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STORAGEinside | january 2012Predicting that storage predictions will be forgotten in 20125 EDITORIAL It seems like everyone is making predictions about datastorage technologies for 2012 and beyond, but who are you going tobelieve—them or me? by RICH CASTAGNAIOPS per what?9 STORAGE REVOLUTION Disk capacity has been the sexy spec that most ofus have latched onto, but it’s time to start thinking about performanceand power consumption. by JON TOIGOHot, warm, cold: What’s the best DR site for your company?14 The recovery site might be the most expensive and difficult to managepart of a DR effort. We’ll help you determine the best recovery site setupfor your money. by PAUL KIRVAN, CISA, CISSP, FBCIBack up remote site data24 From technical advances in networking and security, backup apps withfeatures like deduplication and cloud integration, to cloud backup MSPsand cloud backup gateways, IT managers now have numerous optionsto protect remote-office data. by JACOB GSOEDLQuality Awards: Oracle NAS comes up big—twice37 With a lineage that goes back to Sun and StorageTek, Oracle’s NAS boxesare meeting, and maybe exceeding, expectations, and posting a doubleQuality Awards win along the way. by RICH CASTAGNASolid-state storage proving its worth among users47 HOT SPOTS More than one-third of total respondents to a recentEnterprise Strategy Group survey said their organizations are leveragingsolid-state storage in some form today. by TERRI MCCLURENot all scale-out NAS systems are created equal53 READ/WRITE You may already be sold on the concept of scale-out NAS,but scale-out systems vary widely and you’ll have plenty of decisionsto make before buying one. by ARUN TANEJAUsers arm themselves for the battle with capacity management56 SNAPSHOT This month’s survey respondents said their firms added anaverage of 59 TB of disk capacity this year to top off average installedstorage at a hefty 413 TB. But keeping track of triple-digit TBs isn’t easy,and only 22% feel they have an accurate handle on what’s being used.by RICH CASTAGNAFrom our sponsors58 Useful links from our sponsors.3 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesdominant platform, built on mobile computing, cloud services,social networking, and big data analytics technologies, wouldbegin its transition into the mainstream.”C’mon, guys, why not toss eating, breathing and sleeping intothat pretty-darn-general catchall mix? It doesn’t hurt that “cloudservices” is so undefined it can mean just about any IT thing inyour shop or that you might hook up to in someone else’s shop.IDC goes on to say that spending in these categories “is expectedto account for at least 80%of IT spending growth betweennow and 2020.” I justput a reminder on my Outlookcalendar for December2020 to check to see if theprediction was correct. (Ijust hope someone predictsOutlook will still be aroundin 2020.)Here’s a prediction froma Synergy Research Grouppress release that’s boldThese predictions arefodder for fun, justas long as they’re nottaken too seriously.But they all seem tooverlook one importantpiece of the datastorage technologypuzzle: you.enough to be the headline: “Cloud Infrastructure Equipment toExceed $33B in 2011.” I found that particularly interesting becausea definition of “cloud infrastructure” is, to say the least, somewhatelusive. Supporting the headline, the release says “the fastestgrowing segment includes Private Cloud platforms, which is growingat over 30% annual growth.” Synergy capitalized “privatecloud,” by the way, which it defines as “a virtualized data center,which resides behind an organization’s firewall.” Hmmm . . . thecompany isn’t exactly crawling out on that limb with Doyenz withthat kind of context for its prediction. Based on that statement,you’d be hard-pressed to define what’s not private cloud gear(which makes $33 billion seem like a lowball estimate).Obviously, these predictions are fodder for fun, just as long as6 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesthey’re not taken too seriously. But they all seem to overlook oneimportant piece of the data storage technology puzzle: you. I don’tthink you make your storage purchasing decisions based on predictionsI might make or those that think tanks might run up theflagpole. You make your decisions based on what your companyneeds and what vendors’ products meet those needs best. And ifI tell you that a year from now solid-state storage will cost lessthan hard disk drives, I’m sure that won’t influence your decision.(Just want to see if you’re still paying attention.)I also predict that a year from now I’m going to try to get awaywith another column making fun of other people’s predictions. Untilthen, Happy New Year. 2Rich Castagna is editorial director of the Storage Media Group.* Click here for a sneak peek at what’s coming up in the February 2012 issue.Quality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresources7 STORAGE January 2012

storage revolutIOn | jon toigoIOPS per what?Disk capacity has been the sexy specificationthe majority of us have latched onto,but it’s time to start thinking aboutperformance and power consumption.StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesbACK WHEN HE was at Xiotech (now XIO), Rob Peglar used to present aPowerPoint deck that included a slide depicting a butcher processinga large pile of ground beef. The unappealing image provided amemorable hook for Peglar’s point: for years, we’ve bought storagein a similar fashion, using the simple metric of dollars per pound.Interviewing disk drive makers a few years ago, I learned a differentbut related truth about disk. Many disk drive industry insidersobserved that their biggest sales accrued based on “larger,” ratherthan “faster” or “smarter.” 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 flash/hard disk hybrid unit.Bigger is better made a certain kind of sense, of course. Knowingvirtually nothing about data itself—the contents of a given file,its business value, its criticality or its usage characteristics—datastorage 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 of9 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesClearly, we can’t keepthrowing more spindlesat workloads to improveIOPS, given the resultingpower demand of suchstrategies.products that served a different metric altogether: IOPS per watt.XIO’s 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 nominal200,000 IOPS), isn’t aimed at the casual consumer looking for massfile storage, but at planners with other needs and metrics in mind.Specifically, 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 continuesto climb. According toan article published not longago in USA Today, the cost ofutility power had climbed byapproximately 22% nationwidein less than 18 months.Moreover, in data centerheavyparts of the U.S. grid,demand for power was exceedingthe 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 “green,” or you’re simplyconfronted by nagging issues regarding energy expense and availability,“per watt” metrics are increasingly important in storagedecision making.It’s also an increasingly important dimension of efficient storagearchitecture. Clearly, we can’t keep throwing more spindles atworkloads to improve IOPS, given the resulting power demandof such strategies. That’s why I have to chuckle when HP/3PARcarries on about having the fast hand in storage at 400,000+ IOPS.Short-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 writing10 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesrequests back over to the disk. There are fewer drives to power insuch a design. Another approach is to virtualize all disk and realizefast I/O out of the DRAM of the storage virtualization host, à laDataCore Software’s SANsymphony-V. This involves a similar kindof “spoofing” 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 they’re actuallymade, queuing them up on the back end to conceal how slow theirRAID/WAFL system actually is.IOPS per watt has anunderdiscussed corollary incapacity per watt, a secondimportant metric. Back whengreen was in fashion, storagevendors encouraged firmsto green their storage by“re-driving arrays”—pullinglow-capacity drives andreplacing them with highercapacity drives to get morecapacity with the samepower consumption. Asidefrom this usually requiring aNAS on steroids is theright IOPS-per-wattsolution for file repositoriescontaining datawith low rates ofre-reference. Who caresif accessing a rarelyrequested documententails the same delayas the World Wide Wait?“forklift upgrade” 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 “NAS on steroids.” A slew of announcementsin late 2011 described a new cobble of storage combining a tapelibrary, perhaps a front-end disk cache and the Linear Tape FileSystem (LTFS) instantiated on a server that could be mounted asa file share using a network file system. This design delivers highdensityfile storage (in the many tens of petabytes) with extremely11 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote siteslow power requirements in the space of a single raised-floor tile,depending 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 downloadand 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 ain’t getting cheaper. 2Jon William Toigo is a 30-year IT veteran and is CEO and managing principalof Toigo Partners International, and chairman of the Data ManagementInstitute.Quality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresources12 STORAGE January 2012

