Managing the information that drives the enterprise

Vol 10 No 11 January 2012

BACK UP REMOTE OFFICES bull USERS RATE THEIR NAS SYSTEMS

STORAGE

ALSO INSIDEStorage predictions vs needs

Itrsquos all about IOPS

Solid-state goes mainstream

Under the hood of scale-out NAS

How do you manage all that data

Hot Warm Cold Pick the Right DR Site

Disaster recovery sites vary considerably when it comes to equipment and price donrsquot make a costly mistake

3 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEinside | january 2012

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 20125 EDITORIAL It seems like everyone is making predictions about data

storage technologies for 2012 and beyond but who are you going to believemdashthem or me by RICH CASTAGNA

IOPS per what9 STORAGE REVOLUTION Disk capacity has been the sexy spec that most of

us have latched onto but itrsquos time to start thinking about performance and power consumption by JON TOIGO

Hot warm cold Whatrsquos the best DR site for your company14 The recovery site might be the most expensive and difficult to manage

part of a DR effort Wersquoll help you determine the best recovery site setup for your money by PAUL KIRVAN CISA CISSP FBCI

Back up remote site data24 From technical advances in networking and security backup apps with

features like deduplication and cloud integration to cloud backup MSPs and cloud backup gateways IT managers now have numerous options to protect remote-office data by JACOB GSOEDL

Quality Awards Oracle NAS comes up bigmdashtwice37 With a lineage that goes back to Sun and StorageTek Oraclersquos NAS boxes

are meeting and maybe exceeding expectations and posting a double Quality Awards win along the way by RICH CASTAGNA

Solid-state storage proving its worth among users47 HOT SPOTS More than one-third of total respondents to a recent

Enterprise Strategy Group survey said their organizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form today by TERRI MCCLURE

Not all scale-out NAS systems are created equal53 READWRITE You may already be sold on the concept of scale-out NAS

but scale-out systems vary widely and yoursquoll have plenty of decisions to make before buying one by ARUN TANEJA

Users arm themselves for the battle with capacity management56 SNAPSHOT This monthrsquos survey respondents said their firms added an

average of 59 TB of disk capacity this year to top off average installed storage at a hefty 413 TB But keeping track of triple-digit TBs isnrsquot easy and only 22 feel they have an accurate handle on whatrsquos being usedby RICH CASTAGNA

From our sponsors58 Useful links from our sponsors

Storage designed for virtualization keeps custom golf club maker on par with progress

Visit wwwefficientvirtualstoragecom to learn how your organization can drive greater

efficiency and flexibility with Fluid Data storage from Dell

Scan the QR code with your smart phone to see how Fluid Data gives PING the freedom to innovate and grow as a business or visit wwwcompellentcomPINGDrivesInnovation

PING drives innovation with Fluid Datatrade storage

Eric Hart NetworkInfrastructure Manager PING

iStorage May 2010Copyright 2012 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission inwriting from the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

5

TrsquoS THE START of a new year which means storage analysts con-sultants pundits bloggers and vendors along with their mothersbrothers sisters and cousins feel an urgent need to make predic-tions for the coming year I havenrsquot done much predicting myselfbut it looks like a pretty cool thing to do considering that a yearfrom now nobodyrsquos going to know if what you predicted happenedor not So the more outrageous your prediction the better right

Doyenz a cloud disaster recovery (DR) vendor predicts ldquothe demise of cloud storagerdquo which might seem a little self-defeatingbecause the last time I looked cloud storage played a fairly signifi-cant role in cloud DR But I guess the company is trying to makesome kind of differentiation between plain old cloud storage andits DR service Still predicting the demise of cloud storage putsDoyenz out on a pretty thin limb Irsquoll be sure to check back in 12months to see if it was right

On the other hand you could play it safe and make your predic-tions broad enough so yoursquoll never get pinned down for detailsmdashandthen you can pat yourself on the back a year later and say ldquoSeewhatrsquod I tell yourdquo Consider this classic exhibition of expansiveprognostication from an IDC press release ldquoOne year ago Interna-tional Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that the IT industryrsquos next

editorial | rich castagna

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 2012

It seems like everyone is making predictions about storage technologies for 2012 and beyond

but who are you going to believemdashthem or me

3 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEinside | january 2012

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 20125 EDITORIAL It seems like everyone is making predictions about data

storage technologies for 2012 and beyond but who are you going to believemdashthem or me by RICH CASTAGNA

IOPS per what9 STORAGE REVOLUTION Disk capacity has been the sexy spec that most of

us have latched onto but itrsquos time to start thinking about performance and power consumption by JON TOIGO

Hot warm cold Whatrsquos the best DR site for your company14 The recovery site might be the most expensive and difficult to manage

part of a DR effort Wersquoll help you determine the best recovery site setup for your money by PAUL KIRVAN CISA CISSP FBCI

Back up remote site data24 From technical advances in networking and security backup apps with

features like deduplication and cloud integration to cloud backup MSPs and cloud backup gateways IT managers now have numerous options to protect remote-office data by JACOB GSOEDL

Quality Awards Oracle NAS comes up bigmdashtwice37 With a lineage that goes back to Sun and StorageTek Oraclersquos NAS boxes

are meeting and maybe exceeding expectations and posting a double Quality Awards win along the way by RICH CASTAGNA

Solid-state storage proving its worth among users47 HOT SPOTS More than one-third of total respondents to a recent

Enterprise Strategy Group survey said their organizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form today by TERRI MCCLURE

Not all scale-out NAS systems are created equal53 READWRITE You may already be sold on the concept of scale-out NAS

but scale-out systems vary widely and yoursquoll have plenty of decisions to make before buying one by ARUN TANEJA

Users arm themselves for the battle with capacity management56 SNAPSHOT This monthrsquos survey respondents said their firms added an

average of 59 TB of disk capacity this year to top off average installed storage at a hefty 413 TB But keeping track of triple-digit TBs isnrsquot easy and only 22 feel they have an accurate handle on whatrsquos being usedby RICH CASTAGNA

From our sponsors58 Useful links from our sponsors

Storage designed for virtualization keeps custom golf club maker on par with progress

Visit wwwefficientvirtualstoragecom to learn how your organization can drive greater

efficiency and flexibility with Fluid Data storage from Dell

Scan the QR code with your smart phone to see how Fluid Data gives PING the freedom to innovate and grow as a business or visit wwwcompellentcomPINGDrivesInnovation

PING drives innovation with Fluid Datatrade storage

Eric Hart NetworkInfrastructure Manager PING

iStorage May 2010Copyright 2012 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission inwriting from the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

5

TrsquoS THE START of a new year which means storage analysts con-sultants pundits bloggers and vendors along with their mothersbrothers sisters and cousins feel an urgent need to make predic-tions for the coming year I havenrsquot done much predicting myselfbut it looks like a pretty cool thing to do considering that a yearfrom now nobodyrsquos going to know if what you predicted happenedor not So the more outrageous your prediction the better right

Doyenz a cloud disaster recovery (DR) vendor predicts ldquothe demise of cloud storagerdquo which might seem a little self-defeatingbecause the last time I looked cloud storage played a fairly signifi-cant role in cloud DR But I guess the company is trying to makesome kind of differentiation between plain old cloud storage andits DR service Still predicting the demise of cloud storage putsDoyenz out on a pretty thin limb Irsquoll be sure to check back in 12months to see if it was right

On the other hand you could play it safe and make your predic-tions broad enough so yoursquoll never get pinned down for detailsmdashandthen you can pat yourself on the back a year later and say ldquoSeewhatrsquod I tell yourdquo Consider this classic exhibition of expansiveprognostication from an IDC press release ldquoOne year ago Interna-tional Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that the IT industryrsquos next

editorial | rich castagna

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 2012

It seems like everyone is making predictions about storage technologies for 2012 and beyond

but who are you going to believemdashthem or me

Storage designed for virtualization keeps custom golf club maker on par with progress

Visit wwwefficientvirtualstoragecom to learn how your organization can drive greater

efficiency and flexibility with Fluid Data storage from Dell

Scan the QR code with your smart phone to see how Fluid Data gives PING the freedom to innovate and grow as a business or visit wwwcompellentcomPINGDrivesInnovation

PING drives innovation with Fluid Datatrade storage

Eric Hart NetworkInfrastructure Manager PING

iStorage May 2010Copyright 2012 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission inwriting from the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

5

TrsquoS THE START of a new year which means storage analysts con-sultants pundits bloggers and vendors along with their mothersbrothers sisters and cousins feel an urgent need to make predic-tions for the coming year I havenrsquot done much predicting myselfbut it looks like a pretty cool thing to do considering that a yearfrom now nobodyrsquos going to know if what you predicted happenedor not So the more outrageous your prediction the better right

Doyenz a cloud disaster recovery (DR) vendor predicts ldquothe demise of cloud storagerdquo which might seem a little self-defeatingbecause the last time I looked cloud storage played a fairly signifi-cant role in cloud DR But I guess the company is trying to makesome kind of differentiation between plain old cloud storage andits DR service Still predicting the demise of cloud storage putsDoyenz out on a pretty thin limb Irsquoll be sure to check back in 12months to see if it was right

On the other hand you could play it safe and make your predic-tions broad enough so yoursquoll never get pinned down for detailsmdashandthen you can pat yourself on the back a year later and say ldquoSeewhatrsquod I tell yourdquo Consider this classic exhibition of expansiveprognostication from an IDC press release ldquoOne year ago Interna-tional Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that the IT industryrsquos next

editorial | rich castagna

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 2012

It seems like everyone is making predictions about storage technologies for 2012 and beyond

but who are you going to believemdashthem or me

iStorage May 2010Copyright 2012 TechTarget No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without permission inwriting from the publisher For permissions or reprint information please contact Mike Kelly VP and Group Publisher (mkellytechtargetcom)

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

5

TrsquoS THE START of a new year which means storage analysts con-sultants pundits bloggers and vendors along with their mothersbrothers sisters and cousins feel an urgent need to make predic-tions for the coming year I havenrsquot done much predicting myselfbut it looks like a pretty cool thing to do considering that a yearfrom now nobodyrsquos going to know if what you predicted happenedor not So the more outrageous your prediction the better right

Doyenz a cloud disaster recovery (DR) vendor predicts ldquothe demise of cloud storagerdquo which might seem a little self-defeatingbecause the last time I looked cloud storage played a fairly signifi-cant role in cloud DR But I guess the company is trying to makesome kind of differentiation between plain old cloud storage andits DR service Still predicting the demise of cloud storage putsDoyenz out on a pretty thin limb Irsquoll be sure to check back in 12months to see if it was right

On the other hand you could play it safe and make your predic-tions broad enough so yoursquoll never get pinned down for detailsmdashandthen you can pat yourself on the back a year later and say ldquoSeewhatrsquod I tell yourdquo Consider this classic exhibition of expansiveprognostication from an IDC press release ldquoOne year ago Interna-tional Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that the IT industryrsquos next

editorial | rich castagna

Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 2012

It seems like everyone is making predictions about storage technologies for 2012 and beyond

but who are you going to believemdashthem or me

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

6 STORAGE January 2012

dominant platform built on mobile computing cloud services social networking and big data analytics technologies would begin its transition into the mainstreamrdquo

Crsquomon guys why not toss eating breathing and sleeping intothat pretty-darn-general catchall mix It doesnrsquot hurt that ldquocloudservicesrdquo is so undefined it can mean just about any IT thing inyour shop or that you might hook up to in someone elsersquos shopIDC goes on to say that spending in these categories ldquois expectedto account for at least 80of IT spending growth be-tween now and 2020rdquo I justput a reminder on my Out-look calendar for December2020 to check to see if theprediction was correct (Ijust hope someone predictsOutlook will still be aroundin 2020)

Herersquos a prediction from a Synergy Research Grouppress release thatrsquos boldenough to be the headline ldquoCloud Infrastructure Equipment to Exceed $33B in 2011rdquo I found that particularly interesting becausea definition of ldquocloud infrastructurerdquo is to say the least somewhatelusive Supporting the headline the release says ldquothe fastestgrowing segment includes Private Cloud platforms which is grow-ing at over 30 annual growthrdquo Synergy capitalized ldquoprivatecloudrdquo by the way which it defines as ldquoa virtualized data centerwhich resides behind an organizationrsquos firewallrdquo Hmmm thecompany isnrsquot exactly crawling out on that limb with Doyenz withthat kind of context for its prediction Based on that statementyoursquod be hard-pressed to define whatrsquos not private cloud gear(which makes $33 billion seem like a lowball estimate)

Obviously these predictions are fodder for fun just as long as

These predictions arefodder for fun just as long as theyrsquore nottaken too seriously But they all seem to overlook one importantpiece of the data storage technologypuzzle you

theyrsquore not taken too seriously But they all seem to overlook oneimportant piece of the data storage technology puzzle you I donrsquotthink you make your storage purchasing decisions based on pre-dictions I might make or those that think tanks might run up theflagpole You make your decisions based on what your companyneeds and what vendorsrsquo products meet those needs best And if I tell you that a year from now solid-state storage will cost lessthan hard disk drives Irsquom sure that wonrsquot influence your decision(Just want to see if yoursquore still paying attention)

