Your Guide to Choosing the Right Flash-Optimized Solution

Transcription

1 Your Guide to Choosing the Right Flash-Optimized Solution

2 Your Guide to Choosing the Right Flash-Optimized Solution The view from 30,000 feet After spending its formative years in the consumer products industry, flash storage is now making in roads into enterprise data centers and the mainstream of the IT world. There are good reasons for this trend. Flash-based solid state drives (SSD) and storage platforms can deliver exceptional performance and application response time (with low latency), along with better power efficiency than conventional spinning disk, all in a compact footprint. And it s a technology that is up to the challenges of the most demanding applications. But the benefits of flash are not a given. To deliver on the promise of this emerging data center technology, flash-optimized solutions need be architected with a few fundamental design requirements in mind. These requirements, explored in this e-book, are focused on increasing performance, efficiency, resiliency, and data mobility. The word on the street: Change is good Solid-state storage is an important emerging change, not just an addition or tweak, in the world of storage. Mark Peters, Enterprise Strategy Group1 SSDs unique attributes provide the enabling technologies for the future of data efficiency in primary storage. Dan Iacono, IDC2 1 Market Landscape Report: Solid-state Storage, Enterprise Strategy Group, April Primary Storage Data Efficiency with Solid State Storage, IDC, February What is flash? A 60-second primer.

3 What is flash? A 60-second primer. Flash takes various forms. Flash is a term that refers to semiconductor What is flash? technology A 60-second used primer. to build solid state storage. This can be in the form of solid states drives and other form factors like storage Flash takes on various interface forms. cards. Flash is a term that refers to semiconductor technology used to build solid state storage. This can be in the form of solid state drives and other While form factors like its storage a hot on interface topic cards. of conversation range among of consumer products, IT managers from cameras and smartphones and to game consoles and GPS navigators. storage vendors, flash storage is not new. It s been in use for decades in a wide range of consumer products, from cameras and smartphones to game consoles and GPS navigators. Figure 1: Flash is... While it is a hot topic of conversation among IT managers and storage vendors, flash storage is not new. It s been in use for decades in a wide Flash is everywhere. Flash is aptly named. Flash is not just a type of disk. Today, storage vendors are putting the technology to work in everything from servers and networking gear to flashoptimized appliances and solid-state storage arrays. Flash is now emerging as a key technology for enterprise storage systems. The term flash sounds fast and that s accurate. While it has many benefits beyond speed, flash storage is known for its low latency and exceptionally fast performance. Because of that speed, flash is particularly well suited for applications that require high I/O and low latency such as online transaction processing and financial trading. You ll hear people refer to flash as NAND solid-state disk and solid state disk drives, among other terms. While those are acceptable, commonly used descriptions, the term disk is somewhat of a misnomer. Unlike hard disk drives (HDDs), flash storage has no spinning disks and no moving parts. Data is stored in integrated circuits. The word on the street: Performance Matters Improved performance is by far the most recognized advantage that solid state storage provides over traditional mechanical drives. 5 Mark Peters, Enterprise Strategy Group3 Everyone wants better storage performance and solid-state drive devices can deliver data at phenomenal speeds while also saving energy. Butcan your data center s network handle the data equivalent of switching from a water bubbler to a fire hose before making such a costly investment? Dennis Martin, founder and president of Demartek4 3 Market Landscape Report: Solid-state Storage, Enterprise Strategy Group, April Five questions on solid-state drive technology, Search Data Center, January 15, 2012.

4 HP is no stranger to flash storage solutions Since 2011, we have shipped more than 104 petabytes of SSD/ Flash in 412K drives.7 While flash is a relatively new technology in enterprise data centers, it s not new to HP. We have years of experience with flash and other forms of solid state devices. Over the years, we have made flash a focal point for our storage engineering and innovation efforts. This focus has led to the availability of flash storage in our servers and disk array systems. Along the way, we ve worked side by side with enterprise customers to design and deploy storage solutions that incorporate flash technology to accelerate performance-hungry applications. Our engineers have thought long and hard about the architectural requirements for using flash in enterprise-class storage systems. This vendor-independent guide summarizes some of the key lessons they have learned about those requirements. Day 1 design requirements for flash 7 HP supply chain analysis for ISS and HPSD SLC, MLC, and host cache SKUs from 2011 to Day 1 Design Requirements for Flash To make the most of flash technology and deliver all of the associated payoffs storage solutions need to meet four key design requirements. To make the most of flash technology and deliver all of the associated payoffs storage solutions need to meet four key design requirements. Figure 2: The four design requirements for flash Performance acceleration Efficiency optimization Data mobility System resiliency 8

