by other market leader aggressive standards.

Integrated solution stacks (aka stack wars) or what some remember as bundles continues and Oracle has many solutions.

What will happen to Xsigo as you know it today (besides what the press releases are saying).

While Xsigo was not a member of the Open Networking Forum (ONF), Oracle is.

Xsigo is a member of the Open Fabric Alliance along with Oracle, Mellanox and others interested in servers, PCIe, InfiniBand, Ethernet, networking and storage.

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives

What’s my take?

While there are similarities in that both Nicira and Xsigo are involved with IO Virtualization, what they are doing, how they are doing it, who they are doing it with along with where they can play vary.

Not sure what Oracle paid however assuming that it was in the couple of million dollars or less, cash or combination of stock, both they and the investors as well as some of the employees, friends and family’s did ok.

Oracle also gets some intellectual property that they can combine with other earlier acquisitions via Sun and Virtual Iron along with their investment in InfiniBand (also now Ethernet) vendor Mellanox

Likewise, Oracle gets some extra technology that they can leverage in their various stacked or integrated (aka bundled) solutions for both virtual and physical environments.

For Xsigo customers the good news is that you now know who will be buying the company, however and should be questions about the future beyond what is being said in press releases.

Does this acquisition give Oracle a play in the software defined networking space like Nicira gives to VMware I would say no given their hardware dependency, however it does give Oracle some extra technology to play with.

Likewise while important and a popular buzzword topic (e.g. SDN), since OpenFlow comes up in conversations, perhaps that should be more of the focus vs. if a solution is all software or hardware and software.

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives

I also find it entertaining how last week the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and NAD (National Advertising Division) slapped Oracles hands after IBM complaints of misleading performance claims about Oracle ExaData vs. IBM. The reason I find it entertaining is not that Oracle had its hands slapped or that IBM complained to the BBB, rather how the Oracle marketers and PR folks came up with a spin around what could be called a proprietary SDN (hmm, pSDN ?) story feed it to the press and media who then ran with it.

Im not convinced that this is an all our launch of a war by Oracle vs. Cisco let alone any of the other networking vendors as some have speculated (makes for good headlines though). Instead Im seeing it as more of an opportunistic acquisition by Oracle most likely at a good middle of summer price. Now if Oracle really wanted to go to battle with Cisco (and others), then there are others to buy such as Brocade, Juniper, etc etc etc. However there are other opportunities for Oracle to be focused (or side tracked on right now).

Oh, lets also see what Cisco has to say about all of this which should be interesting.

StorageIO industry trends and perspectives

If you are interested in learning more about IOV, Xisgo, or are having trouble sleeping, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here (I think that’s enough links for now ;).

Ok, nuff said for now as I have probably requalified for being on the Oracle you know what list for not sticking to the story script, opps, excuse me, I mean press release message.

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

July 26, 2012March 7, 2022

Data protection modernization, more than swapping out media

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

Have you modernized your data protection strategy and environment?

If not, are you thinking about updating your strategy and environment?

Why modernize your data protection including backup restore, business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) strategy and environment?

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

Is it to leverage new technology such as disk to disk (D2D) backups, cloud, virtualization, data footprint reduction (DFR) including compression or dedupe?

Perhaps you have or are considering data protection modernization because somebody told you to or you read about it or watched a video or web cast? Or, perhaps your backup and restore are broke so its time to change media or try something different.

Lets take a step back for a moment and ask the question of what is your view of data protection modernization?

Perhaps it is modernizing backup by replacing tape with disk, or disk with clouds?

Maybe it is leveraging data footprint reduction (DFR) techniques including compression and dedupe?

How about instead of swapping out media, changing backup software?

Or what about virtualizing servers moving from physical machines to virtual machines?

On the other hand maybe your view of modernizing data protection is around using a different product ranging from backup software to a data protection appliance, or snapshots and replication.

The above and others certainly fall under the broad group of backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving, however there is another area which is not as much technology as it is techniques, best practices, processes and procedure based. That is, revisit why data and applications are being protected against what applicable threat risks and associated business risks.

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

This means reviewing service needs and wants including backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving that in turn drive what data and applications to protect, how often, how many copies and where those are located, along with how long they will be retained.

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

Modernizing data protection is more than simply swapping out old or broken media like flat tires on a vehicle.

To be effective, data protection modernization involves taking a step back from the technology, tools and buzzword bingo topics to review what is being protected and why. It also means revisiting service level expectations and clarify wants vs. needs which translates to what if for free that is what is wanted, however for a cost then what is required.

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

Certainly technologies and tools play a role, however simply using new tools and techniques without revisiting data protection challenges at the source will result in new problems that resemble old problems.

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

Hence to support growth with a constrained or shrinking budget while maintaining or enhancing service levels, the trick is to remove complexity and costs.

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

This means not treating all data and applications the same, stretch your available resources to be more effective without compromise on service is mantra of modernizing data protection.