I also predict that a year from now Irsquom going to try to get awaywith another column making fun of other peoplersquos predictions Untilthen Happy New Year 2

Rich Castagna is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the February 2012 issue

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

7 STORAGE January 2012

theyrsquore not taken too seriously But they all seem to overlook oneimportant piece of the data storage technology puzzle you I donrsquotthink you make your storage purchasing decisions based on pre-dictions I might make or those that think tanks might run up theflagpole You make your decisions based on what your companyneeds and what vendorsrsquo products meet those needs best And if I tell you that a year from now solid-state storage will cost lessthan hard disk drives Irsquom sure that wonrsquot influence your decision(Just want to see if yoursquore still paying attention)

I also predict that a year from now Irsquom going to try to get awaywith another column making fun of other peoplersquos predictions Untilthen Happy New Year 2

Rich Castagna is editorial director of the Storage Media Group

Click here for a sneak peek at whatrsquos coming up in the February 2012 issue

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

7 STORAGE January 2012

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

9 STORAGE January 2012

bACK WHEN HE was at Xiotech (now XIO) Rob Peglar used to present aPowerPoint deck that included a slide depicting a butcher process-ing a large pile of ground beef The unappealing image provided amemorable hook for Peglarrsquos point for years wersquove bought storagein a similar fashion using the simple metric of dollars per pound

Interviewing disk drive makers a few years ago I learned a dif-ferent but related truth about disk Many disk drive industry insidersobserved that their biggest sales accrued based on ldquolargerrdquo ratherthan ldquofasterrdquo or ldquosmarterrdquo Customers saw bigger capacity as theimprovement that meant the most A 1 TB drive was better than animbler 250 GB drive and a 2 TB drive yielded more sales than afancy 500 GB flashhard disk hybrid unit

Bigger is better made a certain kind of sense of course Know-ing virtually nothing about data itselfmdashthe contents of a given fileits business value its criticality or its usage characteristicsmdashdatastorage administrators concerned themselves mainly with thesimple problem of where they would find the elbow room to storeit And as the economy grew more challenging vendors rewardedbuyers with products that could store a lot of anonymous data toa much greater extent than they regarded (or even paid attentionto) improvements in drive smarts or transfer speeds

Peglar thought that was shortsighted a kind of race to the bottomin the disk drive market His former employer reached the sameconclusion deciding to discontinue its capacity line in favor of

storage revolutIOn | jon toigo

IOPS per whatDisk capacity has been the sexy specification

the majority of us have latched onto but itrsquos time to start thinking about

performance and power consumption

products that served a different metric altogether IOPS per wattXIOrsquos storage blade the Intelligent Storage Element or Hybrid ISE(hybrid because of its use of flash solid-state storage to augmentlower capacity faster performing SAS disk to yield a nominal200000 IOPS) isnrsquot aimed at the casual consumer looking for massfile storage but at planners with other needs and metrics in mindSpecifically the company is seeking to serve applications with theextreme performance they require with the lowest possible powerconsumption I see this strategy as important

The cost of energy contin-ues to climb According to an article published not longago in USA Today the cost ofutility power had climbed byapproximately 22 nation-wide in less than 18 monthsMoreover in data center-heavy parts of the US griddemand for power was ex-ceeding the availability of circuits reflecting a delivery grid thatwas designed long before the information age So whether youthink climate change is real and want to go ldquogreenrdquo or yoursquore simplyconfronted by nagging issues regarding energy expense and avail-ability ldquoper wattrdquo metrics are increasingly important in storagedecision making

Itrsquos also an increasingly important dimension of efficient storagearchitecture Clearly we canrsquot keep throwing more spindles atworkloads to improve IOPS given the resulting power demand of such strategies Thatrsquos why I have to chuckle when HP3PARcarries on about having the fast hand in storage at 400000+ IOPSShort-stroking a lot of spindles does buy speed but at a non-trivialexpense in terms of power

A better approach is to augment disk with flash moving hot datainto flash temporarily until its access profile cools then writing

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE January 2012

Clearly we canrsquot keepthrowing more spindlesat workloads to improveIOPS given the resultingpower demand of suchstrategies

requests back over to the disk There are fewer drives to power insuch a design Another approach is to virtualize all disk and realizefast IO out of the DRAM of the storage virtualization host agrave la DataCore Softwarersquos SANsymphony-V This involves a similar kindof ldquospoofingrdquo that you see every day in say the products of leadingnetwork-attached storage (NAS) vendors whose back-end storageis actually quite sluggish To buy speed vendors like NetApp simplyuse lots of memory to acknowledge writes before theyrsquore actuallymade queuing them up on the back end to conceal how slow theirRAIDWAFL system actually is

IOPS per watt has an underdiscussed corollary incapacity per watt a secondimportant metric Back whengreen was in fashion storagevendors encouraged firms to green their storage by ldquore-driving arraysrdquomdashpullinglow-capacity drives and replacing them with highercapacity drives to get morecapacity with the samepower consumption Asidefrom this usually requiring aldquoforklift upgraderdquo of the overall unit to accommodate the new drives(a point that vendors conveniently overlooked in their marketingmaterials evangelizing the strategy) the basic idea made sense

However it really comes to fruition when taken to its logicalconclusion what I call ldquoNAS on steroidsrdquo A slew of announcementsin late 2011 described a new cobble of storage combining a tape library perhaps a front-end disk cache and the Linear Tape FileSystem (LTFS) instantiated on a server that could be mounted as a file share using a network file system This design delivers high-density file storage (in the many tens of petabytes) with extremely

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

11 STORAGE January 2012

NAS on steroids is theright IOPS-per-wattsolution for file reposi-tories containing datawith low rates of re-reference Who caresif accessing a rarelyrequested documententails the same delayas the World Wide Wait

low power requirements in the space of a single raised-floor tiledepending on the library IBM Spectra Logic and others are pushingthe library parts of the kit while Crossroads Systems has jumpedinto the limelight once again with its StrongBox appliance trickedout to deliver the disk cache file system and NAS mount

NAS on steroids is the right IOPS-per-watt solution for filerepositories containing data with low rates of re-reference Whocares if accessing a rarely requested document entails the samedelay as the World Wide Wait How long did it take you to down-load and read this file and when might you reference it again

IOPS per watt is an increasingly meaningful metric for thosewho want to build storage that fits both business needs and milieurealities Power ainrsquot getting cheaper 2

Jon William Toigo is a 30-year IT veteran and is CEO and managing principalof Toigo Partners International and chairman of the Data Management Institute

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE January 2012

products that served a different metric altogether IOPS per wattXIOrsquos storage blade the Intelligent Storage Element or Hybrid ISE(hybrid because of its use of flash solid-state storage to augmentlower capacity faster performing SAS disk to yield a nominal200000 IOPS) isnrsquot aimed at the casual consumer looking for massfile storage but at planners with other needs and metrics in mindSpecifically the company is seeking to serve applications with theextreme performance they require with the lowest possible powerconsumption I see this strategy as important

The cost of energy contin-ues to climb According to an article published not longago in USA Today the cost ofutility power had climbed byapproximately 22 nation-wide in less than 18 monthsMoreover in data center-heavy parts of the US griddemand for power was ex-ceeding the availability of circuits reflecting a delivery grid thatwas designed long before the information age So whether youthink climate change is real and want to go ldquogreenrdquo or yoursquore simplyconfronted by nagging issues regarding energy expense and avail-ability ldquoper wattrdquo metrics are increasingly important in storagedecision making

Itrsquos also an increasingly important dimension of efficient storagearchitecture Clearly we canrsquot keep throwing more spindles atworkloads to improve IOPS given the resulting power demand of such strategies Thatrsquos why I have to chuckle when HP3PARcarries on about having the fast hand in storage at 400000+ IOPSShort-stroking a lot of spindles does buy speed but at a non-trivialexpense in terms of power

A better approach is to augment disk with flash moving hot datainto flash temporarily until its access profile cools then writing

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

10 STORAGE January 2012

Clearly we canrsquot keepthrowing more spindlesat workloads to improveIOPS given the resultingpower demand of suchstrategies

requests back over to the disk There are fewer drives to power insuch a design Another approach is to virtualize all disk and realizefast IO out of the DRAM of the storage virtualization host agrave la DataCore Softwarersquos SANsymphony-V This involves a similar kindof ldquospoofingrdquo that you see every day in say the products of leadingnetwork-attached storage (NAS) vendors whose back-end storageis actually quite sluggish To buy speed vendors like NetApp simplyuse lots of memory to acknowledge writes before theyrsquore actuallymade queuing them up on the back end to conceal how slow theirRAIDWAFL system actually is

IOPS per watt has an underdiscussed corollary incapacity per watt a secondimportant metric Back whengreen was in fashion storagevendors encouraged firms to green their storage by ldquore-driving arraysrdquomdashpullinglow-capacity drives and replacing them with highercapacity drives to get morecapacity with the samepower consumption Asidefrom this usually requiring aldquoforklift upgraderdquo of the overall unit to accommodate the new drives(a point that vendors conveniently overlooked in their marketingmaterials evangelizing the strategy) the basic idea made sense

However it really comes to fruition when taken to its logicalconclusion what I call ldquoNAS on steroidsrdquo A slew of announcementsin late 2011 described a new cobble of storage combining a tape library perhaps a front-end disk cache and the Linear Tape FileSystem (LTFS) instantiated on a server that could be mounted as a file share using a network file system This design delivers high-density file storage (in the many tens of petabytes) with extremely

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

11 STORAGE January 2012

NAS on steroids is theright IOPS-per-wattsolution for file reposi-tories containing datawith low rates of re-reference Who caresif accessing a rarelyrequested documententails the same delayas the World Wide Wait

low power requirements in the space of a single raised-floor tiledepending on the library IBM Spectra Logic and others are pushingthe library parts of the kit while Crossroads Systems has jumpedinto the limelight once again with its StrongBox appliance trickedout to deliver the disk cache file system and NAS mount

NAS on steroids is the right IOPS-per-watt solution for filerepositories containing data with low rates of re-reference Whocares if accessing a rarely requested document entails the samedelay as the World Wide Wait How long did it take you to down-load and read this file and when might you reference it again

IOPS per watt is an increasingly meaningful metric for thosewho want to build storage that fits both business needs and milieurealities Power ainrsquot getting cheaper 2

Jon William Toigo is a 30-year IT veteran and is CEO and managing principalof Toigo Partners International and chairman of the Data Management Institute

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE January 2012

requests back over to the disk There are fewer drives to power insuch a design Another approach is to virtualize all disk and realizefast IO out of the DRAM of the storage virtualization host agrave la DataCore Softwarersquos SANsymphony-V This involves a similar kindof ldquospoofingrdquo that you see every day in say the products of leadingnetwork-attached storage (NAS) vendors whose back-end storageis actually quite sluggish To buy speed vendors like NetApp simplyuse lots of memory to acknowledge writes before theyrsquore actuallymade queuing them up on the back end to conceal how slow theirRAIDWAFL system actually is

IOPS per watt has an underdiscussed corollary incapacity per watt a secondimportant metric Back whengreen was in fashion storagevendors encouraged firms to green their storage by ldquore-driving arraysrdquomdashpullinglow-capacity drives and replacing them with highercapacity drives to get morecapacity with the samepower consumption Asidefrom this usually requiring aldquoforklift upgraderdquo of the overall unit to accommodate the new drives(a point that vendors conveniently overlooked in their marketingmaterials evangelizing the strategy) the basic idea made sense

However it really comes to fruition when taken to its logicalconclusion what I call ldquoNAS on steroidsrdquo A slew of announcementsin late 2011 described a new cobble of storage combining a tape library perhaps a front-end disk cache and the Linear Tape FileSystem (LTFS) instantiated on a server that could be mounted as a file share using a network file system This design delivers high-density file storage (in the many tens of petabytes) with extremely

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

11 STORAGE January 2012

NAS on steroids is theright IOPS-per-wattsolution for file reposi-tories containing datawith low rates of re-reference Who caresif accessing a rarelyrequested documententails the same delayas the World Wide Wait

low power requirements in the space of a single raised-floor tiledepending on the library IBM Spectra Logic and others are pushingthe library parts of the kit while Crossroads Systems has jumpedinto the limelight once again with its StrongBox appliance trickedout to deliver the disk cache file system and NAS mount

NAS on steroids is the right IOPS-per-watt solution for filerepositories containing data with low rates of re-reference Whocares if accessing a rarely requested document entails the samedelay as the World Wide Wait How long did it take you to down-load and read this file and when might you reference it again

IOPS per watt is an increasingly meaningful metric for thosewho want to build storage that fits both business needs and milieurealities Power ainrsquot getting cheaper 2

Jon William Toigo is a 30-year IT veteran and is CEO and managing principalof Toigo Partners International and chairman of the Data Management Institute

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE January 2012

low power requirements in the space of a single raised-floor tiledepending on the library IBM Spectra Logic and others are pushingthe library parts of the kit while Crossroads Systems has jumpedinto the limelight once again with its StrongBox appliance trickedout to deliver the disk cache file system and NAS mount

