Server StorageIO December 2015 Update Newsletter


Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

Volume 15, Issue XII – End of Year (EOY) Edition

Hello and welcome to this December 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Years.

Winter has arrived here in the northern hemisphere and it is also the last day of 2015 e.g. End Of Year or EOY). For some this means relaxing and having fun after a busy year, for others, it’s the last day of the most important quarter of the most important year ever, particular if you are involved in sales or spending.

This is also that time of year where predictions for 2016 will start streaming out as well as reflections looking back at 2015 appear (more on these in January). Another EOY activity is planning for 2016 as well as getting items ready for roll-out or launch in the new year. Overall 2015 has been a very good year with many things in the works both public facing, as well as several behind the scenes some of which will start to appear throughout 2016.

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

Thank you for enabling a successful 2015 and wishing you all a prosperous new year in 2016.

Cheers GS

In This Issue

  • Tips and Articles
  • Events and Webinars
  • Resources and Links
  • StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    • IronMountain:  5 Noteworthy Data Privacy Trends From 2015
    • Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs):  Part III EVO:RAIL – When And Where To Use It?
    • InfoStor:  Object Storage Is In Your Future
    • InfoStor:  Water, Data and Storage Analogy

    Check out these resources and links technology, techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    EMCworld (Las Vegas) May 2-4, 2016

    Interop (Las Vegas) May 4-6 2016

    NAB (Las Vegas) April 19-20, 2016

    Redmond Magazine Gridstore (How to Migrate from VMware to Hyper-V) February 25, 2016 Webinar (11AM PT)

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

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thenvmeplace
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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

    Server StorageIO October 2015 Update Newsletter


    Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue X – Industry Trends, M&A, PTSA

    Hello and welcome to this October 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Fall has arrived here in the northern hemisphere which means its spring in the southern hemisphere, and getting colder here. While fall means cooler out-door temperature with winter just around the corner, in the IT/ITC industry, particular the data infrastructure sector (server, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, cloud, physical, software defined virtual) things are very hot. Sure the various industry and vendor focused conferences, road shows and mini-events with associated new product, technology or services announcements (PTSA. There are also the various merger and acquisitions (M&A) that have occurred throughout the year including the recent Dell buying EMC, and Western Digital (WD) buying SANdisk among others.

    This edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter has a focus on industry trends perspectives including recent M&A and PTSA activity. In addition to industry fall industry M&A and PTSA activity, there also plenty of conference, seminars, workshops, webinars and other events some of which you can see here on the Server StorageIO events page.

    On a slightly different note, for those interested and not aware of the European Union (EU) ruling earlier this month on data privacy (e.g. Safe Harbor), here and here are a couple of links to stories discussing the new ruling changes between the EU and US (among other countries). The EU data privacy rulings involve personal data being moved out of EU countries to US data centers such as cloud and application services firms.

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

    Cheers GS

    In This Issue

  • Feature Topic
  • Industry Trends News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Videos and Podcasts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Recommended Reading List
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • New and Old Vendor Update
  • Resources and Links
  • Feature Topic – TBD

    This months feature topic theme is industry trends perspectives including M&A activity.

    Some M&A, IPO and divestiture activity includes:

    Continue reading more about NVM, NVMe, NAND flash, SSD Server and storage I/O related topics at www.thessdplace.com as well as about I/O performance, monitoring and benchmarking tools at www.storageperformance.us.

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    Server Storage I/O Industry Activity Trends (Cloud, Virtual, Physical)

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)

    Some new Products Technology Services Announcements (PTSA) include:

    • Amazon Web Service (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) Infrequent Access (IA) storage class for inactive data with immediate access vs. Glacier cold or frozen (dormant) data with slow or time delayed access. AWS also announced Snowball bulk data import/export 50TB appliance service in addition to their earlier offered capabilities.
    • EMC Rexray (part of EMCcode) and Mesosphere (for Mesos data center operating system) have joined to enable persistent Docker volumes for Mesos (e.g. data center operating system platform).
    • Microsoft Azure recent enhancements include file access of cloud storage (on-premises and within Azure cloud) leveraging SMB interfaces. Here is a primer on Azure cloud storage service offerings. View other recent Azure Cloud Storage, Compute, Database and Data Analytics service offerings here. In addition to Microsoft Azure cloud offerings or Windows 10 desktop operating system, you can also download WIndows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 (TP3) and see what’s new here. Some of the features include Storage Spaces Direct (e.g. DAS storage) and replication among other features.

    View other recent news and industry trends here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities tips, and announcements.

    • NetworkComputing: Dell buying EMC: The Storage Ramifications
    • EnterpriseTech: VMware Targets Synergies in Dell EMC Deal 
    • HPCwire: Dell to Buy EMC for $67B
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Data Storage: Do We Really Need to Store Everything?
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Why Hard Drives Are Here to Stay (For Now)
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Top Ten Ways to Use OpenStack for Storage
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Are We Heading for Storage Armageddon?

    View more Server, Storage and I/O hardware as well as software trends comments here

    Vendors you may not have heard of

    Various vendors (and service providers) you may not know or heard about recently.

    • Hedvig – Converged server storage software management tools
    • Infinidat – Another Moshe Yanai Storage System Startup
    • Mesosphere – Mesos Data Center Operating System management tools
    • Plexxi – Networking startup with former EMC executive Rich Napolitano as CEO
    • ScaleMP – Scale-out server aggregation management tools

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here (over 1,000 entries and growing).

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    • Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs):  EVO:RAIL – What Is It And Why Does It Matter?
      This is the first of a multi-part series looking at Converged Infrastructures (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructures (HCI), Cluster in Box (CiB) and other unified solution bundles. There is a trend of industry adoption talking about CI, HCI, CiB and other bundled solutions, along with growing IT customer adoption and deployment. Different sized organizations are looking at various types of CI solutions to meet various application and workloads needs. Read more here.
    • WServerNews.com:  Cloud (Microsoft Azure) storage considerations
      Let’s say that you have been tasked with, or decided that it is time to use (or try) public cloud storage such as Microsoft Azure. Ok, now what do you do and what decisions need to be made? Keep in mind that Microsoft Azure like many other popular public clouds provides many difference services available for fee (subscription) along with free trials. These services include applications, compute, networking, storage along with development and management platform tools. Read more here.
    • NetworkComputing:  Selecting Storage: Buzzword Bingo
      The storage industry is rife with buzzwords. Here are some of the popular ones storage buyers need to navigate carefully to find storage products that truly meet their needs. Read more here.

    • InfoStor:  What’s The Best Storage Benchmark? It Depends…
    • EnterpriseStorageForum:  NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI & SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet!

    Check out these resources and links technology, techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    Deltaware Emerging Technology Summit November 10, 2015

    Dell Data Protection Summit Nov 4, 2015 7AM PT

    Microsoft MVP Summit Nov 2-5, 2015

    Server Storage I/O Dutch Workshop Seminar Series
    Nijkerk Netherlands October 13-16 2015

    October 13 – Symposium: Software Defined Storage Management
    October 14 – Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends
    October 15 – Symposium – Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)
    October 16 – “Converged Day” Server and Storage Decision making

    Learn more and register at the Brouwer Consultancy website here.

    September 23 – Webinar Redmond Magazine & Dell Data Protection
    The New World Order of Data Protection – Focus on Recovery
    Learn more about the 9Rs of data protection and recovery

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

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Quick Look: SATA and NVMe Flash SSD Performance
    SATA and NVMe flash SSD performance

    Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express (NVMe) continues to evolve as a technology for enabling and improving server storage I/O for NVM including nand flash SSD storage. NVMe streamlines performance enabling more work to be done (e.g. IOPs), data to be moved (bandwidth) at a lower response time using less CPU. The above figure is a quick look comparing nand flash SSD being accessed via SATA III (6Gbps) on the left and NVMe (x4) on the right. As with any server storage I/O performance comparisons there are many variables and take them with a grain of salt. While IOPs and bandwidth are often discussed, keep in mind that with the new protocol, drivers and device controllers with NVMe that streamline I/O less CPU is needed. Learn more about NVM, NVMe, flash, SSD and related topics at www.thessdplace.com.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Server StorageIO Recommended Reading List

    The following are various recommended reading including books, blogs and videos. If you have not done so recently, also check out the Intel Recommended Reading List (here) where you will also find a couple of my books.

    Seven Databases in Seven Weeks guide to no SQL via Amazon.com

    The Human Face of Big Data book review. To say this is a big book would be an understatement, then again, big data is a big topic with a lot of diversity if you open your eyes and think in a pragmatic way, which once you open and see the pages you will see. This is physically a big book (11x 14 inches) with lots of pictures, texts, stories, factoids and thought stimulating information of the many facets and dimensions of big data across 224 pages. The Human Face of Big Data is more than a coffee table or picture book as it is full of with information, factoids and perspectives how information and data surround us every day. Open up a copy of The Human Face of Big Data and you will see examples of how data and information are all around us, and our dependence upon it. Read more here.

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thenvmeplace
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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

    August Server StorageIO Update Newsletter – NVM and Flash SSD Focus

    Volume 15, Issue VIII

    Hello and welcome to this August 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Summer is wrapping up here in the northern hemisphere which means the fall conference season has started, holidays in progress as well as getting ready for back to school time. I have been spending my summer working on various things involving servers, storage, I/O networking hardware, software, services from cloud to containers, virtual and physical. This includes OpenStack, VMware vCloud Air, AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCS among others, as well as new versions of Microsoft Windows and Servers, Non Volatile Memory (NVM) including flash SSD, NVM Express (NVMe), databases, data protection, software defined, cache, micro-tiering and benchmarking using various tools among other things (some are still under wraps).

