Storage Magazine 2016-07

STORAGE
Home
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
storage?
MANAGING THE INFORMATION THAT DRIVES THE ENTERPRISE
Toigo: (Re-)defining SNAPSHOT 1 EDITOR’S NOTE / CASTAGNA

the software-de-
fined storage stack Compatibility and Is it memory—
capacity drive data or is it storage?
Dealing with
Docker container protection shoppers
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
data protection PURCHASING STORAGE REVOLUTION / TOIGO
purchases
Storage spending (Re-)defining the
Storage picks up with new software-defined
purchasing survey
techs in sight storage stack
Snapshot 2:
Storage in a container:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Dealing with Docker

SNAPSHOT 2 HOT SPOTS / SINCLAIR
Storage network
performance Cloud not the clear Flash storage has a
Look under the hood of the Docker framework to better choice for some bottleneck problem
Sinclair: Flash
understand the transient nature of containers. backup/DR buyers
storage’s
bottleneck problem
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures NETWORKING READ-WRITE / WHALEN
attention
Storage networking Hyper-converged
About us
steps up to meet per- secondary storage
formance challenges emerges
JULY 2016, VOL. 15, NO. 5

STORAGE • JULY 2016 1
EDITOR’S LETTER
RICH CASTAGNA
Home
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
Is it memory—
storage?
Toigo: (Re-)defining
the perennial performance bottleneck.
the software-de-
fined storage stack or is it storage? Having significantly revved up storage performance,
storage users wanted—what else?—more performance.
Dealing with If you think NAND flash is fast, Greater demand and increased production helped take
Docker container
sit back, fasten your seat belt and some of the air out of inflated flash prices and, before you
get ready for the ride of your life. noticed, all-flash storage arrays were flying off showroom
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for floors.
data protection
purchases
Storage END OF THE SOLID-STATE STORY? HARDLY

purchasing survey IS IT LIVE, or
is it Memorex?” As flash quickly developed into an auxiliary cache for
Snapshot 2:
In those old TV commercials, Ella Fitzgerald hit a high server DRAM, one thing became clear: In a race with
Backup/DR choices note that shattered a glass—and then the same note was DRAM, as much as flash huffed and puffed its way through
for IT buyers played back on tape with the same shattering effect. While data, it finished a distant second. So, if flash is a lot faster
Storage network
Memorex is little more than a memory now, there are still than hard drives but lumbering compared to DRAM, there
performance some paradigm-shattering events grabbing data media had to be a storage technology that split the difference,
market headlines. right?
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s NAND flash technology has been adopted at a clip far And now there is one. Actually, there are several can-
bottleneck problem faster than anything else in the pokey, snail’s pace world didates to fill that gap, all of which have been around for
of storage technology. There are a number of reasons some time—but they’ve mostly been prisoners of R&D
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures for NAND’s meteoric rise, but it’s mainly because flash labs and more like science fair projects than products.
attention technology is showing up in nearly every storage product Two key recent developments clearly show there’s sol-
About us
sold these days for one reason: pure speed. Early on, be- id-state life beyond flash, and it’s not just a matter of faster,
cause it was the priciest storage medium on the market, bigger and more durable. The Micron/Intel partnership’s
storage vendors found clever ways of tapping a relatively recent rollout of 3D XPoint technology and IBM’s tweaks
small amount of flash to noticeably crank up perfor- to phase-change memory (PCM) are evidence that, while
mance—enough so, in some cases, to remove storage as NAND flash technology ushered in the solid-state era, it

Home is really just the harbinger of products to come that will many of us are still trying to put NAND flash performance
Castagna: Is it
challenge the traditional concepts of memory and storage. into perspective. But this new stuff is fundamentally dif-
memory—or is it The astounding thing about those two techs is how ferent than the solid-state we’re using today, as it’s nearly
storage? what those companies demoed was a zillion times faster as close to memory as it is to persistent storage. That
than the NAND flash technology in use today, would last distinction has resulted in a new term for these emerg-
the software-de- a billion years longer and could handle a gazillion writes. ing techs: storage-class memory. Sort of an odd term,
fined storage stack
I may be exaggerating a bit with those numbers, but you yet it somehow seems a fairly accurate and appropriate
Dealing with get the picture. description.
Docker container The encroachment of storage on memory’s turf really
started a few years back when the first DIMM-based sol-
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for THE END OF LATENCY AS WE KNOW IT id-state products appeared. Viking Technology DIMM-slot
data protection 3D XPoint’s developers from Intel and Micron say it will flash was an interesting product that helped bridge the
purchases
run circles around NAND flash—about 1,000 circles to conceptual gap between memory and storage, but it was
Storage every one NAND completes. And they claim durability of really flash with a SATA interface getting its juice from
purchasing survey the same ratio—1,000 times that of NAND flash. a DIMM slot. Diablo Technologies took the concept a
Snapshot 2:
For their part, IBM’s brainiacs made a PCM break- step further with its Memory Channel Storage, providing
Backup/DR choices through by finding a way to stuff three bits of data into a access to flash storage via the server processor’s memory
for IT buyers single cell—just as the NAND flash masterminds did to channel. This technology—NVDIMM or non-volatile
Storage network
boost capacities, cut costs and make flash accessible to all. DIMM—had an instant application in mirroring server
performance IBM doesn’t tout XPoint-like speeds and feeds, but it does memory, which allowed for nearly instantaneous recov-
say PCM is hundreds of times faster than NAND flash for eries of cached data and applications if DRAM lost power.
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s both reads and writes. And IBM cites an anticipated “10
bottleneck problem million write cycles” as its anticipated durability.
Either way you look at it, these new techs are making TIERED MEMORY AND A NEW STORAGE MODEL
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures NAND flash technology look like Roger Bannister, the guy Solid-state is doing stuff that hard disk drives could never
attention who broke the four-minute mile: fast in his day, but slow do—at least not at an acceptable pace—and developments
About us
compared to Usain Bolt. such as those from IBM and Intel/Micron promise to
erase the line between storage resources and memory.
Given their performance, these emerging technologies
NEW CHIPS COIN NEW TERMINOLOGY will allow tiering and expansion of memory—not at the
It’s a little tough to grasp such staggering stats when so speeds of DRAM, perhaps, but also not at the price of

Home current system memory modules. This will put more pro- the cost.
Castagna: Is it
cessing in memory and memory-like resources, reducing What do these new solid-state developments mean to
memory—or is it the number of times a server will have to fetch data from you? If your current storage configuration is humming
storage? persistent storage. along and keeping up with (or surpassing) your server and
Oddly, the expansion of solid-state’s role is likely to be network performance, these developments mean nothing.
the software-de- something of a boon to hard disk manufacturers. After But if NAND flash technology hasn’t quenched your app’s
fined storage stack
all, all that data will have to come to rest somewhere, and thirst for performance, be patient, help is on the way. n
Dealing with while the latest high-capacity NAND flash devices may
Docker container fill that role, spacious hard disks can do it at a fraction of RICH CASTAGNA is TechTarget’s VP of Editorial.
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
data protection
purchases
Storage
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Storage network
performance
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s
bottleneck problem
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention
About us

STORAGE REVOLUTION
JON TOIGO
Home
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
(Re-)defining the
storage?
storage platform with a “self-healing” architecture. And,
software-defined
the software-de- of course, IBM has a nifty R&D operation in Haifa that’s
fined storage stack
been doing groundbreaking work on tape media capacity.
storage stack
Dealing with I am intrigued to see what the next evolution in storage
Docker container technology will be, and am likely to find at least part of
that roadmap in Israel. Particularly intriguing is what will
Snapshot 1: It is time to question the design and
Key drivers for happen to the software-defined storage market. According
efficacy of the SDS/hyper-converged
data protection to some of the startup presentations I’ve seen, next gener-
purchases infrastructure model as it exists today. ation SDS (or SDS 2.0) is right around the corner.
Storage Let’s unpack that.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE IS HOT
for IT buyers I AM TRYING to put together a trip to Israel this summer. The idea of operating a bunch of storage peripherals from
Storage network
While the history is amazing, my mission will primarily a server located in the software stack dates back to at least
performance be about business—to visit the country’s many storage 1993 with IBM’s release of Storage Management System
technology startups. A recent briefing with Yuval Dimnik, on IBM mainframes. For newbies, a better point of refer-
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s the technological brain behind stealth-startup NooBaa in ence might be hyper-cluster-based supercomputers, Blue
bottleneck problem Tel Aviv, piqued my interest. His company is doing some Gene/P and that ilk, in which data movement (or friction)
exciting work on scalable file storage, leveraging RESTful is despised and emphasis is placed on storing data locally
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures protocols like S3. on internal media or direct-attached flash or HDD shelves.
attention After tweeting about NooBaa innovations, I heard from Bottom line: When VMware or someone else claims
About us
a bunch of other Israeli startups, all of whom want to brief to have invented this shiny new thing called software-de-
me on what they’re doing. Along the way, I learned that fined storage, I have to choke back laughter.
one of the brightest guys in storage, Erik Eyberg, is now The software-defined storage market has apparently
working for up-and-comer Infinidat, also located in Israel caught fire, mainly in the form of hyper-converged in-
(and Needham, Mass.). Infinidat offers a petabyte-scale frastructure (HCI) appliances. Just about every server