5 1. Performance acceleration 1. Performance acceleration If they can t keep up with the performance of If flash they drives, can t keep the up storage with the controllers performance that of sit flash drives, the storage controller between that sit between servers and servers back-end and back-end flash devices flash devices can become performance can become performance bottlenecks. To gain bottlenecks. To gain the full performance advantages of flash, you need to be su the full performance advantages of flash, you need your to architecture be sure your is ready architecture to scale is up ready to flash to speeds. scale up to flash speeds. For most adopters in the enterprise world, flash is all about The performance of flash storage can hav For most adopters in the enterprise world, flash is all about performance. performance. They They look look to flash to flash to greatly to greatly accelerate accelerate IOPS (input/output IOPS bottom line. Flash can greatly accelerate y (input/output operations per second) operations while reducing per second) latency. while Flash reducing devices can latency. deliver to process far more transactions within a Flash 50 times devices the IOPS can performance deliver 50 of times conventional the IOPS spinning performance HDDs and of way, it can help you deliver a better custom conventional do so at very low spinning latency. A HDDs and flash device can do deliver so at IOPS very at low less latency. than 1 things happen a lot faster. A millisecond or flash device can 1/1000th deliver of a IOPS second. at In less contrast, than spinning 1 millisecond or media has 1/1000th typically 10 of times a second. that latency or In contrast, even spinning more. media has typically 10 Flash can also help you control operations times that latency or even more. flash drives can potentially do the work of But there s a catch: If you don t have the right architecture in place, you you to reduce the footprint and power con But won t there s realize a the catch: full performance If you don t potential have of the flash right storage. architecture You need in environment. place, you won t realize the full performance potential of flash to have a storage architecture that avoids bottlenecks in the entire I/O storage. You need to have a storage architecture that avoids bottlenecks path controllers, in the cache, entire firmware to I/O path controllers, deliver accelerated cache, IOPS at firmware to low deliver latency. accelerated Without a truly IOPS optimized at low design latency. you will Without flood the a ability truly of optimized design controllers you to will keep flood up and the cap ability the performance of controllers of the system. to keep You up also and cap the need performance to be able to assign of the those system. IOPS intelligently You also need to various to be applications able to assign those to ensure IOPS you intelligently can meet your to service various level applications requirements. to ensure you can meet your service level requirements. The performance of flash storage can have a direct impact on your bottom line. Flash can greatly accelerate your business by allowing you to process far more transactions within a given time window. Along the way, it can help you deliver a better customer experience because things happen a lot faster. Flash can also help you control operations costs. That s because 10 flash drives can potentially do the work of 500 hard drives, which allows you to reduce the footprint and power consumption of your storage environment.