Ok, nuff said for now, plenty more to discuss later.

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

July 26, 2012June 7, 2022

Modernizing data protection with certainty

Speaking of and about modernizing data protection, back in June I was invited to be a keynote presenter on industry trends and perspectives at a series of five dinner events (Boston, Chicago, Palo Alto, Houston and New York City) sponsored by Quantum (that is a disclosure btw).

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

The theme of the dinner events was an engaging discussion around modernizing data protection with certainty along with clouds, virtualization and related topics. Quantum and one of their business partner resellers started the event with introductions followed by an interactive discussion by myself, followed by David Chappa (@davidchapa ) who ties the various themes with what Quantum is doing along with some of their customer success stories.

Themes and examples for these events build on my book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking including:

Rethinking how, when, where and why data is being protected
Big data, little data and big backup issues and techniques
Archive, backup modernization, compression, dedupe and storage tiering
Service level agreements (SLA) and service level objectives (SLO)
Recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)
Service alignment and balancing needs vs. wants, cost vs. risk
Protecting virtual, cloud and physical environments
Stretching your available budget to do more without compromise
People, processes, products and procedures

Quantum is among other industry leaders with multiple technology and solution offerings for addressing different aspects of data footprint reduction and data protection modernization. These include for physical, virtual and cloud environments along with traditional tape, disk based, compression, dedupe, archive, big data, hardware, software and management tools. A diverse group of attendees have been at the different events including enterprise and SMB, public, private and government across different sectors.

Following are links to some blog posts that covered first series of events along with some of the specific themes and discussion points from different cities:

Via ITKE: The New Realities of Data Protection
Via ITKE: Looking For Certainty In The Cloud
Via ITKE: Success Stories in Data Protection: Cloud virtualization
Via ITKE: Practical Solutions for Data Protection Challenges
Via David Chappas blog

If you missed attending any of the above events, more dates are being added in August and September including stops in Cleveland, Raleigh, Atlanta, Washington DC, San Diego, Connecticut and Philadelphia with more details here.

Ok, nuff said for now, hope to see you at one of the upcoming events.

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

July 24, 2012May 8, 2022

NAD recommends Oracle discontinue certain Exadata performance claims

I Received the following press release in my inbox today from the National Advertising Division (NAD) recommending that Oracle stop making certain performance claims about Exadata after a complaint from IBM.

In case you are not familiar with ExaData, it is a database machine or storage appliance that only supports Oracle database systems (learn more here). Oracle having bought Sun microsystems a few years back moved from being a software vendor that competed with other vendors software solutions including those from IBM while running on hardware from Dell, HP and IBM among others. Now that Oracle is in the hardware business, while you will still find Oracle software products running on their competitors hardware (servers and storage), Oracle is also more aggressively competing with those same partners, particularly IBM.

Hmm, to quote Scooby Doo: Rut Roh!

Looks like IBM complained to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD) that resulted in the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) making their recommendation below (more about NAD and ASRC can be found here). Based on a billboard sign that I saw while riding from JFK airport into New York City last week, I would not be surprised if a company with two initials that start with an H and end with a P were to file a similar complaint.

I Wonder if the large wall size Oracle advertisement that used to be in the entry way to the white plains (IATA:HPN) airport (e.g. in IBM’s backyard) welcoming you to the terminal as you get off the airplanes is still there?

The following is the press release that I received:

For Immediate Release
Contact: Linda Bean
212.705.0129

NAD Finds Oracle Took Necessary Action in Discontinuing Comparative Performance Claims for Exadata; Oracle to Appeal NAD Decision

New York, NY – July 24, 2012 –TheNational Advertising Division has recommended that Oracle Corporation discontinue certain comparative product-performance claims for the company’s Exadata database machines, following a challenge by International Business Machines Corporation. Oracle said it would voluntarily discontinue the challenged claims, but noted that it would appeal NADs decision to the National Advertising Review Board.

The advertising claims at issue appeared in a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal and included the following:

“Exadata 20x Faster … Replaces IBM Again”
“Giant European Retailer Moves Databases from IBM Power to Exadata … Runs 20 Times Faster”

NAD also considered whether the advertising implied that all Oracle Exadata systems are twenty times faster than all IBM Power systems.

The advertisement featured the image of an Oracle Exadata system, along with the statement: “Giant European Retailer Moves Databases from IBM Power to Exadata Runs 20 Times Faster.” The advertisement also offered a link to the Oracle website: “For more details oracle.com/EuroRetailer.”

IBM argued that the “20x Faster” claim makes overly broad references to “Exadata” and “IBM Power,” resulting in a misleading claim, which the advertiser’s evidence does not support. In particular, the challenger argued that by referring to the brand name “IBM Power” without qualification, Oracle was making a broad claim about the entire IBM Power systems line of products.

The advertiser, on the other hand, argued that the advertisement represented a case study, not a line claim, and noted that the sophisticated target audience would understand that the advertisement is based on the experience of one customer – the “Giant European Retailer” referenced in the advertisement.