NAS on steroids is the right IOPS-per-watt solution for filerepositories containing data with low rates of re-reference Whocares if accessing a rarely requested document entails the samedelay as the World Wide Wait How long did it take you to down-load and read this file and when might you reference it again

IOPS per watt is an increasingly meaningful metric for thosewho want to build storage that fits both business needs and milieurealities Power ainrsquot getting cheaper 2

Jon William Toigo is a 30-year IT veteran and is CEO and managing principalof Toigo Partners International and chairman of the Data Management Institute

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

12 STORAGE January 2012

180T

B IN

7 IN

CHES

THE ONLY THING SMALLER THAN THE FOOTPRINT IS THE PRICE

01

23

45

67

89

INCH

627 CUSTOMERS ANSWER 10 QUESTIONS ABOUT NEXSAN See the results and read the quotes visit wwwtechvalidatecomportalsnexsan TVID 15C-133-AE4

oStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

14 STORAGE January 2012

NE OF THE toughest disaster recovery (DR) issues to resolvemdashandpotentially one of the most expensive decisions in a DR planmdashisdetermining the type of recovery site your organization will useThe options (cold sites warm sites and hot sites) can keep youawake at night as you try to figure out which one is best for yourorganization The reality is that any of these options can help yourorganization recover from a disaster and with some careful plan-ning they can also help you protect critical data

HOT WARM COLD Whatrsquos the best DR site

for your company

Figuring out what kind of disaster recovery siteyour organization needs requires careful planning

and yoursquoll have to balance costs against risksBY PAUL KIRVAN CISA CISSP FBCI

Recovery site options can vary significantly in cost wersquoll providesome guidance to help you determine the most appropriate recoverysite setup and also give you an idea of what you should expect topay for private facilities and third-party services

According to Ted Brown CBCP MBCI CBCV and president andCEO at KETCHConsulting a business continuity (BC)DR consultancyin Waverly Pa a good way to think of these various options is asalternate sites ldquoThe development of alternate sites came from theneed to protect data centersrdquo Brown said and within each datacenter are hardware and software physical facilities a variety ofsystems and services and operationalcritical data needed to runthe business

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

15 STORAGE January 2012

Cold warm and hot sites defined

DD

D

COLD SITESpace and associated infrastructure (eg power telecoms and environmental controls to support IT systems) which will only be installed when disaster recovery (DR) services are activated

WARM SITESite thatrsquos partially equipped with some of the equipment (egcomputing hardware and software and supporting personnel) organizations install additional equipment computing hardwareand software and supporting personnel when DR services are activated

HOT SITEFully equipped site with the required equipment computing hard-waresoftware and supporting personnel itrsquos also fully functionaland manned on a 24x7 basis so that itrsquos ready for organizations tooperate their IT systems when DR services are activated

Source ISOIEC 247622008

copy2012 NetApp All rights reserved Specifications are subject to change without notice NetApp the NetApp logo and Go further faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp Inc in the United States andor other countries All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such

Scan to see how midsize businesses with smaller IT budgets can finally choose storage solutions they wonrsquot outgrow Or visit NetAppcommidsize

Choose an IT solution thats both affordable and scalable

copy2012 NetApp All rights reserved Specifications are subject to change without notice NetApp the NetApp logo and Go further faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp Inc in the United States andor other countries All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such

Scan to see how midsize businesses with smaller IT budgets can finally choose storage solutions they wonrsquot outgrow Or visit NetAppcommidsize

Choose an IT solution thats both affordable and scalable

There are two fundamental alternate site arrangements internaland external ldquoIf you have the need and the funding you can designand build an internal recovery site typically a second data centerto provide the resources you need to recover and resume datacenter operations following a disaster at the primary data centerrdquoBrown said Companies with very large information requirementsand aggressive recovery time objectives (RTOs) are more likely tohave internal recovery arrangements

By contrast organizationswith more restricted budgetshave a huge variety of options for protecting theirdata centers and critical information These optionsare typically provided exter-nally and are the familiarcoldwarmhot sites

With regard to externallyprovided solutions the definitions of cold warmand hot sites are many andvaried While there are cur-rently no official standardsfor alternate sites interna-tional standards like ISOIEC247622008 Guidelines forInformation and Communications Technology Disaster RecoveryServices address IT DR services provided by vendors and providesa good set of criteria for evaluating these options (see ldquoColdwarm and hot sites definedrdquo)

Brown who has been involved in alternate site planning andimplementation for more than 30 years likes to use the followingdefinitions ldquoA hot site is a fully operational data center that alsohas live customer data A cold site is a type of data center thathas no technology installed It will have power HVAC and com-munications in place A warm site is an equipped data center but

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

17 STORAGE January 2012

ldquoIf you have the needand the funding youcan design and build aninternal recovery sitetypically a second datacenter to provide theresources you need torecover and resumedata center operationsfollowing a disaster atthe primary data centerrdquo

mdashTED BROWN CBCP MBCI CBCV and president and CEO KETCHConsulting

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

18 STORAGE January 2012

Estimated costs for alternate DR site arrangements

Comments

Fee ranges based on size of siteequipment configurations need forshared vs dedicated space addedcosts for work-area support

Fee ranges based on size of siteequipment configurations need forshared vs dedicated space addedcosts for work-area support

Fee ranges based on size of site provisions needed (eg power HVAC telecom) need for shared vsdedicated space added costs forwork-area support

Fee ranges based on space hard-waresoftware needed infrastruc-ture needs (eg power telecom)

Fee ranges based on space workspaces needed shared vs dedicatedseats may be standalone or includedwith the above options

Costs include remote storage facilities data mirroring softwarenetwork bandwidth

Costs include remote storage facilities data mirroring softwarenetwork bandwidth

Costs include design and construction monthly charges for infrastructure and related operating components hardwaresoftware

Costs include design and construction monthly charges for infrastructure and related operating components hardwaresoftware

Costs include design and construction monthly charges for infrastructure and related operating components

Costs include network connectivitystorage resources physical space forequipment virtualization software

Estimatedfixed fee

$25K to$500K

$15K to$350K

$5K to $150K

$3K to $100K

$5K to $150K

$10K to$200K

$5K to$200K

$150K to$25M

$12K to$100K per siteequipped

$20K to$250K per siteequipped

$5K to $150K

Estimatedmonthly fee

$1500 to$75K

$800 to $45K

$550 to $20K

$175 to $15K

$500 to $25K

$500 to $75K

$500 to $30K

$10K to$100K

$3K to $20Kper siteequipped

$7K to $50Kper siteequipped

$3K to $50K

External solutions

Internal solutions

Type of service

Hot site

Warm site

Cold site

Colocation

Work-area recovery

Remote data mirroring

Public cloud recovery

Backup data center(eg internal hotwarm site) may also include work-area recovery

Configure field offices for data andor work-area recovery (can be hot warm or cold setups)

Prewired headquartersregional office space for data andor work-area recovery (eg internal cold site)

Private cloud recovery

without customer datardquo In each case the equipment in place atalternate site facilities is shared by multiple users If there aremultiple disaster declarations Brown added the response is usually first come first served Some companies will pay extra to have dedicated equipment available only to them

DECISION FACTORSThe key criteria most likely to influence the selection of a particularalternate site arrangement include internal vs external resources

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE January 2012

Decision tree Determining alternate DR sites

No

Internal

Build

No

No

No

Yes

External

Rent

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Consider work-area recovery arrangement

Consider colocationarrangement

Launch project

Assess existing DR capabilities

Are theysufficient

Analyze options for technology data

protection staff support

Internal or external solution

Build or rent

Need only build-out space

Need only CommsHardware Systems

Need access to live data

Done

Colocated facility

Are available services acceptable

Consider cold sitearrangement

Consider warm sitearrangement

Consider hot sitearrangement

Need for people work areas

Is 2012 your year to solve performance hungry

application needs with high performance solid state

flash storage

Broadleaf your New England based storage solution architect helps you to effectively manage data assets with products and services that include

s

storage

p

protection

a

availability

r

recoverability

v

virtualization

c

collaboration

Primary obstacles of durability cost amp write performance are gone

SSD is ready amp targeted for databases VDI amp high performance file serving

Broadleaf Services Inc10 Mall Road Burlington MA 01803

866-337-7733 infobroadleafservicescomwwwbroadleafservicescom

Solutions for data storage protection management availability virtualization and collaboration

Click here to learn more

without customer datardquo In each case the equipment in place atalternate site facilities is shared by multiple users If there aremultiple disaster declarations Brown added the response is usually first come first served Some companies will pay extra to have dedicated equipment available only to them

DECISION FACTORSThe key criteria most likely to influence the selection of a particularalternate site arrangement include internal vs external resources

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

19 STORAGE January 2012

Decision tree Determining alternate DR sites

No

Internal

Build

No

No

No

Yes

External

Rent

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Consider work-area recovery arrangement

Consider colocationarrangement

Launch project

Assess existing DR capabilities

Are theysufficient

Analyze options for technology data

protection staff support

Internal or external solution

Build or rent

Need only build-out space

Need only CommsHardware Systems

Need access to live data

Done

Colocated facility

Are available services acceptable

Consider cold sitearrangement

Consider warm sitearrangement

Consider hot sitearrangement

Need for people work areas

Is 2012 your year to solve performance hungry

application needs with high performance solid state

flash storage

Broadleaf your New England based storage solution architect helps you to effectively manage data assets with products and services that include

s

storage

p

protection

a

availability

r

recoverability

v

virtualization

c

collaboration

Primary obstacles of durability cost amp write performance are gone

SSD is ready amp targeted for databases VDI amp high performance file serving

Broadleaf Services Inc10 Mall Road Burlington MA 01803

866-337-7733 infobroadleafservicescomwwwbroadleafservicescom

Solutions for data storage protection management availability virtualization and collaboration

Click here to learn more

Is 2012 your year to solve performance hungry

application needs with high performance solid state

flash storage

Broadleaf your New England based storage solution architect helps you to effectively manage data assets with products and services that include

s

storage

p

protection

a

availability

r

recoverability

v

virtualization

c

collaboration

Primary obstacles of durability cost amp write performance are gone

SSD is ready amp targeted for databases VDI amp high performance file serving

Broadleaf Services Inc10 Mall Road Burlington MA 01803

866-337-7733 infobroadleafservicescomwwwbroadleafservicescom

Solutions for data storage protection management availability virtualization and collaboration

Click here to learn more

RTO and cost vs risk For example it would be very good to mirroryour data in real-time to an offsite facility but the cost to do thatmay be prohibitive Brown estimates that data mirroring costs canbe up to 10 times the cost of a hot site

In this option costs are incurred for the service used the data mirroring technology and the network bandwidth (usually fairlyhigh) required to transmit large volumes of data in real-time Canyour organization risk data loss by using a data protection solutionthat doesnrsquot provide real-time mirroring Because alternate sitesare usually shared facilities Brown noted they represent a sharedriskmdashunless you decide to pay additional fees for dedicated accessto recovery resources

Another important consideration is make vs buy Factors thatcan influence a make vs buy decision include RTO cost and riskAccording to Brown an internal system done right is a far bettersolution but itrsquos also the most costly option Itrsquos always better todo an internal solution but can you afford the cost vs the risk

WORK-AREA RECOVERYA major issue today is work-area recovery which focuses more ongetting people back to work than just getting systems up and run-ning Itrsquos the biggest growth area in the alternate site businessaccording to Brown who estimates there are approximately 1000vendors offering work-area recovery People are a major planningconsideration in traditional alternate sites and the primary concernwith work-area recovery

Where will your people work if their primary offices are unavail-able Unless your employees can safely use telecommuting andsimilar remote-access arrangements they must be willing to relo-cate even temporarily to another site According to Brown a majorissue that nobody truly thinks about is what happens if peoplebring their children to a work-area recovery center Parents maynot be able to (or want to) leave their children with someone while

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

21 STORAGE January 2012

they work at a distant recovery location for what might be an extended time

Major aspects of work-area recovery deal with human resourcesissues ldquoShould the possibility of working in another area for anextended period of time be added to job descriptionsrdquo he askedAnother issue is whether employees should be required to partici-pate in tests

According to Brown most major organizations in the public andprivate sectors have good IT recovery plans ldquoWhat they donrsquot haveare good work-area recovery plans for employees contractors andother staffrdquo he said Therersquos also the issue of senior managementrsquosperception of the value of alternate sites

ADDITIONAL POINTS FOR CONSIDERATIONAlternate sites should be located far enough away from primaryoffices so that theyrsquore less likely to be affected by the same disasterfailure events that have put the main facilities out of service Theissues of site proximity operational risks and service-level agree-ments (SLAs) should be considered when contracting with disasterrecovery service providers

Alternatives to traditional alternate sites discussed in this articleinclude colocation facilities in which your organization can locatedisaster recovery equipment in the same building as major serviceproviders such as telecommunications carriers and cloud-basedrecovery services in which alternate site facilities are locatedwithin the ldquocloudrdquo 2

Paul Kirvan is an independent consultantIT auditor and technical writereditoreducator with more than 22 years of experience in business continuityand disaster recovery

