Download - Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
1/53
Managing the information that drives the enterprise
Vol. 10 No. 6 August 2011
HOW STORAGE TECH IS CHANGING VIRTUALIZE YOUR STORAGE
STORAGEBackup Dedupe
There aremore choices
thanever for deploying data
deduplication forbackup.Seewhatwill work best
inyour shop.
ALSO INSIDE
No more laptop backup excusesThe need for speedy storage
Backup options for ROBOs
Hybrid clouds looming
Remote backup under control
thestateof
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
2/53
STORAGEinside |August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
3/533 STORAGE August 2011 Cover image by Enrico Varrasso
inside | august 2011
No excuse for lax laptop backup
5 EDITORIAL Too expensive, too much extra work and not enough inte-gration were legitimate complaints about laptop backup a few yearsago. But those excuses just dont cut it anymore. by RICH CASTAGNA
The need for speed9 STORWARS Servers and networks have the pedal to the metal, but
storage is struggling to keep up. With applications craving more andmore performance, storage vendors have to figure out how theyregoing to meet those needs. by TONY ASARO
The state of backup deduplication
13 In a relatively short time, data deduplication has revolutionized disk-based backup, but the technology is still evolving with new applicationsand more choices than ever. by LAUREN WHITEHOUSE
New trends in storage23 Storage technologies may sometimes seem a little stodgy and out
of date, but theres plenty of technical development going on at boththe big storage vendors and smaller upstarts. by STEPHEN FOSKETT
Storage virtualization: Its ready, are you?32 User adoption of storage virtualization has been picking up as some
of the early obstacles to implementation have been overcome. There
are plenty of mature products whether you opt to deploy storagevirtualization at the array or in the network. by ERIC SLACK
Options for ROBOs: Choose a backup method for the ages41 HOT SPOTS Satellite offices and workers are changing the look of
companies of all sizes, and backup technology is changing to keep pace.by LAUREN WHITEHOUSE
Hybrid clouds on the horizon45 READ/WRITE A few notable glitches have soured some users on cloud
storage services, but a hybrid approach that integrates public and
private storage may ultimately convince cloud skeptics. by JEFF BYRNE
Users get upper hand over remote site backup48 SNAPSHOT Our latest survey finds that more companies are relying on
automated processes to back up their remote offices, and more backupdata is making it back to the main data center than ever before.by RICH CASTAGNA
From our sponsors50 Useful links from our sponsors.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
4/53
server roomsthat requireGPs NaviGatioN.
W g ha virualizaion can driv a br ROI. Highly crifid
by Microsof, VMwar, HP and ohrs, w can valua, dsign
and implmn h righ soluion for you.
Wll g y f CDW.c/lzn
soLveD.
2011 CDW LLC. CDW, CDWGand PeOPLe WHO Get It ar radmarks of CDW LLC.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;236471861;60113042;u;pc=[TPAS_ID]http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;236471861;60113042;u;pc=[TPAS_ID] -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
5/53
Storage May 2010
Copyright 2011, TechTarget. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writfrom the publisher. For permissions or reprint information, please contact Mike Kelly, VP and Group Publisher([email protected]).
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
5
TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW starts the second sentence ofMacbeths soliloquy in which he laments Lady Ms untimely demise. And
for fans of Jeopardy, its also the answer to the question When will
your storage shop implement some real data protection for laptop PCs?
That probably just tacked another violation onto my poetic license,
but its hard to avoid quoting Shakespeare even when youre talking about
something as non-Elizabethan as data storage. And the tomorrow refer-
ence is pretty accurate if some of the surveys Ive seen lately are reason-
ably accurate. The most recent one to catch my eye is from Druva Software,
which, as a laptop backup vendor, has just a wee bit of interest in the re-
sults. Nonetheless, some interesting numbers turned up in the survey.Among the surveys 140 respondents, approximately one-third said that
more than half of their users were issued laptops as their principal PCs.
But a whopping 62% said a laptop backup policy wasnt currently enforced
even though most claimed they currently have something in place to do
laptop backups.
Those are a couple of pretty big gaps, but the survey goes on to report
even more head-scratching results, like the 30% who said they dont really
see a need for a laptop backup policy. Even more perplexing are the 59%
of respondents who considered themselves satisfied with their current
laptop backup setup.Whats going on here? Maybe we just have some major denial working
heregood ol out of sight and out of mind, and keep your fingers crossed
that the CEOs laptop doesnt give up the ghost cruising at 35,000 feet in a
first-class cabin somewhere over the Atlantic.