Home vendor, all of whom are sick and tired of being character- to actually build storage infrastructure. Plus, since most
Castagna: Is it
ized as “commodity” hardware, are partnering with inde- of these kits are integrated with third-party SDS software
memory—or is it pendent software vendors of SDS stacks to glue together (not from VMware or Microsoft per se), the appliances
storage? pre-integrated HCI kits. And, in a recent ActualTech Me- are generally less costly.
dia 2015 State of Hyperconverged Infrastructure survey of To put it simply, HCI is a quick way to roll out a server
the software-de- 500 small, medium and large firms, about a quarter of the and some storage.
fined storage stack
What would make HCI strategic is if:
Dealing with
Docker container THE STARTUPS IN ISRAEL The software-defined storage market did more than just
n
Snapshot 1:
HAVE BEGUN TO QUESTION provide capacity management, data reduction and data
Key drivers for THE DESIGN AND EFFICACY protection.
data protection
purchases OF THE SOFTWARE-DEFINED HCI appliances would evolve into “atomic units of com-
n
Storage
STORAGE MARKET. pute” that could be quickly personalized, deployed and
purchasing survey managed through a single pane of glass to support all
Snapshot 2:
respondents said they had already begun to deploy SDS/ data from all workloads, virtualized or not, regardless
Backup/DR choices HCI, while over 50 percent of the remaining companies of hypervisor.
for IT buyers said they were preparing to do so over the next 24 to 36
Storage network
months. I am concerned by the marketecture that substitutes
performance I am heading over to Europe soon, where I am slated for architecture in most discussions of SDS and HCI. Not
to speak on HCI and the software-defined storage market only is this technology not new, it isn’t a guarantor of the
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s in at least five different countries, likely before what’ll be cost reduction, improved VM performance, greater con-
bottleneck problem enthusiastic audiences. solidation or agile IT promised by the literature. Virtually
none of these promises are verifiable, and it’s very likely
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures your mileage from SDS/HCI will vary, a lot.
attention HCI: MORE TACTICAL THAN STRATEGIC
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Hyper-converged infrastructure strikes me, at least ini-
tially, as a tactical play rather than strategic architecture. SDS STACK NEEDS TO BE REIMAGINED
From a tactical perspective, it’s a lot easier to deploy a The SDS stack should not simply be a porting of all the val-
hypervisor, storage services software stack and brain-dead ue-added software that used to reside on array controllers
flash and disk as a kit for companies that lack the expertise to a server-side stack. We are leaving out the monitoring

Home and management of the hardware, which is the biggest parallelization of I/O, VM performance is a function not
Castagna: Is it
cost in storage today. We are also ignoring the power of of storage I/O latency but raw I/O latency.
memory—or is it another server-side element in storage: the file system (or So maybe the SDS stack needs to include the virtual-
storage? object system). ization of the underlying storage environment and the
Remember that deduplication is already being done acceleration of raw I/O as well.
the software-de- (optionally) in some file systems today; as is erasure The startups in Israel have begun to question the design
fined storage stack
coding. So perhaps file/object should be part of the SDS and efficacy of the software-defined storage market as it
Dealing with stack, too. exists right now. I love the debate and the camaraderie of
Docker container And while we are at it, we might want to revisit the smart folks who are trying to execute computer science
canard that drove SDS/HCI to the fore in the first place. for a change. n
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for HCI and SDS were supposed to address poor VM perfor-
data protection mance, which VMware laid at the doorstep of SAN and JON WILLIAM TOIGO is a 30-year IT veteran, CEO and managing
purchases
network-attached “legacy” storage. As DataCore contin- principal of Toigo Partners International, and chairman of the Data
Storage ues to demonstrate with its breakthroughs in IOPS via Management Institute.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Storage network
performance
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s
bottleneck problem
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention
About us

CONTAINERS
Storage in
a container:
Dealing CONTAINERIZATION IS A relatively new application devel-
opment and deployment methodology, with the Docker
with Docker platform emerging as the de facto container standard.
Docker enables breaking monolithic applications into
Look under the hood of the lightweight, portable application services that are pack-
Docker framework to better aged into isolated containers, allowing for the transition
understand the transient from traditional n-tier application architecture toward
nature of containers. a microservices architecture of narrowly focused, inde-
BY JACOB N. GSOEDL pendently deployable services.
Containers are elastic and can be started and shut
down almost instantaneously, allowing an application
service to scale by quickly spawning additional container
instances on the same or across multiple hosts. They are
instrumental in facilitating increasingly shorter release
cycles for DevOps.
By nature ephemeral, all changes are lost when a con-
tainer is destroyed or moved between nodes. This makes
containers perfectly suitable for applications that don’t
depend on persistent data, such as an Apache Web Server
rendering static web applications or stateless web services,
but poses challenges when data needs to be persisted, as
is the case with databases and editable, file-based content.
Containers bring a host of new storage challenges, how-
ever, so storage managers should understand the various
options for storing and protecting container data, por-
tability and persistence, and how to connect containers
JONGJET303/ISTOCK
HOME
Home to legacy storage. Let’s take a peek under the hood of the required to deliver intended application services. Docker
Castagna: Is it
Docker platform to better comprehend containers and images ensure containers are launched identically, regard-
memory—or is it their transient nature. less of environment.
storage? Every Docker image starts with a base image, and every
subsequent change—such as the installation or update of
the software-de- DOCKER CONTAINER DATA an application—adds a layer to that image. What makes
fined storage stack
Docker containers launch from read-only Docker images, Docker images so efficient is the fact that only additional
Dealing with which are templates that include all applications and files layers (that is, changes from the base image) need to be
Docker container
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
data protection
purchases Docker container data types
Storage
purchasing survey DATA TYPES PERSISTENT SCALABLE PORTABLE NOTABLE FACTS
Not usable for data that needs to be saved

Snapshot 2: Container data No No No
and stored
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Data volumes Yes Limited No Bound to a single host
Storage network
performance Data volume
Yes Limited No Bound to a single host
containers
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s External storage
bottleneck problem Separate storage and container infrastructure;
via volume Yes Yes Yes
high storage management overhead
plug-in
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures Software-defined; storage and compute
attention Hyper-converged
Yes Yes Yes running on the same infrastructure; highly
storage
efficient, scalable and robust
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Requires storage to be accessed via API
Object storage Yes Yes Yes
and coded within applications

Home stored, but the base image itself is referenced. Conse- union file system that reside as regular files and directories
Castagna: Is it
quently, a container launched from a Docker image only on the host file system beneath the /var/lib/docker direc-
memory—or is it occupies space for changes, and regardless of how many tory. A data volume can be added to a container using the
storage? instances of the Docker image are launched as containers, “-v” flag. The following example starts a container named
they all share resources from the same read-only base TEST_CON with a volume TEST_VOL, and it creates a
the software-de- image. directory on the host beneath /var/lib/docker, where data
fined storage stack
Technically, this is accomplished through a union file written to /TEST_VOL is stored:
Dealing with system that combines these layers into a single image.
Docker container Union file systems allow files and directories of separate $docker run --name TEST_CON -v /TEST_VOL
file systems, known as branches, to be transparently over-
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for laid to form a single coherent file system. Besides creating a data volume during container cre-
data protection When the Docker platform runs a container from a ation using the “-v” flag, adding data volumes can be
purchases
Docker image, it adds a read-write layer on top of the im- directly incorporated in the container image by using the
Storage age, leveraging the union file system. If an application in VOLUME command in the underlying Docker file. The
purchasing survey the container modifies an existing file, the file is copied to fact that data in data volumes reside in a standard host
Snapshot 2:
the read-write layer via copy-on-write, with the union file directory has benefits: they can be browsed and edited
Backup/DR choices system hiding the original file in the read-only layer and by the host system; backed up, and copied or moved in
for IT buyers making the updated file in the read-write layer accessible and out of the OS; and are protected via standard Linux
Storage network
from within the container. When a Docker container is permissions.
performance destroyed, all changes recorded in the read-write layer are You can also use data volumes to mount an existing host
lost. Therefore, if another container is run from the same directory using the “-v” flag and a format that separates the
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s Docker image, none of the changes made by some other host path and the volume name. The following example
bottleneck problem container spawned by the same image will be present. starts a container named TEST_CON and mounts the
In other words, all changes are container-specific and host directory /home/jg/data as TEST_VOL inside the
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures ephemeral, and are lost when a container is removed. container:
attention
$docker run --name TEST_CON -v /home/jg/