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

    Cheers GS

    In This Issue

  • Feature Topic
  • Industry Trends News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Videos and Podcasts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Recommended Reading List
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • New and Old Vendor Update
  • Resources and Links
  • Feature Topic – Non Volatile Memory including NAND flash SSD

    Via Intel History of Memory
    Via Intel: Click above image to view history of memory

    This months feature topic theme is Non Volatile Memory (NVM) which includes technologies such as NAND flash commonly used in Solid State Devices (SSDs) storage today, as well as in USB thumb drive, mobile and hand-held devices among many other uses. NVM spans servers, storage, I/O devices along with mobile and handheld among many other technologies. In addition to NAND flash, other forms of NVM include Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM) along with some emerging new technologies including the recently announced Intel and Micron 3D XPoint among others.

    • NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
    • MSP CMG, Sept. 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities
    • Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips) – PDF
    • Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
    • Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends (Via Processor)
    • Market ripe for embedded flash storage as prices drop (Via Powermore (Dell))

    Continue reading more about NVM, NVMe, NAND flash, SSD Server and storage I/O related topics at www.thessdplace.com as well as about I/O performance, monitoring and benchmarking tools at www.storageperformance.us.

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    Server Storage I/O Industry Activity Trends (Cloud, Virtual, Physical)

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)

    • PMC Announces NVMe SSD Controllers (Via TomsITpro)
    • New SATA SSD powers elastic cloud agility for CSPs (Via Cbronline)
    • Toshiba Solid-State Drive Family Features PCIe Technology (Via Eweek)
    • SanDisk aims CloudSpeed Ultra SSD at cloud providers (Via ITwire)
    • Everspin & Aupera reveal MRAM Module M.2 Form Factor (Via BusinessWire)
    • PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
    • Seagate Grows Its Nytro Enterprise Flash Storage Line (Via InfoStor)
    • New SAS Solid State Drive From Seagate Micron Alliance (Via Seagate)
    • Samsung ups the SSD ante with faster, higher capacity drives (Via ITworld)

    View other recent news and industry trends here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities tips, and announcements.

    • Processor: Comments on Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends
    • Processor: Comments on A Snapshot Strategy For Backups & Data Recovery
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Defining the Future of DR Storage
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Top Ten Tips for DR as a Service
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on NVMe: Golden Ticket for Faster Storage

    View more Server, Storage and I/O hardware as well as software trends comments here

    Vendors you may not have heard of

    Various vendors (and service providers) you may not know or heard about recently.

    • Scala – Scale out storage management software tools
    • Reduxio – Enterprise hybrid storage with data services
    • Jam TreeSize Pro – Data discovery and storage resource analysis and reporting

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here (over 1,000 entries and growing).

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    • IronMountain:  Information Lifecycle Management: Which Data Types Have Value?
      It’s important to keep in mind that on a fundamental level, there are three types of data: information that has value, information that does not have value and information that has unknown value. Data value can be measured along performance, availability, capacity and economic attributes, which define how the data gets managed across different tiers of storage. In general data can have value, unknown value or no value. Read more here.
    • EnterpriseStorageForum:  Is Future Storage Converging Around Hyper-Converged?
      Depending on who you talk or listen to, hyper-converged storage is either the future of storage, or it is a hype niche market that is not for everybody, particular not larger environments. How converged is the hyper-converged market? There are many environments that can leverage CI along with HCI, CiB or other bundles solutions. Granted, not all of those environments will converge around the same CI, CiB and HCI or pod solution bundles as everything is not the same in most IT environments and data centers. Not all markets, environments or solutions are the same. Read more here.

    Check out these resources and links technology, techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    Server Storage I/O Workshop Seminars
    Nijkerk Netherlands October 13-16 2015

    VMworld August 30-September 3 2015

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

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Enmotus FuzeDrive (Server based Micro-Tiering)
    Enmotus FuzeDrive
    • Micro-teiring of reads and writes
    • FuzeDrive for transparent tiering
    • Dynamic tiering with selectable options
    • Monitoring and diagnostics tools
    • Transparent to operating systems
    • Hardware transparent (HDD and SSD)
    • Server I/O interface agnostic
    • Optional RAM cache and file pinning
    • Maximize NVM flash SSD investment
    • Compliment other SDS solutions
    • Use for servers or workstations

    Enmotus FuzeDrive provides micro-tiering boosting performance (reads and writes) of storage attached to physical bare metal servers, virtual and cloud instances including Windows and Linux operating systems across various applications. In the simple example above five separate SQL Server databases (260GB each) were placed on a single 6TB HDD. A TPCC workload was run concurrently against all databases with various numbers of users. One workload used a single 6TB HDD (blue) while the other used a FuzeDrive (green) comprised of a 6TB HDD and a 400GB SSD showing basic micro-tiering improvements.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Server StorageIO Recommended Reading List

    The following are various recommended reading including books, blogs and videos. If you have not done so recently, also check out the Intel Recommended Reading List (here) where you will also find a couple of my books.

    Get Whats Yours via Amazon.com
    While not a technology book, you do not have to be at or near retirement age to be planning for retirement. Some of you may already be at or near retirement age, for others, its time to start planning or refining your plans. A friend recommended this book and I’m recommending it to others. Its pretty straight forward and you might be surprised how much money people may be leaving on the table! Check it out here at Amazon.com.

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thenvmeplace
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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

    Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD

    3D XPoint server storage class memory SCM


    Storage I/O trends

    Updated 1/31/2018

    Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD.

    This is the second of a three-part series on the recent Intel and Micron 3D XPoint server storage memory announcement. Read Part I here and Part III here.

    Is this 3D XPoint marketing, manufacturing or material technology?

    You can’t have a successful manufactured material technology without some marketing, likewise marketing without some manufactured material would be manufactured marketing. In the case of 3D XPoint and its announcement launch, their real technology shown, granted it was only wafer and dies as opposed to an actual DDR4 DIMM or PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or drive form factor Solid State Device (SSD) product. On the other hand, on a relative comparison basis, even though there is marketing collateral available to learn more from, this was far from a over the big-top made for TV or web circus event, which can be a good thing.


    Wafer unveiled containing 3D XPoint 128 Gb dies

    Who will get access to 3D XPoint?

    Initially 3D XPoint production capacity supply will be for the two companies to offer early samples to their customers later this year with general production slated for 2016 meaning early real customer deployed products starting sometime in 2016.

    Is it NAND or NOT?

    3D XPoint is not NAND flash, it is also not NVRAM or DRAM, it’s a new class of NVM that can be used for server class main memory with persistency, or as persistent data storage among other uses (cell phones, automobiles, appliances and other electronics). In addition, 3D XPoint is more durable with a longer useful life for writing and storing data vs. NAND flash.

    Why is 3D XPoint important?

    As mentioned during the Intel and Micron announcement, there have only been seven major memory technologies introduced since the transistor back in 1947, granted there have been many variations along with generational enhancements of those. Thus 3D XPoint is being positioned by Intel and Micron as the eighth memory class joining its predecessors many of which continue to be used today in various roles.


    Major memory classes or categories timeline

    In addition to the above memory classes or categories timeline, the following shows in more detail various memory categories (click on the image below to get access to the Intel interactive infographic).

    Intel History of Memory Infographic
    Via: https://intelsalestraining.com/memory timeline/ (Click on image to view)

    What capacity size is 3D XPoint?

    Initially the 3D XPoint technology is available in a 2 layer 128 bit (cell) per die capacity. Keep in mind that there are usually 8 bits to a byte resulting in 16 GByte capacity per chip initially. With density improvements, as well as increased stacking of layers, the number of cells or bits per die (e.g. what makes up a chip) should improve, as well as most implementations will have multiple chips in some type of configuration.

    What will 3D XPoint cost?

    During the 3D XPoint launch webinar Intel and Micron hinted that first pricing will be between current DRAM and NAND flash on a per cell or bit basis, however real pricing and costs will vary depending on how packaged for use. For example if placed on a DDR4 or different type of DIMM or on a PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or as a drive form factor SSD among other options will vary the real price. Likewise as with other memories and storage mediums, as production yields and volumes increase, along with denser designs, the cost per usable cell or bit can be expected to further improve.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    Storage I/O trends

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    DRAM which has been around for sometime has plenty of life left for many applications as does NAND flash including new 3D NAND, vNAND and other variations. For the next several years, there will be a co-existences between new and old NVM and DRAM among other memory technologies including 3D XPoint. Read more in this series including Part I here and Part III here.

    Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

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

    Intel Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory NVM for servers storage

    3D XPoint NVM persistent memory PM storage class memory SCM


    Storage I/O trends

    Updated 1/31/2018

    This is the first of a three-part series on Intel Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory NVM for servers storage announcement. Read Part II here and Part III here.

    In a webcast the other day, Intel and Micron announced new 3D XPoint non-volatile memory (NVM) that can be used for both primary main memory (e.g. what’s in computers, serves, laptops, tablets and many other things) in place of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), for persistent storage faster than today’s NAND flash-based solid state devices (SSD), not to mention future hybrid usage scenarios. Note that this announcement while having the common term 3D in it is different from the earlier Intel and Micron announcement about 3D NAND flash (read more about that here).