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

22 STORAGE January 2012

User-Proof Your Google Apps Data

One simple mistake can topple your

domain your project and your business

Nearly two-thirds of all Google Apps data loss is due to user error

Google canrsquot protect you from yourself ndash but Backupify can Backupify provides the finest Google Apps backup and recovery solution on the market today With support for more than a dozenservices Backupify protects over 1 billion emails 250 million documents and over 100 terabytes of data across more than150000 accounts

copy Copyright 2011 Backupify All rights reserved Google Appstrade Gmailtrade Google Docstrade Google Calendartrade and Google Talktrade are trademarks of Google Inc

Click here to learn more at backupifycom and start your free 30 day trial

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

24 STORAGE January 2012

DATA PROTECTION FOR remote offices and branch offices (ROBOs)has always been a challenge and it can present some real risksto corporate data Key factors that contribute to the generallymediocre state of data protection in many ROBOs are an absenceof local IT staff dependence on shared resources an inadequatebackup infrastructure and a false sense that remote-office datais somehow less relevant

Back up remote site data

With plenty of viable options available backing up remote offices and branch offices (ROBOs)

shouldnrsquot be neglected any longer

BY JACOB GSOEDL

A reliance on difficult-to-manage and more error-prone tapesfor ROBO backups contributed to these data protection woes butthe use of disk in place of tape in recent years has helped allevi-ate some of the problems ldquoAccording to surveys we conductedtape-based backup has dropped by 50 in ROBOs between 2007and 2010rdquo said Lauren Whitehouse a senior analyst at EnterpriseStrategy Group (ESG) Milford Mass Besides disk-based backuptechnological advances in data deduplication networking and theemergence of the cloud are giving companies a slew of ROBO dataprotection options that simply werenrsquot available a few years ago

ROBO BACKUP OPTIONSLocal backup without an offsite copy Backing up data locally at the remote office to tape or disk is the most basic ROBO dataprotection approach Typically used in small remote offices with afew users administrative overhead is modest especially if disk isused as a backup target If tape is the backup medium an admin-istrative resource is usually designated to change tapes and putthem in a secure place such as a fire-resistant safe But with allbackups and primary data in the same facility the risk of losingboth is real The lack of an offsite disaster recovery (DR) copy isthe gravest weakness of this approach ldquoBacking up locally with-out offsite copy should only be considered if the data in the ROBO isnrsquot of significant value for the companyrdquo said Greg Schulzfounder and senior analyst at StorageIO Group Stillwater Minn

Local backup with a tape-based offsite copy To overcome theDR shortcomings of the former approach local backups are sup-plemented with a scheduled tape-based offsite copy Although indeclining use tape has been and still is very popular to get back-ups to a DR location If local backups are tape based selectedbackup sets are moved offsite according to a predefined scheduleIf local backups are taken to disk backup sets designated for off-

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

25 STORAGE January 2012

Year after year some companies stick with legacy data protection software not designed to handle todayrsquos IT realities The result Business at risk frustrated users out-of-control costs and compromised business agility In a word insanity

With its revolutionary single-platform architecture Simpana software enables you to solve these problems right now and far into the future It will lower operational labor and infrastructure costs streamline integration of new technologies like virtualization and cloud

computing and smooth adaptation to challenges like data center consolidation and eDiscovery requirements

The result Up to 50 reduction in storage-related costs and a far simpler saner way to manage access and recover business information In a word oneness

To learn how you can do far more with less and add real value to your end users and your business with Simpana software visit AchieveOnenesscom or call 888-311-0365

Switch to single-platform Simpanareg software for truly modern data and information management

copy1999-2011 CommVault Systems Inc All rights reserved CommVault the ldquoCVrdquo logo Solving Forward Simpana and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems Inc All specifications are subject to change without notice

Backup amp Recovery Archive Virtual Server Protection Information Governance Deduplication Disaster Recovery Search

siting are first moved from disk to tape With the support of bothtape- and disk-based backups in contemporary backup apps theheavy lifting of juggling data between disk and tape is performedby the backup application according to preconfigured backupschedules and configurations The challenge in using tapes for local or offsite backups is the additional overhead of changing and loading tapes and getting them to an offsite location In mostcases companies opt for vendors like Iron Mountain to managetheir offsite tape backups These offsite backup vendors have wellestablished processes to keep tapes safe and secure

Backing up to a centralized data center without retaining a local copy Larger companies and enterprises where standardi-zation and defined processes are in place usually favor centraliz-ing data protection of their ROBOs Being able to leverage existinginfrastructure and IT resources not only results in cost savingsbut in better managed data protection Configuring backups is assimple as installing and configuring backup agents on servers andsystems in the remote office and theyrsquore managed along withother backups adding little overhead

With all backups managed remotely the remote managementcapabilities of the backup application are essential ldquoRemote man-agement features are no longer a differentiator but are prettystandard now in backup applicationsrdquo ESGrsquos Whitehouse said Forcentralized backup of ROBOs to work available bandwidth and theimpact of backups in progress on users as well as on other appsmust be clearly understood

For some ROBOs centralized backups may not be an option atall unless network changes are made and additional bandwidth isprovisioned Features like source-side deduplicationmdashdeduplicationof data before it leaves the ROBO sitemdashcompression and bandwidththrottling are key features that can help minimize the impact of remote backups on the network and reduce backup times

The biggest challenge of centralized backup without a local

STORAGE

STORAGE January 2012

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

27

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

28 STORAGE January 2012

With more than a handful of remote-officebranch-office (ROBO)backup approaches analyzing the key aspects of each alternativeis essential to determining the best ROBO backup option

Analysis of the backup data The amount of data change rate and itsvalue and criticality to the business are instrumental in devising a back-up strategy The larger the amount of data to be protected and the quickerdata changes the more important it is to retain a local copy of the datain the ROBO

Backup window and restore times The backup window is relevant fornetwork-based backups to a central data center or the cloud The impacton the network and other applications while backups are in progressmust be clearly understood Analysis of the network and available band-width is also important Restore times and scenarios must be definedand in line with agreed recovery time objectives (RTOs) and service-levelagreements (SLAs)

IT staff The availability of IT resources at the remote site and overall IT staffing plays an important role in determining the right approach In places with scarce IT resources a cloud backup service should beconsidered

Backup infrastructure In firms with standardized backup infrastruc-tures and established processes centralizing ROBO backup is probablythe right approach In heterogeneous backup environments backup tar-get appliances from the likes of Data Domain and cloud backup gatewaysshould be considered Backup infrastructure features such as remotemanagement deduplication scheduling options and encryption need to be reviewed These features are critical for both centralized andcloud-based ROBO backups

Compliance and regulations Local regulatory and compliance require-ments must be taken into consideration This is especially relevant ifcloud backup is considered For public companies or industries subject to regulatory requirements a service providerrsquos compliance with SSAE16SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) is critical If centralized backup is con-sidered determine privacy requirements by the country in which theROBO is located

Cost As a rule of thumb centralized backup thatrsquos able to leverage exist-ing backup infrastructure is usually the least expensive option

ROBO backup Key considerations

copy is recovery While backups are incremental with changestrickling across the network over time recovery is more taxingsince a much larger amount of data may have to be restored in ashort span of time Even with a feature like source-side deduplica-tion that helps to quicken recovery a predefined recovery plan thatoutlines the recovery strategy for various scenarios is a must

ldquoDue diligence of analyzing the impact of remote backups on thenetwork and a clearly defined recovery strategy are essential topreventing unpleasant surprisesrdquo StorageIO Grouprsquos Schulz said

Backing up to a centralized data center with a local copy atthe ROBO The practicality of a centralized backup of a ROBOwithout a local copy for quick recovery declines with the amountof data to be protected ldquoAs you approach and exceed 10 TB ofdata a cached copy of the latest backup set becomes increasinglyrelevantrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage softwaredevelopment for IBM Tivoli In a centralized backup with a localcopy scenario a backup application usually backs up data to a local disk target where itrsquos then replicated asynchronously to thecentral data center backup infrastructure All major backup appli-cation vendors have supplemented their apps with replication options CommVault Simpana with DASH Copy EMC Avamar bymeans of a storage node in the ROBO to replicate local backups toa centralized Avamar Data Store IBM with Tivoli Storage ManagerFastBack Symantec with both NetBackup and Backup Exec appli-ances In all these solutions replication is a component of a largerbackup suite and architecture and works well in places that havestandardized on a backup suite Theyrsquore less suitable in companieswith a more heterogeneous backup landscape

In heterogeneous backup environments replication is usuallydeferred to backup targets that are capable of performing replica-tion independently of the backup software in use One way of accomplishing this is via general-purpose disk-based or software-based replication with the caveats of lacking backup focus and

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE January 2012

The Webrsquos best storage-specific information resource for enterprise IT professionals

Find out the benefits drawbacks and functions of this technology with ourTop 10 Tips on Data Deduplication

wwwSearchStoragecomData_Deduplication

Data DeduplicationFad fixture or just a nice feature

copy is recovery While backups are incremental with changestrickling across the network over time recovery is more taxingsince a much larger amount of data may have to be restored in ashort span of time Even with a feature like source-side deduplica-tion that helps to quicken recovery a predefined recovery plan thatoutlines the recovery strategy for various scenarios is a must

ldquoDue diligence of analyzing the impact of remote backups on thenetwork and a clearly defined recovery strategy are essential topreventing unpleasant surprisesrdquo StorageIO Grouprsquos Schulz said

Backing up to a centralized data center with a local copy atthe ROBO The practicality of a centralized backup of a ROBOwithout a local copy for quick recovery declines with the amountof data to be protected ldquoAs you approach and exceed 10 TB ofdata a cached copy of the latest backup set becomes increasinglyrelevantrdquo said Steve Wojtowecz vice president of storage softwaredevelopment for IBM Tivoli In a centralized backup with a localcopy scenario a backup application usually backs up data to a local disk target where itrsquos then replicated asynchronously to thecentral data center backup infrastructure All major backup appli-cation vendors have supplemented their apps with replication options CommVault Simpana with DASH Copy EMC Avamar bymeans of a storage node in the ROBO to replicate local backups toa centralized Avamar Data Store IBM with Tivoli Storage ManagerFastBack Symantec with both NetBackup and Backup Exec appli-ances In all these solutions replication is a component of a largerbackup suite and architecture and works well in places that havestandardized on a backup suite Theyrsquore less suitable in companieswith a more heterogeneous backup landscape

In heterogeneous backup environments replication is usuallydeferred to backup targets that are capable of performing replica-tion independently of the backup software in use One way of accomplishing this is via general-purpose disk-based or software-based replication with the caveats of lacking backup focus and

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

29 STORAGE January 2012

The Webrsquos best storage-specific information resource for enterprise IT professionals

Find out the benefits drawbacks and functions of this technology with ourTop 10 Tips on Data Deduplication

wwwSearchStoragecomData_Deduplication

Data DeduplicationFad fixture or just a nice feature

The Webrsquos best storage-specific information resource for enterprise IT professionals

Find out the benefits drawbacks and functions of this technology with ourTop 10 Tips on Data Deduplication

wwwSearchStoragecomData_Deduplication

Data DeduplicationFad fixture or just a nice feature

features and adding complexity Thatrsquos when dedicated backuptargets with replication capabilities come into play Theyrsquore backupstorage appliances padded with features relevant to backup andrecovery such as replication deduplication compression and cen-tralized management Leading the pack and best known is the EMCData Domain family with appliances ranging from 1 terabyte tohundreds of terabytes of capacity Hewlett-Packard with its Store-Once Backup System and Quantumrsquos DXi-Series of backup appli-ances also compete in this space Because these intelligent backuptargets are decoupled and independent from backup applicationstheyrsquore required in both the ROBOs and the central data centerWhile the data center appliance that aggregates backups from theROBO appliances is usually a large redundant system with suffi-cient capacity appliances in ROBOs are generally much smallersingle systems Unlike replication options that leverage an existingbackup suite these backup appliances are usually less cost effec-tive especially since theyrsquore required in all locations

Using a cloud backup service without retaining a local copyThe recent rise of cloud computing and cloud storage gives com-panies yet another data protection option for their ROBOs Backingup directly to the cloud is very similar to backing up to a central-ized data center especially from the ROBOrsquos perspective

Instead of in-house IT managing backups responsibility forbackups is deferred to a managed service provider (MSP) This isespecially attractive for smaller and midsize companies with ITgeneralists who are forced to juggle and prioritize competingtasks and may be unable to give ROBO data protection sufficientattention Favored by many chief financial officers cloud-basedbackup becomes part of monthly operational expenses (OPEX)rather than a capital expense (CAPEX) as is the case with in-housebackup infrastructure and software

Setup and configuration are as simple as installing agents on protected systems and support if needed is provided by the MSP

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

31 STORAGE January 2012

Despite the now de facto standard encryption of data in-transitand at-rest in the cloud security concerns are still a major impedi-ment for more rapid adoption