In a NAD proceeding, the advertiser is obligated to support all reasonable interpretations of its advertising claims, not just the message it intended to convey. In the absence of reliable consumer perception evidence, NAD uses its experienced judgment to determine what implied messages, if any, are conveyed by an advertisement. When evaluating the message communicated by an advertising claim, NAD will examine the claims at issue in the context of the entire advertisement in which they appear.

In this case, NAD concluded that while the advertiser may have intended to convey the message that in one case study a particular Exadata system was up to 20 times faster when performing two particular functions than a particular IBM Power system, Oracle’s general references to “Exadata” and “IBM Power,” along with the bold unqualified headline “Exadata 20x Faster Replaces IBM Again,” conveyed a much broader message.

NAD determined that at least one reasonable interpretation of the challenged advertisement is that all – or a vast majority – of Exadata systems consistently perform 20 times faster in all or many respects than all – or a vast majority – of IBM Power systems. NAD found that the message was not supported by the evidence in the record, which consisted of one particular comparison of one consumer’s specific IBM Power system to a specific Exadata System.

NAD further determined that the disclosure provided on the advertiser’s website was not sufficient to limit the broad message conveyed by the “20x Faster” claim. More importantly, NAD noted that even if Oracle’s website disclosure was acceptable – and had appeared clearly and conspicuously in the challenged advertisement – it would still be insufficient because an advertiser cannot use a disclosure to cure an otherwise false claim.

NAD noted that Oracle’s decision to permanently discontinue the claims at issue was necessary and proper.

Oracle, in its advertiser’s statement, said it was “disappointed with the NAD’s decision in this matter, which it believes is unduly broad and will severely limit the ability to run truthful comparative advertising, not only for Oracle but for others in the commercial hardware and software industry.”

Oracle noted that it would appeal all of NAD’s findings in the matter.

###

NAD’s inquiry was conducted under NAD/CARU/NARB Procedures for the Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the initial inquiry, NAD’s decision, and the advertiser’s response will be included in the next NAD/CARU Case Report.

About Advertising Industry Self-Regulation: The Advertising Self-Regulatory Council establishes the policies and procedures for advertising industry self-regulation, including the National Advertising Division (NAD), Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) and Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program (Accountability Program.) The self-regulatory system is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Self-regulation is good for consumers. The self-regulatory system monitors the marketplace, holds advertisers responsible for their claims and practices and tracks emerging issues and trends. Self-regulation is good for advertisers. Rigorous review serves to encourage consumer trust; the self-regulatory system offers an expert, cost-efficient, meaningful alternative to litigation and provides a framework for the development of a self-regulatory to emerging issues.

To learn more about supporting advertising industry self-regulation, please visit us at: www.asrcreviews.org.

Linda Bean l Director, Communications,
Advertising Self-Regulatory Council

Tel: 212.705.0129
Cell: 908.812.8175
lbean@asrc.bbb.org

112 Madison Ave.
3rd Fl.
New York, NY
10016

Ok, Oracle is no stranger to benchmark and performance claims controversy having amassed several decades of experience. Anybody remember the silver bullet database test from late 80s early 90s when Oracle set a record performance except that they never committed the writes to disk?

Something tells me that Oracle and Uncle Larry (e.g. Larry Ellison who is not really my uncle) will treat this as any kind of press or media coverage is good and probably will issue something like IBM must be worried if they have to go to the BBB.

Will a complaint which I’m sure is not the fist to be lodged with the BBB against Oracle deter customers, or be of more use to IBM sales and their partners in deals vs. Oracle?

What’s your take?

Is this much ado about nothing, a filler for a slow news or discussion day, a break from talking about VMware acquisition of Nicira or VMware CEO management changes? Perhaps this is an alternative to talking about the CEO of SSD vendor STEC being charged with insider trading, or something other than Larry Ellison buying an Hawaiian island (IMHO he could have gotten a better deal buying Greece), or is this something that Oracle will need to take seriously?

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

July 23, 2012April 18, 2022

SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing

Keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a data or information recession, not to mention that people and data are living longer, there is the need to discuss expanding data footprints. When researching his new article over on SearchSolidstateStorage.com John Hilliard reached out to ask about SSD, Green IT, energy efficiency and effectiveness trends and perspectives (you can read the article and my comments here).

In the past when Green IT and Green storage was mentioned, discussions focused around energy avoidance along with space capacity reduction. While storage efficiency and optimization in the context of space-saving and capacity consolidation are part of Green storage, so too are storage IO consolidation with SSD. For inactive or less frequently accessed data, storage optimization and efficiency can focus on using various data footprint reduction techniques including archive, backup and data protection modernization, compression, dedupe, data management and deletion, along with storage tiering and thin provisioning among others.

On the other hand, for active data where performance is important, the focus expands to how to be more effective and boosting productivity with IO consolidation using SSD and other technologies.