    Twitter hash tag #3DXpoint

    The big picture, why this type of NVM technology is needed

    Server and Storage I/O trends

    • Memory is storage and storage is persistent memory
    • No such thing as a data or information recession, more data being create, processed and stored
    • Increased demand is also driving density along with convergence across server storage I/O resources
    • Larger amounts of data needing to be processed faster (large amounts of little data and big fast data)
    • Fast applications need more and faster processors, memory along with I/O interfaces
    • The best server or storage I/O is the one you do not need to do
    • The second best I/O is one with least impact or overhead
    • Data needs to be close to processing, processing needs to be close to the data (locality of reference)


    Server Storage I/O memory hardware and software hierarchy along with technology tiers

    What did Intel and Micron announce?

    Intel SVP and General Manager Non-Volatile Memory solutions group Robert Crooke (Left) and Micron CEO D. Mark Durcan did the joint announcement presentation of 3D XPoint (webinar here). What was announced is the 3D XPoint technology jointly developed and manufactured by Intel and Micron which is a new form or category of NVM that can be used for both primary memory in servers, laptops, other computers among other uses, as well as for persistent data storage.


    Robert Crooke (Left) and Mark Durcan (Right)

    Summary of 3D XPoint announcement

    • New category of NVM memory for servers and storage
    • Joint development and manufacturing by Intel and Micron in Utah
    • Non volatile so can be used for storage or persistent server main memory
    • Allows NVM to scale with data, storage and processors performance
    • Leverages capabilities of both Intel and Micron who have collaborated in the past
    • Performance Intel and Micron claim up to 1000x faster vs. NAND flash
    • Availability persistent NVM compared to DRAM with better durability (life span) vs. NAND flash
    • Capacity densities about 10x better vs. traditional DRAM
    • Economics cost per bit between dram and nand (depending on packaging of resulting products)

    What applications and products is 3D XPoint suited for?

    In general, 3D XPoint should be able to be used for many of the same applications and associated products that current DRAM and NAND flash-based storage memories are used for. These range from IT and cloud or managed service provider data centers based applications and services, as well as consumer focused among many others.


    3D XPoint enabling various applications

    In general, applications or usage scenarios along with supporting products that can benefit from 3D XPoint include among others’. Applications that need larger amounts of main memory in a denser footprint such as in-memory databases, little and big data analytics, gaming, wave form analysis for security, copyright or other detection analysis, life sciences, high performance compute and high-productivity compute, energy, video and content severing among many others.

    In addition, applications that need persistent main memory for resiliency, or to cut delays and impacts for planned or un-planned maintenance or having to wait for memories and caches to be warmed or re-populated after a server boot (or re-boot). 3D XPoint will also be useful for those applications that need faster read and write performance compared to current generations NAND flash for data storage. This means both existing and emerging applications as well as some that do not yet exist will benefit from 3D XPoint over time, like how today’s applications and others have benefited from DRAM used in Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) and NAND flash advances over the past several decades.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    Storage I/O trends

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    First, keep in mind that this is very early in the 3D XPoint technology evolution life-cycle and both DRAM and NAND flash will not be dead at least near term. Keep in mind that NAND flash appeared back in 1989 and only over the past several years has finally hit its mainstream adoption stride with plenty of market upside left. Continue reading Part II here and Part III here of this three-part series on Intel and Micron 3D XPoint along with more analysis and commentary.

    Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

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

    July 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue VII

    Hello and welcome to this July 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Its mid summer here in the northern hemisphere which for many means vacations or holidays.

    Content Solution Platforms

    Thus this months newsletter has a focus on content solution platforms including hardware and software that get defined to support various applications. Content solutions span from video (4K, HD and legacy streaming, pre-/post-production and editing), audio, imaging (photo, seismic, energy, healthcare, etc.) to security surveillance (including Intelligent Video Surveillance [ISV] as well as Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance [ISR]).

    StorageIOblog posts

    In case you missed it:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Servers Direct Content Platform
    Servers Direct Content Solution Platform

    An industry and customer trend is leveraging converged platforms based on multi-socket processors with dozens of cores and threads (logical processors) to support parallel or high-concurrent threaded content based applications.

    Recently I had the opportunity by Servers Direct to get some hands-on test time with one of their 2U Content Solution platforms. In addition to big fast data, other content solution applications include: content distribution network (CDN) content caching, network function virtualization (NFV), software-defined network (SDN), cloud rich unstructured big fast media data, analytics and little data (e.g. SQL and NoSQL database, key-value stores, repositories and meta-data) among others.

    Read more about content solution platforms including those Intel powered platforms from Servers Direct in this Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective solution brief here.

    View other Server StorageIO lab review reports here

    Closing Comments

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

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – @StorageIO

    Microsoft MVP File System Storage
    VMware vExpert

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Server StorageIO Lab reviews
  • Events and Webinars
  • Resources and Links
  • StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities and announcements.

    Processor: A Look At Object-Based Storage
    Processor: Newest and best server trends
    PowerMore: Flash not just for performance
    SearchVirtualStorage: Containers and storage
    BizTechMagazine: Simplify with virtualization
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Future DR Storage
    EnterpriseStorageForum: 10 Tips for DRaaS
    EnterpriseStorageForum: NVMe planning

    View more trends comments here

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    A common question I am asked is, “What is the best storage technology?” My routine answer is, “It depends!” During my recent Interop Las Vegas session “Smart Shopping for Your Storage Strategy” I addressed this very question. Read more in my tip Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements over at Network Computing.

    Check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools. View more tips and articles here

    Various Industry Events

    Server Storage I/O Workshop Seminars
    Nijkerk Netherlands October 13-16 2015

    VMworld August 30-September 3 2015

    Flash Memory Summit August 11-13

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015 9AM PT
    Server Storage I/O Innovation v2.015: Protect Preserve & Serve Your Information

    Resources and Links

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

    storageperformance.us
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    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 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(TM) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    May and June 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue V & VI

    Hello and welcome to this joint May and June 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Here in the northern hemisphere its summer which means holiday vacations among other things.

    There has been a lot going on this spring and so far this summer with more in the wings. Summer can also be a time to get caught up on some things, preparing for others while hopefully being able to enjoy some time off as well.

    In terms of what have I been working on (or with)? Clouds (OpenStack, vCloud Air, AWS, Azure, GCS among others), virtual and containers, flash SSD devices (drives, cards), software defining, content servers, NVMe, databases, data protection items, servers, cache and micro-tiering among other things.

    Speaking of getting caught up, back in early May among many other conferences (Cisco, Docker, HP, IBM, OpenStack, Red Hat and many other events) was EMCworld. EMC covered my hotel and registration costs to attend the event in Las Vegas (thanks EMC, that’s a disclosure btw ;). View a summary StorageIOblog post covering EMCworld 2015 here along with recent EMC announcements including Acquisition of cloud services vendor Virtustream for $1.2B, and ECS 2.0.

    Server and Storage I/O Wrappings

    This months newsletter has a focus on software and storage wrappings, that is, how your storage or software is packaged, delivered or deployed. For example traditional physical storage systems, software defined storage as shrink-wrap or download, tin-wrapped software as an appliance, virtual wrapped such as a virtual storage appliance or cloud wrapped among others.

    OpenStack software defined cloud

    OpenStack (both the organization, community, event and software) continue to gain momentum. The latest release known as Kilo (more Kilo info here) was released in early April followed by the OpenStack summit in May.

    Some of you might be more involved with OpenStack vs. others, perhaps having already deployed into your production environment. Perhaps you, like myself have OpenStack running in a lab for proof of concept, research, development or learning among other things.

    You might even be using the services of a public cloud or managed service provider that is powered by OpenStack. On the other hand, you might be familiar with OpenStack from reading up on it, watching videos, listening to podcast’s or attending events to figure out what it is, where it fits, as well as what can your organization use it for.

    Drew Robb (@Robbdrew) has a good overview piece about OpenStack and storage over at Enterprise Storage Forum (here). OpenStack is a collection of tools or bundles for building private, hybrid and public clouds. These various open source projects within the OpenStack umbrella include compute (Nova) and virtual machine images (Glance). Other components include dashboard management (Horizon), security and identity control (Keystone), network (Neutron), object storage (Swift), block storage (Cinder) and file-based storage (Manila) among others.

    It’s up to the user to decide which pieces you will add. For example, you can use Swift without having virtual machines and vice versa. Read Drew’s complete article here.

    Btw, if you missed it, not only has OpenStack added file support (e.g. Manila), Amazon Web Services (AWS) also recently added Elastic File Services (EFS) complementing there Elastic Block Services (EBS).