With ROBOs spread around the globe compliance and privacyrequirements further complicate cloud backup adoption In mostcases the geographic location of data in the cloud is unknownwhich poses a challenge in countries that require data to staywithin defined geographic boundaries ldquoStrict privacy requirementsin some European countries are in conflict with regulations likethe USA Patriot Act which basically enables the government to gothrough any datardquo ESGrsquos Whitehouse noted Customers who optfor cloud-based backup can choose from a fast-growing list ofcloud backup providers Business-level cloud-based backup offer-ings are available from EMC with Mozy Carbonite Symantec withBackup Execcloud IBM with SmartCloud Resilience i365 and IronMountain as well as many regional providers

Using a cloud backup service with a local backup data copyDirect backup into the cloud has the same restore challenges asbackup to a centralized data center when a local copy of the back-up isnrsquot retained It works well if the amount of protected data issmall but can be problematic for larger amounts of data If a lotof data needs to be restored some service providers offer an optionto have backup data shipped to customers on a disk or network-attached storage (NAS) device Some services such as i365 pro-vide an on-site option to cache the latest backup on-premises toenable local recovery ldquoAlthough there are a large and growingnumber of cloud backup MSPs most only support directly backingup into the cloud and only very few provide an on-premises optionfor quick recoveryrdquo StorageIOrsquos Schulz said

Do-it-yourself cloud backup The benefit of delegating ROBObackups to a cloud backup service is best suited for small to mid-size companies with limited IT resources For larger firms and com-

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

32 STORAGE January 2012

panies that want to supplement in-house backup infrastructurewith cloud storage an external backup service provider usually isnrsquot the best option mostly because theyrsquore difficult to integrateinto the existing backup infrastructure and are likely to end up asisolated backup islands that run in parallel and are independent ofthe existing backup environ-ment If the intention is toextend existing backup infrastructure into the clouddirect backup to cloud stor-age from the likes of ATampTAmazon Microsoft Nirvanixand Rackspace is the way togo Direct backup to cloudstorage can be done fromthe backup application if itsupports cloud storage orvia a cloud backup gatewayWhile Arkeia Network Backup CommVault Simpana and SymantecNetBackup and Backup Exec support cloud storage as a backup target EMC Avamar EMC NetWorker and IBM Tivoli Storage Managercurrently donrsquot support direct backup to the cloud

Cloud backup gateways such as Riverbed Whitewater decouplecloud backup from the backup application Akin to backup targetappliances cloud backup gateways are disk targets to which back-up applications write They manage communication and interfacewith cloud storage providers and perform tasks such as dedupli-cation compression encryption and scheduling Furthermore theyallow recent backups to be kept on-premises for quick recovery

ROBO BACKUP TRENDSThe dismal state of ROBO backups should be a specter of the pastWith the emergence of non-tape-based options therersquos no longer

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

34 STORAGE January 2012

If the intention is toextend existing backupinfrastructure into thecloud direct backup tocloud storage from thelikes of ATampT AmazonMicrosoft Nirvanix andRackspace is the wayto go

an excuse for mediocre and negligent data protection of remote-office and branch-office data From technical advances in network-ing and security backup applications with features like dedupe andcloud integration to cloud backup MSPs and cloud backup gate-ways IT managers now have an arsenal of options to judiciouslyand cost-effectively protect remote-office data Even though tapeis still alive in many places the trend is clearly toward disk-basedbackups centralization and adoption of the cloud as a viable backup media 2

Jacob N Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for businesssystems

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

35 STORAGE January 2012

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

37 STORAGE January 2012

FILE STORAGE IS front-page news in the data storage worldthese days with talk of ldquobig datardquo and the relentless growth

of end-user information forcing us to focus our attentionmdashand storage infrastructure effortsmdashon storage systems for filedata The good news is that storage vendors appear to be up tothe task with users generally expressing high satisfaction withtheir products on the sixth Storage magazine Quality Awards fornetwork-attached storage (NAS)

Oracle Corp storage users are apparently the most satisfiedamong the legions of NAS users Their high marks across thespectrum of service and reliability propelled Oracle to the highestratings among both enterprise and midrange NAS systems

Over our six NAS Quality Awards surveys wersquove seen six vendorsgarner top honors in the enterprise group and three winners amongmidrange NAS systems since NetApp Incrsquos earlier dominancewhen it won the first three Quality Awards In this yearrsquos surveyaverage ratings for both groups set records with new highs inevery category except two

Oracle NAS comes up bigmdashtwice

With a lineage that goes back to Sun and StorageTek Oraclersquos NAS boxes are meeting and maybe exceeding expectations BY RICH CASTAGNA

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

38 STORAGE January 2012

Overall ratingsENTERPRISE Oraclersquos736 is the highest overallscore wersquove seen in allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys EMC Corp setthe record in the previoussurvey but Oracle bestedthat mark by more thanhalf a point Oracle setthe record by earning the highest marks in all five ratings categories withan unprecedented score of more than 700 in each category EMCrsquos show-ing was nearly as impressive finishing with a 699 overall score whichwould have easily won any previous NAS survey

Oraclersquos ratings were strong across all categories with its highestmarks coming for its sales efforts product feature sets and relativelyquick and painless deployments EMC was also a strong challenger in all five categories posting sterling scores that included two 700-plusratings with the other three coming in at 692 to 698 The other vendorsalso fared well with Dell Inc posting a very respectable 654 to finishthird followed by NetApp (640) and Hewlett-Packard Co (613)

MIDRANGE In winningthe midrange group Ora-cle didnrsquot set a new overallscore record but it didmanage to tie the bestoverall mark a 715 set byIBM on the last surveyIBM couldnrsquot quite repeatits record-setting perform-ance but it earned a 702to finish secondmdashonly thethird 700-plus overallscore ever amongmidrange NAS

Oracle and IBM battledthrough the five ratingcategories with Oracle prevailing on four and IBM finishing first forsales-force competence IBM came in second for three categories andthird in the final one NetApprsquos solid 675 was good for an overall thirdplace followed by HP (642) EMC (635) and Dell (615)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

699

702

675

715

642

635

615

640

736

654

613

ENTERPRISE OVERALL RATINGS

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

699

702

675

715

642

635

615

640

736

654

613

MIDRANGE OVERALL RATINGS

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE January 2012

Sales-forcecompetenceENTERPRISE Across allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys no vendor hadever cracked the 700mark for the sales-forcecompetence rating cate-gory but this time Oracleplowed right through thatbarrier and didnrsquot stop until it reached 745 Thatastounding score wasearned based on state-ment scores ranging from732 to 756 with Oraclersquoshighest ratings comingfor keeping its customersrsquointerests foremost beingknowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries andbeing flexible EMCrsquos 692in the category put itcomfortably in secondjust ahead of HP (689)

MIDRANGE IBM scoredapproximately 700 for allsales-force competencestatements to finish witha winning 720 averagewhich was high enoughto put it well ahead ofsecond-place finisher Oracle (694) NetAppposted very consistentscores ranging from 638to 689 across the six cat-egory statements for alaudable third-place average of 666

ENTERPRISE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Enterprise NAS vendors provide solid backup for their sales teams as evidenced by the overall average of 708 for the statement ldquoThe vendorrsquos sales support team is knowledgeablerdquo

bull Before Oraclersquos achievement no NAS vendorproduct had ever received 700-plus scores for every state-ment in the sales-force competence category

bull EMC had three 700 scores highlighted by a 725 for having a knowledgeable sales team HP had the other two 700-plus statement scores in the category

MIDRANGE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull IBM had the highest scores for all six statements in the sales-force competence category

bull IBMrsquos highest marks were for having flexible sales reps and knowledgeable sales support teams

bull Oracle netted two over-700 scores a 728 for knowledgeable support teams and a 704 for ldquoMy sales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo

bull NetApprsquos strengths came from its sales support teams (689) and being knowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries (687)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE January 2012

Initial product qualityENTERPRISE Oracleposted one of its top category averages (743)to take initial productquality honors In doingso Oracle showed re-markable consistencywith scores ranging from738 to 744 on the sixstatements in this cate-gory including four 744ratings EMC didnrsquot threatenOraclersquos dominance butits second-place categoryaverage of 692 is thesecond highest everrecorded Dell was a distant third with a still-strong 650 score

MIDRANGE IBM gave Oracle a run for its moneyin the midrange initialproduct quality categoryultimately finishing sec-ond with a notable 721 toOraclersquos 733 IBM toppedOracle on three of the six statements but wassomewhat undone by theldquogood value for the mon-eyrdquo statement when itscored a 669 to Oraclersquos739 NetApp had twoabove-700 statementscores for an overall 683for third while HP had asingle 700 on its way to acategory average of 672

ENTERPRISE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos 744 statement scores were earned for products that need little vendor intervention requiring a reasonable amount of professional services ease of use and good value

bull The ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement is a key indicator in this category and all vendors scored well Oracle (744) EMC (679) Dell (647) NetApp (607) and HP (600)

bull EMC had the only other two 700-plus statement scores a 712 for installing without defects and a 706 for not needing too much in the way of professional services

MIDRANGE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Midrange NAS vendors are getting it right the first time The across-the-board average for ldquoThis product was installed without any defectsrdquo was an impressive 692

bull This is the first time that two vendorsmdashOracle and IBMmdashhad averages of more than 700 for the initial product quality category

bull Oraclersquos 739 for the key ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement easily led the field but the others also scored well to yield a group average of 664 for this statement

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

6220 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

622

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE January 2012

Product featuresENTERPRISE Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-free implementation it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do ApparentlyOracle users are happyenough with their sys-temsrsquo capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 747score for features Thatrsquosthe highest-ever score for enterprise NAS and it helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker EMC finishedsecond with a 704 thesecond-best score everand enough to have pre-vailed in previous surveys

MIDRANGE IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 700to earn a category aver-age of 699 but couldnrsquotovertake Oraclersquos six 700-plus tallies and 724category score Systemcapabilities donrsquot seem to be a concern amongmidrange NAS productsas all vendors fared wellin this category The over-all category average was666 enough to edge outthe last surveyrsquos average

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos top scores were a 756 for management features and a 750 for mirroring features

bull EMC was the only other vendor getting 700-plus scores a 708 for mirroring features 715 for management features and 730 for capacity scaling

bull NetApp was again the model of consistency finishingthird with a 666 average built on scores ranging from 635 to 693 on the categoryrsquos seven statements

MIDRANGE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest marks were posted for mirroring (739) and management (734) its lowest score was a still-lofty 693 for ldquoThis product is interoperable with other vendorsrsquo productsrdquo

bull IBMrsquos three above-700 scores included a 733 for mirroring 723 for remote replication and 715 for snapshots

bull NetApprsquos sturdy third-place 685 featured a 694 for snapshotting and a 694 for remote replication

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

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How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

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With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

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Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

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50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

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Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

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38 STORAGE January 2012

Overall ratingsENTERPRISE Oraclersquos736 is the highest overallscore wersquove seen in allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys EMC Corp setthe record in the previoussurvey but Oracle bestedthat mark by more thanhalf a point Oracle setthe record by earning the highest marks in all five ratings categories withan unprecedented score of more than 700 in each category EMCrsquos show-ing was nearly as impressive finishing with a 699 overall score whichwould have easily won any previous NAS survey

Oraclersquos ratings were strong across all categories with its highestmarks coming for its sales efforts product feature sets and relativelyquick and painless deployments EMC was also a strong challenger in all five categories posting sterling scores that included two 700-plusratings with the other three coming in at 692 to 698 The other vendorsalso fared well with Dell Inc posting a very respectable 654 to finishthird followed by NetApp (640) and Hewlett-Packard Co (613)

MIDRANGE In winningthe midrange group Ora-cle didnrsquot set a new overallscore record but it didmanage to tie the bestoverall mark a 715 set byIBM on the last surveyIBM couldnrsquot quite repeatits record-setting perform-ance but it earned a 702to finish secondmdashonly thethird 700-plus overallscore ever amongmidrange NAS

Oracle and IBM battledthrough the five ratingcategories with Oracle prevailing on four and IBM finishing first forsales-force competence IBM came in second for three categories andthird in the final one NetApprsquos solid 675 was good for an overall thirdplace followed by HP (642) EMC (635) and Dell (615)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

699

702

675

715

642

635

615

640

736

654

613

ENTERPRISE OVERALL RATINGS

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

699

702

675

715

642

635

615

640

736

654

613

MIDRANGE OVERALL RATINGS

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE January 2012

Sales-forcecompetenceENTERPRISE Across allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys no vendor hadever cracked the 700mark for the sales-forcecompetence rating cate-gory but this time Oracleplowed right through thatbarrier and didnrsquot stop until it reached 745 Thatastounding score wasearned based on state-ment scores ranging from732 to 756 with Oraclersquoshighest ratings comingfor keeping its customersrsquointerests foremost beingknowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries andbeing flexible EMCrsquos 692in the category put itcomfortably in secondjust ahead of HP (689)

MIDRANGE IBM scoredapproximately 700 for allsales-force competencestatements to finish witha winning 720 averagewhich was high enoughto put it well ahead ofsecond-place finisher Oracle (694) NetAppposted very consistentscores ranging from 638to 689 across the six cat-egory statements for alaudable third-place average of 666