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DOCKER DATA VOLUMES data:/TEST_VOL
One way to persist data beyond the lifetime of a container
and share data between containers is through Docker data Mounting a host directory as a data volume in
volumes. Data volumes are folders and files outside of the the Docker file via the “VOLUME” command is not

Home supported, as host directories are system-specific and it $docker create --name DBCON -v /DBDATA
Castagna: Is it
would glaringly violate portability. Mounting a host di- $docker run --name TEST_CON --volumes-
memory—or is it rectory as a data volume is a convenient way to quickly from DBCON
storage? access data on a host in a container, especially for non-
production use cases. Here, a data volume container abstracts the location of
the software-de- You can share data volumes between containers using a data store, making the data container a logical mount
fined storage stack
the “--volumes-from” switch. The following example point. It also persists data while application containers
Dealing with starts a container named BACKUP_CON and mounts are created and destroyed.
Docker container all volumes from container TEST_CON inside container
BACKUP_CON:
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for DOCKER VOLUME PLUG-INS
data protection $docker run --name BACKUP_CON --vol- A big step forward, Docker volume plug-ins allow for the
purchases
umes- from TEST_CON integration of external storage systems as Docker data vol-
Storage umes. First shown at DockerCon 2015 in the experimental
purchasing survey This works whether the source container TEST_CON 1.7 release of the Docker Engine, plug-ins were enabled
Snapshot 2:
is running or not. Besides sharing volumes between con- when Docker decoupled volumes from container man-
Backup/DR choices tainers, it also provides a convenient way for backing up agement to enable the management of persistent storage
for IT buyers data volumes. across an entire Docker Swarm cluster.
Storage network
A plug-in API that enables third-party vendors to expose
performance and extend storage system capabilities to Docker platform
DOCKER DATA VOLUME CONTAINERS containers powers Docker volume plug-ins. The volume
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s Another option for managing persistent data in the plug-in API acts as a control plane mechanism and defines
bottleneck problem Docker platform is through data volume containers. The which volume provider should be used, and the data path
idea is to create a container with one or more volumes, and storage functionality is handled by the configured
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures and mount Docker volumes to other containers using the volume provider (storage system). Within containers,
attention “volumes from” switch. Since the data volume container storage integrated via a volume plug-in is presented as a
About us
merely serves as a data store without running applications, block storage device, regardless of how the storage system
it need only be created (not stay active). The following implements and exposes storage, which could be block,
example creates a data volume container DBCON with a file or even object storage.
data volume DBDATA, which is then used by container Besides integrating containers with external storage,
TEST_CON: Docker volume plug-ins let you manage external storage

Home from the Docker Universal Control Plane (UCP), a con-
tainer management platform for Docker applications and
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it infrastructure. Orchestration in
storage? Data volume plug-ins are available from some storage containerization
vendors like NetApp with its NetApp Docker Volume
the software-de- Plugin (nDVP) for Data ONTAP that supports both iSCSI CONTAINERIZED ENVIRONMENTS ARE distributed plat-
fined storage stack
and NFS. Similarly, Hedvig provides a volume plug-in for forms with multiple nodes tied into a cluster and
its software-defined Distributed Storage Platform, using the ability to start and destroy containers on
Dealing with
Docker container NFS. Unlike block storage volume drivers, Hedvig’s NFS various nodes and reshuffle resources based on
volume driver permits mounting the same volume on events and utilization. This requires special clus-
Snapshot 1:
different hosts. ter management and orchestration tools:
Key drivers for
data protection Vendor-agnostic volume plug-ins are offered by Clus-
purchases n Docker addresses this with a combination of
terHQ with Flocker, Rancher Labs with Convoy and
Docker Swarm and Docker Machine.
Storage others. Storage-agnostic plug-ins simplify orchestration
purchasing survey and portability, and work with a larger number of storage n Kubernetes is an alternative open source con-
Snapshot 2:
systems and orchestration tools. For instance, ClusterHQ tainer cluster manager originally designed by
Backup/DR choices Flocker not only supports over 15 storage systems with Google. It is considered by many, including Red
for IT buyers more in the works, it also supports frameworks other Hat, a more versatile and mature cluster mana-
Storage network
than the Docker platform, including Jenkins, Kubernetes, ger. Case in point: Kubernetes had a volume plug-
performance Marathon and Mesos. in for external storage before Docker.
One way to use volume drivers is through the Docker
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s “run” command. The following example creates a named n Apache Mesos is an even more versatile open
bottleneck problem volume, TEST_VOL, using the Flocker volume driver and source cluster manager for efficient resource
makes it available within container TEST_CON at /web- isolation and resource sharing across distrib-
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures app, with the Flocker volume plug-in mounting a volume uted applications and frameworks. n
attention from the configured storage system:
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$docker run --name TEST_CON --volume-
driver=flocker -v TEST_VOL:/webapp container management from storage management. The
Flocker plug-in transparently interacts with the storage
This example illustrates how volume plug-ins decouple system based on volume plug-in configuration.

Home HYPER-CONVERGENCE AND CONTAINERIZATION host as native block devices and then shared as a volume
Castagna: Is it
Software-defined storage enables the hyper-convergence through the ClusterHQ Flocker volume driver.
memory—or is it of application containers and storage, where application
storage? containers and persistent storage services run on the same n Portworx, a Silicon Valley startup, is creating a contain-
platform. While the end goal is the containerization of erized SDS product, PX-Lite, that’s currently in beta
the software-de- the storage platform itself—so storage can be served as and should be generally available by the time you read
fined storage stack
a microservice from storage containers—contemporary this. PX-Lite is delivered containerized and aggregates
Dealing with products vary in how far along they are and how they local Docker host storage, including all-flash and SATA
Docker container deliver on this vision: arrays, into a single pool of block storage that’s accessed
by application containers through the Docker volume
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for , formerly known as Datawise.io, is develop-
n Diamanti plug-in API. PX-Lite can run on-premises or in the cloud.
data protection ing a purpose-built, scale-out appliance that converges
purchases
storage, networking and compute. High-performance n Red supports Docker containers in Red Hat En-
Hat
Storage optimized, the appliance features a PCIe acceleration terprise Linux (RHEL), RHEL Atomic and OpenShift,
purchasing survey card with a Cavium OCTEON networking processor, the latter a hyper-converged PaaS that combines core
Snapshot 2:
four 10 GigE ports and NVM Express SSD cards. In Docker container packaging, Kubernetes container
Backup/DR choices beta, Diamanti’s first product supports Kubernetes to cluster management, SDN and storage. Since March
for IT buyers orchestrate storage, networking and Docker containers 2016, containerized Red Hat Gluster Storage can serve
Storage network
and, according to the company, runs the complete Red storage from a dedicated storage cluster for apps running
performance Hat stack, including OpenShift. in RHEL, RHEL Atomic or OpenShift, with hyper-con-
vergence for all three environments expected this sum-
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s delivers a hyper-converged compute and storage
n Joyent mer. Containerized Red Hat Ceph Storage for block and
bottleneck problem cloud service, with containers, storage and network object storage is on Red Hat’s roadmap.
resources managed and orchestrated by Joyent’s Triton
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures software. Joyent offers both Docker and Joyent container
attention services. WRAPPING UP
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The robust support of persistent storage in containerized
. NexentaEdge is a software-only, scale-out block
n Nexenta applications was a prerequisite for, and coincides with,
and object storage platform, with cluster-wide dedupli- an increase in the adoption of the Docker platform in
cation and compression that supports container-based enterprises. When Docker first shipped, it was used pri-
deployments. NexentaEdge storage is exposed to the marily for stateless applications, and the most robust use

Home of persistent storage was via integration with object stores ware-defined storage products that are hyper-converged
Castagna: Is it
like Amazon Simple Storage Service. The release of a re- platforms with application containers on the same infra-
memory—or is it vamped volume management system and volume plug-in structure. These are glued together by Docker volume plug-
storage? framework in Docker release 1.9 was a game-changer, as it ins or orchestration tools like Kubernetes and Mesos. n
enabled the integration of containers and external storage
the software-de- systems. JACOB N. GSOEDL is a freelance writer and corporate VP of IT Business
fined storage stack
We are also seeing the emergence of containerized soft- Solutions. He can be reached at jacobslab@live.com.
Dealing with
Docker container
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
data protection
purchases
Storage
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Storage network
performance
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s
bottleneck problem
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention
About us