What about SOX and HIPAA and PCI and all those other acronyms that
tell us to take care of our data just in case? File-based data is quickly over-
running our corporate data stores, and a growing portion of that is being
editorial | rich castagna
No excuse for lax laptop backupToo expensive, too much extra work and not enoughintegration were all legitimate complaints about laptop
backup a few years ago. But with so many new productsand alternatives, those excuses just dont cut it anymore.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected] -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
6/53
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
6 STORAGE August 2011
created, modified and toted around the country on laptop computers. You
might be OK rolling the dice when it comes to complying with laws thatsay what data must be preserved, but think about all that corporate IP
going unprotected. Thats gonna get somebodys attention, right?
Intel recently described a study it commissioned from the Ponemon
Institute in which the number of lost or stolen laptops was calculated for
the 329 participating companies. Ponemons numbers are staggeringwith
an average of 263 laptops MIA for each company. Even if your company
experiences just a quarter of that loss (lets say 60 laptops with half-filled
200 GB disks), you might be kissing off 6 TB of corporate contracts,
proposals, plans, projections and
budgets each year.The study goes on to put a price
tag of $49,246 on a typical disap-
peared laptop; again, that seems
on the high side as its based
on just about every worst-case
scenario imaginable. Unless your
companys laptop losers are writing
patents, putting risky information in the hands of competitors and would-be
litigants, and jotting down the passwords for your corporate bank accounts,
your tab probably wont be so high. But consider lost productivity, poten-
tial legal issues (and their resulting fines), compromised competitiveness
and so on, and a lost laptop can easily run up a considerable bill.
So, what are you doing about laptop backup? Our surveys and other
research show that the other backup problembacking up remote and
branch officesfinally seems to be under control (see our latest Snapshot
survey, Users get upper hand over remote site backup, page 48 in this
issue). But mobile computing is still an issue, and its gotten a little muddled
lately with smartphones and tablets getting added to the mix of things to
worry about.
Not too long ago laptop backup might have been one of the toughest
data protection nuts to crack, with few alternatives and little or no integra-
tion with other backup processes. Cloud backup services (and there are
tons of them) now offer good alternatives, and there are a handful of new
endpoint backup apps that also deserve some attention. Still, a lot of shops
dismiss those alternatives as just another backup application to maintain.
But if you havent had the time to check specs lately you might not
know how much the mobile backup landscape has changed, and now the
A recent study by thePonemon Instituteput a price tag of$49,246 on a typicaldisappeared laptop.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
7/53
odds are that whatever your company is using right now to back up its
data center and remote offices can also be used for laptops. For example,if you use a backup app from CA, CommVault, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft or
Symantec, it has a laptop backup option. And even if youre using a slightly
less popular backup app, its also likely to have laptop support these days.
So you can have a fully integrated backup systemdata center, remote
offices and mobile usersusing a single app with one management console.
Does adding laptop support to your backup application mean extra work
for your overtaxed crew? Sure, and if you have a lot of laptops floating
around, it could be a significant effort to protect them. But if you dont
think its really worth the time and effort, do you think it might be worth,
say, $49,246? 2
Rich Castagna ([email protected]) is editorial director of the
Storage Media Group.
* Click here for a sneak peek at whats coming up in the September 2011 issue.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
7 STORAGE August 2011
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected] -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
8/53
Quantums DXi-Series Applianceswith deduplication
provide higher performance at lower cost than theleading competitor.
Preserving The Worlds Most Important Data. Yours.
Contact us to learn more at (866) 809-5230 or visit www.quantum.com/dxi
2011 Quantum Corporation. All rights reserved.
Quantum has helped some of the largest organizations in the world integrate
deduplication into their backup process. The benefits they report are immediate and
significantfaster backup and restore, 90%+ reduction in disk needs, automated DR
using remote replication, reduced administration timeall while lowering overall costs
and improving the bottom line.
Our award-winning DXi-Series appliances deliver a smart, time-saving approach
to disk backup. They are acknowledged technical leaders. In fact, our DXi6500 was
just nominated as a Best Backup Hardware finalist in Storage Magazines Best
Product of the Year Awardsits both faster and up to 45% less expensive than the
leading competitor.