Note that if your data center infrastructure is not efficient, then it is possible that for every watt of energy consumed, a watt (or more) of energy is needed to cool. However if your data center cooling is effective with a resulting low or good PUE, you may not be seeing a 1:1 watt or energy used for storage to cooling ratio as was more common a few years ago.

IMHO while reducing carbon footprints is a noble and good thing, however if that is your own focus or value proposition for a solution such as SSD or other Green technologies and techniques including data footprint reduction, you are missing many opportunities.

Have a read of John’s article that includes some of my comments on energy efficiency and effectiveness to support enhanced productivity, or the other aspect of Green IT being economic enabling to avoid missed opportunities.

Where to learn more

Various IT industry vendor and service provider links
Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
Green and Virtual Data Center links
Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed!
Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
How much SSD do you need vs. want?
More storage and IO metrics that matter
What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage

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

July 12, 2012November 21, 2019

Kudos to Lenovo: Customer service redefined, or re-established?

Kudos to Lenovo who I called yesterday to get a replacement key for my X1 laptop keypad.

After spending time on their website including finding the part number, sku and other information, I could not figure out how to actually order the part. Concerned about calling and getting routed between different call centers as is too often the case, I finally decided to give a try on the phone route.

I was surprised, no, shocked at how quick and easy it was once I got routed to the Atlanta Lenovo support center to get what I needed.

Thus late yesterday late afternoon when I called, the Atlanta Lenovo agent was able to take my laptop serial number, make and model, description of what part was needed all without transferring to other persons. They then made arrangements for not a new replacement key, rather an entire new keyboard with total phone time probably less than 15 minutes.

This morning by 10:30AM CT a box with the new replacement keyboard arrived. In-between calls and other work, in a matter of minutes the old keyboard was removed, the new one installed, tested and I now get to type normally instead of dealing with a broken Y key.

In less than 24 hours from making the call, UPS arrived back to pickup the old keyboard to return to the depot.

Here are some photos for you propeller (tech heads or geek’s) beginning with the X1 keyboard and broken key before the replacement.

Lenvo X1 keyboard replacement

The following shows the keyboard removed looking towards the screen with the key board flat cables still installed. Note that the small black connectors (two of them) flip-up and the cables slide out (or in for installation).
Lenvo X1 keyboard replacement

In this photo, you can see one of the two keyboard connectors, plus where the Samsung SSD I installed replaces the HDD that the X1 shipped with. Also shown are the Sierra wireless 4G card that I use while traveling that provides an alternative when others are trying to figure out how to use available public WiFi.
Lenvo X1 keyboard replacement

In this image, you can see the DRAM (e.g. memory) along with two connectors where the keyboard cables connect to before cables have been reconnected.
Lenvo X1 keyboard replacement

With the new cables connected, keyboard reinstalled and tested, the old key board has been boxed up up, return shipping sticker applied, UPS called and the box picked up, on its way back to Lenovo.
Lenvo X1 keyboard replacement

For that, Kudos to Lenovo for delivering on what in the past taken for granted as good customer service and support, however in these days, all to often is the exception.

Next time somebody asks why I use Lenovo ThinkPad’s guess what story I will tell them.

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

July 12, 2012April 18, 2022

Give HP storage some love and short strokin

Following up from my last post over at InfoStor about metrics that matter, here is a link to a new piece that I did on storage vendors benchmarking and related topics. This new post looked at an storage performance council (SPC1) benchmark that HP did with their P10000 (e.g. 3PAR) storage system under assertions by some in the industry that they were short stroking to meet better performance.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I’m surprised some creative technical marketer, blogger or prankster has yet to rework Clarence Carters (e.g. Dr. CC) iconic song into something about storage performance and capacity short strokin.

Ok, nuff said before I get a visit from the HP truth squads, in the meantime, give HP a hug and some love if so inclined.

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

July 11, 2012November 21, 2019

Announcing SAS SANs for Dummies book, LSI edition

There is a new (free) book that I’m a co-author of along Bruce Grieshaber and Larry Jacob (both of LSI) along with foreword by Harry Mason of LSI and President of the SCSI Trade Association titled SAS SANs for Dummies compliments of LSI.

SAS SANs for Dummies, LSI Edition

This new book (ebook and print hard copy) looks at Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and how it can be used beyond traditional direct attached storage (DAS) configurations for support various types of storage mediums including SSD, HDD and tape. These configuration options include as entry-level SAN with SAS switches for small clusters or server virtualization, or as shared DAS as well as being a scale out back-end solution for NAS, object, cloud and big data storage solutions.

