VENDOR PROFILE Red Hat as a Storage Solutions Provider Amita Potnis Ashish Nadkarni IDC OPINION Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA P.508.872.8200 F.508.935.4015 www.idc.com Many organizations admit that controlling an explosion in unstructured or semistructured data is one of the biggest challenges they face today. This is primarily driven by an increasingly mobile and socially connected workforce that is now also resorting to a BYOD strategy. IDC anticipates that by 2015, over 83% of total disk storage systems capacity will be shipped to support file-level data. Managing this growth means that IT departments have to seek suitable file-based storage media to supplement and in many cases replace their existing storage solutions. Until not too long ago, their options were limited to tightly integrated, proprietary scale-up or scale-out NAS solutions. Even though storage vendors are increasingly resorting to commodity hardware and in many cases open source platforms, many still prefer to keep a tight control on the end-to-end stack (i.e., they do not give buyers the option of selecting a different vendor's hardware platform to run the storage software stack). In other words, commoditization of storage has not done much to alleviate buyer remorse on vendor lock-in. What buyers are paying for is the integration of commodity components. While this has a slew of benefits, it is still one of the principal reasons for storage costs resisting a downward trend. Buyers with a strong DIY leaning are left to do their own integration with open source components. In addition: Thanks to companies like Red Hat, there is now a middle road. With a strong foundation in the open source community by way of its Linux roots, Red Hat is making a strong case to be treated as a storage vendor. To make this possible, Red Hat recently acquired Gluster, a maker of distributed file systems. It recently announced Red Hat Storage 2.0 a storage software solution built on its venerable Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution, GlusterFS and other industry-proven open source components. Enterprises that want to go down the middle road where they can supplement their existing storage and compute environments with a software-based storage solution. They can choose to run it on existing hardware, inside virtual environments or in the cloud. With Red Hat Storage 2.0, Red Hat has upped the ante on commoditization of storage in a manner similar to how it commercialized Linux and a host of other open source solutions. As customers demand more for less, which they should be able to accomplish with solutions like Red Hat Storage Server 2.0, this will no doubt put pressure on the incumbent vendors to reexamine their strategy. For starters, they would be better served in not dismissing Red Hat as just another component supplier. The commoditization of storage and open source storage stack is in essence a disruptive and unstoppable force that will change the ways of the traditional storage market dominated by vendors selling proprietary hardware and software. Filing Information: November 2012, IDC #237976, Volume: 1 Storage Solutions: File-based Storage: Vendor Profile
IN THIS VENDOR PROFILE This IDC Vendor Profile showcases Red Hat's progression as a storage company using Storage Server 2.0 platform as the case in point. The Red Hat Storage Server 2.0 platform is a scale-out, open source object-based storage software solution. Red Hat Storage Server enables users to effectively virtualize the data storage tier independent of storage resource type or location and capitalize on the economic value of commodity x86 severs to leverage and build their own on-premise, private, public, or hybrid cloud environments. Red Hat storage can be deployed on bare metal, as a virtual guest, or in the AWS public cloud and create a shared pool of storage. As a result, the location of the actual disk resources becomes less relevant. This includes direct attach disk, scale-up NAS or SAN resources offered as a virtualized resource or Amazon EBS blocks. SITUATION OVERVIEW In its paper on distributed file systems, IDC illustrated how file systems are undergoing a profound change and how this change is influencing the future of the storage ecosystem. Storage suppliers, whether they like it or not, will need to reckon with the fact that file systems will essentially govern the convergence between their disparate product lines, in addition to providing a ubiquitous Ethernet-driven storage medium. Below is how file systems are influencing the change when undergoing a quiet metamorphosis themselves: Scale-out storage systems: Today, several companies are global entities with an expanding mobile user base across sites and regions. The geographically distributed workforce requires seamless collaboration, system performance, reliability, predictability, security, and above all a low tolerance for latency. In addition, the growing data, network costs, and increasing need for storage are primary concerns of several CIOs. The result was the need for a decentralized distributed storage system that could use uniform access interfaces and the ability to scale and manage globally distributed data over heterogeneous systems. Consequently, the vendors and the open source community brought to market scale-out distributed/clustered file systems. Object-aware file systems: While the adoption of these scale-out file systems increases, the next wave of file systems is coming into play. File systems are now becoming more object aware (i.e., gaining the ability to intelligently adapt to the type of files being stored). Files are no longer treated as a series of blocks but rather as objects. This means that file systems are no longer just an abstraction layer for unstructured data but can now be used to store any type of objects like virtual machine images, semi-structured machine-generated images, and so forth. While several vendors are developing object-aware file systems from scratch, companies like Red Hat by way of enhancements to its Gluster acquisition are treating object storage as an inherent part of a storage system and are actively collaborating with the open source community to continue to evolve capabilities and interoperability. 2 #237976 2012 IDC
