cloud storage benefits
TRANSCRIPT
The Benefits of Cloud StorageMay 19, 2009
Stephen Foskett, Director of Consulting, Nirvanix
Abstract
The demand for storage has increased, placing significant stress on "in house" storage infrastructures and costly overcapacity build-outs
Factoring in our current economic state and the pressures of power, space, capital expenditures, global performance, and availability issues, companies are faced with an exploding challenges and costs
Cloud storage platforms enable enterprises to cut costs and focus on more important aspects of business, but with many competitors in the marketplace it's hard for businesses to decide which option is best
This session will teach attendees about the uses of cloud storage within enterprise levels of deployment and shed some light on the current solutions available today
2
Top Storage Issues for IT
3
Storage Is Supposed To Be Getting Cheaper!
4
Disk cost is dropping rapidly
$250 buys: 1994: 2 GB 1999: 20 GB 2004: 200 GB 2009: 2000 GB
But enterprise storage costs keep rising!
Analog to Digital Conversionfilm, voice, TV
Explosive Growth of Unstructured Data
5
Source: IDC – The Expanding Digital Universe
User Generated Contentat work and home
Bigger Digital Shadows multiple versions and
formats
95% is unstructured
Nirvanix Confidential
Conventional tiered storage has little impact
Tiered Storage: Where’s The Savings?
6
Offline:Tapes and
Trucks
Tape-Based Archives
High-end storage costs 4-8x as much as plain disk
“Low cost” enterprise storage delivers only 20%-
30% TCO reduction
Tape looks cheap, but data is inaccessible and costly to
bring back on line, so we only use it for archives
Online:“The Box”
Fibre Channel
ATA
RAM Cache
Storage arrays have a little RAM to accelerate disks
Rising cost and complexity of storage
Explosive growth of unstructured data
Tiered storage isn’t the solution
Need to do more than just lock data away
7
Companies Must Change Storage Strategy to Consolidate & Gain Efficiencies
Inflection Points – Move to the Cloud
8
Defining Cloud Storage
Storage is offered as a service with standard interfaces
Billing is usage based
Infrastructure is multi-tenant and scalable
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company
Unleash Tiered Storage!
Flash and Cloud Storage changes everything!
9
Online!Cloud
StorageCloud
Solid state performs much better but costs a lot – use it as a cache for slow disks
Most on-site data resides on accelerated ATA
Less-accessed primary data is moved to the cloud
Some data still needs high-performance FC disks
Archival data lives online in the connected cloud, too!
Online:Next-gen
Storage
Flash
Fibre Channel
ATA
Need to Keep and Reuse - Media Example
10
Content is the core IP of media companies Protection of raw footage Digital preservation of historical
works
Increasing need to repackage, repurpose , distribute and monetize content
“Archive everything - we don’t always know what we will need”
Transition to file based workflows moves archive from dusty storage room to critical storage element
Nirvanix Confidential
Cloud vs. Internal Storage
Internal Storage Cloud Storage
Access Type Block LevelDatabases, ERP
File LevelUnstructured Data
Access Speeds Fibre Channel Gigabit Ethernet
Access Latency <10 ms <500 ms
Business DriverMission CriticalProduction DataTrade Secrets
ArchivalEncrypted
Collaborative
ExamplesERP, design flows,
simulations, exchange server
archives, backups, audio, video & images,
personal drives
High
Low
Low High
Cloud Offers Better Access at Lower Cost
12
Companies Can Change Their Archive Storage Strategy
Nirvanix Confidential
Accessibility
Co
st
Tape
VTL
NAS
Increase Accessibility
Reduce Cost
SAN
Cloud Storage: Compelling Enterprise Value
SecureReliableScalableLow cost
StoreStore
ManageManage
AccessAccess
Built-in user managementAccount and directory
managementPolicy-enabled file system
Global reach Standards-based interfacesIntegrated services
14
Enterprise Cloud Storage: Why Not?
Security & Reliability
No System is Perfect (including yours)
What to look for Security audit (by a respected firm or customer) SAS 70 (especially Type 2) Customizable SLA (with remedies) Transparency Encryption (but who holds the keys?)
Encryption for Cloud Storage
Where should encryption live?(and who holds the keys?)
Performance
Cloud Storage is not for all Data
But it’s for a lot of Data
Cloud-appropriate data: File-based, unstructured Non mission-critical Value in keeping it accessible Requirement to be outside the firewall Multi-user, multi-site Rarely written, frequently read
Ingestion
Loading initial data can derail even the best cloud use cases
Bandwidth is sized to daily requirements
Initial data loading often requires an
alternate path
Can you ship tapes? Disk arrays?
Who manages? Who pays?
Implementation
APIs Aren’t “Simple” to Integrate
What to look for Robust integrated functionality in applications Solutions & integration services Enterprise support Standard storage protocol support
Paths to the Cloud
Economics
TCO is More Than Just $/GB
What to look at Infrastructure costs Connectivity/network costs Security fees Hardware utilization System complexity System management
Barriers are Down: What Next?
Start with cloud proof-of-concept Match dataset with security & bandwidth needs Select a provider based on TCO Perform test & measure outcomes Secure multi-year agreements
Who Is Nirvanix
23
2007 “Storage Products of the Year”2008 “Top Startups to Watch”2008 “Product of the Year”
The Premier “Cloud Storage” Service Provider for the Enterprise
Backed by Intel Capital, Mission Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Windward Ventures and European Founders Fund
Over 500 customers including leading Fortune 10, Media & Entertainment and Web 2.0 companies
24
Thank You
NirvanixWe manage your storage,
so you can manage your business
www.nirvanix.com
twitter.com/nirvanix
Stephen [email protected]
Enterprise Storage Strategies Blog: bit.ly/ESSBlog
Personal Blog: blog.fosketts.net
Enterprise IT Content: gestaltit.com