Here is the table of contents (TOC) of SAS SANs for Dummies

Chapter 1: Data storage challenges

Storage Growth Demand Drivers

Recognizing Challenges

Solutions and Opportunities

Chapter 2: Storage Area Networks

Introducing Storage Area Networks

Moving from Dedicated Internal to Shared Storage

Chapter 3: SAS Basics

Introducing the Basics of SAS

How SAS Functions

Components of SAS

SAS Target Devices

SAS for SANs

Chapter 4: SAS Usage Scenarios

Understanding SAS SANs Usage

Shared SAS SANs Scenarios including:

SAS in HPC environments
Big data and big bandwidth
Database, e-mail, back-office
NAS and object storage servers
Cloud, wen and high-density
Server virtualization

Chapter 5: Advanced SAS Topics

The SAS Physical Layer

Choosing SAS Cabling

Using SAS Switch Zoning

SAS HBA Target Mode

Chapter 6: Nine Common Questions

Can You Interconnect Switches?

What Is SAS Cable Distance?

How Many Servers Can Be In a SAS SAN?

How Do You Manage SAS Zones?

How Do You Configure SAS for HA?

How Does SAS Zoning Compare to LUN Mapping?

Who Has SAS Solutions?

How Do SAS SANs Compare?

Where Can You Learn More?

Chapter 7: Next Steps

SAS Going Forward

Next Steps

Great Take Away’s

Regardless of if you are looking to use SAS as a primary SAN interface, or leverage it for DAS or implementing back-end storage for big-data, NAS, object, cloud or other types of scalable storage solutions, check out and get your free copy of SAS SANs for Dummies here compliments of LSI.

SAS SANs for Dummies, LSI Edition

Click here to ask your free copy of SAS SANs for Dummies compliments of LSI, tell them Greg from StorageIO sent you and enjoy the book.

Ok, nuff said.

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

July 3, 2012May 24, 2020

How can direct attached storage (DAS) make a comeback if it never left?

Have you seen or heard the theme that Direct Attached Storage (DAS), either dedicated or shared, internal or external is making a comeback?

Wait, if something did not go away, how can it make a comeback?

IMHO it is as simple as for the past decade or so, DAS has been overshadowed by shared networked storage including switched SAS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and FC over Ethernet (FCoE) based block storage area networks (SAN) and file based (NFS and Windows SMB/CIFS) network attached storage (NAS) using IP and Ethernet networks. This has been particularly true by most of the independent storage vendors who have become focused on networked storage (SAN or NAS) solutions.

However some of the server vendors have also jumped into the deep end of the storage pool with their enthusiasm for networked storage, even though they still sell a lot of DAS including internal dedicated, along with external dedicated and shared storage.

The trend for DAS storage has evolved with the interfaces and storage mediums including from parallel SCSI and IDE to SATA and more recently 3Gbs and 6Gbs SAS (with 12Gbs in first lab trials). Similarly the storage mediums include a mix of fast 10K and 15K hard disk drives (HDD) along with high-capacity HDDs and ultra-high performance solid state devices (SSD) moving from 3.5 to 2.5 inch form factors.

While there has been a lot of industry and vendor marketing efforts around networked storage (e.g. SAN and NAS), DAS based storage was over shadowed so it should not be a surprise that those focused on SAN and NAS are surprised to hear DAS is alive and well. Not only is DAS alive and well, it’s also becoming an important scaling and convergence topic for adding extra storage to appliances as well as servers including those for scale out, big data, cloud and high density not to mention high performance and high productivity computing.

Consequently its becoming ok to talk about DAS again. Granted you might get some peer pressure from your trend setting or trend following friends to get back on the networked storage bandwagon. Keep this in mind, take a look at some of the cool trend setting big data and little data (database) appliances, backup, dedupe and archive appliances, cloud and scale out NAS and object storage systems among others and will likely find DAS on the back-end. On a smaller scale, or in high-density rack deployments in large cloud or similar environments you may also find DAS including switched shared SAS.

Does that mean SANs are dead?
No, not IMHO despite what some vendors marketers and their followers will claim which is ironic given how some of them were leading the DAS is dead campaign in favor of iSCSI or FC or NAS a few years ago. However simply comparing DAS to SAN or NAS in a competing way is like comparing apples to oranges, instead, look at how and where they can complement and enable each other. In other words, different tools for various tasks, various storage and interfaces for different needs.

Thus IMHO DAS never left or went anywhere per say, it just was not fashionable or cool to talk about until now as it is cool and trend to discuss it again.

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

July 3, 2012January 1, 2021

Dell is buying Quest software, not the phone company Qwest

For those not familiar with Quest, they are a software company not to be confused with the telephone communications company formerly known as Qwest (aka now known as centurylink).

Both Dell and Quest have been on software related acquisition initiatives that past few years with Quest having purchased vKernel, Vizoncore (vRanger virtualization backup), BakBone (who had acquire Alavarii and Asempra) for traditional backup and data protection among others. Not to be out done, as well as purchasing Quest, Dell has also more recently bought Appassure (Disclosure: StorageIOblog site sponsor) for data protection, Sonicwall and Wyse in addition to some other recent purchases (ASAP, Boomi, Compellent, Exanet, EqualLogic, Force10, InsightOne, KACE, Ocarina, Perot, RNA and Scalent among others).