    Focus on Storage Wrappings

    Software exists and gets deployed in various places as shown in the following examples.

    software wrapped storage

    • Cloud wrapped software – software that can be deployed in a cloud instance.
    • Container wrapped software – software deployed in a docker or other container
    • Firmware wrapped software – software that gets packaged and deployed as firmware in a server, storage, network device or adapter
    • Shrink wrapped software – software that can be downloaded and deployed where you want
    • Tin wrapped software – software that is packaged or bundled with hardware (e.g. tin) such as an appliance or storage system
    • Virtual wrapped software

    server storage software wrapping

    StorageIOblog posts

    Data Protection Diaries

    Modernizing Data Protection
    Using new and old things in new ways

    This is part of an ongoing series of posts that part of www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ on data protection including archiving, backup/restore, business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BC), data footprint reduction (DFR), disaster recovery (DR), High Availability (HA) along with related themes, tools, technologies, techniques, trends and strategies.
    world backup day (and test your restore) image licensed from Shutterstock by StorageIO

    Data protection is a broad topic that spans from logical and physical security to HA, BC, BR, DR, archiving(including life beyond compliance) along with various tools, technologies, techniques. Key is aligning those to the needs of the business or organization for today’s as well as tomorrows requirements. Instead of doing things what has been done in the past that may have been based on what was known or possible due to technology capabilities, why not start using new and old things in new ways.

    Let’s start using all the tools in the data protection toolbox regardless of if they are new or old, cloud, virtual, physical, software defined product or service in new ways while keeping the requirements of the business in focus. Read more from this post here.

    In case you missed it:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue


  • Industry Trends Perspectives News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Recommended Reading List
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • Resources and Links
  • Industry News and Activity

    Recent Industry news and activity

    AWS adds new M4 virtual machine instances
    Cisco provides FCoE proof of life

    Google new cloud storage pricing
    HP announces new data center services
    HDS announces new products & services
    IBM enhances storage portfolio

    IBTA announces RoCE initiative
    InfiniteIO announces network/cloud cache
    Intel buying FPGA specialist Altera
    NetApp – Changes CEO

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities and announcements.

    BizTechMagazine: Comments on how to simplify your data center with virtualization
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Open Stack and Clouds
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Top Ten Software Defined Storage Tips, Gotchas and Cautions
    EdTech: Comments on Harness Power with New Processors

    Processor: Comments on Protecting Your Servers & Networking equipment
    EdTech: Comments on Harness Power with New Processors

    Processor: Comments on Improve Remote Server Management including KVM
    CyberTrend: Comments on Software Defined Data Center and virtualization
    BizTechMagazine: Businesses Prepare as End-of-Life for Windows Server 2003 Nears
    InformationWeek: Top 10 sessions from Interop Las Vegas 2015
    CyberTrend: Comments on Software Defined Data Center and Virtualization

    View more trends comments here

    Vendors you may not heard of

    This is a new section starting in this issue where various new or existing vendors as well as service providers you may not have heard about will be listed.

    CloudHQ – Cloud management tools
    EMCcode Rex-Ray – Container management
    Enmotus FUZE – Flash leveraged micro tiering
    Rubrik – Data protection management
    Sureline – Data protection management
    Virtunet systems – VMware flash cache software
    InfiniteIO – Cloud and NAS cache appliance
    Servers Direct – Server and storage platforms

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here. There are over 1,000 entries (and growing) vendors on the links page.

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    So you have a new storage device or system. How will you test or find its performance? Check out this quick-read tip on storage benchmark and testing fundamentals over at BizTech.

    Check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools. View more tips and articles here

    Webinars

    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015 9AM PT
    Server Storage I/O Innovation v2.015: Protect Preserve & Serve Your Information

    Videos and Podcasts

    VMware vCloud Air Server StorageIO Lab Test Drive Ride along videos.

    Server StorageIO Lab vCloud test drive video part 1Server StorageIO Lab vCloud test drive video part 2
    VMware vCloud Air test drive videos Part I & II

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    Various Industry Events

     

    VMworld August 30-September 3 2015

    Flash Memory Summit August 11-13

    Interop – April 29 2015 Las Vegas (Voted one of top ten sessions at Interop, more here)
    Smart Shopping for Your Storage Strategy

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015 9AM PT
    Server Storage I/O Innovation v2.015: Protect Preserve & Serve Your Information

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    VMware vCloud Air Test Drive
    VMware vCloud Air
    local and distributed NAS (NFS, CIFS, DFS) file data. Read more here.

    VMware vCloud Air

    VMware vCloud Air provides a platform similar to those just mentioned among others for your applications and their underlying resource needs (compute, memory, storage, networking) to be fulfilled. In addition, it should not be a surprise that VMware vCloud Air shares many common themes, philosophies and user experiences with the traditional on-premises based VMware solutions you might be familiar with.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Resources and Links

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

    storageperformance.us
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

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

    Cheers gs

    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

    April 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue IV

    Hello and welcome to this April 2015 Server and StorageIO update newsletter.

    This months newsletter has a focus on cloud and object storage for bulk data, unstructured data, big data, archiving among other scenarios.

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

    Storage I/O trends

    StorageIOblog posts

    April StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    April Newsletter Feature Theme
    Cloud and Object Storage Fundamentals

    There are many facets to object storage including technology implementation, products, services, access and architectures for various applications and use scenarios. The following is a short synopsis of some basic terms and concepts associated with cloud and object storage.

    Common cloud and object storage terms

    • Account or project – Top of the hierarchy that represent owner or billing information for a service that where buckets are also attached.
    • Availability Zone (AZ) can be rack of servers and storage or data center where data is spread across for storage and durability.
    • AWS regions and availability zones (AZ)
      Example of some AWS Regions and AZ’s

    • Bucket or Container – Where objects or sub-folders containing objects are attached and accessed. Note in some environments such as AWS S3 you can have sub-folders in a bucket.
    • Connector or how your applications access the cloud or object storage such as via an API, S3, Swift, Rest, CDMI, Torrent, JSON, NAS file, block of other access gateway or software.
    • Durability – Data dispersed with copies in multiple locations to survive failure of storage or server hardware, software, zone or even region. Availability = Access + Durability.
    • End-point – Where or what your software, application or tool and utilities or gateways attach to for accessing buckets and objects.
    • Ephemeral – Temporary or non-persistent
    • Eventual consistency – Data is eventually made consistency, think in terms of asynchronous or deferred writes where there is a time lag vs. synchronous or real-time updates.
    • Immutable – Persistent, non-altered or write once read many copy of data. Objects generally are not updated, rather new objects created.
    • Object storage and cloud
      Via Cloud Virtual Data Storage (CRC)

    • Object – Byte (or bit) stream that can be as small as one byte to as large as several TBytes (some solutions and services support up to 5TByte sized objects). The object contains what ever data in any organization along with meta data. Different solutions and services support from a couple hundred KBytes of meta-data to MBytes worth of meta-data. In terms of what can be stored in an object, anything from files, videos, images, virtual disks (VMDK’s, VHDX), ZIP or tar files, backup and archive save sets, executable images or ISO’s, anything you want.
    • OPS – Objects per second or how many objects accessed similar to a IOP. Access includes gets, puts, list, head, deletes for a CRUD interface e.g. Created, Read, Update, Delete.
    • Region – Location where data is stored that can include one or more data centers also known as Availability Zones.
    • Sub-folder – While object storage can be accessed in a flat name space for commonality and organization some solutions and service support the notion of sub-folder that resemble traditional directory hierarchy.

    Learn more in Cloud Virtual Storage Networking (CRC) and www.objectstoragecenter.com

    Storage I/O trends

    OpenStack Manila (e.g. Folders and Files)

    AWS recently announced their new cloud based Elastic File Storage (EFS) to compliment their existing Elastic Block Storage (EBS) offerings. However are you aware of what is going on with cloud files within OpenStack?

    For those who are familiar with OpenStack or simply talk about it and Swift object storage, or perhaps Cinder block storage, are you aware that there is also a file (NAS or Network Attached Storage) component called Manila?

    In concept Manila should provide a similar capability to what AWS has recently announce with their Elastic File Service (EFS), or depending on your perspective, perhaps the other way around. If you are familiar and have done anything with Manila what are your initial thoughts and perspectives.

    What this all means

    People routinely tell me this is the most exciting and interesting times ever in servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, backup or data protection, performance, cloud and virtual or take your pick too which I would not disagree.

    However, for the past several years (no, make that decade), there is new and more interesting things including in adjacent areas.

    I predict that at least for the next few years (no, make that decades), we will continue to see plenty of new and interesting things, questions include.

    However, what’s applicable to you and your environment vs. simply fun and interesting to watch?

    Ok, nuff said, for now

    Cheers gs

     

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • Resources and Links
  • Industry News and Activity

    Recent Industry news and activity

    View other recent industry activity here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities and announcements.

    CyberTrend: Comments on Software Defined Data Center and Virtualization

    View more trends comments here

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools. View more tips and articles here

    Various Industry Events

    EMCworld – May 4-6 2015 (Las Vegas)

    Interop – April 29 2015 (Las Vegas)
    Presenting
    Smart Shopping for Your Enterprise Storage Strategy

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars


    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015
    Server Storage I/O Innovation Update

    View other webinars here

    Videos and Podcasts

    Data Protection Gumbo Podcast
    Protect Preserve and Serve Data

    In this episode, Greg Schulz is a guest on Data Protection Gumbo hosted by Demetrius Malbrough(@dmalbrough). The conversation covers various aspects of data protection which has a focus of protect preserve and serve information, applications and data across different environments and customer segments.

    While we discuss enterprise and SMB data protection, we also talk about trends from Mobile to the cloud among many others tools, technologies and techniques. Check out the podcast here.

    Springtime in Kentucky
    With Kendrick Coleman of EMCcode
    Cloud Object Storage S3motion and more

    In this episode, @EMCcode (Part of EMC) developer advocate Kendrick Coleman (@KendrickColeman) joins me (e.g. Greg Schulz) for a conversation.