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HOT, WARM, COLD:What’s the best DR sitefor your company?StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesoFiguring out what kind of disaster recovery siteyour organization needs requires careful planning,and you’ll have to balance costs against risks.BY PAUL KIRVAN, CISA, CISSP, FBCINE OF THE toughest disaster recovery (DR) issues to resolve—andpotentially one of the most expensive decisions in a DR plan—isdetermining the type of recovery site your organization will use.The 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 planningthey can also help you protect critical data.14 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSRecovery site options can vary significantly in cost; we’ll 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. “The development of alternate sites came from theneed to protect data centers,” Brown said, and within each datacenter are hardware and software, physical facilities, a variety ofsystems and services, and operational/critical data needed to runthe business.Pick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesCold, warm and hot sites definedDCOLD SITESpace and associated infrastructure (e.g., power, telecoms andenvironmental controls to support IT systems), which will onlybe installed when disaster recovery (DR) services are activated.DWARM SITESite that’s partially equipped with some of the equipment (e.g.,computing hardware and software, and supporting personnel);organizations install additional equipment, computing hardwareand software, and supporting personnel when DR services areactivated.DHOT SITEFully equipped site with the required equipment, computing hardware/softwareand supporting personnel; it’s also fully functionaland manned on a 24x7 basis so that it’s ready for organizations tooperate their IT systems when DR services are activated.Source: ISO/IEC 24762:200815 STORAGE January 2012

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STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesThere are two fundamental alternate site arrangements: internaland external. “If you have the need and the funding, you can designand build an internal recovery site, typically a second data center,to provide the resources you need to recover and resume datacenter operations following a disaster at the primary data center,”Brown 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 ofoptions for protecting theirdata centers and criticalinformation. These optionsare typically provided externally,and are the familiarcold/warm/hot sites.With regard to externallyprovided solutions, thedefinitions of cold, warmand hot sites are many andvaried. While there are currentlyno official standardsfor alternate sites, internationalstandards like ISO/IEC24762:2008, Guidelines for“If you have the needand the funding, youcan design and build aninternal recovery site,typically a second datacenter, to provide theresources you need torecover and resumedata center operationsfollowing a disaster atthe primary data center.”—TED BROWN, CBCP, MBCI, CBCV,and president and CEO, KETCHConsultingInformation and Communications Technology Disaster RecoveryServices, address IT DR services provided by vendors and providesa good set of criteria for evaluating these options (see “Cold,warm and hot sites defined”).Brown, who has been involved in alternate site planning andimplementation for more than 30 years, likes to use the followingdefinitions: “A 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 communicationsin place. A warm site is an equipped data center, but17 STORAGE January 2012

Estimated costs for alternate DR site arrangementsStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesType of serviceHot siteWarm siteCold siteColocationWork-arearecoveryRemote datamirroringPublic cloudrecoveryBackup data center(e.g., internalhot/warm site),may also includework-area recoveryConfigure fieldoffices for dataand/or work-arearecovery (can be hot,warm or cold setups)Prewired headquarters/regional office spacefor data and/orwork-area recovery(e.g., internal cold site)Private cloud recoveryEstimatedfixed 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$100Kper siteequipped$20K to$250Kper siteequipped$5K to $150KEstimatedmonthly feeExternal solutions$1,500 to$75K$800 to $45K$550 to $20K$175 to $15K$500 to $25K$500 to $75K$500 to $30KInternal solutions$10K to$100K$3K to $20Kper siteequipped$7K to $50Kper siteequipped$3K to $50KCommentsFee ranges based on size of site,equipment configurations, need forshared vs. dedicated space; addedcosts for work-area supportFee ranges based on size of site,equipment configurations, need forshared vs. dedicated space; addedcosts for work-area supportFee ranges based on size of site,provisions needed (e.g., power,HVAC, telecom), need for shared vs.dedicated space; added costs forwork-area supportFee ranges based on space, hardware/softwareneeded, infrastructureneeds (e.g., power, telecom)Fee ranges based on space, workspaces needed; shared vs. dedicatedseats; may be standalone or includedwith the above optionsCosts include remote storagefacilities, data mirroring software,network bandwidthCosts include remote storagefacilities, data mirroring software,network bandwidthCosts include design andconstruction, monthly charges forinfrastructure and related operatingcomponents, hardware/softwareCosts include design andconstruction, monthly charges forinfrastructure and related operatingcomponents, hardware/softwareCosts include design andconstruction, monthly charges forinfrastructure and related operatingcomponentsCosts include network connectivity,storage resources, physical space forequipment, virtualization software18 STORAGE January 2012