Open Source I s B reaking the M old of P roprietary S torage S ystems The collaboration between open source community and the storage industry is well established and continues to grow. Most vendors today use Linux along with a host of other open source components such as SAMBA and Apache. for their storage stacks. In fact, many commercial file systems such as XFS and ZFS form the core of filebased storage products from companies like Nexenta and Nexsan. Traditional monolithic storage systems do not allow gradual performance upgrades. Any performance upgrade requirement would mean a complicated, time-consuming, disruptive forklift to another deploy system. This generally means users must buy more performance than needed at the time to fulfill existing needs. As compared with monolithic storage systems, scale-out solutions allow the users to scale performance and/or capacity through incremental procurement based on demand. Compatibility with industry standards is generally not in the best interest of a proprietary file system. Users are therefore locked into a particular product from a vendor for prolonged periods of time. In this situation, when a user requests an enhancement or bug fix on proprietary file systems, the vendor may address these issues on its own schedule. The deployment of monolithic storage systems and proprietary file systems often requires skilled labor that adds to the cost of ownership. On the other hand, an open source storage stack typically works across products from different vendors, preventing users from being bound to a single product from a single vendor. Typically, any open source storage stack has a cohort of developers and companies contributing to the development and innovation efforts. Open source empowers the users with greater control over cost, licensing restrictions, and flexibility to modify the product to in-house and contribute these changes back to the community. The NAS market is expected to grow at an 8% CAGR, reaching $8.1 billion by 2015. The demand for file-based systems will remain strong as their use-cases expand. Data management is by far the most challenging task when it comes to unstructured data and its continuous growth. Historically, open source and proprietary file systems (with the exception of a handful) can trace their roots to open source. Most file systems are built on open source Linux. While several vendors developed proprietary file systems based on Linux, Red Hat benefited from a larger, experienced developer community that contributed back to open source. With this experience, Red Hat was able to take an open source stack and commercialize it by means of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Storage Server. Company Overview Founded in 1993, Red Hat is a key player in the open source software market. Today, Red Hat has offerings in four key areas: platforms (the key Red Hat Enterprise Linux or RHEL products); JBoss Enterprise Middleware; cloud (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization [RHEV], CloudForms, OpenShift Enterprise, and an upcoming commercial version of OpenStack); and storage software. 2012 IDC #237976 3
Red Hat's metamorphosis in the commercial space began in 2003 when the company chose to move away from its core product Red Hat Linux to a business model that aimed to monetize from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by charging a premium. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is strong in the domains of security and virtualization. Red Hat Enterprise Linux remains Red Hat's flagship product and brings in most of the company's revenue. In addition to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat sells several types of software that a datacenter might need to deploy and run applications, with various middleware, storage, security, virtualization, and management products. Company Strategy Red Hat Consolidates Its Play in Storage via Gluster Arguably, Red Hat has always been in the thick of the storage given its experience in Linux and its commercial space distribution. And now with a formal christening of the flagship solution from its acquisition of Gluster, it has made its intentions clear: that it has aspirations to be among the rank and file of other storage solutions providers. Red Hat Storage Server (which includes the GlusterFS) allows users to effectively virtualize the data storage tier independent of storage resource type or location and to turn commodity x86 server hardware into scale-out storage nodes, keeping costs lower than the traditional monolithic storage systems. The latest addition is the Gluster acquisition and the GlusterFS core technology, which has been combined with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the XFS file system, openstack.org object, and ovirt.org storage management technologies to create Red Hat Storage Server. Red Hat Storage Server is object-based scale-out storage software system designed for deployment in public, private and hybrid cloud environments. Red Hat Storage Server is open source distributed storage system that allows organizations to benefit from a centrally managed high-performance, virtualized storage pool by using commodity compute, virtual, and cloud storage resources. Capacity and performance can scale linearly and independently enabling users to become cost efficient especially in today's tough economic times. Capacity can be increased by adding inexpensive disks or other storage resources while for more performance new server nodes can be added. One of the biggest challenges in storing unstructured data is to store its logical and physical location. Most file systems solve this problem through the use of metadata. The use of a metadata can create a single point of failure since all requests need to be funneled through this metadata server. The growing amount of data adds to the metadata. If the data store predominantly consists of small files, the ratio of metadata to data increases. Red Hat Storage Server has eliminated the need of metadata and instead places and locates data using an algorithm. All storage nodes server have the ability to locate data without the use of indexing or querying another server. Red Hat Storage Server allows a storage server node to locate a file using the pathname and file name and then applying the algorithm. Red Hat claims enhanced performance through the elimination of the metadata server and use of algorithm-based storing and retrieving of files. 4 #237976 2012 IDC