What does this mean?
Dell is expanding the scope of their business with more products (hardware, software), solution bundles, services and channel partnering opportunities Some of the software tools and focus areas that Quest brings to the Dell table or portfolio include:

Database management (Oracle, SQLserver)
Data protection (virtual and physical backup, replication, bc, dr)
Performance monitoring (DCIM and IRM) of applications and infrastructure
User workspace management (application delivery)
Windows server management (migrate and manage, AD, exchange, sharepoint)
Identify and access management (security, compliance, privacy)

What does Dell get by spending over $2B USD on quest?

Additional software titles or product

More software developers for their Software group

Sales people to help promote, partner and sell software solutions

Create demand pull for other Dell products and services via software

Increase its partner reach via existing Quest VARs and business partners

Extend the size of the Dell software and intellectual property (IP) portfolio

New revenue streams that compliment existing products and lines of business

Potential for better rate of return on some of its $12B USD in cash or equivalence

Is this a good move for Dell?
Yes for the above reasons

Is there a warning to this for Dell?
Yes, they need to execute, keep the Quest team focused along with their other teams on the respective partners, products and market opportunities while expanding into new areas. Dell needs to also leverage Quest to further its cause in creating trust, confidence and strategic relationships with channel partners to reach new markets in different geographies. In addition, Dell needs to articulate its strategy and positioning of the various solutions to avoid products being perceived as competing vs. complimenting each other.

Additional Dell related links:
Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)
Dell Storage Forum 2011 revisited
Dude, is Dell doing a disk deal again with Compellent?
Data footprint reduction (Part 2): Dell, IBM, Ocarina and Storwize
Post Holiday IT Shopping Bargains, Dell Buying Exanet?
Dell Will Buy Someone, However Not Brocade (At least for now)

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

July 3, 2012November 25, 2019

Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)

Recently I was asked by Dell to moderate and host their North America storage customer advisory panel (CAP) session (twitter #storagecap) that followed their 2012 storage forum (see comments about 2011 storage forum here) event in Boston (Disclosure Dell covered my trip to Boston).

This was an interesting event in many ways because it was a diverse group some of whom were long-time EqualLogic and Compellent (both before and post acquisition) customers of various size or customers of Dell who have yet to buy storage from them.

Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)
Click on above image for video feed

Beyond the diversity of types of customers and their relationship with Dell, what also made this event interesting was that it was live streamed with professional produced video and audio in addition to twitter and other social media coverage. However what made the event even more interesting IMHO was the fact that being a live event (watch replay here) in video with audio as well as on twitter, the attendees were urged to speak freely with conversation among themselves providing feedback and commentary for Dell.

Sure there were songs of praise when and were deserved, however unlike some made for social media vendor events that tend to be closer to sales pitches, this event also included some tough love feedback and comments for Dell, their products, services and events planner.

Dell Storage CAP illustrators aka @ThinkLink

Oh, did I mention that other than some members from the Dell social media team (@dell_storage) who were in the room to help facilitate and coordinate the event itself, the real discussions were free and independent of Dell employees (other than to remind not to avoid going into NDA land while live on the video and audio feed). Dell had @ThinkLink doing live illustrations capturing as images the discussion themes, topics and points of interests during the events that you can see examples of in the following images.

Dell Flickr images from the Storage CAP session

Kudos to Dell for having the courage, conviction and confidence to have a customer advisory panel event live streamed, that also allowed the attendees to speak their mind free of a script or talking points guide. The session included having each participant taking a turn of putting themselves in the general managers chair and saying what they would do, why, and how they would address customers and prospects.
After all, its one thing to sit in the cheap seats, playing arm-chair quarterback saying what you want, it’s another saying why you need it, what the priority and impact are or would be and how to get the message to the customer. Some of the topics covered included Appassure for data protection, Compellent, EqualLogic and other recent acquisitions, products, service, support and community forums.

Thanks to all who participated including @ThinkLink (illustrators), Dell Storage social media team (@dell_storage), Alison Krause (@AlisonDell), Gina Rosenthal (@gminks), Michelle Richard (@meesh_says) and particularly the participants Pete Koehler (@petergavink), Roger Lund (@rogerlund), Luigi Danakos (@nerdblurt), Dan Marbes (@danmarbes), Jeff Hengesbach (@jeffhengesbach), Steve Mickeler (@shmick), Ed Aractingi (@earactingi) and Dennis Heinle (@dheinle).

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

July 1, 2012December 24, 2020

EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification

The U.S. EPA is ready to release DRAFT 3 of the Energy Star for data center storage specification and has an upcoming web session that you can sign up for if are not on their contact list of interested stake holders. If you are not familiar with the EPA Energy star for data center storage program, here is some background information.

Thus if you are interested, see the email and information below, signup and take part if so inclined as opposed to saying that you did not have a chance to comment.