Decision tree: Determining alternate DR sitesLaunch projectAssess existingDR capabilitiesNoAre theysufficient?YesDoneAnalyze options fortechnology, dataprotection, staff supportStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodInternal orexternal solution?InternalBuildNoNoNoBuild or rent?Need onlybuild-out space?Need only Comms?Hardware? Systems?Need accessto live data?ExternalRentYesYesYesColocated facility?YesAre availableservices acceptable?Consider cold sitearrangementConsider warm sitearrangementConsider hot sitearrangementNoNoYesNeed for peoplework areas?YesConsider colocationarrangementNoConsider work-arearecovery arrangementKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourceswithout customer data.” In each case, the equipment in place atalternate site facilities is shared by multiple users. If there aremultiple disaster declarations, Brown added, the response isusually first come, first served. Some companies will pay extrato 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,19 STORAGE January 2012

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STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesRTO 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 datamirroring 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 doesn’t provide real-time mirroring? Because alternate sitesare usually shared facilities, Brown noted, they represent a sharedrisk—unless 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 risk.According to Brown, an internal system done right is a far bettersolution, but it’s also the most costly option. It’s 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 running.It’s the biggest growth area in the alternate site business,according to Brown, who estimates there are approximately 1,000vendors 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 unavailable?Unless your employees can safely use telecommuting andsimilar remote-access arrangements, they must be willing to relocate,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 while21 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesthey work at a distant recovery location for what might be anextended time.Major aspects of work-area recovery deal with human resourcesissues. “Should the possibility of working in another area for anextended period of time be added to job descriptions?” he asked.Another issue is whether employees should be required to participatein tests.According to Brown, most major organizations in the public andprivate sectors have good IT recovery plans. “What they don’t haveare good work-area recovery plans for employees, contractors andother staff,” he said. There’s also the issue of senior management’sperception of the value of alternate sites.ADDITIONAL POINTS FOR CONSIDERATIONAlternate sites should be located far enough away from primaryoffices so that they’re less likely to be affected by the same disaster/failure events that have put the main facilities out of service. Theissues of site proximity, operational risks and service-level agreements(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 “cloud.” 2Paul Kirvan is an independent consultant/IT auditor and technical writer/editor/educator with more than 22 years of experience in business continuityand disaster recovery.22 STORAGE January 2012

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StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodBack upremote site dataWith plenty of viable options available, backingup remote offices and branch offices (ROBOs)shouldn’t be neglected any longer.BY JACOB GSOEDLKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesDATA 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.24 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesA 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 alleviatesome of the problems. “According to surveys we conducted,tape-based backup has dropped by 50% in ROBOs between 2007and 2010,” said Lauren Whitehouse, a senior analyst at EnterpriseStrategy Group (ESG), Milford, Mass. Besides disk-based backup,technological advances in data deduplication, networking and theemergence of the cloud are giving companies a slew of ROBO dataprotection options that simply weren’t available a few years ago.ROBO BACKUP OPTIONSLocal backup without an offsite copy. Backing up data locallyat 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 administrativeresource 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. “Backing up locally withoutoffsite copy should only be considered if the data in the ROBOisn’t of significant value for the company,” said Greg Schulz,founder 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 supplementedwith a scheduled tape-based offsite copy. Although indeclining use, tape has been, and still is, very popular to get backupsto a DR location. If local backups are tape based, selectedbackup sets are moved offsite according to a predefined schedule.If local backups are taken to disk, backup sets designated for off-25 STORAGE January 2012

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STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcessiting 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 forlocal or offsite backups is the additional overhead of changingand 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 alocal copy. Larger companies and enterprises, where standardizationand defined processes are in place, usually favor centralizingdata 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 they’re managed along withother backups, adding little overhead.With all backups managed remotely, the remote managementcapabilities of the backup application are essential. “Remote managementfeatures are no longer a differentiator, but are prettystandard now in backup applications,” ESG’s Whitehouse said. Forcentralized backup of ROBOs to work, available bandwidth and theimpact of backups in progress on users, as well as on other apps,must 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 deduplication—deduplicationof data before it leaves the ROBO site—compression and bandwidththrottling are key features that can help minimize the impact ofremote backups on the network and reduce backup times.The biggest challenge of centralized backup without a local27STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEROBO backup:Key considerationsWith more than a handful of remote-office/branch-office (ROBO)backup approaches, analyzing the key aspects of each alternativeis essential to determining the best ROBO backup option.StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesAnalysis of the backup data. The amount of data, change rate, and itsvalue and criticality to the business are instrumental in devising a backupstrategy. 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 bandwidthis 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 overallIT 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 infrastructuresand established processes, centralizing ROBO backup is probablythe right approach. In heterogeneous backup environments, backup targetappliances from the likes of Data Domain and cloud backup gatewaysshould be considered. Backup infrastructure features, such as remotemanagement, deduplication, scheduling options and encryption, needto be reviewed. These features are critical for both centralized andcloud-based ROBO backups.Compliance and regulations. Local regulatory and compliance requirementsmust be taken into consideration. This is especially relevant ifcloud backup is considered. For public companies or industries subjectto regulatory requirements, a service provider’s compliance with SSAE16/SOC 1 (formerly known as SAS 70) is critical. If centralized backup is considered,determine privacy requirements by the country in which theROBO is located.Cost. As a rule of thumb, centralized backup that’s able to leverage existingbackup infrastructure is usually the least expensive option.28 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcescopy 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 deduplicationthat helps to quicken recovery, a predefined recovery plan thatoutlines the recovery strategy for various scenarios is a must.“Due diligence of analyzing the impact of remote backups on thenetwork and a clearly defined recovery strategy are essential topreventing unpleasant surprises,” StorageIO Group’s 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. “As you approach and exceed 10 TB ofdata, a cached copy of the latest backup set becomes increasinglyrelevant,” 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 alocal disk target where it’s then replicated asynchronously to thecentral data center backup infrastructure. All major backup applicationvendors have supplemented their apps with replicationoptions: 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 appliances.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. They’re less suitable in companieswith a more heterogeneous backup landscape.In heterogeneous backup environments, replication is usuallydeferred to backup targets that are capable of performing replicationindependently of the backup software in use. One way ofaccomplishing this is via general-purpose disk-based or softwarebasedreplication with the caveats of lacking backup focus and29 STORAGE January 2012