ENTERPRISE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Enterprise NAS vendors provide solid backup for their sales teams as evidenced by the overall average of 708 for the statement ldquoThe vendorrsquos sales support team is knowledgeablerdquo

bull Before Oraclersquos achievement no NAS vendorproduct had ever received 700-plus scores for every state-ment in the sales-force competence category

bull EMC had three 700 scores highlighted by a 725 for having a knowledgeable sales team HP had the other two 700-plus statement scores in the category

MIDRANGE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull IBM had the highest scores for all six statements in the sales-force competence category

bull IBMrsquos highest marks were for having flexible sales reps and knowledgeable sales support teams

bull Oracle netted two over-700 scores a 728 for knowledgeable support teams and a 704 for ldquoMy sales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo

bull NetApprsquos strengths came from its sales support teams (689) and being knowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries (687)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE January 2012

Initial product qualityENTERPRISE Oracleposted one of its top category averages (743)to take initial productquality honors In doingso Oracle showed re-markable consistencywith scores ranging from738 to 744 on the sixstatements in this cate-gory including four 744ratings EMC didnrsquot threatenOraclersquos dominance butits second-place categoryaverage of 692 is thesecond highest everrecorded Dell was a distant third with a still-strong 650 score

MIDRANGE IBM gave Oracle a run for its moneyin the midrange initialproduct quality categoryultimately finishing sec-ond with a notable 721 toOraclersquos 733 IBM toppedOracle on three of the six statements but wassomewhat undone by theldquogood value for the mon-eyrdquo statement when itscored a 669 to Oraclersquos739 NetApp had twoabove-700 statementscores for an overall 683for third while HP had asingle 700 on its way to acategory average of 672

ENTERPRISE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos 744 statement scores were earned for products that need little vendor intervention requiring a reasonable amount of professional services ease of use and good value

bull The ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement is a key indicator in this category and all vendors scored well Oracle (744) EMC (679) Dell (647) NetApp (607) and HP (600)

bull EMC had the only other two 700-plus statement scores a 712 for installing without defects and a 706 for not needing too much in the way of professional services

MIDRANGE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Midrange NAS vendors are getting it right the first time The across-the-board average for ldquoThis product was installed without any defectsrdquo was an impressive 692

bull This is the first time that two vendorsmdashOracle and IBMmdashhad averages of more than 700 for the initial product quality category

bull Oraclersquos 739 for the key ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement easily led the field but the others also scored well to yield a group average of 664 for this statement

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

6220 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

622

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE January 2012

Product featuresENTERPRISE Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-free implementation it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do ApparentlyOracle users are happyenough with their sys-temsrsquo capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 747score for features Thatrsquosthe highest-ever score for enterprise NAS and it helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker EMC finishedsecond with a 704 thesecond-best score everand enough to have pre-vailed in previous surveys

MIDRANGE IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 700to earn a category aver-age of 699 but couldnrsquotovertake Oraclersquos six 700-plus tallies and 724category score Systemcapabilities donrsquot seem to be a concern amongmidrange NAS productsas all vendors fared wellin this category The over-all category average was666 enough to edge outthe last surveyrsquos average

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos top scores were a 756 for management features and a 750 for mirroring features

bull EMC was the only other vendor getting 700-plus scores a 708 for mirroring features 715 for management features and 730 for capacity scaling

bull NetApp was again the model of consistency finishingthird with a 666 average built on scores ranging from 635 to 693 on the categoryrsquos seven statements

MIDRANGE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest marks were posted for mirroring (739) and management (734) its lowest score was a still-lofty 693 for ldquoThis product is interoperable with other vendorsrsquo productsrdquo

bull IBMrsquos three above-700 scores included a 733 for mirroring 723 for remote replication and 715 for snapshots

bull NetApprsquos sturdy third-place 685 featured a 694 for snapshotting and a 694 for remote replication

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

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bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

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All of the above

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Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

39 STORAGE January 2012

Sales-forcecompetenceENTERPRISE Across allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys no vendor hadever cracked the 700mark for the sales-forcecompetence rating cate-gory but this time Oracleplowed right through thatbarrier and didnrsquot stop until it reached 745 Thatastounding score wasearned based on state-ment scores ranging from732 to 756 with Oraclersquoshighest ratings comingfor keeping its customersrsquointerests foremost beingknowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries andbeing flexible EMCrsquos 692in the category put itcomfortably in secondjust ahead of HP (689)

MIDRANGE IBM scoredapproximately 700 for allsales-force competencestatements to finish witha winning 720 averagewhich was high enoughto put it well ahead ofsecond-place finisher Oracle (694) NetAppposted very consistentscores ranging from 638to 689 across the six cat-egory statements for alaudable third-place average of 666

ENTERPRISE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Enterprise NAS vendors provide solid backup for their sales teams as evidenced by the overall average of 708 for the statement ldquoThe vendorrsquos sales support team is knowledgeablerdquo

bull Before Oraclersquos achievement no NAS vendorproduct had ever received 700-plus scores for every state-ment in the sales-force competence category

bull EMC had three 700 scores highlighted by a 725 for having a knowledgeable sales team HP had the other two 700-plus statement scores in the category

MIDRANGE SALES-FORCE COMPETENCE

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull IBM had the highest scores for all six statements in the sales-force competence category

bull IBMrsquos highest marks were for having flexible sales reps and knowledgeable sales support teams

bull Oracle netted two over-700 scores a 728 for knowledgeable support teams and a 704 for ldquoMy sales rep keeps my interests foremostrdquo

bull NetApprsquos strengths came from its sales support teams (689) and being knowledgeable about itscustomersrsquo industries (687)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

NetApp

Dell

HP

EMC

Oracle

Dell

HP

EMC

NetApp

Oracle

IBM

745

692

689

637

619

720

694

666

618

590

574

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE January 2012

Initial product qualityENTERPRISE Oracleposted one of its top category averages (743)to take initial productquality honors In doingso Oracle showed re-markable consistencywith scores ranging from738 to 744 on the sixstatements in this cate-gory including four 744ratings EMC didnrsquot threatenOraclersquos dominance butits second-place categoryaverage of 692 is thesecond highest everrecorded Dell was a distant third with a still-strong 650 score

MIDRANGE IBM gave Oracle a run for its moneyin the midrange initialproduct quality categoryultimately finishing sec-ond with a notable 721 toOraclersquos 733 IBM toppedOracle on three of the six statements but wassomewhat undone by theldquogood value for the mon-eyrdquo statement when itscored a 669 to Oraclersquos739 NetApp had twoabove-700 statementscores for an overall 683for third while HP had asingle 700 on its way to acategory average of 672

ENTERPRISE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos 744 statement scores were earned for products that need little vendor intervention requiring a reasonable amount of professional services ease of use and good value

bull The ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement is a key indicator in this category and all vendors scored well Oracle (744) EMC (679) Dell (647) NetApp (607) and HP (600)

bull EMC had the only other two 700-plus statement scores a 712 for installing without defects and a 706 for not needing too much in the way of professional services

MIDRANGE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Midrange NAS vendors are getting it right the first time The across-the-board average for ldquoThis product was installed without any defectsrdquo was an impressive 692

bull This is the first time that two vendorsmdashOracle and IBMmdashhad averages of more than 700 for the initial product quality category

bull Oraclersquos 739 for the key ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement easily led the field but the others also scored well to yield a group average of 664 for this statement

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

6220 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

622

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE January 2012

Product featuresENTERPRISE Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-free implementation it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do ApparentlyOracle users are happyenough with their sys-temsrsquo capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 747score for features Thatrsquosthe highest-ever score for enterprise NAS and it helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker EMC finishedsecond with a 704 thesecond-best score everand enough to have pre-vailed in previous surveys

MIDRANGE IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 700to earn a category aver-age of 699 but couldnrsquotovertake Oraclersquos six 700-plus tallies and 724category score Systemcapabilities donrsquot seem to be a concern amongmidrange NAS productsas all vendors fared wellin this category The over-all category average was666 enough to edge outthe last surveyrsquos average

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos top scores were a 756 for management features and a 750 for mirroring features

bull EMC was the only other vendor getting 700-plus scores a 708 for mirroring features 715 for management features and 730 for capacity scaling

bull NetApp was again the model of consistency finishingthird with a 666 average built on scores ranging from 635 to 693 on the categoryrsquos seven statements

MIDRANGE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest marks were posted for mirroring (739) and management (734) its lowest score was a still-lofty 693 for ldquoThis product is interoperable with other vendorsrsquo productsrdquo

bull IBMrsquos three above-700 scores included a 733 for mirroring 723 for remote replication and 715 for snapshots

bull NetApprsquos sturdy third-place 685 featured a 694 for snapshotting and a 694 for remote replication

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

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bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

40 STORAGE January 2012

Initial product qualityENTERPRISE Oracleposted one of its top category averages (743)to take initial productquality honors In doingso Oracle showed re-markable consistencywith scores ranging from738 to 744 on the sixstatements in this cate-gory including four 744ratings EMC didnrsquot threatenOraclersquos dominance butits second-place categoryaverage of 692 is thesecond highest everrecorded Dell was a distant third with a still-strong 650 score

MIDRANGE IBM gave Oracle a run for its moneyin the midrange initialproduct quality categoryultimately finishing sec-ond with a notable 721 toOraclersquos 733 IBM toppedOracle on three of the six statements but wassomewhat undone by theldquogood value for the mon-eyrdquo statement when itscored a 669 to Oraclersquos739 NetApp had twoabove-700 statementscores for an overall 683for third while HP had asingle 700 on its way to acategory average of 672

ENTERPRISE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos 744 statement scores were earned for products that need little vendor intervention requiring a reasonable amount of professional services ease of use and good value

bull The ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement is a key indicator in this category and all vendors scored well Oracle (744) EMC (679) Dell (647) NetApp (607) and HP (600)

bull EMC had the only other two 700-plus statement scores a 712 for installing without defects and a 706 for not needing too much in the way of professional services

MIDRANGE INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Midrange NAS vendors are getting it right the first time The across-the-board average for ldquoThis product was installed without any defectsrdquo was an impressive 692

bull This is the first time that two vendorsmdashOracle and IBMmdashhad averages of more than 700 for the initial product quality category

bull Oraclersquos 739 for the key ldquogood value for the moneyrdquo statement easily led the field but the others also scored well to yield a group average of 664 for this statement

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

6220 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

EMC

Dell

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

743

692

650

642

590

733

721

683

672

650

622

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE January 2012

Product featuresENTERPRISE Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-free implementation it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do ApparentlyOracle users are happyenough with their sys-temsrsquo capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 747score for features Thatrsquosthe highest-ever score for enterprise NAS and it helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker EMC finishedsecond with a 704 thesecond-best score everand enough to have pre-vailed in previous surveys

MIDRANGE IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 700to earn a category aver-age of 699 but couldnrsquotovertake Oraclersquos six 700-plus tallies and 724category score Systemcapabilities donrsquot seem to be a concern amongmidrange NAS productsas all vendors fared wellin this category The over-all category average was666 enough to edge outthe last surveyrsquos average

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos top scores were a 756 for management features and a 750 for mirroring features

bull EMC was the only other vendor getting 700-plus scores a 708 for mirroring features 715 for management features and 730 for capacity scaling

bull NetApp was again the model of consistency finishingthird with a 666 average built on scores ranging from 635 to 693 on the categoryrsquos seven statements

MIDRANGE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest marks were posted for mirroring (739) and management (734) its lowest score was a still-lofty 693 for ldquoThis product is interoperable with other vendorsrsquo productsrdquo

bull IBMrsquos three above-700 scores included a 733 for mirroring 723 for remote replication and 715 for snapshots

bull NetApprsquos sturdy third-place 685 featured a 694 for snapshotting and a 694 for remote replication

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

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How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

41 STORAGE January 2012

Product featuresENTERPRISE Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-free implementation it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do ApparentlyOracle users are happyenough with their sys-temsrsquo capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 747score for features Thatrsquosthe highest-ever score for enterprise NAS and it helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker EMC finishedsecond with a 704 thesecond-best score everand enough to have pre-vailed in previous surveys

MIDRANGE IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 700to earn a category aver-age of 699 but couldnrsquotovertake Oraclersquos six 700-plus tallies and 724category score Systemcapabilities donrsquot seem to be a concern amongmidrange NAS productsas all vendors fared wellin this category The over-all category average was666 enough to edge outthe last surveyrsquos average

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos top scores were a 756 for management features and a 750 for mirroring features

bull EMC was the only other vendor getting 700-plus scores a 708 for mirroring features 715 for management features and 730 for capacity scaling

bull NetApp was again the model of consistency finishingthird with a 666 average built on scores ranging from 635 to 693 on the categoryrsquos seven statements

MIDRANGE PRODUCT FEATURES

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest marks were posted for mirroring (739) and management (734) its lowest score was a still-lofty 693 for ldquoThis product is interoperable with other vendorsrsquo productsrdquo

bull IBMrsquos three above-700 scores included a 733 for mirroring 723 for remote replication and 715 for snapshots

bull NetApprsquos sturdy third-place 685 featured a 694 for snapshotting and a 694 for remote replication