Dear ENERGY STAR® Data Center Storage Manufacturer or Other Interested Party:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would like to announce the release of the Draft 3 Version 1.0 ENERGY STAR Specification for Data Center Storage. The draft is attached and is accompanied by a cover letter and Draft Test Method. Stakeholders are invited to review these documents and submit comments to EPA via email to storage@energystar.gov by Friday, July 27, 2012.

EPA will host a webinar on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, tentatively starting at 1:00PM EST. The agenda will be focused on elements from Draft 3, Product Families, and other key topics. Please RSVP to storage@energystar.gov no later than Tuesday, July 3, 2012 with the subject "RSVP – Storage Draft 3 specification meeting."

If you have any questions, please contact Robert Meyers, EPA, at Meyers.Robert@epa.gov or (202) 343-9923; or John Clinger, ICF International, at John.Clinger@icfi.com or (202) 572-9432.

Thank you for your continued support of the ENERGY STAR program.

For more information, visit: www.energystar.gov

This message was sent to you on behalf of ENERGY STAR. Each ENERGY STAR partner organization must have at least one primary contact receiving e-mail to maintain partnership. If you are no longer working on ENERGY STAR, and wish to be removed as a contact, please update your contact status in your MESA account. If you are not a partner organization and wish to opt out of receiving e-mails, you may call the ENERGY STAR Hotline at 1-888-782-7937 and request to have your mass mail settings changed. Unsubscribing means that you will no longer receive program-wide or product-specific e-mails from ENERGY STAR.

Ok, you have been advised, 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

June 17, 2012November 26, 2023

Enabling Bitlocker on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

Enabling Bitlocker on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Updated 6/24/18

A while back, I added a new laptop that required Enabling Bitlocker on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. At that time some of my other devices run Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit with Bitlocker security encryption enabled (since upgraded to various Windows 10 editions). However back then, I ran into a problem getting Bitlocker to work on the 64 bit version of Windows 7 Professional.

Yes I know I should not be using Windows and I also have plenty of iDevices and other Apple products lying around. Likewise to the security pros and security arm-chair quarterbacks I know I should not be using Bitlocker, instead using Truecrypt of which I have done some testing and may migrate too in the future along with self-encrypting device (SED).

However lets stay on track here ;).

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Gen6
Image courtesy of Lenovo.com

The problem that I ran into with my then new Lenovo X1 was that it came with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, which has a few surprises when trying to turn on Bitlocker drive encryption. Initializing and turning on the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) management was not a problem, however for those needing to figure out how to do that, check out this Microsoft TechNet piece.

The problem was as simple as not having a tab and easy way to enable Bitlocker Drive Encryption with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. After spending some time searching around various Microsoft and other sites to figure out how to hack, patch, script and do other things that would take time (and time is money), it dawned on me. Could the solution to the problem be as simple as upgrading from the Professional version of Windows 7 bit to Windows 7 Ultimate?

Update: 6/25/18

While this post is about Windows 7, there are some new challenges with Windows 10 bit locker and removable devices including USB. These new issues are tied to Windows 10 running in BIOS instead of UEFI boot mode.

Here are some additional Windows 10 Bitlocker related resources:

Via Microsoft: Bitlocker Frequently Asked Questions

Via Microsoft: Bitlocker Overview and Requirements

Via Intel: Converting Windows Installation from BIOS to UEFI

Windows 7 image courtesy of Amazon.com

The answer was going to the Microsoft store (or Amazon among other venues) and for $139.21 USD (with tax) purchase the upgrade.

Once the transaction was complete, the update was automatically and within minutes I had Bitlocker activated on the Lenovo X1 (TPM was previously initiated and turned on), a new key was protected and saved elsewhere, and the internal Samsung 830 256GB Solid State Device (SSD) initializing and encrypting. Oh, fwiw, yes the encryption of the 256GB SSD took much less time than on a comparable Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or even an HHDD (Hybrid HDD).

Could I have saved the $139.21 and spent some time on work around? Probably, however as I did not have the time or interest to go that route, however IMHO for my situation it was a bargain.

Sometimes spending a little money particular if you are short on or value, your time can be a bargain as opposed to if you are short on money however long on time.

I found the same to be true when I replaced the internal HDD that came with the Lenovo X1 with a Samsung 256GB SSD in that it improved my productivity for writing and saving data. For example in the first month of use I estimate easily 2 to three minutes of time saved per day waiting on things to be written to HDDs. In other words 2 to three minutes times five days (10 to 15 minutes) times four weeks (40 to 60 minutes) starts to add up (e.g. small amounts or percentages spread over a large interval add up), more on using and justifying SSD in a different post.

Samsung SSD image courtesy of Amazon.com

If your time is not of value or you have a lot of it, then the savings may not be as valuable. On the other hand, if you are short on time or have a value on your time, you can figure out what the benefits are quite quickly (e.g. return on investment or traditional ROI).