Data Deduplication:Fad, fixture... or just a nice feature?Find out the benefits, drawbacks and functions of this technology with ourTop 10 Tips on Data Deduplication:www.SearchStorage.com/Data_DeduplicationThe Web’s best storage-specific information resource for enterprise IT professionals

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesfeatures, and adding complexity. That’s when dedicated backuptargets with replication capabilities come into play. They’re backupstorage appliances padded with features relevant to backup andrecovery, such as replication, deduplication, compression and centralizedmanagement. 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 Quantum’s DXi-Series of backup appliancesalso compete in this space. Because these intelligent backuptargets are decoupled and independent from backup applications,they’re required in both the ROBOs and the central data center.While the data center appliance that aggregates backups from theROBO appliances is usually a large redundant system with sufficientcapacity, appliances in ROBOs are generally much smaller,single systems. Unlike replication options that leverage an existingbackup suite, these backup appliances are usually less cost effective,especially since they’re required in all locations.Using a cloud backup service without retaining a local copy.The recent rise of cloud computing and cloud storage gives companiesyet another data protection option for their ROBOs. Backingup directly to the cloud is very similar to backing up to a centralizeddata center, especially from the ROBO’s 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 onprotected systems and support, if needed, is provided by the MSP.31 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesDespite the now de facto standard encryption of data in-transitand at-rest in the cloud, security concerns are still a major impedimentfor 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 unknown,which poses a challenge in countries that require data to staywithin defined geographic boundaries. “Strict privacy requirementsin some European countries are in conflict with regulations likethe USA Patriot Act, which basically enables the government to gothrough any data,” ESG’s Whitehouse noted. Customers who optfor cloud-based backup can choose from a fast-growing list ofcloud backup providers. Business-level cloud-based backup offeringsare available from EMC with Mozy, Carbonite, Symantec withBackup Exec.cloud, IBM with SmartCloud Resilience, i365 and IronMountain, as well as many regional providers.Using a cloud backup service with a local backup data copy.Direct backup into the cloud has the same restore challenges asbackup to a centralized data center when a local copy of the backupisn’t 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 networkattachedstorage (NAS) device. Some services, such as i365, providean on-site option to cache the latest backup on-premises toenable local recovery. “Although 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 recovery,” StorageIO’s Schulz said.Do-it-yourself cloud backup. The benefit of delegating ROBObackups to a cloud backup service is best suited for small to midsizecompanies with limited IT resources. For larger firms and com-32 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcespanies that want to supplement in-house backup infrastructurewith cloud storage, an external backup service provider usuallyisn’t the best option, mostly because they’re 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 environment.If the intention is toextend existing backupinfrastructure into the cloud,direct backup to cloud storagefrom the likes of AT&T,Amazon, 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 gateway.If the intention is toextend existing backupinfrastructure into thecloud, direct backup tocloud storage from thelikes of AT&T, Amazon,Microsoft, Nirvanix andRackspace is the wayto go.While Arkeia Network Backup, CommVault Simpana, and SymantecNetBackup and Backup Exec support cloud storage as a backuptarget, EMC Avamar, EMC NetWorker and IBM Tivoli Storage Managercurrently don’t 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 backupapplications write. They manage communication and interfacewith cloud storage providers, and perform tasks such as deduplication,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 past.With the emergence of non-tape-based options, there’s no longer34 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSan excuse for mediocre and negligent data protection of remoteofficeand branch-office data. From technical advances in networkingand security, backup applications with features like dedupe andcloud integration, to cloud backup MSPs and cloud backup gateways,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 viablebackup media. 2Jacob N. Gsoedl is a freelance writer and a corporate director for businesssystems.Pick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresources35 STORAGE January 2012

Oracle NAS comesup big—twiceStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesWith a lineage that goes back to Sun and StorageTek,Oracle’s NAS boxes are meeting, and maybeexceeding, expectations. BY RICH CASTAGNAFILE STORAGE IS front-page news in the data storage worldthese days, with talk of “big data” and the relentless growthof end-user information forcing us to focus our attention—and storage infrastructure efforts—on 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, we’ve seen six vendorsgarner top honors in the enterprise group and three winners amongmidrange NAS systems since NetApp Inc.’s earlier dominancewhen it won the first three Quality Awards. In this year’s survey,average ratings for both groups set records with new highs inevery category except two.37 STORAGE January 2012

StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesOverall ratingsOracleENTERPRISE: OVERALL RATINGSENTERPRISE. Oracle’sEMC6.997.36 is the highest overallDell6.54score we’ve seen in allthe NAS Quality AwardsNetApp6.40surveys. EMC Corp. setHP6.13the record in the previous0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00survey, 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 7.00 in each category. EMC’s showingwas nearly as impressive, finishing Oraclewith a 6.99 overall score, which 7.15Oracle7.36would have easily won any previous NAS survey.Oracle’s ratings were strong across IBM all categories, with its highest 7.02EMC6.99marks coming for its sales efforts,NetAppproduct feature sets, and relativelyDell6.54 6.75quick and painless deployments. EMC was also a strong challenger inall five categories, posting sterling HP NetApp scores that included two 7.00-plus 6.42 6.40ratings, with the other three coming in at 6.92 to 6.98. The other vendorsEMC HP6.13 6.35also fared well, with Dell Inc. posting a very respectable 6.54 to finish0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00third, followed by NetApp (6.40) and Dell Hewlett-Packard Co. (6.13). 6.150 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00MIDRANGE. In winningthe midrange group, OracleMIDRANGE: OVERALL RATINGSdidn’t set a new overallscore record, but it didmanage to tie the bestoverall mark, a 7.15 set byIBM on the last survey.IBM couldn’t quite repeatits record-setting performance,but it earned a 7.02to finish second—only thethird 7.00-plus overallscore ever amongmidrange NAS.Oracle and IBM battledthrough the five rating0OracleIBMNetAppHPEMCDell1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.007.157.026.756.426.356.157.00 8.00categories, with Oracle prevailing on four and IBM finishing first forsales-force competence. IBM came in second for three categories andthird in the final one. NetApp’s solid 6.75 was good for an overall thirdplace, followed by HP (6.42), EMC (6.35) and Dell (6.15).7.3638 STORAGE January 2012