Home
Snapshot 1
Capacity, compatibility drive data protection shoppers
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
storage?
the software-de- D Top reasons for purchasing D Top 10 criteria for choosing a data
fined storage stack
data protection products protection product
Dealing with
Docker container
Snapshot 1: 47% Growing data volume 35% Compatible with existing environment
Key drivers for
data protection
purchases 32% Need better recovery/restore 34% Low cost
Storage
purchasing survey 28% Compliance 33% Ease of implementation
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices 20% Backup operations consolidation 32% Security
for IT buyers
Storage network 15% Support for new applications 28% Product features
performance
Sinclair: Flash 14% Backups take too long 23% Brand and reputation
storage’s
bottleneck problem
13% Reduce reliance on tape 23% Relationship with vendor
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention 12% Reevaluating data management plan 22% Service and support/SLA
About us
19% Upgrade to newer version of product we already use 17% Flexible pricing structure
SOURCE: ALL DATA FROM TECHTARGET RESEARCH

17% Migration support

STORAGE PURCHASING
Storage spending
picks up with new
techs in sight STORAGE MANAGERS WILL be shopping again this year, but
their shopping lists maybe look different and may be a bit
Our annual storage purchasing survey longer than in years past.
indicates that storage managers will have The data provided by storage professionals on the an-
bigger budgets to spend this year. nual Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com purchasing
BY RICH CASTAGNA survey reflects the diversity and evolution of a dynamic
storage marketplace.
This year, we combined our purchasing survey with
a broader canvassing of storage buying intentions in the
form of TechTarget Research’s Storage Market Landscape
survey. The results presented and analyzed here represent
feedback from 740 survey respondents.
Some highlights gleaned from this year’s research
include:
n Increased storage budgets

n Better management of capacity growth
n Growing interest and adoption of newer techs
n Continued dominance of established vendors
n Data protection remains a key focus for most storage
shops, but spending plans are now looking at more

modern data protection techniques and practices
Our storage purchase survey research revealed storage

trends such as the rise in popularity of hyper-converged
systems, object-based storage and all-flash arrays.
ERHUL1979/ISTOCK
HOME
Home Budgets grow as capacity seems under control
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it Acceptance of new storage technologies has always been a for a significant rise in storage spending.
storage? notoriously slow process of very gradual adoption because In the past, capacity was the chief culprit causing in-
replacing big iron systems is a painstaking process. creased storage spending, but it appears that storage shops
the software-de- The good news this year is that storage managers have might finally be gaining the upper hand in the struggle to
fined storage stack
a little more money to spend. The average storage budget contain capacity. The average total storage capacity—ac-
Dealing with among reporting companies is $2.65 million this year, a counting for all media and locations—for this year’s re-
Docker container solid increase over last year’s $2.3 million. Our respon- spondents is 1.5 PB, which is only a bit higher than the 1.4
dents are also optimistic that the increasing funding for PB reported previously. Average year-over-year growth in
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for storage will continue as they anticipate a budget increase active storage capacity was 14.6%, and anticipated growth
data protection of 4.3% over the next year. over the coming 12 months is estimated to be 13.3%.
purchases
That’s a couple of points above the typical budget boosts Growth in the teens is quite manageable for most shops
Storage we’ve seen over the past few years, and it could account and may help stretch storage budgets.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Expected storage capacity growth rate over next 12 months
Storage network
performance
20%
17.8% 18.1%
Sinclair: Flash 18%
storage’s 14.9%
15%
bottleneck problem
n INCREASE n DECREASE n FLAT
KEY STAT
Whalen: Secondary 10% 9.3% 18% say storage
storage captures 7.5% capacity growth
attention 6.7% will be “flat” over
5% the next year.
About us 2.1%
.8% .8% 1.1% .3%
0%
by less by 5%- by 10%- by 25%- by 50% Flat by less by 5%- by 10%- by 25%- by 50%
than 5% 9% 24% 49% or more than 5% 9% 24% 49% or more

Home Storage buyers focus on traditional systems and big vendors
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it While we see growth in some of the so-called alternative Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NetApp in a tie for fifth
storage? storage segments like converged and hyper-converged place with 9% each.
systems, traditional architectures are far from endangered On the file storage front, the lineup was similar: EMC
the software-de- species at this point. (19%), Dell (16%), NetApp (16%), IBM (9%) and HPE
fined storage stack
About seven years ago, we saw a shift in planned storage (6%).
Dealing with system expenditures, with the largest share going toward Respondents are also pretty loyal to their storage ven-
Docker container buying additional drives for existing storage arrays, repre- dors. When asked how likely they were to switch primary
senting 30% of total storage system expected purchases. storage vendors, only 21% of block storage buyers said
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for One thing that hasn’t changed all that much over the “highly likely” or “somewhat likely,” while 45% said it was
data protection years is the list of storage vendors that respondents con- somewhat/highly unlikely. NAS buyers are just as faithful:
purchases
sider primary systems suppliers. For block storage, the top 15% tilted toward likely, while 50% were in the unlikely
Storage six were EMC (24%), Dell (18%), IBM (17%), and Hewlett camp.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Planned purchases for storage systems in 2016
Storage network
performance 35%
30% 30% 31
%
30%
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s 25% n 2016 n 2015 n 2014
bottleneck problem
20% 19%
17% 17%
Whalen: Secondary 15% 15% 14%
15%
storage captures 12 12
% %
11% 10% 10% 11%
attention 10% 9% 9%
10%
5% 5% 6%
About us 5%
2%
0%
Additional New New New Hybrid New iSCSI New DAS New Hyper-
drives for NAS FC SAN SAN + NAS SAN object converged
existing systems systems storage systems

Home Object-based storage interest grows as flash gains momentum
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it Object-based storage has been around for a while, but NAS or SAN array so applications can access it without
storage? only in the last two or three years has it materialized as a requiring modification.
serious alternative to block or file storage. Object has the Right now, 15% of respondents report that object storage
the software-de- advantages of extreme scalability and extended metadata. is up and running in their shops—still a modest number
fined storage stack
These two features make it an attractive storage purchase but one that has increased steadily over the last two years.
Dealing with alternative to NAS, as file storage spills over in many data Another 6% are piloting or evaluating object, and 20%
Docker container centers and object storage’s advanced metadata capability anticipate evaluating object within the next two years.
makes it easier to tag data for specific disposition such as Clearly, there’s a lot of activity around object storage.
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for archive, delete or encrypt. The top vendors for those who are already using object
data protection Interest in object is increasing because vendors have storage are EMC (37%), IBM/Cleversafe (13%), Hitachi
purchases
found clever ways of putting all that functionality behind (9%), Red Hat/Ceph (6%) and Western Digital (5%),
Storage a façade that makes the object system look like an ordinary which acquired object pioneer Amplidata last year.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Object storage adoption
Storage network
12% 6%
performance Adopt/evaluate In pilot/
within 12 months evaluating
Sinclair: Flash 13%
storage’s
bottleneck problem
KEY STAT
Whalen: Secondary 59% Spending for
storage captures No plans object-based
attention storage systems
is expected to
About us increase by 13%
over the next
15% 8%
In use Adopt/evaluate
12 months.
in 12-24 months

Home Flash continues relentless march through our data centers
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it If you haven’t heard how flash technology has monopo- currently evaluating all-flash arrays or plan to do so; for
storage? lized the storage conversation the last four or five years, hybrid arrays, that number is even higher, 32%.
you must’ve been visiting a distant galaxy. And it’s not Of course, those stats have a flip side, as about half of our
the software-de- just talk—flash is now part of (or even all of) nearly every respondents aren’t using either implementation of flash.
fined storage stack
storage system that gets moved off the showroom floor. The most cited reason for foregoing flash is its cost (noted
Dealing with The flash debate is no longer “to be or not to be” but rather by 36% of non-users). The cost of flash continues to drop
Docker container how much. but it’s still more expensive than hard disks on $/GB basis.
All-flash arrays are in use by 12% of our respondents, Twenty-five percent feel they still have to learn more about
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for and hybrid arrays that mix solid-state with spinning disk flash technology before taking the plunge with their stor-
data protection are used by 20%. That’s decent penetration, but even age purchase, and 24% are happy with the performance of
purchases
more impressive is the 29% of respondents who are either their hard disk systems and see no need to change.
Storage
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices Adoption and deployment plans for hybrid flash and all-flash arrays
for IT buyers
Storage network 4% Adopt/evaluate in