    Conversation covers what is EMCcode, EMC Federation, Cloud Foundryclouds, object storage, buckets, containers, objects, node.jsDocker, OpenStack, AWS S3, micro services, and the S3motion tool Kendrick developed.

    S3motion is a good tool to have in your server storage I/O tool box for working with cloud and object storage along with others such as Cloudberry, S3fs, Cyberduck, S3 browser among many others. You can get S3motion for free from git hub here Check out the companion blog post for this podcast here.

    StorageIO podcast’s are also available via Server Storage I/O audio podcastServer Storage I/O video & at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    AWS S3 Cross-Region Replication

    AWS S3 Cross region replication
    Moving and Replicating Buckets/Containers, Sub folders and Objects (Click on Image to read about AWS Cross-Region Replication)

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Resources and Links

    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

    S3motion Buckets Containers Objects AWS S3 Cloud and EMCcode

    Storage I/O trends

    S3motion Buckets Containers Objects AWS S3 Cloud and EMCcode

    It’s springtime in Kentucky and recently I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Kendrick Coleman to talk about S3motion, Buckets, Containers, Objects, AWS S3, Cloud and Object Storage, node.js, EMCcode and open source among other related topics which are available in a podcast here, or video here and available at StorageIO.tv.

    In this Server StorageIO industry trends perspective podcast episode, @EMCcode (Part of EMC) developer advocate Kendrick Coleman (@KendrickColeman) joins me for a conversation. Our conversation spans spring-time in Kentucky (where Kendrick lives) which means Bourbon and horse racing as well as his blog (www.kendrickcoleman.com).

    Btw, in the podcast I refer to Captain Obvious and Kendrick’s beard, for those not familiar with who or what @Captainobvious is that is made reference to, click here to learn more.


    @Kendrickcoleman
    & @Captainobvious

    What about Clouds Object Storage Programming and other technical stuff?

    Of course we also talk some tech including what is EMCcode, EMC Federation, Cloud Foundry, clouds, object storage, buckets, containers, objects, node.js, Docker, Openstack, AWS S3, micro services, and the S3motion tool that Kendrick developed.

    Cloud and Object Storage Access
    Click to view video

    Kendrick explains the motivation behind S3motion along with trends in and around objects (including GET, PUT vs. traditional Read, Write) as well as programming among related topic themes and how context matters.

    S3motion for AWS S3 Google and object storage
    Click to listen to podcast

    I have used S3motion for moving buckets, containers and objects around including between AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage (GCS) and Microsoft Azure as well as to/from local. S3motion is a good tool to have in your server storage I/O tool box for working with cloud and object storage along with others such as Cloudberry, S3fs, Cyberduck, S3 browser among many others.

    You can get S3motion free from git hub here.

    Amazon Web Services AWS

    Where to learn more

    Here are some links to learn more about AWS S3, Cloud and Object Storage along with related topics

    Also available on

    What this all means and wrap-up

    Context matters when it comes to many things particular about objects as they can mean different things. Tools such as S3motion make it easy for moving your buckets or containers along with objects from one cloud storage system, solution or service to another. Also check out EMCcode to see what they are doing on different fronts from supporting new and greenfield development with Cloud Foundry and PaaS to Openstack to bridging current environments to the next generation of platforms. Also check out Kendricks blog site as he has a lot of good technical content as well as some other fun stuff to learn about. Look forward to having Kendrick on as a guest again soon to continue our conversations. In the meantime, check out S3motion to see how it can fit into your server storage I/O tool box.

    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

    Top vblog voting V2.015 (Its IT award season, cast your votes)

    Top vblog voting V2.015 (Its IT award season, cast your votes)

    Storage I/O trends

    It’s that time of the year again for award season:

    • The motion picture association Academy awards (e.g. the Oscars)
    • The Grammys and other entertainment awards
    • As well as Eric Siebert (aka @ericsiebert) vsphere-land.com top vblog

    Vsphere-land.com top vblog

    Eric has run for several years now an annual top VMware, Virtualization, Storage and related blogs voting now taking place until March 16th 2015 (click on the image below). You will find a nice mix of new school, old school and a few current or future school theme blogs represented with some being more VMware specific. However there are also many blogs at the vpad site that have a cloud, virtual, server, storage, networking, software defined, development and other related themes.

    top vblog voting
    Click on the above image to cast your vote for favorite:

    • Ten blogs (e.g. select up to ten and then rank 1 through 10)
    • Storage blog
    • Scripting blog
    • VDI blog
    • New Blogger
    • Independent Blogger (e.g. non-vendor)
    • News/Information Web site
    • Podcast

    Call to action, take a moment to cast your vote

    My StorageIOblog.com has been on the vLaunchPad site for several years now as well as having syndicated content that also appears via some of the other venues listed there.

    Six time VMware vExpert

    In addition to my StorageIOblog and podcast, you will also find many of my fellow VMware vExperts among others at the vLaunchpad site so check them out as well.

    What this means

    This is a people’s choice process (yes it is a popularity process of sorts as well) however also a way of rewarding or thanking those who take time to create and share content with you and others. If you take time to read various blogs, listen to podcasts as well as consume other content, please take a few moments and cast your vote here (thank you in advance) which I hope includes StorageIOblog.com as part of the top ten, as well as being nominated in the Storage, Podcast and Independent blogger categories.

    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

    February 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue II

    Hello and welcome to this February 2015 Server and StorageIO update newsletter. The new year is off and running with many events already underway including the recent USENIX FAST conference and others on the docket over the next few months.

    Speaking of FAST (File and Storage Technologies) event which I attended last week, here is a link to where you can download the conference proceedings.

    In other events, VMware announced version 6 of their vSphere ESXi hypervisor and associated management tools including VSAN, VVOL among other items.

    This months newsletter has a focus on server storage I/O performance topics with various articles, tips, commentary and blog posts.

    Watch for more news, updates and industry trends perspectives coming soon.

    Commentary In The News

    StorageIO news

    Following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various print and on-line venues. Over at Processor there are comments on resilient & highly available, underutilized or unused servers, what abandoned data Is costing your company, align application needs with your infrastructure (server, storage, networking) resources.

    Also at processor explore flash based (SSD) storage, enterprise backup buying tips, re-evaluate server security, new tech advancements for server upgrades, and understand cost of acquiring storage.

    Meanwhile over at CyberTrend there are some perspectives on enterprise backup and better servers mean better business.

    View more trends comments here

    Tips and Articles

    So you have a new storage device or system.

    How will you test or find its performance?

    Check out this quick-read tip on storage benchmark and testing fundamentals over at BizTech. Also check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools.

    View recent as well as past tips and articles here

    StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

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

    EMCworld – May 4-6 2015

    Interop – April 29 2015

    NAB – April 14-15 2015

    Deltaware Event – March 3 2015

    Feb. 18 – FAST 2015 – Santa Clara CA

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

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

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

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

    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization

    November 13 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Storage

    Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    StarWind Virtual SAN
    starwind virtual san

    Using less hardware with software defined storage management. This looks at the needs of Microsoft Hyper-V ROBO and SMB environments with software defined storage less hardware. Read more here.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here.

    Resources and Links

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

    storageperformance.us
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

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

    Cheers gs

    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

    Green and Virtual Data Center: Productive Economical Efficient Effective Flexible

    Green and Virtual Data Center

    A Green and Virtual IT Data Center (e.g. an information factory) means an environment comprising:

    • Habitat for technology or physical infrastructure (e.g. physical data center, yours, co-lo, managed service or cloud)
    • Power, cooling, communication networks, HVAC, smoke and fire suppression, physical security
    • IT data information infrastructure (e.g. hardware, software, valueware, cloud, virtual, physical, servers, storage, network)
    • Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) along with IT Service Management (ITSM) software defined management tools
    • Tools for monitoring, resource tracking and usage, reporting, diagnostics, provisioning and resource orchestration
    • Portals and service catalogs for automated, user initiated and assisted operation or access to IT resources
    • Processes, procedures, best-practices, work-flows and templates (including data protection with HA, BC, BR, DR, backup/restore, logical and physical security)
    • Metrics that matter for management insight and awareness
      People and skill sets among other items

    Green and Virtual Data Center Resources

    Click here to learn about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" book (CRC Press) for enabling efficient, productive IT data centers. This book covers cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, networks, software, facilities and associated management topics, technologies and techniques including metrics that matter. This book by industry veteran IT advisor and author Greg Schulz is the definitive guide for enabling economic efficiency and productive next generation data center strategies.

    Intel recommended reading
    Publisher: CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group
    By Greg P. Schulz of StorageIO www.storageio.com
     ISBN-10: 1439851739 and ISBN-13: 978-1439851739
     Hardcover * 370 pages * Over 100 illustrations figures and tables

    Read more here and order your copy here. Also check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) a new book by Greg Schulz.

    Productive Efficient Effective Economical Flexible Agile and Sustainable

    Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list and going away, however, green IT for servers, storage, networks, facilities as well as related software and management techniques that address energy efficiency including power and cooling along with e-waste, environmental health and safety related issues are topics that wont be going away anytime soon. There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE). To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product.