ENTERPRISE: SALES-FORCE COMPETENCEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesSales-forcecompetenceENTERPRISE. Across allthe NAS Quality Awardssurveys, no vendor hadever cracked the 7.00mark for the sales-forcecompetence rating category,but this time Oracleplowed right through thatbarrier and didn’t stopuntil it reached 7.45. Thatastounding score wasearned based on statementscores ranging from7.32 to 7.56, with Oracle’shighest ratings comingfor keeping its customers’interests foremost, beingknowledgeable about itscustomers’ industries andbeing flexible. EMC’s 6.92in the category put itcomfortably in second,just ahead of HP (6.89).MIDRANGE. IBM scoredapproximately 7.00 for allsales-force competencestatements to finish witha winning 7.20 average,which was high enoughto put it well ahead ofsecond-place finisherOracle (6.94). NetAppposted very consistentscores, ranging from 6.38to 6.89, across the six categorystatements for alaudable third-placeaverage of 6.66.OracleEMCHPDellNetApp0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Enterprise NAS vendors provide solid backup fortheir Oraclesales teams, as evidenced by the overall 7.45average of 7.08 for the statement “The vendor’ssales EMCIBM support team is knowledgeable.” 6.927.20• Before HP Oracle’s achievement, no NAS vendor/productOracle6.89 6.94had ever received 7.00-plus scores for every statementDell NetAppin the sales-force competence category. 6.37 6.66• EMC had three 7.00 scores, highlighted by a 7.25 forNetApphaving EMC a knowledgeable sales team; HP 6.18 6.19had the0other 1.00 two 7.00-plus 2.00 3.00statement 4.00 scores 5.00 6.00 in the 7.00 category. 8.00HP5.90Dell5.740 MIDRANGE: 1.00 2.00 SALES-FORCE 3.00 4.00 5.00COMPETENCE6.00 7.00 8.00IBMOracleNetAppEMCHPDell5.905.746.376.196.186.926.896.660 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• IBM had the highest scores for all six statements inthe sales-force competence category.• IBM’s highest marks were for having flexible salesreps and knowledgeable sales support teams.• Oracle netted two over-7.00 scores: a 7.28 forknowledgeable support teams and a 7.04 for“My sales rep keeps my interests foremost.”• NetApp’s strengths came from its sales supportteams (6.89) and being knowledgeable about itscustomers’ industries (6.87).7.206.947.4539 STORAGE January 2012

ENTERPRISE: INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITYStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesInitialproduct qualityENTERPRISE. Oracleposted one of its topcategory averages (7.43)to take initial productquality honors. In doingso, Oracle showed remarkableconsistency,with scores ranging from7.38 to 7.44 on the sixstatements in this category,including four 7.44ratings. EMC didn’t threatenOracle’s dominance, butits second-place categoryaverage of 6.92 is thesecond highest everrecorded. Dell was adistant third with astill-strong 6.50 score.MIDRANGE. IBM gaveOracle a run for its moneyin the midrange initialproduct quality category,ultimately finishing secondwith a notable 7.21 toOracle’s 7.33. IBM toppedOracle on three of thesix statements, but wassomewhat undone by the“good value for the money”statement when itscored a 6.69 to Oracle’s7.39. NetApp had twoabove-7.00 statementscores for an overall 6.83for third, while HP had asingle 7.00 on its way to acategory average of 6.72.OracleEMCDellNetAppHP5.906.506.426.920 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Oracle’s 7.44 statement scores were earned forproducts that need little vendor intervention,requiring a reasonable amount of professionalservices, Oracleease of use and good value.7.33 7.43• The EMC IBM“good value for the money” statement is 6.92 a 7.21 keyindicator in this category, and all vendors scoredwell: Dell NetApp Oracle (7.44), EMC (6.79), Dell (6.47), NetApp 6.50 6.83(6.07) and HP (6.00).NetApp HP6.42 6.72• EMC had the only other two 7.00-plus statementscores: a 7.12 for installing without defects and aHP Dell5.906.507.06 for not needing too much in the way of0professional EMC 1.00 2.00services.3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 6.227.00 8.000 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00MIDRANGE: INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITYOracleIBMNetAppHPDellEMC6.836.726.506.227.437.337.210 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Midrange NAS vendors are getting it right the first time:The across-the-board average for “This product wasinstalled without any defects” was an impressive 6.92.• This is the first time that two vendors—Oracle andIBM—had averages of more than 7.00 for the initialproduct quality category.• Oracle’s 7.39 for the key “good value for the money”statement easily led the field, but the others alsoscored well to yield a group average of 6.64 for thisstatement.40 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesProductfeaturesENTERPRISE. Even aftera good sales experienceand a problem-freeimplementation, it stillcomes down to what thesystem can do. Apparently,Oracle users are happyenough with their systems’capabilities to helpearn the vendor a 7.47score for features. That’sthe highest-ever scorefor enterprise NAS, andit helped build an overallgroup average for theproduct features categorythat was also a recordbreaker. EMC finishedsecond with a 7.04, thesecond-best score everand enough to have prevailedin previous surveys.MIDRANGE. IBM rackedup three statementscores of more than 7.00to earn a category averageof 6.99, but couldn’tovertake Oracle’s six7.00-plus tallies and 7.24category score. Systemcapabilities don’t seemto be a concern amongmidrange NAS products,as all vendors fared wellin this category. The overallcategory average was6.66, enough to edge outthe last survey’s average.OracleEMCNetAppDellHPENTERPRISE: PRODUCT FEATURES0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING Oracle DOWN THE NUMBERS 7.47• Oracle’s top scores were a 7.56 for managementEMC7.04features and a 7.50 for mirroring features.• EMC NetApp was the only other vendor getting 7.00-plus 6.66scores: Oracle7.24a 7.08 for mirroring features, 7.15 formanagement Dell features and 7.30 for capacity 6.51 scaling.IBM6.99• NetApp HP was again the model of consistency, 5.97 finishingthird NetApp with a 6.66 average built on scores ranging 6.85 from0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.006.35 to 6.93 on the category’s seven statements.HP6.42EMC5.976.666.516.40Dell MIDRANGE: PRODUCT FEATURES 6.057.047.470 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00OracleIBMNetAppHPEMCDell6.406.056.427.246.996.850 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Oracle’s highest marks were posted for mirroring(7.39) and management (7.34); its lowest score wasa still-lofty 6.93 for “This product is interoperablewith other vendors’ products.”• IBM’s three above-7.00 scores included a 7.33 formirroring, 7.23 for remote replication and 7.15 forsnapshots.• NetApp’s sturdy third-place 6.85 featured a 6.94 forsnapshotting and a 6.94 for remote replication.41 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEENTERPRISE: PRODUCT RELIABILITYStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesProductreliabilityENTERPRISE. This was aclosely contested category,but Oracle triumphedonce again with five 7.00-plus scores to four forEMC for an overall edgeof 7.28 to 7.10, respectively.Product reliability is typicallyone of the strongestcategories for enterpriseNAS products, and allfinalist vendors performedwell this time; Dellshowed its enterprisemuscle with good scoreson patching issues tocome in third with a 6.68,followed by NetApp (6.38)and HP (6.30).MIDRANGE. Oracle waspressured by IBM formidrange NAS reliabilityhonors but ultimatelyoutpaced its rival, 7.22to 7.00. Of the five statementsin this category,Oracle had only onesub-7.00 score, whileIBM had two. Third-placefinisher NetApp (6.70) hadthe only other above-7.00statement score in thegroup for systems that experiencedlittle downtime.OracleEMCDellNetAppHP6.386.306.680 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING Oracle DOWN THE NUMBERS 7.28• Oracle had the top single statement score with a 7.44EMC7.10for “The product meets my service-level requirement.”• EMC Dell registered the second-highest statement 6.68score, Oracle a 7.37 for the key statement “This product 7.22experiences NetApp6.38very little downtime.”IBM7.00• You HPcan apparently count on enterprise 6.30 NAS, asscores NetApp for the downtime statement were 6.70 solid0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00across the board for an aggregate 6.91 average.HP6.60EMC6.55MIDRANGE: PRODUCT RELIABILITYDell6.227.287.100 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00OracleIBMNetAppHPEMCDell7.227.006.706.606.556.220 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Three vendors scored more than 7.00 for thestatement “This product experiences very littledowntime”: Oracle (7.46), IBM (7.15) and NetApp (7.05).• IBM’s 7.17 for “Patches can be applied nondisruptively”was the best in the group.• Vendors might want to revisit their upgradingprocedures: “Vendor provides comprehensiveupgrade guidance” netted the lowest averagesamong all vendors.42 STORAGE January 2012