Get more bang for your backup today.Faster performance. Easier deployment. Lower cost.
provide higherleading competi
Preserving The Worlds Most Importa
Contact us to learn more at (8
2011 Quantum Corporation. All rights reserved.
t
j
l
http://www.facebook.com/quantumcorphttp://twitter.com/QuantumCorphttp://www.youtube.com/QuantumCorp -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
9/53
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
9 STORAGE August 2011
tHERES A LOT OF BUZZ around application performance and the direct connec-tion it has with data storage performance. Server virtualization, virtual
desktop infrastructure (VDI) and business intelligence/big data are some
of the key forces driving this need for speed. Servers and networks are
getting faster, but disk drives and the storage systems built around them
arent keeping up. Theres also a price/performance imbalance thats
becoming alarming with the cost per I/O per second (IOPS) climbing on
the storage side of the data center.
Application performance isnt just a special case requirement. There
are certain applications that need high performance the majority of the
time. However, we often have to engineer our environments for the 10%or 20% of the time when performance is critical, which would include a
much larger group of applications.
IT professionals want to increase virtual to physical server ratios from
10:1 to 50:1, but storage is the limiting factor. Some organizations need to
have hundreds or thousands of virtual desktops accessing a single pool of
storage but theyre limited by boot storms. And big data analytics drive
the need for speed through an enormous number of transactions per sec-
ond; there are solutions optimized to handle these workloads but they
come at a high price.
You could always increase the performance of storage, but just howmuch performance are you willing to pay for? To increase IOPS you add
more disk drives, create wide stripes and implement short stroking. But
that can be very expensive. Alternatively, you can just add lots and lots of
solid-state drives (SSDs), but were talking big bucks again. And whats the
right balance of price, performance and capacity for your environment? If
you dont need lots of capacity, do you really want to buy lots of disk
drives just to increase IOPS? However, if you require a substantial amount
StorWars | tony asaro
The need for speedServers and networks have the pedal tothe metal, but storage is struggling to keep up.
As applications crave more and more performance,data storage vendors will need to find new solutions.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
10/53
of capacity, then buying SSDs will be unattractive price-wise and may not
be technically practical to implement.By placing dense and fast memory inside servers, Fusion-io has been
the big winner in terms of market buzz and IPO so far. Yet the Fusion-io
solution lacks in capacity and high availability, and its an expensive and
non-shareable resource. It may also be a concern that 90% of its revenue
comes from just a handful of customers.
Storage system vendors have also seen the trend for more performance
and nearly all have responded with SSD options. A few have automated
tiering that can move data at a sub-LUN level between tiers, including Dell
Compellent with Data Progression, EMC with FAST, Hitachi Data Systems
with Hitachi Dynamic Tiering andHewlett-Packard 3PAR with Adaptive
Optimization. All these solutions
typically have some page or extent
of varying sizes they promote/demote
based on activity/inactivity.
Xiotech has a unique approach
with its Hybrid ISE product using
Continuous Adaptive Data Placement
(CADP) that creates a single pool of
storage from SSDs and hard disk
drives (HDDs). Instead of promoting
and demoting data based on activity/ inactivity, Xiotech monitors application
performance and places data on SSD or HDD based on whether there will
be an actual improvement perceivable to the user. The goal is to ensure
that price, performance and capacity are in optimal balance.
There are also a number of notable startups, including Nimble Storage.
Nimble is taking the world by storm with an iSCSI solution that has SSD
and HDD, and leverages inline data compression to optimize capacity.
Additionally, there are pure-play SSD storage systems from companies
like Nimbus Data Systems and Violin Memory. And solid-state stalwarts
like Texas Memory Systems are revitalized because of the new attention
to high-performance storage.