6 2. Efficiency optimization 2. Efficiency optimization While prices have fallen in recent years, the acquisition While prices cost have of fallen flash in storage recent years, is still the much acquisition c higher much than higher that than of that hard of disk hard drives. disk drives. This This reality m reality makes capacity utilization and media media endurance extremely important. When you bring endurance extremely important. When you bring data flash center, storage you want arrays to make into sure your you data can take full ad center, you want to make sure you can take full advantage of your investment. Why IT managers it matters often prepare for growth by buying and provisioning more With the effic IT storage managers capacity often than prepare they need for for their growth immediate by buying requirements, and provisioning and of storage. H more then letting storage capacity capacity sit idle. than This is they one of need the reasons for their why immediate most legacy times that o requirements, storage systems and are massively then letting underutilized they capacity sit idle. have an This average is one of delivers 50 t the utilization reasons rate why around most 30%. legacy This model storage is bad systems enough with are spinning massively you re gettin underutilized they media but completely fails have with an flash average media, utilization which can sell rate for up around to 10 30%. cost. While e This times model the price is of bad HDDs enough on a dollar/gigabyte with spinning basis. media The higher but completely upfront flash, they a fails cost with creates flash the requirement media, which to use can every sell kilobyte for up of to flash 10 media times as the price bang of for the HDDs efficiently on as a dollar/gigabyte possible. basis. The higher upfront cost creates the requirement to use every kilobyte of flash media as efficiently as To possible. make this happen, and to lower your costs, you need a storage To architecture make this that happen, is designed and to to make lower optimal your use costs, of flash. you One need way to a do storage that is to architecture make better use that of the is available designed storage make capacity optimal through use data of flash. compaction One way and thin to do storage that technologies. is to make Another better is use to increase of the the available storage endurance capacity and lifespan through of the media data compaction by reducing the and number thin of storage times technologies. you write data to Another it. Unlike mechanical is to increase HDDs, the flash endurance is electronic and media lifespan of that the wears media down by with reducing each write. the This number means you of times need a you flash-optimized write data to it. architecture Unlike mechanical that helps you HDDs, avoid flash unnecessary is an electronic writes to the media. that wears down with each write. This means you need a flash-optimized architecture that helps you avoid unnecessary writes to the media. With the efficient use of flash media, you can actually reduce your costs of storage. Here s why: While the dollar/gigabyte cost of flash may be 10 times that of HHDs, your dollar/iops costs is far lower given that flash delivers 50 times the IOPS of spinning media. So in ballpark numbers, you re getting 50 times the IOPS performance for 10 times the upfront cost. While early adopters of all flash systems crave the performance of flash, they are also looking to lower their storage costs by getting more bang for their IOPS buck. The pay

7 3. System resiliency 3. System Resiliency If data is unavailable, your business can come to If a data stop. is unavailable, To enable reliable your business access can to your come to a stop. To enable reliable access t data, your flash data, storage flash storage solutions solutions should should provide provide rich data services, such as cluste rich data services, such as clustering and and multisite replication. multisite replication. While flash is a relatively new media in enterprise environments, it still must meet all the classic high availability and business While flash is a relatively new media in enterprise environments, it In an online world, the success of your busi continuity requirements that are taken for granted in traditional still must meet all the classic high availability and business continuity performance and availability of the applica Tier 1 disk systems such as the need for multisite replication and application requirements integrated that are taken disaster for granted recovery in traditional capabilities. Tier 1 disk interact with your enterprise. Downtime ca systems such as the need for multisite replication and applicationintegrated providers disaster of recovery Tier 1 storage capabilities. array solutions have spent and to keep your customers happy, you nee of both lost revenue and lost customers. To The hundreds of millions of dollars and many years developing robust you data regardless of the media it is sto resiliency The providers features. of Tier 1 Flash storage storage array solutions can t live have outside spent hundreds this realm. of To enable millions system of dollars resiliency, and many years you developing need an architecture robust resiliency that features. allows you to Flash protect storage data can t stored live outside on flash this realm. media To enable with the system same resiliency, battle-tested processes you need an and architecture Tier 1 capabilities that allows you used to protect to protect data stored data on stored flash on spinning media with media. the same battle-tested processes and Tier 1 capabilities used The to protect payoff data stored on spinning media. In an online world, the success of your business depends on the performance and availability of the applications your customers use to interact with your enterprise. Downtime can be extremely costly in terms of both lost revenue and lost customers. To keep the revenue flowing, and to keep your customers happy, you need uninterrupted access to you data regardless of the media it is stored on. 4. Data mobility 4. Data Mobility In today s information-driven world, data must move seamlessly and non-disruptively among systems, disk tiers, and physical locations. This data mobility is one of the keys to IT and business keys to IT agility. and business agility. In today s information-driven world, data must move seamlessly and non-disrup among systems, disk tiers, and physical locations. This data mobility is one of the For your business to deliver consistently great application performance at an affordable cost, your storage architecture must For your business to deliver consistently great application performance The ability to move data non-disruptively at an affordable cost, your storage architecture must allow data to move storage can help your organization increa easily to keep up with the pace Follow of change. us on: At times of peak demand transaction throughput on your applicatio on certain applications, you want the associated data on your fastest spikes in demand such as an e-commer