ENTERPRISE: TECHNICAL SUPPORTOracle7.17StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesTechnicalsupportENTERPRISE. We’ve saidmany times that a solidsupport system can helpa vendor get back into auser’s good graces withtimely fixes and techadvice. This group ofenterprise NAS vendors,led by Oracle’s 7.17 categoryaverage, posted thebest overall average supportscore to date. Oraclesnared 7.00-plus scoresfor seven of the eightcategory statements, butEMC put up three sevensen route to a 6.98. Dell(6.64) registered its thirdthird-place showing.MIDRANGE. Oracle hadfive scores of 7.00 orbetter on its way to acategory-leading averageof 7.02. IBM (6.70) had theonly other two 7.00-plusratings, but it wasn’tenough to prevent BigBlue from being nudgedout by the ever-steadyNetApp, which built itssecond-place 6.71 onanother narrow rangeof scores running from6.59 to 6.97.EMCDellNetAppHP0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• Oracle’s highest mark was for taking ownershipof Oracle7.17customer problems (7.33); it scored nearly aswell for timely problem resolution (7.30) andEMC6.98documentation Oracle (7.29).7.02• EMC Dellmeets expectations: EMC picked up 6.64 the highestNetApp6.71statement score in the category with a 7.43 for“Vendor NetApp6.36IBM supplies support as contractually 6.70 specified.”• Do HPvendors need better buddies? The 5.60lowest averageHP6.47among all vendors was a 6.29 for “Vendor’s thirdpartyEMCpartners are knowledgeable.”0 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.006.38Dell5.606.646.366.236.980 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00OracleNetAppIBMHPEMCDellMIDRANGE: TECHNICAL SUPPORT6.716.706.476.386.237.020 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS• The highest single statement score was Oracle’s 7.22for providing adequate training; the second highestwas IBM’s 7.18 for supplying support as contractuallyspecified.• Four of the six vendors received their lowest ratingsfor “The vendor provides adequate training.”• Oracle had ratings of 7.11 for three statements: timelyproblem resolution, taking ownership of problemsand documentation.43 STORAGE January 2012

StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesTops in TB and‘do it again?’It doesn’t have any bearingon the Quality Awards surveyrankings, but we askhow much of a commitmentrespondents havemade to each vendor’sproducts in terms of installedcapacity. When itcomes to its users’ averageinstalled capacity, NetAppedged Oracle with 104 TB toOracle’s 102 TB. Enterprisestalwart EMC wasn’t far offwith 99 TB.Oracle’s midrange NASusers reported an averageinstalled capacity of 94 TB,well ahead of EMC’s 83 TB,followed by NetApp (62 TB),IBM (61 TB) and Dell (60 TB).We also asked if respondentswould make the samepurchase again given whatthey know now. Fairly oftenwe don’t see a direct correlationbetween ratingswinners and “buy again”favorites, which may justbe a case of growing comfortablewith a product overtime. For enterprise NAS,the buy-again numberstrack the rankings fairlyclosely, with 97% of Oracleusers ready to sign on thedotted line again. Oraclealso topped the chartsamong midrange vendors,although less impressively,with 89% saying they’dcome back for more.EnterpriseMidrangeEnterpriseMidrangeHeavy Hitters: Total deployed capacityof this vendor’s systems (TB)NetAppOracleEMCDellHP0 TBs 20 40 60 80 100 120OracleEMCNetAppIBMDellHP3252521041020 TBs 20 40 60 80 100Would you buy this product again?OracleDellEMCHPNetApp0% 20 40 60 80 100OracleEMCHPNetAppDellIBM0% 20 40 60 80 10062616069%998379%9489%89%85%89%88%85%82%81%97%44 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEAbout the surveyThe Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com 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 Storage/SearchStorage.com readerswho assessed products in five main categories: sales-force competence, productfeatures, initial product quality, product reliability and technical support. Productsare rated on a 1.00-8.00 scale, where 8.00 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 products/product lines.StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesProducts in the surveyThese products were included in the Quality Awards for NAS survey.The number of responses for each finalist is shown in parentheses.ENTERPRISEDataDirect Networks Inc.NAS Scaler/GRIDScaler/EXAScaler/xSTREAMScaler*Dell Inc.PowerVault NS-480/CompellentStorage Center zNAS (17)EMC Corp.Celerra NS-480/NS-960 or VG8 or VNX7500 NAS or Isilon IQ X-Series (53)Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co.StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway orStorageWorks X5000/X9000Storage Systems (13)Hitachi (HDS) Essential NAS Platform 1000Series or NAS Platform 3000 Series(BlueArc Titan 3000 Series)*IBM N6000 or N7000 or Scale OutNetwork Attached Storage (SONAS)*NetApp FAS3000/3100 or FAS6000(all with NAS interface) (72)Oracle Corp. Sun Storage 74xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (34)Panasas Inc. ActiveStor 9 Series/11 Series/12 Series or HC Series*Pillar Data Systems Axiom NAS*MIDRANGEDell PowerVault NS120 orNX200/NX300/NX3000/NX3100/NX4 (27)EMC Celerra NX4, NS-120, VG2, VNXe 5000Series NAS or Isilon IQ S-Series (53)Hewlett-Packard (HP) StorageWorksX300/X500 Data Vault or X1000/X3000Network Storage Systems (13)Hitachi (HDS) AMS2000/1000/500/200 orWMS100 with NAS Option orBlueArc Titan Mercury 50/100*IBM N3000/N5000 (13)NetApp FAS2000 (with NAS interface) (39)Oracle Sun Storage 71xx/72xx/73xx UnifiedStorage System (with NAS) (28)Overland Storage Inc. Snap ServerDX1/DX2/210/410/620/650/N2000*Panasas ActiveStor 7 Series/8 Series*Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) InfiniteStorageFile Serving series** Did not receive enough responsesto qualify as a finalist45 STORAGE January 2012

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hot spots | terri mcclureStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesSolid-state storage proving itsworth among usersMore than one-third of total respondents to a recentESG survey said their organizations are leveragingsolid-state storage in some form today.bASED ON A RECENT Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey on solidstatestorage adoption trends among 223 IT professionals, there’sno escaping the conclusion that solid-state storage—once viewedwith skepticism due to price and performance tradeoffs—is becominga mainstream part of enterprise storage environments.Survey participants represented enterprise-class organizations(1,000 employees or more) in North America. For the purposes ofthis survey, “solid-state storage” 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 didn’t include solid-state drives for desktop or laptop PCs,or portable flash storage devices, such as USB drives.SOLID-STATE TRENDSTo understand the relevance of the study, it’s important to notethat it showed solid-state storage usage, not just awareness, is increasing.More than one-third of total respondents indicated theirorganizations are leveraging solid-state storage in some form today.In addition, 17% have plans to deploy the technology within47 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesthe next 12 months, while another 18% are in the evaluation phase.Given the pervasive media coverage of flash drive technology—whether pertaining to enterprise IT systems or endpoint deviceslike laptops—it’s not surprising that only 2% of respondents saidthey’re not familiar with solid-state storage.While there are a number of ways to leverage flash memoryto 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 drives,it’s 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 appliances—whether serving as primary storageor a cache—appear poised to make the most significant gainsover the next 18 months inPerformance is stillviewed as the biggestsolid-state storageadoption driver, butreliability is also beingrecognized as a chiefbenefit.terms of market adoptionamong both current usersand potential adopters.Performance is stillviewed as the biggest solidstatestorage adoption driver,but reliability is also beingrecognized as a chief benefit.Improved performance isthe most recognized advantagesolid-state storage provides over traditional mechanical drives;however, 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 reliability/mean time between failures (MTBF)48 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesis 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 and/or workloads, but there’s a shifttoward broader usage. Nearly two-thirds of current solid-statestorage users report their organizations purchased the technologyto alleviate performance challenges associated with a specificapplication. Conversely, more than half of potential solid-state storageadopters don’t believe their organizations will deploy the technologyas a means to address specific application performancechallenges. In addition, current users were more than two timesas likely as potential adopters to single out I/O bottlenecks causedby server virtualization as the primary reason for initial solid-statestorage adoption. These two points highlight solid-state storagetechnology’s shift toward broader/more horizontal applicability.There’s 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 numberof organizations, both current users and potential adopters of solidstatestorage, 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 adeterrent to adoption in some cases, according to the survey.However, there’s 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 arederiving value from the actual deployment of solid-state storage.49 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesBecause solid-state storage still carries a significant price premium,there’s additional pressure on IT decision-makers to ensure a satisfactoryreturn on these investments. As such, it makes sense thata majority of both current users and planned adopters of solidstatestorage 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 haveBecause solid-statestorage still carries asignificant price premium,there’s additionalpressure on IT decisionmakersto ensure asatisfactory return onthese investments.been declining steadily,solid-state storage is stillexpensive relative to HDDs.It follows, then, that morethan half of organizationswith no interest in solidstatestorage point to itscost relative to HDDs asan impediment to adoption.The other significant barrierto solid-state storage implementationis the feeling that the technology is still relatively immatureat this point—not 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 coupleof years. Considering the large number of emerging startups,the 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.50 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesSolid-state won’t replace hard disk drives; HDDs will continueto dominate the bulk capacity and revenue number. Instead, arelatively small amount of solid-state will be standard practicein most environments. And it’s likely to be less connected to specificapplications, at least from a purchase decision perspective,and more likely to be employed more as a horizontal infrastructure“turbo boost” powered by caching or automated tiering software.This means the percentage of I/O 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 valuableplay in capacity terms, but a huge I/O play in the storagegame. 2Terri McClure is a senior storage analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group,Milford, Mass.Quality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresources51 STORAGE January 2012