Potential customers are inundated with choices and the various options
come with incredible claims of IOPS and throughput performance. Hundreds
of thousands and even millions of IOPS . . . and still affordable! But an old
skeptic like me knows that performance depends on a number of factors.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
10 STORAGE August 2011
By placing dense andfast memory insideservers, Fusion-iohas been the bigwinner in terms ofmarket buzz and
IPO so far.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
11/53
And besides, all those marketing numbers youre getting showered with are
always based on best-case scenarios.What happens to performance when something goes wrong? What if
a disk drive fails (and were not just talking HDDs; solid-state drives dont
spin but they can also fail)? What
happens to performance when a
controller fails? How is primary
application performance impacted
if theres another operation such as
mirroring running? How is perform-
ance impacted as capacity utilization
increases? What is performance overtime: one year, two years or three
years after initial implementation? These are questions that are rarely
asked, and when they are, they often trip up storage vendors.
Application performance is the hot new requirement and storage is the
bottleneck. The imbalance in the data center is real and will only get worse
if things continue as they are. Server and desktop virtualization as well as
the emergence of big data analytics as a major application all highlight the
performance disadvantage thats inherent in disk-based storage systems.
The good news is that theres a ton of investment in trying to solve this
problem. The bad news is that the number of options IT professionals will
have to choose from will make their heads spin; and we all know how slow
and error prone that can be! 2
Tony Asaro is senior analyst and founder ofVoices of IT.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
11 STORAGE August 2011
Applicationperformance is thehot new requirementand storage is the
bottleneck.
http://www.voicesofit.com/http://www.voicesofit.com/http://www.voicesofit.com/http://www.voicesofit.com/ -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
12/53
Up to 85% of computing
capacity sits idle in
distributed environments.
A smarter planet needs
smarter infrastructure.
Lets build a smarter planet.ibm.com/dynamic
IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
http://www.ibm.com/dynamichttp://www.ibm.com/dynamichttp://www.ibm.com/dynamic -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
13/53
d
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
13 STORAGE August 2011
ATA DEDUPLICATION TECHNOLOGY identifies and eliminates redundant data
segments so that backups consume significantly less storage capacity.
It lets organizations hold onto months of backup data to ensure rapid
restores (better recovery time objective [RTO]) and lets them back up
more frequently to create more recovery points (better recovery point
objective [RPO]). Companies also save money by using less disk capacity
and by optimizing network bandwidth.
Backup
DedupeIn a relatively short time, data
deduplication has revolutionized
disk-based backup, but the
technology is still evolving
with new applications and
more choices than ever.
BY LAUREN WHITEHOUSE
thestateof
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
14/53
Deduplication was first adopted by companies with tight backup windows
and those looking to reduce tape usage. The primary considerations wereseamless integration with incumbent backup apps and processes, and
ease of implementation.
In the next wave of adoption, concerns shifted to scaling capacity and
performance. Vendors beefed up disk capacity, performance, network
connectivity and system interfaces, and also improved deduplication
processing. Recovery was improved with the use of optimized replication.
With ongoing data growth and highly distributed environments, organi-
zations and data dedupe vendors have been driven to investigate other
ways to optimize deduplication, including new architectures, packaging
and deduplication techniques.
DEDUPLICATION IS DEFINITELY DESIRABLEResearch from Milford, Mass.-based Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) reveals
that the use of deduplication is increasing. Thirty-eight percent of survey
respondents cited adoption of deduplication in 2010 vs. 13% in 2008. By
2012, another 40% plan to adopt deduplication (ESG Research Report, Data
Protection Trends, January 2008 and ESG Research Report, Data Protection
Trends, April 2010).
In addition, according to the ESG Research Report 2011 IT Spending
Intentions, data reduction ranked in the top one-third of all storage priorities
for enterprise-scale organizations (those with 1,000 or more employees).
While debates continue about the nuances of deduplication products
such as file vs. virtual tape library (VTL) interface, source vs. target, hard-
ware vs. software, inline vs. post process, fixed-block size vs. variable-
block size, its important to remember that the goal of any deduplication
approach is to store less data.
TARGET DEDUPLICATION SYSTEMSProducts that deduplicate at the end of the backup data path are called
target deduplication systems. Theyre often storage appliances with disk
storage or gateways that can be paired with any disk.
Target dedupe vendors include EMC Corp., ExaGrid Systems Inc., Falcon-
Stor Software Inc., Fujitsu, GreenBytes Inc., Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co., IBM,
NEC Corp., Quantum Corp., Sepaton Inc. and Symantec Corp. What often
distinguishes these products is their underlying architecture. Aside from
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
14 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
15/53
appliance vs. gateway differences (FalconStor and IBM offer gate-
ways), another key factor is whether theyre single- or multi-nodeconfigurations.
