The Business Impact of New Storage Architectures

Transcription

1 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture The Business Impact of New Storage Architectures By Russ Fellows October, 2012 Enabling you to make the best technology decisions

2 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 1

3 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 2 Introduction Businesses of all sizes are searching for ways to improve their productivity and competitiveness, resulting in IT systems continuing to increase in importance, regardless of industry segment. Storage is recognized as a critical component of enterprise IT. In many cases, application performance and capacity demands are outpacing either performance or capacity improvements of traditional storage systems. Disk capacity improvements have been able to accommodate applications capacity, but have been falling farther behind in meeting their performance demands. Solid- state storage devices are being introduced to support the high- performance demands of applications, despite their cost. Complex environments have proven optimizing storage performance is difficult to perform manually, leading to increased operational costs. Virtualized environments only exacerbate these issues and highlight the need for a new type of storage system, one optimized for virtual application environments, supporting their capacity and performance demands without impacting administrative overhead. Virtualized Application Environments Today s storage systems must accommodate diverse applications, which are increasingly being run on virtualized servers. While virtualization improves physical server utilization, the demands placed on remaining infrastructure and particularly storage can present challenges for IT administrators. Traditional midrange storage systems were designed to support a few simultaneous workloads. Supporting multiple workloads contending for resources with high performance and availability has been the realm of large, enterprise class storage systems. While enterprise storage provides the performance and availability needed, these systems are typically not effective in mid- sized enterprises due to their cost and complexity. Storage systems supporting virtualized application environments must deliver high performance reliably to demanding and unpredictable workloads. Traditional midrange storage systems have lacked the features and automation needed to improve operational efficiency. Next Generation Storage A new generation of storage system is needed, designed for mid- sized companies to deliver reliable performance for dynamic workloads, while remaining easy to manage and cost effective. Features such as provisioning, performance optimization and data protection while maintaining high availability levels are critical to support today s demanding virtualized application environments.

4 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 3 In particular, mid- sized enterprise IT staff are faced with the challenge of performing multiple job functions, becoming IT generalists. Administering servers, LAN and SAN networks along with storage and data protection are often just a portion of the new IT generalists duties. While these administrators have a great deal of knowledge about their environment and application requirements, they do not have sufficient time to monitor and tune individual applications, or the underlying infrastructure. The storage features required to meet these demands must include traditional midrange storage features such as storage network attachment, high availability and data protection. Additionally, capabilities that can optimize performance, capacity and availability with limited administration are increasingly important. Business Value of Dot Hill s AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Technology can sound compelling to IT professionals, but business users understand that technical features can only be measured by their ability to improve business operations. Dot Hill s AssuredSAN Pro 5000 has a number of capabilities that are specifically designed to enhance business operations in mid- sized enterprises. As shown below in Table 1, these features help to deliver the reliable performance virtualized applications require, cost effectively and with minimal IT administration. The RealStor TM software platform includes key features called RealTier TM,, RealPool TM, RealThin TM, and RealQuick TM. Product Feature RealTier Automated Tiering: Automated tiering across multiple storage tiers, enabling fine- grained placement of data in near real- time RealPool Automated Pools: Automatic pooling of storage capacity, reduces configuration effort RealThin Thin Provisioning: Enables allocating capacity headroom to applications, increasing storage utilization Business Value Optimizes system performance in near real time to accommodate dynamic virtualized workloads Reduces administration overhead associated with RAID group creation, reducing stranded capacity Improves storage capacity utilization, reducing capital costs. Reduces application downtime, improving business productivity

5 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 4 and reducing application disruptions RealQuick Fast RAID Rebuild: Fast data rebuild, minimizes performance impact of media failures, while enhancing overall system availability Data Protection Software Point in time snapshots, local clones and remote copy software VMware and Citrix Integration VMware VAAI enables offloading of hypervisor features while SRM integration enables HA application configurations Minimizes exposure to data loss, while minimizing performance impact to applications during maintenance operations Provides options to match business requirements with optimal data protection capability. Enables business RTO and RPO s to cover specific data loss scenarios Integration with hypervisors enhance application performance and availability while minimizing IT administration Advanced Storage Technologies Table 1: Business Value of Storage Features Some technologies sound appealing, but due to real- world use, may not add value to business applications or improve IT administration. Technologies that can address the core concerns of business applications, or reduce IT administration are often the most valuable. These core issues are utilization, availability, and performance while reducing IT administration costs. Increasing Storage Utilization Capacity utilization of storage has been one of the largest cost drivers, particularly for open systems applications. This has arisen because increasing capacity for applications after initial configuration can cause downtime. As a result, a common practice has been to allocate more capacity than needed. While this makes application administration easier, it leads to significant wasted capacity. Server virtualization has been a technology that has proven far more beneficial than many people may have first imagined. This provides administrators the ability to allocate the necessary resources dynamically as required. One of the most effective storage optimization tools to emerge is thin provisioning, which also enables allocating capacity when needed. As a result, utilization is enhanced with each application allocating capacity in the future.