In pilot/
performance In pilot/evaluating
12-24 months
evaluating 73%
Adopt/evaluate in
12-24 months
Sinclair: Flash
8%
storage’s 11% In use KEY STAT
bottleneck problem 11%
73% added
Whalen: Secondary No 12% Hybrid flash storage

plans All-flash to improve
storage captures 48% flash 13%
arrays performance
attention
59% No
arrays
Adopt/ for existing
14% plans evaluate within applications.
About us 12 months
20%
Adopt/evaluate
within 12 months In use

Home Hyper-converged shakes up data center status quo
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it Hyper-converged systems represent a radical departure hyper-converged systems now—a sizable jump from last
storage? from the familiar shared network storage model of most year’s 8%. Another 6% have plans to deploy hyper-con-
data centers, as hyper-converged products more closely verged this year and 12% are evaluating these systems.
the software-de- resemble the server-based, hyper-scale setups that me- Another closely related storage category—software-de-
fined storage stack
ga-Web sites like Google and Facebook employ. The design fined storage—is gaining interest as well. There is often
Dealing with concept, however—closely bundling storage, compute considerable overlap between hyper-converged infrastruc-
Docker container and network into node-oriented clusters—is an excellent ture and software-defined storage because the latter is
fit for companies large and small. typically used to create a hyper-converged environment,
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for Spurred on by the market-shaping startups like Nuta- but is often available as a software-only product.
data protection nix and SimpliVity, most old-line storage vendors today Even more respondents said they’ve deployed a soft-
purchases
offer hyper-converged kits. Among respondents to this ware-defined storage product (16%) or are planning de-
Storage year’s storage purchase survey, 12% said they’re using ployments (9%) or evaluations (13%).
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Adoption of hyper-converged infrastructure and software-defined storage
Storage network
performance 20% 19%
n 2016 n 2015
17% 18%
Sinclair: Flash 16%
storage’s 15%
bottleneck problem 13%
12% 12%
11 %
KEY STAT
Whalen: Secondary 10% 9% 18% cited
storage captures 8% 8%
7% VMware as
attention 6
%
their primary
5% vendor of hyper-
About us converged
technology.
0%
HCI already HCI plan to Evaluating SDS already SDS plan to Evaluating
installed deploy this year HCI installed deploy this year SDS

Home Data protection purchases mix old and new techs
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it There’s an old data center adage that says backing up is slightly less (26%) earmarked for backup targets.
storage? easy, it’s restoring that’s the hard part. But whatever part Cloud-based disaster recovery has been touted as a
our storage purchase survey respondents are concentrat- cloud storage killer app because it makes DR inexpensive
the software-de- ing on this year, it’s clear that they’re ready to spend more and fast for companies of all sizes. Twenty-two percent ex-
fined storage stack
on data protection than in the past. Nearly a third expect pect to put some of their backup money toward cloud DR.
Dealing with their backup spending to increase over the next 12 months Regardless of what toolset is used to create backup cop-
Docker container and 35% expect to continue to shell out backup bucks at ies, you need some place to put that data after it’s resided
about the same rate as they’re doing now. on a local disk system. Most respondents (63%) say they’ll
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for They’ll spend that money for a wide variety of data keep that data on either local or remote disk; 30% plan to
data protection protection technologies and applications, with the largest launch at least some of their backup data into the cloud.
purchases
chunk going for backup application software (28%) and And half of our respondents will spin that data off to tape.
Storage
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices Which data protection techs do you expect to purchase within the next 12 months?
for IT buyers
Storage network 30% 28%

performance 26%
25%
Sinclair: Flash 22% 21%
storage’s 20%
bottleneck problem
15% 14% 13% 13% 13%
Whalen: Secondary 11%
storage captures 10%
attention
7%
5% 4%
About us
0%
Backup Disk- Cloud- Backup Remote Data Data Tape CDP Data Tape
software based based DR appliance backup replication deduplication library software reduction vaulting
deduplication backup software software software software
target

Home New backup techs changing the perception of data protection
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it Slowly, backup is shedding its image as simply an insur- Cloud storage backup, the most mature of the cloud
storage? ance policy against data loss. The idea of using backup data storage services, has been around for a couple of decades
for other purposes is being promoted by backup products now. Still, it hasn’t expanded its footprint significantly,
the software-de- that make backup data available for other applications, with 14% of respondents reporting that they’re current
fined storage stack
such as dev/test and end-user file sharing. cloud backup users. With 34% in some stage of evaluation,
Dealing with Those new approaches to backup data generally fall however, adoption is likely to pick up over the next couple
Docker container under the heading of copy data management, a term pop- of years.
ularized by Actifio as it effectively created this product Fully integrated backup appliances were originally tar-
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for category. At this time, our storage purchase survey shows geted at small business, but these preconfigured backup
data protection that 16% of users have already adopted some form of copy targets are gaining popularity for remote offices and larger
purchases
data management in an effort to more effectively manage companies. Twenty-four percent of respondents are using
Storage backup copies and also as way to get more mileage out of one of these appliances today, and an equal number are
purchasing survey them. Six percent are piloting or evaluating the technol- planning or running evaluations. n
Snapshot 2:
ogy, and 20% have evals on their radar. RICH CASTAGNA is VP of editorial.
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Storage network
performance Adoption of emerging backup-related technologies
Sinclair: Flash 37%
storage’s Copy data
bottleneck problem management 16% 6% 10% 10% 58%
KEY STAT
Whalen: Secondary Cloud storage
14
%
9%
13 %
12
%
52 % 37% say they’re
storage captures backup
not using cloud
attention
backup because
Integrated backup
24% 5% 11% 8% 52% current backup
About us appliances
processes are
sufficient.
0% 100%
n USING NOW n IN PILOT/EVALUATING n EVALUATE WITHIN 12 MONTHS n EVALUATE IN 12-24 MONTHS n NO PLANS

Home
Castagna: Is it
Snapshot 2
Cloud not the clear choice for some backup/DR buyers
memory—or is it
storage?
the software-de- D Use of disaster recovery D Why isn’t your company using cloud
fined storage stack
as a service (cloud-based DR) backup or cloud DR?
Dealing with
Docker container In use now
37% Current backup/DR is adequate
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
Piloting/
data protection 16% evaluating 33% Not comfortable sending data to cloud
purchases
No 5%
Storage
purchasing survey
plans 15% Currently evaluating cloud backup
54% 12%
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
Adopt/ 12% Inadequate communications bandwidth
evaluate in
for IT buyers 13% 12 months
Storage network 10% Services are too expensive

performance Adopt/evaluate
in 12-24 months
Sinclair: Flash 19% Concerned about restoring large amounts of data
storage’s
bottleneck problem
18% Worried that services may go out of business
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention
About us
Percent of cloud backup users say they’ll use the cloud service to back up databases
SOURCE: ALL DATA FROM TECHTARGET RESEARCH STORAGE • JULY 2016 25

NETWORKING
STORAGE NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY is changing, and speed

is the name of the game.
Fast flash storage and the growing use of virtualization
and applications with larger amounts of data aren’t the
only technologies putting pressure on networks that carry
storage traffic like never before. Databases such as IBM
DB2, MySQL, Oracle and SQL Server, for instance, can
always use faster connections with lower latency, while
increasingly popular big data applications hold huge
amounts of information that need to be moved. And while
video origination at 4K resolution is already established,
starting this year the requirements for video post-produc-
tion in native 4K resolution have been set by companies
Storage networking such as Amazon, Netflix and others, furthering the de-
mand for higher storage network bandwidth.
meeting performance These are just a few examples of the challenges facing
managers of today’s storage fabrics. To help keep storage
challenges
traffic from becoming the bottleneck in your data center,
be it large or small, we present a rundown of the key im-
provements to storage networking and interface technol-
Protocols and interfaces that currently ogies available in 2016.
or soon will have an effect on storage network
performance in the data center.
BY DENNIS MARTIN WIDENING THE ETHERNET LANE
Nearly everybody uses Ethernet for connectivity between
desktops, workstations, application servers and file
TURBODESIGN777/ISTOCK
HOME
Home servers. While many of us with wired connections to our has been 10 Gbps. Faster Ethernet such as 40 GbE and 100
Castagna: Is it
desktops use 1 GbE, 10 GbE is the backbone for our data GbE bundle multiple lanes of 10 Gbps connections into
memory—or is it center connections, with 40 GbE technology leveraged one connection: 4 x 10 for 40 GbE and 10 x 10 for 100 GbE.
storage? in certain pockets of the enterprise. A fair amount of the Announced two years ago, Ethernet running at 25
traffic traversing these networks can be considered stor- Gbps per lane is now available. This means that a single
the software-de- age traffic, especially with respect to file servers. lane of Ethernet connectivity runs 2.5 times faster than
fined storage stack
As flash storage begins to proliferate, we are finding that legacy 10 GbE. There are also options so that 50 GbE and
Dealing with even 10 GbE can become a bottleneck. To alleviate this, 100 GbE can be achieved by bundling two and four lanes,
Docker container the Ethernet industry is making a significant performance respectively. While considerably faster than 10 GbE, the
jump. Until now, the fastest speed per lane for Ethernet good news is that 25 GbE technology can generally use
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for
data protection
purchases
Storage
purchasing survey
Ethernet Speed Roadmap
3.2 Tbps
Snapshot 2: 3.2 Terabit
Ethernet
Backup/DR choices 400 Gbps
for IT buyers 400 GbE
Storage network 200 Gbps

performance 40 Gbps 100 Gbps 200 GbE
40 GbE 100 GbE
1.6 Tbps
Sinclair: Flash 10 Gbps 1.6 Terabit
storage’s 1 Gbps 10 GbE Ethernet
bottleneck problem Gigabit
100 Mbps Ethernet
Whalen: Secondary Fast 800 Gbps
storage captures Ethernet 800 GbE
attention
About us
1995 1998 2002 2010 2017 2018/2019 2020 or later
SOURCE: ETHERNET ALLIANCE