With a single-node architecture, performance and capacity scaling is
limited to an upper threshold for the configuration. While some of these
products can be sized to handle tremendous scale, you may have to over-
purchase now to accommodate future growth. When the upper limit is
hit, a forklift upgrade is required to move up in performance or capacity,
or another deduplication unit must be added. The latter option results in
deduplication islands because backup data isnt compared for redundancy
across systems.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
15 STORAGE August 2011
APIs and open standards
sYMANTEC CORP.S OpenStorage Technology (OST) is an API for NetBack-up (Versions 6.5 and higher) and Backup Exec 2010. Target deduplica-tion system vendors leverage the API to write a software plug-inmodule thats installed on the backup media server to communicatewith the storage device, creating tighter integration between thebackup software and target storage. It enables features such as
intelligent capacity management, media server load balancing, re-
porting and lifecycle policies. It also delivers optimized duplication
network-efficient replication and direct disk-to-tape duplication
thats monitored and cataloged by the backup software. EMC Corp.
offers similar functionality for EMC NetWorker; however, to date, the
benefits are only extended to EMC Data Domain deduplication systems.
APIs facilitate interoperability, but could the industry take it one
step further with a deduplication standard? A standard algorithm,
similar to compression today, could emerge and open-source soft-
ware could be the vehicle for it to develop and gain a following. The
lobby for a standard is fueled by the need to seamlessly, efficiently
and rapidly move data between disk and tape (without having to
un-deduplicate or rehydrate the data), as well as to improve recovery
operations. Any of the dedupe technologies added to open-source
backup appssuch as Bacula and Amandaand open-source ZFS
and SDFS file systems could one day emerge as a standard.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
16/53
Vendors with a single-node architecture include EMC, Fujitsu, GreenBytes
and Quantum. EMC does offer the Data Domain Global Deduplication Array(GDA), a composite system consisting of two DD890 devices that appear as
a single system to the backup application. EMC might argue that GDA meets
the criteria to be considered a multi-node configuration with global dedupli-
cation, but it has two controllers, two deduplication indexes and two storage
silos. The devices also arent in a high-availability configuration; in fact, if
one DD890 goes down, then neither DD890 is available. EMC distributes a
portion of deduplication processing upstream from its appliance, but only
for EMC backup apps and backup apps that support Symantec OpenStorage
Technology (OST). For example, at the media server, EMC performs pre-pro-
cessing, creating 1 MB chunks to compare with the deduplication index. Ifthe pattern of the content contained in the large chunks has redundancy,
the data is broken down into the more traditional 8 KB chunks, compressed,
and transferred to one DD890 controller or the other for further process-
ing, depending on where theres a better chance of eliminating redundant
data.
In a multi-node architecture, a product can manage multiple dedupe
systems as one. This approach also provides linear throughput and capacity
scaling, high availability and load balancing. Theres a reduction in admin-
istrative overhead and, importantly, global deduplication is typical. ExaGrid
EX Series, FalconStor File-interface Deduplication System (FDS), HPs Virtual
Library Systems (VLS), IBM ProtecTier, NEC Hydrastor, Sepaton DeltaStor
and Symantec NetBackup 5000 Series all have multi-node configurations
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
16 STORAGE August 2011
Global deduplicationgLOBAL REFERS TO the domain of comparison for deduplication. Identifi-cation of duplicates occurs in two ways. Within a single domain,backup data passes through an individual system and is comparedwith data passing through the same system. With deduplication
across domains, backup data passes through an individual system
and is compared with data passing through the same system as well
as other systems in the domain. Global deduplication can result in
higher deduplication ratios because there are more comparisons and,
therefore, more chances to find replicate data.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
17/53
and support global deduplication. The modular architectures of these
products deliver impressive aggregate performance and let you grow thesystems seamlessly.
Symantecs appliance is a new entrant in the target deduplication system
field through a joint venture with Huawei. Symantec maintains a unique
position in the data protection market as the only vendor to offer integrated
deduplication in its own backup software- and hardware-based products
as well as catalog-level integration with backup target devices of third-
party vendors via its OST interface.