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

Dell

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

747

704

666

651

597

724

699

685

640

642

605

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

42 STORAGE January 2012

Product reliabilityENTERPRISE This was aclosely contested categorybut Oracle triumphedonce again with five 700-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edge of 728 to 710 respectivelyProduct reliability is typi-cally one of the strongest categories for enterpriseNAS products and all finalist vendors performedwell this time Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 668followed by NetApp (638)and HP (630)

MIDRANGE Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival 722 to 700 Of the five state-ments in this categoryOracle had only one sub-700 score while IBM had two Third-placefinisher NetApp (670) hadthe only other above-700statement score in thegroup for systems that ex-perienced little downtime

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oracle had the top single statement score with a 744 for ldquoThe product meets my service-level requirementrdquo

bull EMC registered the second-highest statement score a 737 for the key statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo

bull You can apparently count on enterprise NAS as scores for the downtime statement were solid across the board for an aggregate 691 average

MIDRANGE PRODUCT RELIABILITY

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Three vendors scored more than 700 for the statement ldquoThis product experiences very little downtimerdquo Oracle (746) IBM (715) and NetApp (705)

bull IBMrsquos 717 for ldquoPatches can be applied nondisruptivelyrdquo was the best in the group

bull Vendors might want to revisit their upgrading procedures ldquoVendor provides comprehensive upgrade guidancerdquo netted the lowest averages among all vendors

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

NetApp

IBM

Oracle

728

710

668

638

630

722

700

670

660

655

622

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

43 STORAGE January 2012

Technical supportENTERPRISE Wersquove saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auserrsquos good graces withtimely fixes and tech advice This group of enterprise NAS vendorsled by Oraclersquos 717 cate-gory average posted thebest overall average sup-port score to date Oraclesnared 700-plus scoresfor seven of the eight category statements butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 698 Dell(664) registered its thirdthird-place showing

MIDRANGE Oracle hadfive scores of 700 or better on its way to a category-leading averageof 702 IBM (670) had theonly other two 700-plusratings but it wasnrsquotenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp which built itssecond-place 671 on another narrow range of scores running from659 to 697

ENTERPRISE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull Oraclersquos highest mark was for taking ownershipof customer problems (733) it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (730) and documentation (729)

bull EMC meets expectations EMC picked up the highest statement score in the category with a 743 for ldquoVendor supplies support as contractually specifiedrdquo

bull Do vendors need better buddies The lowest average among all vendors was a 629 for ldquoVendorrsquos third-party partners are knowledgeablerdquo

MIDRANGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS

bull The highest single statement score was Oraclersquos 722 for providing adequate training the second highest was IBMrsquos 718 for supplying support as contractually specified

bull Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratings for ldquoThe vendor provides adequate trainingrdquo

bull Oracle had ratings of 711 for three statements timely problem resolution taking ownership of problems and documentation

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

HP

NetApp

Dell

EMC

Oracle

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Dell

EMC

HP

IBM

NetApp

Oracle

717

698

664

636

560

702

671

670

647

638

623

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

44 STORAGE January 2012

Tops in TB andlsquodo it againrsquoIt doesnrsquot have any bearingon the Quality Awards sur-vey rankings but we askhow much of a commit-ment respondents havemade to each vendorrsquosproducts in terms of in-stalled capacity When itcomes to its usersrsquo averageinstalled capacity NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOraclersquos 102 TB Enterprisestalwart EMC wasnrsquot far offwith 99 TB

Oraclersquos midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TBwell ahead of EMCrsquos 83 TBfollowed by NetApp (62 TB)IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB)

We also asked if respon-dents would make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now Fairly oftenwe donrsquot see a direct corre-lation between ratings winners and ldquobuy againrdquo favorites which may just be a case of growing com-fortable with a product overtime For enterprise NASthe buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely with 97 of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendorsalthough less impressivelywith 89 saying theyrsquodcome back for more

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120

HP

Dell

EMC

Oracle

NetApp

0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100

HP

Dell

IBM

NetApp

EMC

Oracle

104

102

99

52

52

94

83

62

61

60

32En

terp

rise

Mid

rang

e

Heavy Hitters Total deployed capacity of this vendorrsquos systems (TB)

0 20 40 60 80 100

NetApp

HP

EMC

Dell

Oracle

0 20 40 60 80 100

IBM

Dell

NetApp

HP

EMC

Oracle

97

89

89

85

79

89

88

85

82

81

69

Ente

rpris

eM

idra

nge

Would you buy this product again

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

45 STORAGE January 2012

About the surveyThe Storage magazineSearchStoragecom Quality Awards are designed to identifyand recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use Theresults are derived from a survey of qualified StorageSearchStoragecom readerswho assessed products in five main categories sales-force competence productfeatures initial product quality product reliability and technical support Productsare rated on a 100-800 scale where 800 is the most favorable score This is thesixth edition of the Quality Awards for NAS systems there were 206 responses tothe survey with ratings of 389 productsproduct lines

Products in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses

ENTERPRISE

DataDirect Networks Inc NAS ScalerGRIDScaler

EXAScalerxSTREAMScaler

Dell Inc PowerVault NS-480Compellent

Storage Center zNAS (17)

EMC Corp Celerra NS-480NS-960 or VG8 or VNX

7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway or

StorageWorks X5000X9000 Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series

(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)

IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

NetApp FAS30003100 or FAS6000 (all with NAS interface) (72)

Oracle Corp Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)

Panasas Inc ActiveStor 9 Series11 Series12 Series or HC Series

Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS

MIDRANGE

Dell PowerVault NS120 orNX200NX300NX3000NX3100NX4 (27)

EMC Celerra NX4 NS-120 VG2 VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300X500 Data Vault or X1000X3000

Network Storage Systems (13)

Hitachi (HDS) AMS20001000500200 orWMS100 with NAS Option or

BlueArc Titan Mercury 50100

IBM N3000N5000 (13)

NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)

Oracle Sun Storage 71xx72xx73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)

Overland Storage Inc Snap ServerDX1DX2210410620650N2000

Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series8 Series

Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series

Did not receive enough responses to qualify as a finalist

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Timewwwliliencom

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE With Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management

Organic growth unstructured les increased retention requirements plus more and more business process being digitizedhellipdata is growing at an alarming rate with no sign of easing up What is the proper growth strategy given the various types and value of your data sets

How do you navigate the sea of choices when architecting the optimal storage platform relative to performance availability manageability exibility and cost

How do you maximize the value of your data leading to the best business decisions

As a full-service Solutions Integrator Lilien addresses these critical objectives We develop customized data management strategies oer best-of-breed products and recommend process improvements Our comprehensive approach allows us to properly congure and integrate your data managementsolution with other aspects of your IT infrastructure including enterprise computing virtualization analytics and business continuity strategies

Lilienrsquos Storage amp Data Management Practice oers bull Backup amp Restore bull Big Data amp Analytics bull Archival amp Compliance bull Storage Networking bull Consolidation bull Security bull Strategy Development bull Systems Assurance

With Lilien yoursquoll be prepared Please visit us at wwwliliencom or call 888-545-4361

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

bStorage

predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

47 STORAGE January 2012

ASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solid-state storage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals therersquosno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storagemdashonce viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffsmdashis be-coming a mainstream part of enterprise storage environmentsSurvey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1000 employees or more) in North America For the purposes ofthis survey ldquosolid-state storagerdquo was defined as storage that usessolid-state memory (most frequently in the form of various typesof flash memory but can also include DRAM) to store data Thatmeans it resides in a storage system (in the form of a solid-statedrive or SSD) in a storage controller in a server or in a standaloneappliance However for the purposes of this survey solid-statestorage didnrsquot include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCsor portable flash storage devices such as USB drives

SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study itrsquos important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage not just awareness is in-creasing More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form to-day In addition 17 have plans to deploy the technology within

hot spots | terri mcclure

Solid-state storage proving itsworth among users

More than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveraging

solid-state storage in some form today

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

48 STORAGE January 2012

the next 12 months while another 18 are in the evaluation phaseGiven the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technologymdashwhether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptopsmdashitrsquos not surprising that only 2 of respondents saidtheyrsquore not familiar with solid-state storage

While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memory to accelerate performance SSDs are the most common type ofsolid-state storage implementation Because the latest wave ofsolid-state usage started with enterprise data storage vendorsshipping external disk storage subsystems with solid-state drivesitrsquos not surprising that nearly half of current users leverage thisoption today Likewise almost 50 of potential adopters expectto use solid-state drives in an external disk storage subsystemwithin the next 12 months to 18 months Looking ahead standalonesolid-state storage appliancesmdashwhether serving as primary storageor a cachemdashappear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months interms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters

Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solid-state storage adoption driverbut reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief bene-fit Improved performance isthe most recognized advan-tage solid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical driveshowever as recently as a few years ago there was considerablenegative press about solid-state longevity and duty cycles somany viewed this as a potential solid-state concern Because harddisk drives (HDDs) have moving components solid-state storage istypically more reliable which many current users have witnessedfirsthand Improved reliabilitymean time between failures (MTBF)

Performance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

49 STORAGE January 2012

is another important attribute to potential adopters suggestingthese organizations are looking for long-term value out of theirsolid-state storage investments

ESG found that solid-state is often purchased in associationwith particular applications andor workloads but therersquos a shifttoward broader usage Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specific application Conversely more than half of potential solid-state stor-age adopters donrsquot believe their organizations will deploy the tech-nology as a means to address specific application performancechallenges In addition current users were more than two times as likely as potential adopters to single out IO bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnologyrsquos shift toward broadermore horizontal applicability

Therersquos a tight link between the use of solid-state storage andautomated tiering Automated storage tiering supports the conceptof aligning more in-demand data with a higher performing storagetier such as solid-state It makes sense that a significant number of organizations both current users and potential adopters of solid-state storage have seen tiering serve as a catalyst for solid-statestorage adoption Conversely nearly one-third of current solid-statestorage users report the technology drove their initial deploymentof automated tiered storage

PRICING CONCERNSLofty pricing is a stigma attached to solid-state storage and a deterrent to adoption in some cases according to the surveyHowever therersquos potentially good news to be gleaned from thefact that current users are significantly less likely to identify costas a challenge This suggests that many in this population are deriving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Because solid-state storage still carries a significant price premiumtherersquos additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satis-factory return on these investments As such it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solid-state storage view the brand of the actual components as eithercritical or very important in their purchase decisions Most currentusers and potential adopters also reported that components vendorsand system vendors have equal sway over solid-state decisions

Although prices have been declining steadily solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDsIt follows then that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solid-state storage point to itscost relative to HDDs as an impediment to adoptionThe other significant barrierto solid-state storage imple-mentation is the feeling that the technology is still relatively im-mature at this pointmdashnot an uncommon sentiment toward newand leading-edge IT solutions

THE BIGGER TRUTHGiven that just about every storage vendor is actively promotingthe benefits of solid-state it seems like a foregone conclusionthat the technology will continue to ramp up over the next cou-ple of years Considering the large number of emerging startupsthe choices for IT organizations will be plentiful Indeed as userknowledge of solid-state capabilities improves and the functionaland financial value of vendor offerings increases broad adoptionof solid-state looks inevitable

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

50 STORAGE January 2012

Because solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premi-um therersquos additionalpressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactory return onthese investments

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Solid-state wonrsquot replace hard disk drives HDDs will continue to dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number Instead a relatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practice in most environments And itrsquos likely to be less connected to spe-cific applications at least from a purchase decision perspectiveand more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastruc-ture ldquoturbo boostrdquo powered by caching or automated tiering soft-ware This means the percentage of IO handled by solid-state willfar outstrip its share of the storage dollar spend or total installeddisk-based storage capacity This may change years from now asmore advanced foundational solid-state technologies emerge Butfor the moment solid-state looks set to become a small but valu-able play in capacity terms but a huge IO play in the storagegame 2

Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy GroupMilford Mass

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

51 STORAGE January 2012

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

So how much do you think you know about RAID

Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz

And donrsquot forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference

The Webrsquos best resource on storage for SMBs

Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStoragecomRAID_Quiz

Confusing

Hard to Remember

Useful

All of the above

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing which

level does what can be

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

53 STORAGE January 2012

sCALE-OUT NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE (NAS) has arrived But if yousaid itrsquos been around for a while yoursquod also be rightmdashsort of Butusing a clustered file system and building NAS around it was farfrom being real NAS NAS implies simplicity and those home-cookedsystems never quite fulfilled that requirement

Isilon now a part of EMC is probably most responsible for mak-ing scale-out NAS a reality Isilon came to market approximately adecade ago and struggled to educate us on the virtues of scale-outarchitectures It was an uphill climb as NetApp and EMC lackingsuch an architecture trivialized its need But Isilon prevailed