Where To Learn More

Learn more about Windows, Bitlocker and related topics

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

The reason I bring the topic of time and money into this discussion about Bitlocker is to make a point that there are situations where spending some time has value such as for learning, the experience, fun or simple entertainment aspect, not to mention a shortage of money. On the other hand, sometimes it is actually cheaper to spend some money to get to the solution or result as part of being productive or effective. For example, other than spending some time browsing various sites to figure out that there was an issue with Windows 7 Professional and Bitlocker, time that was educational and interesting, the money spent on the simple upgrade was worth it in my situations. While many if not most of you have since upgraded to Windows 8 or Windows 10, some may still have the need for Enabling Bitlocker on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2018. 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.

June 8, 2012January 1, 2022

EMCworld 2012: Trust and marketing, can they coexist?

Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

Recently while at EMCworld in Las Vegas (Thanks btw to EMC who covered coach airfare and 3 nights hotel) I had the opportunity along with group of other industry analysts and advisors to have a series of small group meeting sessions with key EMC leadership.

EMC world

These sessions included time with Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Joe Tucci, Chairmen of VCE Michael Capellas (who is also on the Cisco Board of Directors), President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services Howard Elias, President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure Products Pat Gelsinger, and Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Jeremy Burton.

Joe Tucci is always fun to listen and engage with in small groups and conveys a cordial confidence when you meet face to face. Howard Elias who is now heading up the services business talked about walking the talk with services, public and private cloud including what EMC is doing internally. Michael Capellas had some good insight into what he is doing with VCE, along with his role on the Cisco BOD. Pat Gelsinger had some interesting points however seemed a bit more reserved than in earlier sessions. Jeremy Burton who is normally associated with the effective marketing company or everything movie campaigns at EMC did not use any backdrops, visual aids, theatrics or Vegas style entertainment during his session.

Of the above-mentioned executives, the one that impressed me the most, and talking with other analysts/advisors had similar perspectives was Jeremy Burton. I have seen and heard him talk before in live and virtual venues along with what he is doing to focus EMC messaging and themes.

A common comment and theme in talking with other analysts and advisors was that in five minutes, Jeremy did more to advance, clarify, articulate and explain who EMC is, what they are doing now and for the future.

Image courtesy of EMC.com

Trust was one of the themes of the EMCworld event as it pertains to collaborating with vendors and service providers as well as consultants, advisors and others. Trust is also important for going to the cloud on a public or private basis. It is easy to talk about trust however, it is also something that is earned and is important to keep up and protect. Normally given some of the stigma associated with marketing and or sales, trust too often becomes a punch line or term tossed around with skepticism, cynicism or empty promises. The reason I bring trust up in this discussion was that in Jeremy’s interaction with those in the room, whether others realized it or not, he was working on planting the seeds and establishing the basis for trust.

Does that mean there is automatic trust now in anything that EMC or their marketing organization says or more so than what heard from other organizations? Perhaps some will automatically take what is heard and go with that as gospel however, they may be doing that already. For others who are skeptical by default and do their homework, analysis, research and other related tasks, they may be more likely to give the benefit of the doubt vs. automatically questioning everything looking for multiple confirmations and added fact checking.

As for me, I generally take what any vendor or their pundits say with a grain of salt giving benefit of doubt where applicable unless trust has been previously impacted. In the case of EMC, I generally take what they say with a grain of salt. However, a level of trust and confidence can make validating what they say sometimes easier than with others. This is in part due to knowing where to go internally for details and information including NDA based material and the good job their analyst relations team and other group do on building and keep up relationships.

Does this mean I like EMC more or less than other vendors? It means there is a level of trust, communication, relationship, contact, interaction and access to resources with EMC that might be more or less than with other vendors. Disclosure EMC along with some companies they have acquired have been past clients.

Now back to Jeremy.

What impressed me the most was while other executives were engaging to different degrees, when I asked Jeremy how he and EMC balances entertainment (videos and movies, theatrics), education (expanding knowledge of EMC solutions, technology advancement) and being engaging (not just sales calls, social media, golfing or other in person activities) to drive business economics his response included all three of those aspects.

Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

Ok, I know, some of you should be saying that is the job and role of a marketing person to be an effective communicator which I would agree, however why don’t more marketers do a more effective job of what they do?

In other words, Jeremy educated by sharing what and why they are doing certain things, Jeremy engaged with the entire audience while answering my question however not singular responding to me, he also entertained with some of his answers while also keeping them to the point, not rambling on. Afterwards I had a few minutes to talk one on one with Jeremy without the handlers or others and I can say it was refreshing and as is too of the case with marketers, there is trust.

That does not mean I will take anything verbatim or follow the scripts or other things the truth squads want preached or handed out from EMC, Jeremy or any other vendor for that matter.

I can say that in the few minutes up close and in a smaller setting, EMC has a secret weapon who can do more to build and convey trust and that is Jeremy Burton, hope I am not wrong ;).

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

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SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing

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What This All Means

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