Home the same types of fiber-optic or copper cables as 10 GbE Gbps (4 x 32). This generation of FC also includes new
Castagna: Is it
(with the exception of some cable lengths and transceiver management and diagnostic features.
memory—or is it differences). As with previous generations, Gen 6 FC is backward-
storage? The 25 GbE technology uses the same underlying SFP28 compatible with the two previous generations (16 Gbps
technology as 32 Gbps Fibre Channel as well (see next FC and 8 Gbps FC), making the transition to the new
the software-de- section), but runs at a slightly different speed, which is technology a relatively smooth process for enterprises.
fined storage stack
one reason why both of these technologies are coming to The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) offers a
Dealing with market this year. public roadmap that provides information on new speeds,
Docker container Those planning new data center buildouts should be fa- guidance in cable and connector selection and more (also
miliar with the Ethernet Alliance roadmap. This roadmap see Fibre Channel Roadmap on page 29).
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for provides a good idea of the new speeds coming along, the
data protection approximate time frames for these, details on the physical
purchases
connectors for copper and fiber optic cables, and a good
discussion of the entire Ethernet ecosystem from resi-
Storage
purchasing survey dential to high-end data center (also see Ethernet Speed
Fiber optic cables:
Snapshot 2:
Roadmap on page 27). Aqua is the new orange
Backup/DR choices
IF YOU HAVEN'T already moved to the aqua-colored
for IT buyers
OM3 or OM4 multi-mode fiber optic cables for
Storage network
FIBRE CHANNEL NEITHER DOWN, NOR OUT
Ethernet or Fibre Channel, now is the time. You
performance Popular in data centers for its reliability and stability, Fibre should no longer purchase the orange-colored
Channel (FC) dominates high-end storage networking OM1 or OM2 cables. The OM3 and OM4 cables
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s technology. According to some industry estimates, 90% provide sufficient distance for these latest stor-
bottleneck problem of high-end data centers have deployed FC technology. age networking speeds within a data center and
And although there has been some discussion about the for planned future speed upgrades that won’t be
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures decline this high-speed storage networking technology, supported by OM1 or OM2 cables.
attention recent analyst reports suggest that the FC market actually For more details about cable distances for
About us
grew in late 2015 and early 2016. various speeds of Ethernet and Fibre Channel,
Fibre Channel performance has doubled in speed ap- see the Demartek’s Storage Networking Interface
proximately every three to five years since 1997. Gen 6 Comparison reference page. n
Fibre Channel became available this year, and includes a
single-lane speed of 32 Gbps and a quad-lane speed of 128

Home
4
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
Fibre Channel Roadmap Tbps
storage?
Toigo: (Re-)defining n SINGLE LANE n QUAD SPEED

the software-de-
fined storage stack
Dealing with 2
Tbps
Docker container
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for 1 1
data protection Tbps Tbps
purchases 512 512
256 Gbps 256 Gbps
32 128 64 Gbps 128 Gbps
Storage Gbps Gbps
Gbps Gbps
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2: 32GFC 64GFC 128GFC 256GFC 512GFC 1TFC

AVAILABLE AVAILABLE MARKET MARKET MARKET MARKET
Backup/DR choices
2016 2019 DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND
for IT buyers
SOURCE: FIBRE CHANNEL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

Storage network
performance
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s CATCH THE NVM EXPRESS storage devices and storage systems built with non-volatile
bottleneck problem NVM Express (NVMe) is an optimized, high-performance memory—from today’s NAND flash technology to future
scalable host controller interface designed for enterprise higher-performing and persistent memory technologies.
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures and client solid-state storage that uses the local PCI Ex- NVMe’s streamlined command set typically uses less than
attention press bus. More recently, NVMe has been extended over half the number of CPU instructions to process an I/O
About us
distance with the new NVMe over Fabrics specification. request than other storage protocols.
NVMe over Fabrics can use a remote direct memory ac- Internally, NVMe is designed differently than other
cess (RDMA) fabric or a Fibre Channel fabric and works storage protocols. It supports 64K commands per queue
with future fabric technologies. and up to 64K queues. These queues are designed such
NVMe is designed to streamline the I/O access to that I/O commands and responses to those commands

Home operate on the same processor core and can take advan-
tage of the parallel processing capabilities of multicore
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it processors. Each application or thread can have its own Serial Attached SCSI
storage? independent queue, so no I/O locking is required. (SAS) Roadmap
The NVMe protocol can be used in devices ranging
the software-de- from mobile phones to enterprise storage systems. NVMe 24
fined storage stack Gbps
devices in enterprise environments, typically running at
Dealing with full power, provide performance up to the full bandwidth
Docker container of the number of PCIe lanes that each device uses. In
consumer devices operating at low-power levels, NVMe
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for devices provide lower performance. 12
data protection At the device level, you can use NVMe for add-in-cards Gbps
purchases
that plug into PCIe slots, the traditional drive form factor
Storage (2.5-inch is the most popular), and the M.2 small form 6
Gbps
purchasing survey factor card. Because of these and other features, we’ve 3
found that—by running tests in our lab—NVMe delivers Gbps
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices considerably higher performance and lower latency than
for IT buyers other storage protocols.
2005 2010 2014 2018/2019
Storage network (estimate)
performance SOURCE: SCSI TRADE ASSOCIATION
REVVING UP SERIAL ATTACHED SCSI

Sinclair: Flash
storage’s SAS, or Serial Attached SCSI, is an enterprise storage
bottleneck problem networking technology interface and protocol that’s used
in some fashion in nearly every enterprise storage product implementations.
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures today. SAS, and its predecessor SCSI, have a long history Currently shipping SAS products run at 12 Gbps, and
attention of versatility, reliability and scalability for a device-level some older 6 Gbps products are still available. The road-
About us
interface, as a shelf-to-shelf disk interface, and as a host map for SAS doubles the speed to 24 Gbps, with those
interface to external storage platforms. In addition to products expected to come to market with server plat-
HDDs and SSDs, SAS products include host bus adapters, forms, which should also support PCIe 4.0, scheduled for
RAID controllers, expanders and other components used release in 2019.
in storage. There are also SAS switches used in SAS fabric The 24 Gbps SAS is backward compatible with the two

Home previous SAS generations (12 Gbps and 6 Gbps) and with SERIAL ATA IN LIMBO
Castagna: Is it
6 Gbps SATA. For more on the future of SAS, see the SCSI SATA, or Serial ATA, has been used for many years to
memory—or is it Trade Association’s SAS roadmap (also see Serial Attached connect a computer to a single storage device such as a
storage? SCSI (SAS) Roadmap on page 30). HDD, SSD or optical device (CD-ROM, DVD and so on).
the software-de-
fined storage stack
Dealing with
Docker container Standalone workstation interfaces
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for THERE ARE TWO additional interfaces that have an effect in a growing list of motherboards and consumer and
data protection on storage performance worth discussing: Thunder- business laptops.
purchases
bolt and USB.
Storage USB. Most of us are familiar with USB flash drives, and
purchasing survey Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is a high-speed interface probably have several of these in our desks and tool
designed primarily for small configurations (up to six bags. USB has come a long way since the original 1.5
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices devices) and for use in video and similar media cre- Mbps version introduced in 1997.
for IT buyers ation. The devices that can use Thunderbolt tend to be In spite of some slightly confusing name changes to
Storage network
premium laptop computers, desktop computers and the most recent specifications, USB technology contin-
performance workstations, along with video cameras and storage ues to advance. SuperSpeed USB is the original name
devices. The first version of Thunderbolt was intro- for 5 Gbps USB (originally known as USB 3.0, but now
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s duced in 2011 running at 10 Gbps. This speed doubled known as USB 3.1 Gen 1). SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps (USB
bottleneck problem to 20 Gbps in late 2013 and then in mid-2015 doubled 3.1 Gen 2) devices are expected to come to market this
again to 40 Gbps when used with active copper or fi- year. And USB 3.1 devices are backward compatible
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures ber-optic cables. with widely used USB 2.0 devices.
attention Thunderbolt 3, the latest version, uses the new USB USB Power Delivery can deliver up to 100 watts of
Type-C cables, is compatible with USB 3.1 (see below) power bi-directionally over a USB cable while deliv-
About us
and DisplayPort 1.2, and can be used to transmit up ering audio, video and data at the same time. Expect
to 100 watts of power. Thunderbolt 3 enjoys compat- to see some interesting applications for this interface
ibility with a wide range of devices, and is available technology this year. n