NetApp recognized the potential of scale-out and bought Spin-naker Networks in 2003 It took a while to get everything integratedbut NetApp is now fully in the scale-out NAS game Dell is too afteracquiring Exanet and offers PowerVault or EqualLogic storage be-hind Exanet software Hewlett-Packard (HP) also went the acqui-sition route and picked up Ibrix which it uses in front of LeftHandNetworks or 3PAR storage IBM used its own General Parallel FileSystem (GPFS) as the basis of its Scale Out Network AttachedStorage (SONAS) Hitachi recently bought BlueArc which for allpractical purposes also had a scale-out NAS offering Smallerplayers including DataDirect Networks (DDN) and Panasas arealso in the market Scale Computing focused on the small- andmedium-sized businesssmall-and medium-sized enterprise

readwrite | arun taneja

Not all scale-out NAS systems are created equal

You may already be sold on the concept of scale-outNAS but scale-out systems vary widely and yoursquoll

have plenty of decisions to make before buying one

(SMBSME) market has a scale-out product that uses IBMrsquos GPFSon top of its own scale-out block offering

Every major storage player now has a scale-out NAS productand theyrsquore enthusiastically behind the architecture But all scale-out NAS systems arenrsquot the same Here are some things to considerif yoursquore shopping for one

Just as one vendorrsquos block array differs from anotherrsquos scale-out NAS products vary from vendor to vendor Differences include

bull Scalability how capacity is added scaling capacity vs performance new node assimilation and data redistribution

bull Minimum configuration

bull Number and types of nodes amount of storage with each node

bull Throughput-centric vs IOPS-centric vs balanced

bull System manageability ability to partition system

bull Single file throughput single file system throughput

bull Impact on performance on loss of a node number of nodes that can be lost without losing data

bull How data is protected internally rebuild times when the system is vulnerable and how systems are backed up

It would take too long (and too much space) to go into detail oneach of these factors but your next strategic purchase of NAS willlikely be a scale-out system so you should be prepared Each vendorwill claim its systems are infinitely scalable and theyrsquoll all be wrongIgnore the theoretical limits and just focus on what the systemrsquospractical limits are

One of the most important considerations is whether the appli-cations you run on the scale-out system are throughput-centric orIOPS-centric When Isilon first appeared it was targeted squarelyat the media and entertainment market which means storing andaccessing very large audio and video files (applications that arethroughput-centric) so IOPS arenrsquot that important But if yoursquore

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

54 STORAGE January 2012

dealing with a large number of small files and requests from thousands of users itrsquos all about IOPS

All scale-out NAS systems have a global namespace but thereare differences under the covers NetApp for instance aggregatessmaller namespaces into a global one whereas EMC Isilon createsa single namespace with its OneFS file system This distinctionmay not be relevant for all IT buyers but you should be aware ofthe difference

Be particularly careful about configuration starting points If an individual node is very powerful and you need three nodes minimum to start then the starting price may be out of range But if the node is too small for your applications you may needtoo many to build a reasonable system when you consider powerheat space and cost

Itrsquos crucial that the system you choose be able to handle thenumber of files yoursquoll want to store over time If the number is inthe billions (as with a Web 20 application or an archival system)you need to be very particular about the system you buy Very fewsystems can deal with such high numbers today Thatrsquos why somany public clouds are built on object-based designs rather thanclustered file systems

Finally the consensus is that scale-out is the way to go so youmight as well accept that premise But yoursquoll still have to figureout which one is right for your environment Hopefully these tipswill put you on track to ask all the right questions 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president of Taneja Group an analyst and con-sulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

55 STORAGE January 2012

(SMBSME) market has a scale-out product that uses IBMrsquos GPFSon top of its own scale-out block offering

Every major storage player now has a scale-out NAS productand theyrsquore enthusiastically behind the architecture But all scale-out NAS systems arenrsquot the same Here are some things to considerif yoursquore shopping for one

Just as one vendorrsquos block array differs from anotherrsquos scale-out NAS products vary from vendor to vendor Differences include

bull Scalability how capacity is added scaling capacity vs performance new node assimilation and data redistribution

bull Minimum configuration

bull Number and types of nodes amount of storage with each node

bull Throughput-centric vs IOPS-centric vs balanced

bull System manageability ability to partition system

bull Single file throughput single file system throughput

bull Impact on performance on loss of a node number of nodes that can be lost without losing data

bull How data is protected internally rebuild times when the system is vulnerable and how systems are backed up

It would take too long (and too much space) to go into detail oneach of these factors but your next strategic purchase of NAS willlikely be a scale-out system so you should be prepared Each vendorwill claim its systems are infinitely scalable and theyrsquoll all be wrongIgnore the theoretical limits and just focus on what the systemrsquospractical limits are

One of the most important considerations is whether the appli-cations you run on the scale-out system are throughput-centric orIOPS-centric When Isilon first appeared it was targeted squarelyat the media and entertainment market which means storing andaccessing very large audio and video files (applications that arethroughput-centric) so IOPS arenrsquot that important But if yoursquore

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

54 STORAGE January 2012

dealing with a large number of small files and requests from thousands of users itrsquos all about IOPS

All scale-out NAS systems have a global namespace but thereare differences under the covers NetApp for instance aggregatessmaller namespaces into a global one whereas EMC Isilon createsa single namespace with its OneFS file system This distinctionmay not be relevant for all IT buyers but you should be aware ofthe difference

Be particularly careful about configuration starting points If an individual node is very powerful and you need three nodes minimum to start then the starting price may be out of range But if the node is too small for your applications you may needtoo many to build a reasonable system when you consider powerheat space and cost

Itrsquos crucial that the system you choose be able to handle thenumber of files yoursquoll want to store over time If the number is inthe billions (as with a Web 20 application or an archival system)you need to be very particular about the system you buy Very fewsystems can deal with such high numbers today Thatrsquos why somany public clouds are built on object-based designs rather thanclustered file systems

Finally the consensus is that scale-out is the way to go so youmight as well accept that premise But yoursquoll still have to figureout which one is right for your environment Hopefully these tipswill put you on track to ask all the right questions 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president of Taneja Group an analyst and con-sulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

55 STORAGE January 2012

dealing with a large number of small files and requests from thousands of users itrsquos all about IOPS

All scale-out NAS systems have a global namespace but thereare differences under the covers NetApp for instance aggregatessmaller namespaces into a global one whereas EMC Isilon createsa single namespace with its OneFS file system This distinctionmay not be relevant for all IT buyers but you should be aware ofthe difference

Be particularly careful about configuration starting points If an individual node is very powerful and you need three nodes minimum to start then the starting price may be out of range But if the node is too small for your applications you may needtoo many to build a reasonable system when you consider powerheat space and cost

Itrsquos crucial that the system you choose be able to handle thenumber of files yoursquoll want to store over time If the number is inthe billions (as with a Web 20 application or an archival system)you need to be very particular about the system you buy Very fewsystems can deal with such high numbers today Thatrsquos why somany public clouds are built on object-based designs rather thanclustered file systems

Finally the consensus is that scale-out is the way to go so youmight as well accept that premise But yoursquoll still have to figureout which one is right for your environment Hopefully these tipswill put you on track to ask all the right questions 2

Arun Taneja is founder and president of Taneja Group an analyst and con-sulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies

STORAGE

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

55 STORAGE January 2012

Users arm themselves for the battle with capacity management

COPING WITH CAPACITY is an ongoing battle Our respondents reported that their firmsadded an average of 59 TB of disk capacity this year to top off average installedstorage at a hefty 413 TB And if disk capacity wasnrsquot enough to keep an eye onour group reported an average stash of 451 TB of data on tape Keeping track oftriple-digit terabytes is no easy task but 47 make do with the tools that come withtheir arrays 26 use a special point tool or storage resource management (SRM)app and 13 rely on that old storage management mainstay Excel Whatever toolthey use only 22 feel they have a handle on whatrsquos being used and whatrsquos notwhile 56 feel their estimates are within 10 or 20 of reality Forty-six percentfight back against capacity with thin provisioning while 72 use the best capacitymanagement tool around They enforce some form of data deletion mdashRich Castagna

ldquo There isnrsquot a single utilization tool that we can use heterogeneously without complicated agentsmdashonly pointsolutions and a lot of manual trackingrdquo

mdashSurvey respondent

snapshot

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

56 STORAGE January 2012

59

How accurate is your estimate of how much of your disk space

is actually being used

Of installed capacity is being used

How much of your installed capacity is currently being used

Do you delete data on a regular basis orrequire users to delete data regularly

32 We limit how much data each user can keep on our networked storage

31 We ask users to delete files regularly28 We donrsquot delete26 We delete specific types of data22 We delete data after it reaches a

certain age3 Other

Multiple selections were permitted

OtherReally just a guess5050 chance itrsquos accurateExact

Pretty close off by 10 to 20

5622

15

5 2

0 5 10 15 20 25

100908070605040302010

lt10

17

1525

1216

107

31

3

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

57 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGE

COMING IN

February2011 Products of the Year

The results are announced for Storagemagazinersquos and SearchStoragersquosProduct of the Year awards GoldSilver and Bronze recognition will beawarded in six categories Backup and Disaster Recovery Software and Services Backup HardwareNetworking Equipment StorageManagement Tools Storage Systemsand Storage System Software

New Tape TechsA lot of people may think tape hasgone away (and some disk backupvendors might wish it would) but tapeis actually thriving these days withsteady advancements in bread-and-butter specs like capacity and speedand with new technologies that maketape viable for new applications

How Do Storage Stacks Stack UpTheyrsquore not quite checkout line impulsebuys but vendors are making all-in-one storage stacks pretty attractiveand compelling for some environmentsIs it a case of less than best of breedor are these storage+servers+network+software packages reallygood deals

And donrsquot miss our monthly columnsand commentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Storage magazineVice President of Editorial Mark Schlack

Editorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim Hefner

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen Joyce

Contributing EditorsJames Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl

SearchStoragecomExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Senior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia R Lelii

Senior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim Hefner

Assistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Assistant Site Editor Ian Crowley

SearchCloudStoragecomExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Assistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

SearchDataBackupcomSearchSMBStoragecom

SearchDisasterRecoverycomSenior Site Editor Andrew Burton

Managing Editor Ed Hannan

Assistant Site Editor John Hilliard

Features Writer Todd Erickson

SearchVirtualStoragecomSearchStorageChannelcom

Senior Site Editor Sue Troy

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

SearchStoragecoUKSenior Site Editor Sue Troy

UK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Storage DecisionsTechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay Jeanloz

Editorial Events Manager Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions

wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

Storage predictions

Think powerplus IOPS

Pick the right DR site

Back up remote sites

Quality AwardsNAS systems

Solid-state goesmainstream

Scale-out NASUnder the hood

Keeping track of capacity

Sponsorresources

57 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGE

COMING IN

February2011 Products of the Year

The results are announced for Storagemagazinersquos and SearchStoragersquosProduct of the Year awards GoldSilver and Bronze recognition will beawarded in six categories Backup and Disaster Recovery Software and Services Backup HardwareNetworking Equipment StorageManagement Tools Storage Systemsand Storage System Software

New Tape TechsA lot of people may think tape hasgone away (and some disk backupvendors might wish it would) but tapeis actually thriving these days withsteady advancements in bread-and-butter specs like capacity and speedand with new technologies that maketape viable for new applications

How Do Storage Stacks Stack UpTheyrsquore not quite checkout line impulsebuys but vendors are making all-in-one storage stacks pretty attractiveand compelling for some environmentsIs it a case of less than best of breedor are these storage+servers+network+software packages reallygood deals

And donrsquot miss our monthly columnsand commentary or the results of our

Snapshot reader survey

TechTarget Storage Media Group

Storage magazineVice President of Editorial Mark Schlack

Editorial Director Rich Castagna

Senior Managing Editor Kim Hefner

Executive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Creative Director Maureen Joyce

Contributing EditorsJames Damoulakis Steve Duplessie Jacob Gsoedl

SearchStoragecomExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Senior News Director Dave Raffo

Senior News Writer Sonia R Lelii

Senior Writer Carol Sliwa

Senior Managing Editor Kim Hefner

Assistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

Assistant Site Editor Ian Crowley

SearchCloudStoragecomExecutive Editor Ellen OrsquoBrien

Assistant Site Editor Rachel Kossman

SearchDataBackupcomSearchSMBStoragecom

SearchDisasterRecoverycomSenior Site Editor Andrew Burton

Managing Editor Ed Hannan

Assistant Site Editor John Hilliard

Features Writer Todd Erickson

SearchVirtualStoragecomSearchStorageChannelcom

Senior Site Editor Sue Troy

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

SearchStoragecoUKSenior Site Editor Sue Troy

UK Bureau Chief Antony Adshead

Assistant Site Editor Francesca Sales

Storage DecisionsTechTarget Conferences

Director of Editorial Events Lindsay Jeanloz

Editorial Events Manager Jacquelyn Hinds

Storage magazine Subscriptions

wwwSearchStoragecom

Storage magazine275 Grove Street Newton MA 02466

editorstoragemagazinecom

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Lilien Resources

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bull Best Storage for Virtualized Environments

bull IDC White Paper Maximizing the Benefits of Virtualization and Consolidation in MidsizedFirms with Network Storage

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bull 6 Tips for Selecting HDD and SSD Drives - by Gary Watson CTO Nexsan

bull Disk vs Tape Whatrsquos the Truth About Cost and Reliability

SPONSOR RESOURCES

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bull Data Deduplication for Dummies

bull Demonstrating the Business Value of Deduplication for Data Protection

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