    The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

    Where to learn more

    The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

    Various IT industry vendor and service provider links
    Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
    Green and Virtual Data Center links
    Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch
    EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update
    EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
    Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed! 
    Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
    How much SSD do you need vs. want?
    How to reduce your Data Footprint impact (Podcast) 
    Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
    In the data center or information factory, not everything is the same
    More storage and IO metrics that matter
    Optimizing storage capacity and performance to reduce your data footprint 
    Performance metrics: Evaluating your data storage efficiency
    PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
    Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology
    Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories 
    Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency
    SNIA Green Storage Knowledge Center
    Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
    SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing
    Storage Efficiency and Optimization: The Other Green
    Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book (CRC Press, Intel Recommended Reading)
    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive 
    The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization 
    What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

    Watch for more links and resources to be added soon.

    What this all means

    The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

    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

    Green and Virtual Data Center Links

    Updated 10/25/2017

    Green and Virtual IT Data Center Links

    Moving beyond Green Hype and Green washing

    Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list and going away, however, green IT for servers, storage, networks, facilities as well as related software and management techniques that address energy efficiency including power and cooling along with e-waste, environmental health and safety related issues are topics that wont be going away anytime soon.

    There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE).

    To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product. The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

    Enabling Effective Produtive Efficient Economical Flexible Scalable Resilient Information Infrastrctures

    The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

    Various IT industry vendors and other links

    Via StorageIOblog – Happy Earth Day 2016 Eliminating Digital and Data e-Waste

    Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
    Green and Virtual Data Center: Productive Economical Efficient Effective Flexible
    Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch
    EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update
    EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
    Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed! 
    Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
    How much SSD do you need vs. want?
    How to reduce your Data Footprint impact (Podcast) 
    Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
    In the data center or information factory, not everything is the same
    More storage and IO metrics that matter
    Optimizing storage capacity and performance to reduce your data footprint 
    Performance metrics: Evaluating your data storage efficiency
    PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
    Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology
    Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories 
    Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency
    SNIA Green Storage Knowledge Center
    Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
    SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing
    Storage Efficiency and Optimization: The Other Green
    Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book (CRC Press, Intel Recommended Reading)
    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive 
    The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization 
    What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

    Intel recommended reading
    Click here to learn about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" book (CRC Press) for enabling efficient , productive IT data centers. This book covers cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, networks, software, facilities and associated management topics, technologies and techniques including metrics that matter. This book by industry veteran IT advisor and author Greg Schulz is the definitive guide for enabling economic efficiency and productive next generation data center strategies. Read more here and order your copyhere. Also check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) a new book by Greg Schulz.

    White papers, analyst reports and perspectives

    Business benefits of data footprint reduction (archiving, compression, de-dupe)
    Data center I/O and performance issues – Server I/O and storage capacity gap
    Analysis of EPA Report to Congress (Law 109-431)
    The Many Faces of MAID Storage Technology
    Achieving Energy Efficiency with FLASH based SSD
    MAID 2.0: Energy Savings without Performance Compromises

    Articles, Tips, Blogs, Webcasts and Podcasts

    AP – SNIA Green Emerald Program and measurements
    AP – Southern California heat wave strains electrical system
    Ars Technica – EPA: Power usage in data centers could double by 2011
    Ars Technica – Meet the climate savers: Major tech firms launch war on energy-inefficient PCs – Article
    Askageek.com – Buying an environmental friendly laptop – November 2008
    Baseline – Examining Energy Consumption in the Data Center
    Baseline – Burts Bees: What IT Means When You Go Green
    Bizcovering – Green architecture for the masses
    Broadstuff – Are Green 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 Incompatible?
    Business Week – CEO Guide to Technology
    Business Week – Computers’ elusive eco factor
    Business Week – Clean Energy – Its Getting Affordable
    Byte & Switch – Keeping it Green This Summer – Don’t be "Green washed"
    Byte & Switch – IBM Sees Green in Energy Certificates
    Byte & Switch – Users Search for power solutions
    Byte & Switch – DoE issues Green Storage Warning
    CBR – The Green Light for Green IT
    CBR – Big boxes make greener data centers
    CFO – Power Scourge
    Channel Insider – A 12 Step Program to Dispose of IT Equipment
    China.org.cn – China publishes Energy paper
    CIO – Green Storage Means Money Saved on Power
    CIO – Data center designers share secrets for going green
    CIO – Best Place to Build a Data Center in North America
    CIO Insight – Clever Marketing or the Real Thing?
    Cleantechnica – Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste – June 2008
    Climatebiz – Carbon Calculators Yield Spectrum of Results: Study
    CNET News – Linux coders tackle power efficiency
    CNET News – Research: Old data centers can be nearly as ‘green’ as new ones
    CNET News – Congress, Greenpeace move on e-wast
    CNN Money – A Green Collar Recession
    CNN Money – IBM creates alliance with industry leaders supporting new data center standards
    Communication News – Utility bills key to greener IT
    Computerweekly – Business case for green storage
    Computerweekly – Optimising data centre operations
    Computerweekly – Green still good for IT, if it saves money
    Computerweekly – Meeting the Demands for storage
    Computerworld – Wells Fargo Free Data Center Cooling System
    Computerworld – Seven ways to get green and save money
    Computerworld – Build your data center here: The most energy-efficient locations
    Computerworld – EPA: U.S. needs more power plants to support data centers
    Computerworld – GreenIT: A marketing ploy or new technology?
    Computerworld – Gartner Criticizes Green Grid
    Computerworld – IT Skills no longer sufficient for data center execs.
    Computerworld – Meet MAID 2.0 and Intelligent Power Management
    Computerworld – Feds to offer energy ratings on servers and storage
    Computerworld – Greenpeace still hunting for truly green electronics
    Computerworld – How to benchmark data center energy costs
    ComputerworldUK – Datacenters at risk from poor governance
    ComputerworldUK – Top IT Leaders Back Green Survey
    ComputerworldMH – Lean and Green
    CTR – Strategies for enhancing energy efficiency
    CTR – Economies of Scale – Green Data Warehouse Appliances
    Datacenterknowledge – Microsoft to build Illinois datacenter
    Data Center Strategies – Storage The Next Hot Topic
    Earthtimes – Fujitsu installs hydrogen fuel cell power
    eChannelline – IBM Goes Green(er)
    Ecoearth.info – California Moves To Speed Solar, Wind Power Grid Connections
    Ecogeek – Solar power company figures they can power 90% of America
    Economist – Cool IT
    Electronic Design – How many watts in that Gigabyte
    eMazzanti – Desktop virtualization movement creeping into customer sites
    ens-Newswire – Western Governors Ask Obama for National Green Energy Plan
    Environmental Leader – Best Place to Build an Energy Efficient Data Center
    Environmental Leader – New Guide Helps Advertisers Avoid Greenwash Complaints
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Power Struggles Take Center Stage at SNW
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Pace Yourself for Storage Power & Cooling Needs
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Storage Power and Cooling Issues Heat Up – StorageIO Article
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Score Savings With A Storage Power Play
    Enterprise Storage Forum – I/O, I/O, Its off to Virtual Work I Go
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Not Just a Flash in the Pan – Various SSD options
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Closing the Green Gap – Article August 2008
    EPA Report to Congress and Public Law 109-431 – Reports & links
    eWeek – Saving Green by being Green
    eWeek – ‘No Cooling Necessary’ Data Centers Coming?
    eWeek – How the ‘Down’ Macroeconomy Will Impact the Data Storage Sector
    ExpressComputer – In defense of Green IT
    ExpressComputer – What data center crisis
    Forbes – How to Build a Quick Charging Battery
    GCN – Sun launches eco data center
    GreenerComputing – New Code of Conduct to Establish Best Practices in Green Data Centers
    GreenerComputing – Silicon valley’s green detente
    GreenerComputing – Majority of companies plan to green their data centers
    GreenerComputing – Citigroup to spend $232M on Green Data Center
    GreenerComputing – Chicago and Quincy, WA Top Green Data Center Locations
    GreenerComputing – Using airside economizers to chill data center cooling bills
    GreenerComputing – Making the most of asset disposal
    GreenerComputing – Greenpeace vendor rankings
    GreenerComputing – Four Steps to Improving Data Center Efficiency without Capital Expenditures
    GreenerComputing – Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center
    Green-PC – Strategic Steps Down the Green Path
    Greeniewatch – BBC news chiefs attack plans for climate change campaign
    Greeniewatch – Warmest year predictions and data that has not yet been measured
    GoverenmentExecutive – Public Private Sectors Differ on "Green" Efforts
    HPC Wire – How hot is your code
    Industry Standard – Why green data centers mean partner opportunities
    InformationWeek – It could be 15 years before we know what is really green
    InformationWeek – Beyond Server Consolidaiton
    InformationWeek – Green IT Beyond Virtualization: The Case For Consolidation
    InfoWorld – Sun celebrates green datacenter innovations
    InfoWorld – Tech’s own datacenters are their green showrooms
    InfoWorld – 2007: The Year in Green
    InfoWorld – Green Grid Announces Tech Forum in Feb 2008
    InfoWorld – SPEC seeds future green-server benchmarks
    InfoWorld – Climate Savers green catalog proves un-ripe
    InfoWorld – Forester: Eco-minded activity up among IT pros
    InfoWorld – Green ventures in Silicon Valley, Mass reaped most VC cash in ’07
    InfoWorld – Congress misses chance to see green-energy growth
    InfoWorld – Unisys pushes green envelope with datacenter expansion
    InfoWorld – No easy green strategy for storage
    Internet News – Storage Technologies for a Slowing Economy
    Internet News – Economy will Force IT to Transform
    ITManagement – Green Computing, Green Revenue
    itnews – Data centre chiefs dismiss green hype
    itnews – Australian Green IT regulations could arrive this year
    IT Pro – SNIA Green storage metrics released
    ITtoolbox – MAID discussion
    Linux Power – Saving power with Linux on Intel platforms
    MSNBC – Microsoft to build data center in Ireland
    National Post – Green technology at the L.A. Auto Show
    Network World – Turning the datacenter green
    Network World – Color Interop Green
    Network World – Green not helpful word for setting environmental policies
    NewScientistEnvironment – Computer servers as bad for climate as SUVs
    Newser – Texas commission approves nation’s largest wind power project
    New Yorker – Big Foot: In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science
    NY Times – What the Green Bubble Will Leave Behind
    PRNewswire – Al Gore and Cisco CEO John Chambers to debate climate change
    Processor – More than just monitoring
    Processor – The new data center: What’s hot in Data Center physical infrastructure:
    Processor – Liquid Cooling in the Data Center
    Processor – Curbing IT Power Usage
    Processor – Services To The Rescue – Services Available For Today’s Data Centers
    Processor – Green Initiatives: Hire A Consultant?
    Processor – Energy-Saving Initiatives
    Processor – The EPA’s Low Carbon Campaig
    Processor – Data Center Power Planning
    SAN Jose Mercury – Making Data Centers Green
    SDA-Asia – Green IT still a priority despite Credit Crunch
    SearchCIO – EPA report gives data centers little guidance
    SearchCIO – Green IT Strategies Could Lead to hefty ROIs
    SearchCIO – Green IT In the Data Center: Plenty of Talk, not much Walk
    SearchCIO – Green IT Overpitched by Vendors, CIOs beware
    SearchDataCenter – Study ranks cheapest places to build a data center
    SearchDataCenter – Green technology still ranks low for data center planners
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Center: Energy Effiecnty Computing in the 21st Century
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Center Advice: Is LEED Feasible
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Centers Tackle LEED Certification
    SearchDataCenter – PG&E invests in data center effieicny
    SearchDataCenter – A solar powered datacenter
    SearchSMBStorage – Improve your storage energy efficiency
    SearchSMBStorage – SMB capacity planning: Focusing on energy conservation
    SearchSMBStorage – Data footprint reduction for SMBs
    SearchSMBStorage – MAID & other energy-saving storage technologies for SMBs
    SearchStorage – How to increase your storage energy efficiency
    SearchStorage – Is storage now top energy hog in the data center
    SearchStorage – Storage eZine: Turning Storage Green
    SearchStorage – The Green Storage Gap
    SearchStorageChannel – Green Data Storage Projects
    Silicon.com – The greening of IT: Cooling costs
    SNIA – SNIA Green Storage Overview
    SNIA – Green Storage
    SNW – Beyond Green-wash
    SNW Spring 2008 Beyond Green-wash
    State.org – Why Texas Has Its Own Power Grid
    StorageDecisions – Different Shades of Green
    Storage Magazine – Storage still lacks energy metrics
    StorageIOblog – Posts pertaining to Green, power, cooling, floor-space, EHS (PCFE)
    Storage Search – Various postings, news and topics pertaining to Green IT
    Technology Times – Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches
    TechTarget – Data center power efficiency
    TechTarget – Tip for determining power consumption
    Techworld – Inside a green data center
    Techworld – Box reduction – Low hanging green datacenter fruit
    Techworld – Datacentere used to heat swimming pool
    Theinquirer – Spansion and Virident flash server farms
    Theinquirer – Storage firms worry about energy efficiency How green is the valley
    TheRegister – Data Centre Efficiency, the good, the bad and the way to hot
    TheRegister – Server makers snub whalesong for serious windmill abuse
    TheRegister – Green data center threat level: Not Green
    The Standard – Growing cynicism around going Green
    ThoughtPut – Energy Central
    Thoughtput – Power, Cooling, Green Storage and related industry trends
    Wallstreet Journal – Utilities Amp Up Push To Slash Energy Use
    Wallstreet Journal – The IT in Green Investing
    Wallstreet Journal – Tech’s Energy Consumption on the Rise
    Washingtonpost – Texas approves major new wind power project
    WhatPC – Green IT: It doesnt have to cost the earth
    WHIRnews – SingTel building green data center
    Wind-watch.org – Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
    WyomingNews – Overcoming Greens Stereotype
    Yahoo – Washington Senate Unviel Green Job Plan
    ZDnet – Will supercomputer speeds hit a plateau?
    Are data centers causing climate change