Red Hat claims that Red Hat Storage Server offers a complete operating system stack through features such as distributed memory management, I/O scheduling, software RAID, self-healing, and local N-way synchronous replication as well as asynchronous long-distance replication via Red Hat Geo Replication. Since Red Hat Storage Server operates in the user space, it is easy to upgrade or install as compared with proprietary software upgrades that have to be done via authorized vendor channels only. Red Hat Storage Server also supports development and execution of applications on the storage node. Types of applications can range from scripts to well-known Linux applications to custom distributed data applications moving data analysis and processing tasks closer to the data itself. In addition, since Red Hat Storage Server leverages Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Administrators and Data Developers can leverage familiar scripting languages and tools to create advanced storage and big data applications while ensuring storage node resources are protected. Red Hat Storage Server provides global namespace technology that enables aggregation of physically or virtually distributed storage into one logical storage pool. In a private cloud or a datacenter, Red Hat Storage Server global namespace enables users to create a large pool of network-attached storage by aggregating several storage nodes and associated files into a global namespace. Parallel access is supported when using native access via Red Hat Storage Server. Red Hat Storage Server's unified file and object capability enables users to access data as an object and as a file. Red Hat Storage Server based on GlusterFS allows files to be accessible using a traditional file system through NAS interfaces such as NFS or CIFS. Red Hat's latest Red Hat Storage Server 2.0 allows users to store and retrieve data through REST API as objects. FUTURE OUTLOOK There is little doubt that Ethernet and Ethernet-based technologies, specifically in the form of distributed file systems that rely on TCP/IP for transport, will dominate the future of storage. In fact, the commoditization of storage workloads means that such distributed file systems will be increasingly packaged in the form of pseudo or pure software-only packages such as Red Hat Storage Server. Businesses are expected to largely welcome this change as it gives them greater freedom in choosing the underlying hardware stack and greater flexibility in choosing the manner in which to deploy. However, this does not mean that the incumbents are going to take this lying down. Incumbent storage vendors will continue to push integrated file- and block-based solutions and make an even stronger case as to why such solutions are better than the likes of Red Hat Storage Server. Their experience and brand awareness will help them ward off potential threats from newer entrants like Red Hat, at least in the short term. 2012 IDC #237976 5
ESSENTIAL GUIDANCE Advice for Red Hat Red Hat like any other new entrant into the storage industry will need to rely entirely on its partnerships to propagate the awareness of Red Hat Storage Server. It will need to leverage its reputation in the enterprise Linux space to win over buyers that may have reservations about deploying an open source based storage stack. Last, it will need to rely upon hardware vendors to create integrated packaged solutions that are offered as viable alternatives to solutions from incumbent vendors. LEARN MORE Related Research How Distributed File Systems Are Rewriting the Future of Storage Ecosystem (IDC #236517, August 2012) The Future for Namespaces in File-Based Storage (IDC #236010, July 2012) Worldwide File-Based Storage 2012 2016 Forecast: Solutions for Content Delivery, Virtualization, Archiving, and Big Data Continue to Expand (IDC #235910, July 2012) Worldwide Storage and Virtualized x86 Environments 2012 2016 Forecast (IDC #235868, July 2012) Worldwide File-Based Storage 2011 2015 Forecast: Foundation Solutions for Content Delivery, Archiving, and Big Data (IDC #231910, December 2011) Worldwide Archival Storage Solutions 2011 2015 Forecast: Archiving Needs Thrive in an Information-Thirsty World (IDC #230762, October 2011) Mezeo Accelerates the Move to Cloud Storage (IDC #231082, October 2011) Quantum StorNext: High-Performance Scale-Out File System Solution for Large Data Types (IDC #230916, October 2011) Caringo's Steady Revenue Growth Highlights Bright Future for Object-Based Storage: The Cloud and the Enterprise (IDC #230632, September 2011) Worldwide Enterprise Storage for Public and Private Cloud 2011 2015 Forecast: Enabling Public Cloud Service Providers and Private Clouds (IDC #230283, September 2011) Hitachi Data Systems Acquires BlueArc: Long Expected, Easy to Digest (IDC #230275, September 2011) 6 #237976 2012 IDC
Scality: Scale-Out Storage Solutions for Today's Petabyte-Scale Content Depots (IDC #230021, August 2011) HP X9000 Takes the Solution Path to Address Pain Points in Unstructured File Growth (IDC #229598, July 2011) Copyright Notice This IDC research document was published as part of an IDC continuous intelligence service, providing written research, analyst interactions, telebriefings, and conferences. Visit www.idc.com to learn more about IDC subscription and consulting services. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices. Please contact the IDC Hotline at 800.343.4952, ext. 7988 (or +1.508.988.7988) or sales@idc.com for information on applying the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copies or Web rights. Copyright 2012 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved. 2012 IDC #237976 7