Home
Castagna: Is it Networking protocols encounter storage in the real world

memory—or is it
storage? PROTOCOL TYPE OF STORAGE SUGGESTED USE CASES
Toigo: (Re-)defining Ethernet File and block, HDDs, SSDs File servers, iSCSI targets
the software-de-
fined storage stack Fibre Channel Block, HDDs, SSDs External storage systems, especially high-end
Dealing with NVMe SSDs Very fast storage devices and storage systems
Docker container
SAS HDDs and SSDs Enterprise storage devices, JBODs and storage systems
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for SATA HDDs, SSDs, optical devices Individual storage devices
data protection
purchases
Storage
purchasing survey The current SATA interface runs at 6 Gbps and there is no hierarchy. A lower device can be placed in a higher device
Snapshot 2:
roadmap for a faster speed, though there is ongoing work backplane, but higher devices cannot be placed into a
Backup/DR choices to add enterprise features. There was some activity for lower-level backplane. SATA devices, at the lowest level
for IT buyers “SATA Express” running at higher speeds, but this activity of this hierarchy, can be placed into SATA, SAS and PCIe/
Storage network
appears to have stopped. NVMe device backplanes. SAS devices, at the middle level
performance SATA is used in the traditional drive form factor, but of this hierarchy, can fit into SAS and PCIe/NVMe device
is also available in a much smaller M.2 card form factor. backplanes, but not SATA device backplanes. And NVMe
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s devices in the drive form factor can only be placed into
bottleneck problem PCIe/NVMe backplanes.
SATA, SAS AND NVMe DEVICE COMPATIBILITY As you move up the hierarchy of storage networking
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures In my flash storage article in the June 2016 edition of technology, additional features become available. For
attention Storage magazine (see “Flashy Servers—the lowdown on more on how the protocols covered in this article match
About us
server-side, solid-state storage”), I provided a diagram of up to different use cases, see table above. n
SATA, SAS and PCIe/NVMe device connectors, showing
the areas of compatibility between these three interfaces. DENNIS MARTIN has been working in the IT industry since 1980, and
For compatibility between SATA, SAS and PCIe/ is the founder and president of Demartek, a computer industry analyst
NVMe device connectors, think of them as a three-level organization and testing lab.

HOT SPOTS
SCOTT SINCLAIR
Home
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
Flash storage
storage?
display the potential of flash to improve efficiency across
has a bottleneck
the software-de- the entire IT ecosystem.
fined storage stack
Essentially, organizations either experienced improved
problem
Dealing with performance with flash because hard disk drives (HDDs)
Docker container were holding back the potential of their data ecosystem;
or they had deployed so many HDDs, shifting to solid-state
Snapshot 1: Replacing hard disk drives with solid-
Key drivers for storage allowed the rest of their environment to become
state drives doesn’t get rid of system
data protection more efficient, thereby requiring fewer components to
purchases performance bottlenecks; it just moves
provide the same level of IOPS.
them elsewhere. It would seem that spinning, mechanical drives are the
Storage
purchasing survey performance bottleneck in a digital data ecosystem. So
Snapshot 2:
removing the HDD bottleneck and replacing it with flash
Backup/DR choices ultimately improves the data center, right?
for IT buyers Well, yes and no.
Storage network
THE DEVELOPMENT OF solid-state storage has led to a stun-
performance ning transformation in enterprise IT. Organizations have
particularly enjoyed the significant benefits of the low KICKING THE BOTTLENECK DOWN THE ROAD
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s latencies engendered by flash technology. Replacing slow spinning disks with faster flash storage
bottleneck problem ESG recently surveyed 373 IT decision makers respon- affords ample benefits, as ESG’s research shows, but it
sible for their organizations’ data storage infrastructures doesn’t remove the bottleneck. It just moves it somewhere
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures to investigate multiple aspects of the current state of the else.
attention storage industry, including flash. When asked to identify A core concept in system or process design is you can
About us
the benefits achieved from deploying flash, the most never remove a performance bottleneck. There will always
commonly identified was obvious, improved application be some component that holds back the potential of the
performance. The second, third and fourth most identified rest of the system.
benefits—greater storage utilization, reduced operating Once you understand that a performance bottleneck
expenses and lowered total cost of ownership—further will always be present, the next step is to make sure you

Home know and can control where it resides. likely move it again. This added complexity is especially
Castagna: Is it
This is the hidden problem with flash storage. For de- true in all-flash environments where the data ecosystem
memory—or is it cades, mechanical media was such an obvious bottleneck. is apt to be all-electrical.
storage? To improve performance, you simply increased the size of Despite this complexity, understanding the location
the bottleneck or added spindles. Thanks to flash, how- of the bottleneck is absolutely critical, as the only way to
the software-de- ever, storage may not be the bottleneck any more. increase system performance is to expand it.
fined storage stack
So where is it? Great question. Is the bottleneck the
Dealing with processors, the memory, the application licenses, the
Docker container protocols, the networking, the storage controllers that sit WIDENING THE BOTTLENECK
in front of the flash storage, or something else entirely? So let’s say you’ve found the bottleneck, now what?
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for The answer? It depends. The next step is to design an architecture that places the
data protection bottleneck where you want it to reside. In pretty much any
purchases
system or process, the bottleneck should be the compo-
Storage LOCATING THE BOTTLENECK ISN’T EASY nent that is the most expensive to expand, because that’s
purchasing survey Identifying and locating a performance bottleneck in a an expense you’ll definitely want to avoid.
Snapshot 2:
system, especially after the deployment of flash storage, is If adding a new application license is more expensive
Backup/DR choices easier said than done. For instance, leveraging the various than adding memory, storage or networking, then the rest
for IT buyers management tools for all the elements across all the com- of the system should be designed so that each license is
Storage network
ponents in a data center makes identifying bottlenecks a leveraged to its maximum extent. In other words, in this
performance complex process. Products that provide a more end-to end example, the application should be the bottleneck.
understanding do exist, however. When discussing the disruptive nature of flash, it is
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s Companies such as Aptare or PernixData with its Archi- overly simplistic to say the performance bottleneck is
bottleneck problem tect software, for example, leverage analytics to provide removed when solid-state replaces HDD storage. It is
a more complete picture of the data path in an effort to more accurate to say that, with the addition of flash, the
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures deliver design insights and recommendations. In addition, bottleneck has either been considerably widened or
attention storage-networking vendors such as Brocade offer tools moved.
About us
that can help track performance over the storage network. If you don’t know which, you better find out—and
It is important to note, however, that the bottleneck quickly. n
may not remain static. It may shift over time as processors
and memory advance and applications and firmware are SCOTT SINCLAIR is a storage analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group
updated. And the introduction of NVMe, for instance, will in Austin, Texas.