    News and Press Releases

    Business Wire – The Green and Virtual Data Center
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Intel and HGST (Hitachi) partner on FLASH SSD
    PCworld – Intel and HP describe Green Strategy
    DoE – To Invest Approximately $1.3 Billion to Commercialize CCS Technology
    Yahoo – Shell Opens Los Angeles’ First Combined Hydrogen and Gasoline Station
    DuPont – DuPont Projects Save Enough Energy to Power 25,000 Homes
    Gartner – Users Are Becoming Increasingly Confused About the Issues and Solutions Surrounding Green IT

    Websites and Tools

    Various power, cooling, emmisions and device configuration tools and calculators
    Solar Action Alliance web site
    SNIA Emerald program
    Carbon Disclosure Project
    The Chicago Climate Exchange
    Climate Savers
    Data Center Decisions
    Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA)
    EMC – Digital Life Calculator
    Energy Star
    Energy Star Data Center Initiatives
    Greenpeace – Technology ranking website also here
    GlobalActionPlan
    KyotoPlanet
    LBNL High Tech Data centers
    Millicomputing
    RoHS & WEE News
    Storage Performance Council (SPC)
    SNIA Green Technical Working Group
    SPEC
    Transaction Processing Council (TPC)
    The Green Grid
    The Raised Floor
    Terra Pass Carbon Offset Credits – Website with CO2 calculators
    Energy Information Administration – EIA (US and International Electrical Information)
    U.S. Department of Energy and related information
    U.S. DOE Energy Efficient Industrial Programs
    U.S. EPA server and storage energy topics
    Zerofootprint – Various "Green" and environmental related links and calculators

    Vendor Centric and Marketing Website Links and tools

    Vendors and organizations have different types of calculators some with focus on power, cooling, floor space, carbon offsets or emissions,

    ROI, TCO and other IT data center infrastructure resource management. Following is an evolving list and by no means definitive even for a particular vendors as

    different manufactures may have multiple different calculators for different product lines or areas of focus.

    Brocade – Green website
    Cisco – Green and Environmental websites here, here and here
    Dell – Green website
    EMC – EMC Energy, Power and Cooling Related Website
    HDS – How to be green – HDS Positioning White Paper
    HP – HP Green Website
    IBM – Green Data Center – IBM Positioning White Paper
    IBM – Green Data Center for Education – IBM Positioning White Paper
    Intel – What is an Efficient Data Center and how do I measure it?
    LSI – Green site and white paper
    NetApp – Press Release and related information
    Sun – Various articles and links
    Symantec – Global 2000 Struggle to Adopt "Green" Data Centers – Announcement of Survey results
    ACTON
    Adinfa
    APC
    Australian Conservation Foundation
    Avocent
    BBC
    Brocade
    Carbon Credit Calculator UK
    Carbon Footprint Site
    Carbon Planet
    Carbonify
    CarbonZero
    Cassatt
    CO2 Stats Site
    Copan
    Dell
    DirectGov UK Acton
    Diesel Service & Supply Power Calculator & Converter
    Eaton Powerware
    Ecobusinesslinks
    Ecoscale
    EMC Power Calculator
    EMC Web Power Calculator
    EMC Digital Life Calculator
    EPA Power Profiler
    EPA Related Tools
    EPEAT
    Google UK Green Footprint
    Green Grid Calculator
    HP and more here
    HVAC Calculator
    IBM
    Logicalis
    Kohler Power (Business and Residential)
    Micron
    MSN Carbon Footprint Calculator
    National Wildlife Foundation
    NEF UK
    NetApp
    Rackwise
    Platespin
    Safecom
    Sterling Planet
    Sun and more here and here and here
    Tandberg
    TechRepublic
    TerraPass Carbon Offset Credits
    Thomas Kreen AG
    Toronto Hydro Calculator
    80 Plus Calculator
    VMware
    42u Green Grid PUE DCiE calculator
    42u energy calculator

    Green and Virtual Tools

    What’s your power, cooling, floor space, energy, environmental or green story?

    What’s your power, cooling, floor space, energy, environmental or green story? Do you have questions or want to learn more about

    energy issues pertaining to IT data center and data infrastructure topics? Do you have a solution or technology or a success story that you would like to share

    with us pertaining to data storage and server I/O energy optimization strategies?  Do you need assistance in developing, validating or reviewing your strategy

    or story? Contact us at: info@storageio.com or 651-275-1563 to learn more about green data storage and server I/O or to

    schedule a briefing to tell us about your energy efficiency and effectiveness story pertaining to IT data centers and data infrastructures.

    Disclaimer and note:  URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be

    in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.  Best effort has been made to validate and verify the URLs that appear on this page and

    website however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer’s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the

    URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    Green and Virtual Metrics

    Chapter 5 "Measurement, Metrics, and Management of IT Resources" in the book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC Press) takes a look at the importance of being able to measure and monitor to enable effective management and utilization of IT resources across servers, storage, I/O networks, software, hardware and facilities.