6 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 5 Pooling networked storage capacity combined with thin provisioning has proven to be one of the most effective ways to lower storage costs in organizations. Dot Hill s RealThin and RealPool capabilities enable enhanced utilization through thin- provisioning and pooling respectively. Increasing System Availability While companies may have midrange storage capacity needs, most companies now have enterprise availability requirements. One of the consequences of increased utilization and efficiency is that the impact of system maintenance or repairs can affect many parts of a business. With server and application consolidation occurring, the remaining infrastructure is increasingly important to IT operations. System downtime can have an impact when one application is affected; however, when multiple applications are affected by system downtime it can become intolerable. Decreasing the length of time to replace failed storage media decreases the length of time system availability is at risk. Dot Hill s new RealQuick feature enables AssuredSAN Pro 5000 systems to rebuild failed media significantly faster than traditional storage systems. By intelligently rebuilding only allocated data, the risk of downtime is minimized while performance remains constant. Data protection has been a concern for businesses since data storage began. Protecting from data loss due to human error or accidental deletion reduces both application and data unavailability, while also reducing demands on IT staff. Commonly this is accomplished with point- in- time copies, or snapshots. In order to protect from disasters or site wide outages, remote copies of data are required. Disaster protection features deployed include remote replication between storage systems. Dot Hill AssuredSAN Pro systems support snapshots, local volume copies and remote replication, providing a wide range of protection against local and catastrophic data loss. Improving System Performance Optimizing performance of IT systems is a daily challenge both for IT administrators and users. Application users want the best performance possible, since time savings correlate directly to a business bottom line. While performance improvements may seem straightforward, IT administrators understand the difficulty of optimizing systems for even a single application. Responding to rapidly application requirements is an important requirement for today s storage systems. Fine- grained, continual monitoring of data is critical to responding to hot spots as they occur, rather than after the fact. With virtualized workloads running tens or potentially hundreds of applications on a single storage system, application optimization quickly becomes an overwhelming proposition. Manual solutions are impractical, leading business application users and IT administrators to automated solutions.

7 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 6 It is critical for this analysis and movement to occur quickly. Some systems analyze data over an 8 or 24 hour period and then attempt to optimize the systems for the observed access patterns. In such cases, the system may choose the wrong data. These designs optimize a system for yesterday s information, reducing the business benefits. As an example, has a high total capacity of data, but only a small portion of which is accessed over the course of a day. By moving today s onto SSD media automatically, users will see a substantial performance improvement compared to systems that are unable to optimize data placement, or spend hours analyzing data prior to movement. Understanding what data should be placed onto faster media has often been left up to system administrators. In environments with an entire storage system dedicated to one or two critical applications, this was feasible. With consolidation due to server virtualization and the dynamic nature of virtualized workloads, manual data placement is no longer practical or even possible. Recently, a new class of storage system based on solid- state devices has become cost effective for a portion of applications, or those with high performance needs. Currently, placing all application data on solid- state media is cost prohibitive for most applications. However, it is possible to place the most important data on these devices, a concept known as tiering. Applying the concept of automatic optimization within a storage system, it is possible to significantly improve system performance without administrative intervention. By dynamically moving the most active data to an SSD tier, it is possible to improve performance significantly. As demonstrated by Dot Hill testing, RealTier enables the Assured SAN Pro 5000 to more than double the number of I/O operations for a given configuration. A two tiered system with 36 TB of 10K drives and 4 SSD drives was able to deliver more than 2X the number of I/O operations compared to a single tiered system with identical disk drive configuration. Dot Hill s RealTier supports multiple classes or tiers of storage and is able to move data between these tiers in near real- time. By accommodating dynamic workloads with data movement intervals at less than 1 minute, the Assured SAN Pro 5000 provides advantages over designs that take hours, or even days to move data between tiers. Reducing Administration Administrative overhead is an issue for companies of all sizes. Mid- sized companies are faced with the reality that IT personnel are tasked with a wide variety of duties. Specialization is not possible due to the number of roles required and limited time. Factors that can affect administration include:

8 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 7 Integration with other infrastructure including storage connectivity choices and management integration Integration with virtual hypervisors including support for array offloading of functions, data protection and disaster recovery mechanisms Time spent for on- going storage tasks such as provisioning, capacity expansion and data protection activities The RealPool and RealThin features can help address administration time spent setting up and allocating storage capacity. Reducing administration overhead is also a direct result of Dot Hill s RealTier, eliminating the need to move data to optimize performance. Dot Hill provides support for both iscsi and Fibre Channel technologies with the AssuredSAN Pro 5000, enabling companies the ability to choose the best connectivity option for their environment. Enabling choice enhances the system s flexibility, also helping to lower administrative overhead. TCO Analysis of Dot Hill AssuredSAN In evaluating a purchase, the total cost of ownership (or TCO) can often play an important role. The initial purchase price and costs of upgrading are major components that factor into the capital purchase part of a TCO analysis. Additional factors such as operational efficiencies may be part of a TCO analysis; however, the value of these items is subjective and may be controversial in a TCO comparison. The Dot Hill pricing model that includes the RealStor software at a single price point regardless of the capacity or performance configurations contributes to a low and declining Total Cost of Ownership as the capacity increases. In Figure 1 below, typical configurations have their TCO modeled to show the effect of the price as capacity is increased in the chosen configuration. In TCO calculation, the acquisition, training, and installation costs are amortized over the lifespan of the system and yearly costs of support, administration, power, cooling, and space are added. The total is divided by the capacity to give a cost per terabyte per year.

9 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 8 $*0"12(3/4-4"!)*'""#""$!)*&""#""$!)*%""#""$ %,-./0$1/23$4256/$!"#"$%"#"&'()"!)*"""#""$!(""#""$!'""#""$!&""#""$ %,-./0$7/0890:2;5/$ %,-./0$42<25.=>$?,-./0$7/0890:2;5/$!%""#""$!"#""$ "$ +"$ )""$ )+"$ %""$ %+"$ Figure 1: Dot Hill TCO Analysis The Dot Hill Assured SAN PRO 5000 does not require additional installation or training expenses and has an expected lifespan of five years. The above diagram reflects the TCO without power, cooling, or space charges. Final Thoughts In order to remain competitive and grow, mid- sized companies must utilize IT infrastructure that can deliver large enterprise features at competitive price points. Storage is an important component in protecting and processing business information. Achieving high utilization, coupled with increased flexibility and reliability promised by server virtualization is dependent upon choosing the correct storage system. A new generation of storage systems designed to support virtualized applications are emerging. Integration and support for server virtualization, including VMware capabilities such as VAAI and SRM and their Hyper- V and Citrix equivalents is a first step. Additionally, modern storage systems must improve capacity utilization, availability and performance for virtual application environments.

10 The Business Impact of New Storage Architecture 9 Technology features needed by mid- sized companies include the capability to enhance utilization and performance, all while increasing availability and decreasing administration. Traditional storage systems often fail to deliver on all these aspects. Dot Hill s AssuredSAN Pro 5000 addresses storage capacity optimization and performance requirements needed in virtualized environments. A system running multiple applications will see performance improvements through the use of near real time tiering, thin provisioning and fast rebuilds. With the reliability Dot Hill has developed over the course of three decades, the AssuredSAN Pro 5000 is a strong addition to virtualized application environments. About Evaluator Group Evaluator Group Inc. is dedicated to helping IT professionals and vendors create and implement strategies that make the most of the value of their storage and digital information. Evaluator Group services deliver in- depth, unbiased analysis on storage architectures, infrastructures and management for IT professionals. Since 1997 Evaluator Group has provided services for thousands of end users and vendor professionals through product and market evaluations, competitive analysis and education. Follow us on Copyright 2012 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or stored in a database or retrieval system for any purpose without the express written consent of Evaluator Group Inc. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Evaluator Group assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Evaluator Group makes no expressed or implied warranties in this document relating to the use or operation of the products described herein. In no event shall Evaluator Group be liable for any indirect, special, inconsequential or incidental damages arising out of or associated with any aspect of this publication, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. The Evaluator Series is a trademark of Evaluator Group, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.