St O ti i ti N L O ti lStorage Optimization: No Longer Optional

Presented by Tony AsaroSenior Analyst and Founder INI GroupSenior Analyst and Founder, INI Group

"The more inventory a company has The more inventory a company has, … the less likely they will have what h d ”they need.”

-- Taiichi OhnoTaiichi OhnoInventor of Lean Manufacturing

The Need for Storage Optimization

• In 2000 10 TB was considered a large storage environment

• Today it is common to have 100s of TBsand PBs

• What will happen in the next 10 years• Capital budgets no longer support p g g pp

endless storage purchases• Power, cooling and floor space is limited, g p• People resources find it hard to manage

all of this infrastructure

Market Dynamics• 70% to 90% of data is never used 90 days

after its creation• Lots of copies of data including drafts• Capacity utilization rates are low often in p y

the 30% range• Storage optimization can result in

i ifi i h d d f significant cost savings – hundreds of thousands to millions

Economic Analysis• Capacity• Storage Systems• Maintenance License• Protection• Power• CoolingCooling• Floor Space

Storage Optimization• Thin provisioning• Block Level Intelligent Tieringoc e e te ge t e g• Writeable Snapshots• Storage Virtualization• Storage Virtualization• MAID • Data Compression• Data Compression• Data Deduplication

Fil M t d O ti i ti• File Management and Optimization• The Cloud?

Thin Provisioning

• Just-in-Time Capacity • Provision what you anticipate but only • Provision what you anticipate but only

consume what is needed• Shared storage pool to allocate physical

capacity as neededp y• Create thresholds and alerts

d d d l• Provide reports and trending analysis

Thin Provisioning in the Real World• Most storage systems support some form of thin • Most storage systems support some form of thin

provisioning• Thousands of users are using thin provisioning• Thousands of users are using thin provisioning• Many are using it with mission-critical applications

C i ft f 30% tili ti t 70% • Companies often go from 30% utilization to 70% +• Companies that use thin provisioning regard it as a

i it i f drequisite going forward• However many users still believe there’s a risk• We are unaware of any user reporting a major or

sustainable issue with thin provisioning

Intelligent Tiering• Sub-Volume and Volume Tiering• The ability to move data to different

l fclasses of storage• Classes can include RAID levels and

d ff ddifferent drive types – SSD to SATA• Transparent demotion and promotion• Policy-based and automated• In-the-box tieringe bo e g• External tiering• Thin Provisioning DR VDI Dedupe• Thin Provisioning, DR, VDI, Dedupe

Sub-Volume Tiering• Volume tiering has limited value• If 10% of a volume is active and the

h h h lother 90% is inactive then that volume is still regarded as “active”

b l k f• Sub-volume keeps active portion of volume on Tier 1 and moves inactive portions to lower tiersportions to lower tiers

• Tiering includes disk drives but also RAID levelslevels

• Tiering is not archiving – you can move primary data to and from tiers primary data to and from tiers immediately as needed

Tiering in the Real World• Today Compellent and 3PAR have sub• Today Compellent and 3PAR have sub-

volume tiering• Compellent is the leader and has the most • Compellent is the leader and has the most

granular solution• EMC and HDS projected to have this later • EMC and HDS projected to have this later

this year• Others will follow• Others will follow• The impact could truly be significant –

Compellent claims up to 80% reduction in Compellent claims up to 80% reduction in cost over time

• At some point – we will have no choice to • At some point – we will have no choice to implement intelligent tiering

Writable Snapshots• The ability to create volumes making • The ability to create volumes making

logical copies of primary volumes that are writable writable

• New writes are the only thing that consume more capacityconsume more capacity

• Great for test and development environmentsenvironments

• users can make a large number of copies without impacting capacitywithout impacting capacity

Storage Virtualization• The ability to manage third party storage • The ability to manage third-party storage

from an external storage controller• Leverage the intelligence of a high end • Leverage the intelligence of a high-end

storage system to manage less intelligent devicesdevices

• Functions such as thin provisioning and replicationreplication

• One user was able to reclaim $3M in allocated but unused capacityallocated but unused capacity

• Vendors include HDS, IBM and NetApp

Storage Virtualization in the Real World• Over ten thousand users doing this today• Over ten thousand users doing this today• users have saved millions of dollars

implementingimplementing• Sub-LUN tiering should raise the value

propositionproposition• We are not aware of any user that has

deployed storage virtualization and then deployed storage virtualization and then changed their minds

• Some users still see the risk – who • Some users still see the risk – who supports what?

MAID• Spin down drives so they reduce power • Spin down drives so they reduce power

and cooling while increasing MTBF• Not widely deployed• Not widely deployed• Part of the issue includes performance and

reliability concernsreliability concerns• Spin down will make more sense with sub-

LUN tiering – it could be the “killer app”LUN tiering – it could be the killer app

Data Compression• Some primary storage systems are adopting • Some primary storage systems are adopting

data compression• Can support lossless compression without Can support lossless compression without

rehydration reaching 2:1 and even 4:1• Data compression will add latency during the p y g

compression process but depending on the architecture could be minimalDell q i ed O in nd IBM q i ed • Dell acquired Ocarina and IBM acquired Storwize

• Startup Nimble Storage supports compression • Startup Nimble Storage supports compression natively

• EMC announce compression for CLARiiON and EMC announce compression for CLARiiON and Celerra storage systems

Data Deduplication• Adopted in D2D Backup but not for • Adopted in D2D Backup but not for

primary storage• We are on our way to PB environments • We are on our way to PB environments

being common with EB on the horizon• NetApp and EMC support dedupe in • NetApp and EMC support dedupe in

primary but the solutions are limited• Other solutions are coming – BlueArc • Other solutions are coming – BlueArc

announced this capability• Primary dedupe is very effective within • Primary dedupe is very effective within

VMware environments• Dedupe and compression are • Dedupe and compression are

complementary technologies

Making Primary Dedupe Work • Moore’s Law • Moore s Law • Intelligent and efficient indexing

P li i f i li d t • Policies for in-line and post process• Tiering• Eliminate rehydration

File Management and Optimization

• Files are quickly becoming the majority of the capacity consumed

b l h l f d• No visibility with lots of unused, unimportant and duplicate files stored on Tier One storageTier One storage

• IT is not allowed to delete user dataWh i i d i di • What is required is a way to discover, auto-classify, optimize and migrate files heterogeneouslyheterogeneously

File Management in the Real World

• One of the biggest challenges in the data center going forward

l ll h f f l d d• users literally have PBs of file data and their only course of action is getting more NAS systemsNAS systems

• This challenge requires scale, intelligence and the tools to analyze and act on the and the tools to analyze and act on the problem

The Cloud?• Are we past the hype?• Are we past the hype?• Using the public cloud as a lower tier

requires better understanding of the costsrequires better understanding of the costs• There are appliances that will provide

connectivity to the cloud automaticallyconnectivity to the cloud automatically• Consider the reduced floor space, power

and coolingand cooling• users are getting some aggressive pricing

from cloud vendorsfrom cloud vendors• Applications in the cloud is where much of

the focus is – changing the IT model above the focus is – changing the IT model above the infrastructure layer

Things to Consider• Storage optimization appears to be the • Storage optimization appears to be the

number one priority • What can you do with what you have • What can you do with what you have

today?• What are the roadmaps of your strategic • What are the roadmaps of your strategic

vendors?• What can you do with minimal investment • What can you do with minimal investment

immediately?• What will the landscape look like in 5 • What will the landscape look like in 5

years?