    There are many different points of interest for collecting metrics in an IT data center for servers, storage, networking and facilities along with various points of interest or perspectives. Data center personal have varied interest from a facilities to a resource (server, storage, networking) usage and effectiveness perspective for normal use as well as planning purposes or comparison when evaluating new technology. Vendors have different uses for metrics during R&D, Q/A testing and marketing or sales campaigns as well as on-going service and support. Industry trade groups including 80 Plus, SNIA and the green grid along with government groups including the EPA Energy Star are working to define and establish applicable metrics pertinent for Green and Virtual data centers.

    Acronym

    Description

    Comment

    DCiE

    Data center Efficiency = (IT equipment / Total facility power) * 100

    Shows a ratio of how well a data center is consuming power

    DCPE

    Data center Performance Efficiency = Effective IT workload / total facility power

    Shows how effective data center is consuming power to produce a given level of service or work such as energy per transaction or energy per business function performed

    PUE

    Power usage effectiveness = Total facility power / IT equipment power

    Inverse of DCE

    Kilowatts (kw)

    Watts / 1,000

    One thousand watts

    Annual kWh

    kWh x 24 x 365

    kWh used in on year

    Megawatts (mw)

    kW / 1,000

    One thousand kW

    BTU/hour

    watts x 3.413

    Heat generated in an hour from using energy in British Thermal Units. 12,000 BTU/hour can equate to 1 Ton of cooling.

    kWh

    1,000 watt hours

    The number of watts used in one hour

    Watts

    Amps x Volts (e.g. 12 amps * 12 volts = 144 watts)

    Unit of electrical energy power

    Watts

    BTU/hour x 0.293

    Convert BTU/hr to watts

    Volts

    Watts / Amps (e.g. 144 watts / 12 amps = 12 volts)

    The amount of force on electrons

    Amps

    Watts / Volts (e.g. 144 watts / 12 volts = 12 amps)

    The flow rate of electricity

    Volt-Amperes (VA)

    Volts x Amps

    Sometimes power expressed in Volt-Ampres

    kVA

    Volts x Amp / 1000

    Number of kilovolt-ampres

    kW

    kVA x power-factor

    Power factor is the efficiency of a piece of equipments use of power

    kVA

    kW / power-factor

    Killovolt-Ampres

    U

    1U = 1.75”

    EIA metric describing height of equipment in racks.

     

    Activity / Watt Amount of work accomplished per unit of energy consumed. This could be IOPS, Transactions or Bandwidth per watt. Indicator how much work and how efficient energy is being used to accomplish useful work. This metric applies to active workloads or actively used and frequently accessed storage and data. Examples would be IOPS per watt, Bandwidth per watt, Transactions per watt, Users or streams per watt. Activity per watt should also be used in conjunction with another metric such as how much capacity is supported per watt and total watts consumed for a representative picture.

    IOPS / Watt

    Number of I/O operations (or transactions) / energy (watts)

    Indicator of how effectively energy is being used to perform a given amount of work. The work could be I/Os, transactions, throughput or other indicator of application activity. For example SPC-1 / Watt, SPEC / Watt, TPC / Watt, transaction / watt,  IOP / Watt.

    Bandwidth / Watt GBPS or TBPS or PBPS / Watt Amount of data transferred or moved per second and energy used. Often confused with Capacity per watt This indicates how much data is moved or accessed per second or time interval per unit of energy consumed. This is often confused with capacity per watt given that both bandwidth and capacity reference GByte, TByte, PByte.

    Capacity / Watt

    GB or TB or PB (storage capacity space / watt

    Indicator of how much capacity (space) or bandwidth supported in a given configuration or footprint per watt of energy. For inactive data or off-line and archive data, capacity per watt can be an effective measurement gauge however for active workloads and applications activity per watt also needs to be looked at to get a representative indicator of how energy is being used

    Mhz / Watt

    Processor performance / energy (watts)

    Indicator of how effectively energy is being used by a CPU or processor.

    Carbon Credit

    Carbon offset credit

    Offset credits that can be bought and sold to offset your CO2 emissions

    CO2 Emission

    Average 1.341 lbs per kWh of electricity generated

    The amount of average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from generating an average kWh of electricity

    Various power, cooling, floor space and green storage or IT  related metrics

    Metrics include Data center Efficiency (DCiE) via the greengrid which is the indicator ratio of a IT data center energy efficiency defined as IT equipment (servers, disk and tape storage, networking switches, routers, printers, etc) / Total facility power x 100 (for percentage). For example, if the sum of all IT equipment energy usage resulted in 1,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month yet the total facility power including UPS, energy switching, power conversation and filtering, cooling and associated infrastructure costs as well as IT equipment resulting in 3,500 kWh, the DCiE would be (1,500 / 3,500) x 100 = 43%. DCiE can be used as a ratio for example to show in the above scenario that IT equipment accounts for about 43% of energy consumed by the data center with in this scenario 57% of electrical energy being consumed by cooling, conversion and conditioning or lighting.

    Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is the indicator ratio of total energy being consumed by the data center to energy being used to operate IT equipment. PUE is defined as total facility power / IT equipment energy consumption. Using the above scenario PUE = 2.333 (3,500 / 1,500) which means that a server requiring 100 watts of power would actually require (2.333 * 100) 233.3 watts of energy that includes both direct power and cooling costs. Similarly a storage system that required 1,500 kWh of energy to power would require (1,500*2.333) 3,499.5 kWh of electrical power including cooling.

    Another metric that has the potential to have meaning is Data center Performance Efficiency (DCPE) that takes into consideration how much useful and effective work is performed by the IT equipment and data center per energy consumed. DCPE is defined as useful work / total facility power with an example being some number of transactions processed using servers, networks and storage divided by energy for the data center to power and cool the equipment. An relatively easy and straightforward implementation of DCPE is an IOPs per watt measurement that looks at how many IOPs can be performed (regardless of size or type such as reads or writes) per unit of energy in this case watts.

    DCPE = Useful work / Total facility power, for example IOPS per watt of energy used

    DCiE = IT equipment energy / Total facility power = 1 / PUE

    PUE = Total facility energy / IT equipment energy

    IOPS per Watt = Number of IOPs (or bandwidth) / energy used by the storage system

    The importance of these numbers and metrics is to focus on the larger impact of a piece of IT equipment that includes its cost and energy consumption that factors in cooling and other hosting or site environmental costs. Naturally energy costs and CO2 (carbon offsets) will vary by geography and region along with type of electrical power being used (Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Wind, Thermo, Solar, etc) and other factors that should be kept in perspective as part of the big picture. Learn more in Chapter 5 "Measurement, Metrics, and Management of IT Resources" in the book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and in the book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC).

    Disclaimer and notes

    Disclaimer and note:  URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.  Best effort has been made to validate and verify the URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer’s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    What this all means

    The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

    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

    January 2015 Server StorageIO Industry Trends Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue I

    Hello and welcome to this January 2015 Server and StorageIO update newsletter. Its 2015 and the new year is off and running picking up where 2014 left off. January is typically a relatively quiet month when it comes to technology announcements and other industry activity. However January is also time where there is a lot going on behind the scenes. This means that there are many things to watch for in the coming months, weeks or perhaps even days.

    Commentary In The News

    StorageIO news

    Following are some Server and StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various venues. In case you missed it, Box recently did their IPO and here are some perspectives over at SaaS In the Enterprise prior to the IPO.

    Over at Enterprise Storage Forum I have some perspectives on High Performance Compute (HPC) aka High Productivity Compute along with big data and object storage in the Lustre buying guide.

    Also over at Enterprise Storage Forum some tips and comments on data storage benchmarking guide. Meanwhile over at  InfoStor check see 9 Storage Startups to Watch. Search SolidState Storage has some perspectives on NexGen Storage ioControl following SanDisk spinout and over at Processor some comments on avoiding common mistakes with virtualization. View more trends comments here

    Tips and Articles

    Cloud storage: Is It All About Cost?

    Is cloud storage all about removing cost, cost cutting, free storage? Or perhaps even getting something else in addition to free storage?

    You might ask: what type of cloud storage am I referring to? That’s a great question. After all, there are many types or categories of public cloud storage services, not to mention private and hybrid options. There are cloud storage services for consumers to save and share their photos, videos, music and other documents to. Then there is business and enterprise file, document, object and collaboration cloud storage options. Read the entire article here.

    View recent as well as past tips and articles here

    Server StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Server StorageIO Tips and Articles
  • Server StorageIO blog posts
  • Events & Activities

    May 4-6, 2015 EMCworld Las Vegas
    April 29, 2015 Interop Las Vegas
    April 12 -13, 2015 NAB Las Vegas
    March 3, 2015 – TBA (St. Paul)
    Feb 18, 2015 Usenix FAST Santa Clara

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    December 11, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Performance
    December 10, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Decision Making
    December 9, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Virtual Server and Storage Decision Making
    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization
    November 13 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Storage

    Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From Server StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Intel NUC nick knack notes and review

    Intel nuc server storage I/O
    Intel nuc server storage I/O ports
    Intel Nuc

    This Server StorageIO lab review looks at  Intel NUC for virtual, physical and software defined storage networking. Read more about Intel Nuc here.

    View other StorageIO lab and reports here.

    Resources and Links

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

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

    Cheers gs

    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