Memorizing RAID leveldefinitions and knowing whichlevel does what can be:ConfusingHard to RememberUsefulAll of the aboveSo how much do you think you know about RAID?Find Out For Yourself and Test Your Knowledge with Our Exclusive RAID Quiz!And don’t forget to bookmark this page for future RAID-level reference.Test your knowledge at SearchSMBStorage.com/RAID_QuizThe Web’s best resource on storage for SMBs

ead/write | arun tanejaNot all scale-out NASsystems are created equalYou may already be sold on the concept of scale-outNAS, but scale-out systems vary widely and you’llhave plenty of decisions to make before buying one.StoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcessCALE-OUT NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE (NAS) has arrived. But if yousaid it’s been around for a while, you’d also be right—sort 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 makingscale-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 SpinnakerNetworks in 2003. It took a while to get everything integrated,but NetApp is now fully in the scale-out NAS game. Dell is, too, afteracquiring Exanet, and offers PowerVault or EqualLogic storage behindExanet software. Hewlett-Packard (HP) also went the acquisitionroute 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 business/small-and medium-sized enterprise53 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresources(SMB/SME) market, has a scale-out product that uses IBM’s GPFSon top of its own scale-out block offering.Every major storage player now has a scale-out NAS productand they’re enthusiastically behind the architecture. But all scaleoutNAS systems aren’t the same. Here are some things to considerif you’re shopping for one.Just as one vendor’s block array differs from another’s, scaleoutNAS products vary from vendor to vendor. Differences include:• Scalability, how capacity is added, scaling capacity vs.performance, new node assimilation and data redistribution• Minimum configuration• Number and types of nodes, amount of storage with each node• Throughput-centric vs. IOPS-centric vs. balanced• System manageability, ability to partition system• Single file throughput, single file system throughput• Impact on performance on loss of a node, number of nodesthat can be lost without losing data• How data is protected internally, rebuild times whenthe system is vulnerable and how systems are backed upIt 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 they’ll all be wrong.Ignore the theoretical limits and just focus on what the system’spractical limits are.One of the most important considerations is whether the applicationsyou 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 aren’t that important. But if you’re54 STORAGE January 2012

STORAGEStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesdealing with a large number of small files and requests fromthousands of users, it’s 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. Ifan individual node is very powerful and you need three nodesminimum 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 power,heat, space and cost.It’s crucial that the system you choose be able to handle thenumber of files you’ll want to store over time. If the number is inthe billions (as with a Web 2.0 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. That’s 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 you’ll still have to figureout which one is right for your environment. Hopefully, these tipswill put you on track to ask all the right questions. 2Arun Taneja is founder and president of Taneja Group, an analyst and consultinggroup focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies.55 STORAGE January 2012

snapshotUsers arm themselves for thebattle with capacity managementStoragepredictionsCOPING 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 wasn’t enough to keep an eye on,our 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 what’s being used and what’s not,while 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. —Rich CastagnaThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesHow accurate is your estimate ofhow much of your disk spaceis actually being used?5% 2%15%22%56%Pretty close; off by10% to 20%Exact50/50 chance it’s accurateReally just a guessOtherDo you delete data on a regular basis orrequire users to delete data regularly? *32% We limit how much data each usercan keep on our networked storage31% We ask users to delete files regularly28% We don’t delete26% We delete specific types of data22% We delete data after it reaches acertain age3% Other* Multiple selections were permittedHow much of your installed capacityis currently being used?

STORAGETechTarget Storage Media GroupStoragepredictionsThink powerplus IOPSPick theright DR siteBack upremote sitesQuality Awards:NAS systemsSolid-state goesmainstreamScale-out NAS:Under the hoodKeeping trackof capacitySponsorresourcesStorage magazineVice President of Editorial Mark SchlackEditorial Director Rich CastagnaSenior Managing Editor Kim HefnerExecutive Editor Ellen O’BrienCreative Director Maureen JoyceContributing EditorsJames Damoulakis, Steve Duplessie, Jacob GsoedlSearchStorage.comExecutive Editor Ellen O’BrienSenior News Director Dave RaffoSenior News Writer Sonia R. LeliiSenior Writer Carol SliwaSenior Managing Editor Kim HefnerAssistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanAssistant Site Editor Ian CrowleySearchCloudStorage.comExecutive Editor Ellen O’BrienAssistant Site Editor Rachel KossmanSearchDataBackup.comSearchSMBStorage.comSearchDisasterRecovery.comSenior Site Editor Andrew BurtonManaging Editor Ed HannanAssistant Site Editor John HilliardFeatures Writer Todd EricksonSearchVirtualStorage.comSearchStorageChannel.comSenior Site Editor Sue TroyAssistant Site Editor Francesca SalesSearchStorage.co.UKSenior Site Editor Sue TroyUK Bureau Chief Antony AdsheadAssistant Site Editor Francesca SalesStorage DecisionsTechTarget ConferencesDirector of Editorial Events Lindsay JeanlozEditorial Events Manager Jacquelyn HindsStorage magazine Subscriptions:www.SearchStorage.comStorage magazine275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466editor@storagemagazine.comCOMING INFebruary2011 Products of the YearThe results are announced for Storagemagazine’s and SearchStorage’sProduct of the Year awards. Gold,Silver and Bronze recognition will beawarded in six categories: Backupand Disaster Recovery Softwareand Services, Backup Hardware,Networking 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-andbutterspecs like capacity and speed,and with new technologies that maketape viable for new applications.How Do Storage Stacks Stack Up?They’re not quite checkout line impulsebuys, but vendors are making all-inonestorage stacks pretty attractiveand compelling for some environments.Is it a case of less than best of breed,or are these storage+servers+network+software packages reallygood deals?And don’t miss our monthly columnsand commentary, or the results of ourSnapshot reader survey.57 STORAGE January 2012

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