READ / WRITE
JIM WHALEN
Home
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
Hyper-converged
storage?
environment. Customers merely had to buy an appliance,
secondary
the software-de- plug it into the network and spin up the desired VMs. If
fined storage stack
an enterprise required more compute/storage, they simply
storage emerges
Dealing with added another appliance (i.e., node) to the mix for more
Docker container IOPS and storage capacity.
The appliances self-managed many configuration
Snapshot 1: Secondary storage, long a mostly
Key drivers for and housekeeping activities, significantly reducing the
neglected IT backwater, is finally
data protection amount of administrative overhead required. So, for the
purchases getting some attention.
first time, IT could focus the bulk of its attention on the
Storage VMs running critical business applications instead of
purchasing survey down in the nuts and bolts of the hardware and software
Snapshot 2:
components.
Backup/DR choices Although hyper-convergence marked a tremendous
for IT buyers IF YOU VIEW hyper-converged platforms as an evolutionary leap ahead in productivity and efficiency, it did not address
Storage network
stream within the overall IT space, one next logical step some nagging storage issues.
performance is to extend hyper-convergence to also include secondary
storage. In many ways, this is a bigger, more complex
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s problem than the original one hyper-convergence was SECONDARY STORAGE—
bottleneck problem intended to solve. HYPER-CONVERGENCE’S ORPHANED CHILD
Hyper-convergence emerged in response to the grow- The shift in focus from discrete hardware storage elements
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures ing complexity of IT systems. With the takeoff of vir- to commoditized, clustered and virtualized storage archi-
attention tualization in the early 2000s, virtual machine-centric tectures almost exclusively benefited primary storage.
About us
vendors introduced hyper-converged systems where com- This left legacy secondary storage alone to deal with its
pute, storage, and networking were all tightly integrated own endemic issues:
in a single box below the hypervisor. Over time, these
hyper-converged platforms evolved to support web-scale Siloed use cases such as data protection and DevOps that
n
distributed file systems, creating an even more seamless required separate point products.

Home Huge amounts of little-used, poorly understood and
n Sensing a market opportunity, a few vendors—most
Castagna: Is it
rapidly growing dark data. notably Cohesity and Rubrik—have introduced prod-
memory—or is it ucts to do just that, thereby creating a new category of
storage? Copy data proliferation that wasted storage space and
n storage: hyper-converged secondary storage. These new
added to the dark data problem. hyper-converged secondary storage products directly
the software-de- address the problems mentioned above and, to varying
fined storage stack
As much as 90% of an organization’s data resides in sec- degrees, integrate data protection, DevOps and analytics:
Dealing with ondary storage and, given its nature as a catchall, a lot of
Docker container that data is not heavily used or well understood—i.e., the Data protection for data in primary storage is the most
n
dark data. So not only does the underlying physical storage important secondary storage use case, so it must be pres-
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for need to be abstracted and scaled, there’s a huge volume ent in any hyper-converged platforms.
data protection of opaque, redundant data that must be organized for use
purchases
by all non-tier-1 workloads residing in secondary storage DevOps enables developers to use virtual, zero-space
n
Storage while simultaneously providing effective data protection copies instead of fully duplicated data for the rapid and
purchasing survey for primary storage. efficient deployment of new test and development envi-
Snapshot 2:
ronments, maximizing storage efficiency and minimiz-
Backup/DR choices ing copy proliferation
for IT buyers ADDRESSING THE SECONDARY-STORAGE PROBLEM
Storage network
To take the next step in hyper-convergence, you would Analytics provide a mechanism to light up dark data
n
performance start with the clustered hardware technology residing and increase its business value. For example, in addition
beneath a global, extensible file system that current hy- to providing basic analytics as part of its base product,
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s per-converged platforms provide, and you would enhance Cohesity offers a software developer’s kit and an open
bottleneck problem it to support the concurrent mixed workloads driven integration platform that allow customers and third-
by secondary storage use cases. With this as a base, you party developers to add their own custom analytics
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures would then build in global, inline data deduplication, file modules.
attention indexing and search services, integrating the key second-
About us
ary storage workflows on top of it all. The finishing touch The net result is that, with only one system to manage,
would be to add a cloud interface that allows bulk data to customers no longer have to deal with separate point hard-
be archived there, to enable automated policy-based cloud ware/software products for the various secondary storage
tiering and provide a facility for off-site replication for use cases. They also gain built-in copy data management
business continuity and disaster recovery. efficiencies, significant improvements in storage capacity,

Home less duplicate data proliferation and much better insight platforms, but they’ve tightly integrated in-line dedupli-
Castagna: Is it
into the bulk of their data. cation, zero-space copies and data protection into their
memory—or is it offering, blurring the line between primary and secondary
storage? storage to a degree.
OTHER VENDORS ENTER In summary, the secondary storage space, which has
the software-de- HYPER-CONVERGED SECONDARY SPACE been a fragmented, mostly neglected IT backwater for a
fined storage stack
Besides Cohesity and Rubrik, the two purest plays in this long time, is beginning to get some overdue attention. Le-
Dealing with new category, there are a few other vendors encroaching veraging existing technologies developed for the original
Docker container on the hyper-converged secondary storage space. Actifio hyper-converged platforms, a handful of vendors are pro-
started out as a copy data management company, but has ducing some interesting products that promise to make
Snapshot 1:
Key drivers for expanded its offerings to what it calls copy data virtualiza- life easier for storage administrators. n
data protection tion, which pulls in the secondary storage use cases of data
purchases
protection and DevOps. Another vendor, SimpliVity, is JIM WHALEN is a senior analyst and consultant at Taneja Group
Storage positioned as a player in hyper-converged primary storage with a focus on data protection.
purchasing survey
Snapshot 2:
Backup/DR choices
for IT buyers
Storage network
performance
Sinclair: Flash
storage’s
bottleneck problem
Whalen: Secondary
storage captures
attention
About us

Home TechTarget Storage Media Group
Castagna: Is it
memory—or is it
storage?
STORAGE MAGAZINE STORAGE DECISIONS TECHTARGET CONFERENCES
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the software-de-
EXECUTIVE EDITOR James Alan Miller
fined storage stack
SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Ed Hannan
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS James Damoulakis, Steve Duplessie, SUBSCRIPTIONS

Dealing with www.SearchStorage.com
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Docker container
DIRECTOR OF ONLINE DESIGN Linda Koury
Snapshot 1: STORAGE MAGAZINE

Key drivers for SEARCHSTORAGE.COM
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STAFF WRITER Garry Kranz www.techtarget.com
Snapshot 2: SENIOR SITE EDITOR Rodney Brown
Backup/DR choices SITE EDITOR Sarah Wilson
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Storage network
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STORAGE

Toigo: (Re-)defining SNAPSHOT 1 EDITOR’S NOTE / CASTAGNA

Dealing with Docker

JULY 2016, VOL. 15, NO. 5

Storage END OF THE SOLID-STATE STORY? HARDLY

STORAGE • JULY 2016 3

STORAGE • JULY 2016 4

STORAGE • JULY 2016 5

STORAGE • JULY 2016 6

STORAGE • JULY 2016 7

STORAGE • JULY 2016 8

Not usable for data that needs to be saved

STORAGE • JULY 2016 10

$docker run --name TEST_CON -v /home/jg/

STORAGE • JULY 2016 11

STORAGE • JULY 2016 12

STORAGE • JULY 2016 13

STORAGE • JULY 2016 14

STORAGE • JULY 2016 15

SOURCE: ALL DATA FROM TECHTARGET RESEARCH

STORAGE • JULY 2016 16

n Increased storage budgets

n Continued dominance of established vendors

n Data protection remains a key focus for most storage

shops, but spending plans are now looking at more

Our storage purchase survey research revealed storage

STORAGE • JULY 2016 18

STORAGE • JULY 2016 19

STORAGE • JULY 2016 20

Storage network 4% Adopt/evaluate in

Whalen: Secondary No 12% Hybrid flash storage

STORAGE • JULY 2016 21

STORAGE • JULY 2016 22

Storage network 30% 28%

STORAGE • JULY 2016 23

STORAGE • JULY 2016 24

Storage network 10% Services are too expensive

SOURCE: ALL DATA FROM TECHTARGET RESEARCH STORAGE • JULY 2016 25

STORAGE NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY is changing, and speed

Storage network 200 Gbps

1995 1998 2002 2010 2017 2018/2019 2020 or later

SOURCE: ETHERNET ALLIANCE

STORAGE • JULY 2016 27

STORAGE • JULY 2016 28

Toigo: (Re-)defining n SINGLE LANE n QUAD SPEED

Snapshot 2: 32GFC 64GFC 128GFC 256GFC 512GFC 1TFC

SOURCE: FIBRE CHANNEL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

STORAGE • JULY 2016 29

REVVING UP SERIAL ATTACHED SCSI

STORAGE • JULY 2016 30

STORAGE • JULY 2016 31

Castagna: Is it Networking protocols encounter storage in the real world

STORAGE • JULY 2016 32

STORAGE • JULY 2016 33

STORAGE • JULY 2016 34

STORAGE • JULY 2016 35

STORAGE • JULY 2016 36

STORAGE • JULY 2016 37

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS James Damoulakis, Steve Duplessie, SUBSCRIPTIONS

Snapshot 1: STORAGE MAGAZINE

Stay connected! Follow @SearchStorageTT today.

STORAGE • JULY 2016 38

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen

n Increased storage budgets

n Continued dominance of established vendors

n Data protection remains a key focus for most storage