8 allow data to move easily to keep up with the pace of change. At times of peak demand on certain applications, you want the associated data on your fastest storage technology flash media either on backend storage or in some cases at the host level in a server. At other times, when demand on the application is lower, you may want to move the same data to a lower-cost tier of storage and save your flash capacity for other applications that could benefit from the performance boost. In addition, you need to deploy on an architecture that can enable load balancing and technology refresh using technologies such as storage federation to avoid disrupting critical applications without disrupting critical applications. The ability to move data non-disruptively between types and tiers of storage can help your organization increase revenue by accelerating transaction throughput on your applications that are experiencing spikes in demand such as an e-commerce application on Black Friday or a financial application at the end of a quarter. At the same time, this dynamic response, enabled by transparent and non-disruptive data mobility, allows you to save money by storing data on the most cost-effective media. for less. All four ts are essential. ements. When it comes to flash or even three out of four isn t good e on the technology, storage ll four design requirements. Don t settle for less. All four requirements are essential. Requirements are requirements. When it comes to flash storage, two out of four or even three out of four isn t good enough. To fully capitalize on the technology, storage solutions need to meet all four design requirements. Figure 3: Review the four design requirements for flash Performance acceleration Data mobility Efficiency optimization System resiliency disk systems leads to silos The legacy storage market-share Follow leaders us on: have evaluated those siloed architectures and have been forced to add completely segregated flashbased disk systems to already-complex portfolios.

9 ta obility Sy resilie but lack the rich data services and system resiliency features found in : Adding segregated flash-based disk systems leads to silos The legacy storage market-share leaders have evaluated those siloed Flash Midrange Many vendors architectures can currently and have been forced to add completely segregated flas meet some but based disk not systems all of to the already-complex portfolios. four design requirements for flash. Flash array startups have been focused on maximizing performance Efficiency Most of the more storage established deployed platforms. Those established platforms have spent Cost in data centers hundreds today of millions was of R&D dollars to build a robust set of advanced Midrange Tier 1 Flash architected data close services. to 20 It will years be difficult for those smaller players to match the ago long before investment flash cost media and time required to deliver Tier 1 resiliency. was a consideration. There is no doubt that flash is a disruptive force in the market and Tier 1 Midrange The legacy storage offers great marketshare leaders moving have forward evaluated with flash, it s important to ask yourself, and your potential to performance-hungry applications. But before those siloed storage architectures vendor, why and you would want to choose between flash-optimi vendors have can currently been meet forced some but to add not completely all of the four segregated design performance flash-based and Tier disk 1 data services when you really need both. ements systems for flash. to already-complex portfolios. Architecture matters, and storage innovation is thriving at HP. We don of the storage Flash deployed array startups in data centers have today been was architected focused on maximizing think you should have to compromise anything and we invite you to to 20 years performance ago long before but flash lack media the was rich a consideration. data services and ask system us those resiliency same tough questions. features found in more established platforms. Those established platforms have spent hundreds of millions of R&D dollars to build a robust set of advanced data services. It will be difficult for those smaller players to match the investment cost and time required to deliver Tier 1 resiliency. There is no doubt that flash is a disruptive force in the market and offers great potential to performance-hungry applications. But before moving forward with flash, it s important to ask yourself, and your storage vendor, why you would want to choose between flash-optimized performance and Tier 1 data services when you really need both. Architecture matters, and storage innovation is thriving at HP. We don t think you should have to compromise anything and we invite you to ask us those same tough questions. Comport Aligns Enterprises with Optimal Storage Solutions With the benefit of 30 years experience in infrastructure solutions for data centers, Comport aligns enterprises with the right storage solutions and services to scale easily, and eliminate expensive silos in support of today s business and technology goals. To reduce operational risk and bring the promised cost savings to fruition, Comport analyzes specific pain points and provides

10 solutions and services to help enterprises get the most out of their infrastructure. Through honest and direct consultations, Comport will be pleased to discuss your storage needs and how flash storage may apply and improve your environment.