DEDUPLICATION IN BACKUP SOFTWAREWhile originally limited to so-called next-generation backup apps like
EMCs Avamar, deduplication in backup software is now pervasive. Backup
software products with deduplication include Arkeia Network Backup, Asigra
Cloud Backup, Atempo Time Navigator, CA ARCserve, Cofio Software AIMstor,
CommVault Simpana, Druva InSync
and Phoenix, EMC Avamar, i365 EVault,
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM),
Quest Software NetVault Backup,
Symantec Backup Exec and NetBack-
up, and Veeam Backup & Replication.In software, client agents running
on application servers identify and
transfer unique data to the backup
media server and target storage de-
vice, reducing network traffic. Other
software solutions deduplicate the
backup stream at the backup server,
removing any potential performance
burden from production application
servers. The deduplication domain is limited to data protected by the
backup application; multiple backup applications in the same environment
create deduplication silos.
Global deduplication isnt a given with software approaches either. First
of all, not all vendors employ the same techniques for identifying duplicates.
Some deduplicate by employing delta differencing (e.g., Asigra), which com-
pares data segments for the same backup set over time. Deltas identify
unique blocks for the current set vs. the previous backup of that set and
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
17 STORAGE August 2011
The deduplicationdomain is limited to
data protected bythe backup applica-tion; multiple backupapplications in thesame environmentcreate deduplicationsilos.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
18/53
only transfer unique blocks. It
doesnt make comparisonsacross different sets (i.e., no
global deduplication).
Another approach is to use a
hash algorithm. Some vendors
segment the backup stream into
fixed blocks (anywhere from 8 KB
to 256 KB), generate a hash val-
ue and compare it to a central
index of hashes calculated for
previously seen blocks. A uniquehash indicates unique data that
should be stored. A repeated
hash signals redundant data, so
a pointer to the unique data is
stored instead. Other vendors
rely on variable block sizes that
help increase the odds that a
common segment will be de-
tected even after a file is modi-
fied. This approach finds natural
patterns or break points that
might occur in a file and then
segments the data accordingly.
Even if blocks shift when a file is changed, this approach is more likely to
find repeated segments. The trade-off? A variable-length approach may
require a vendor to track and compare more than just one unique ID for
a segment, which could affect index size and computational time.
Arkeia Software uses another approach it calls progressive deduplica-
tion. This method optimizes deduplication with a sliding-window block size
and a two-phase progressive-matching deduplication technique. Files are
divided into fixed blocks, but the blocks can overlap so that when a file is
changed, the block boundaries accommodate the insertion of bytes. Arkeia
adds another level of optimization by automatically assigning fixed block
sizes (from 1 KB to 32 KB) based on file type. The technique also uses a
sliding window to determine duplicate blocks at every byte location in a
file. Progressive deduplication is designed to achieve high reduction ratios
and to minimize false positives while accelerating processing.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
18 STORAGE August 2011
LTFSwITH THE INTRODUCTION of IBM LinearTape File System (LTFS), a dataformat that provides a file systeminterface to data stored on LTO-5tape media, tape can be treatedmore like an external disk device.With LTFS, data doesnt have to
be written in a tape format, so
the data is independent of the
application that wrote it. It may
also be a more appropriate long-
term storage medium for uncom-
pressible data types, such as
medical images and video files.
Does LTFS offer an opportunity
for dedupe vendors to integrate
tape as a long-term storage tier
for deduplicated data? The jurysstill out on that one, as well have
to see if vendors adopt it.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
19/53
DEDUPLICATIONS GROWING PAINS
As deduplication technology has matured, users have experienced mostof the growing pains. Growing data volumes that tax backup and recovery
have been a catalyst for performance and scale improvements, and have
shifted attention to scale-out architectures for deduplication solutions.
And replacing tape devices at remote and branch offices created require-
ments for optimized site-to-site replication, as well as a way to track those
duplicate copies in the backup catalog.
In its most recent Data Protection Trends research report, ESG surveyed
end users regarding their deduplication selection criteria and cost was the
top purchase consideration. Some of the issues affecting cost include the
following:
Some backup software vendors add deduplication as a no-cost feature
(CA and IBM TSM), while others charge for it.
There are hidden costs, such as the added fee to enable replication
between deduplication systems. And the recovery site has to be a
duplicate (or nearly so) of the system at the primary location, which
can double fees. There are exceptions, such as Symantec 5000 Series
appliances, which include device-to-device replication at no charge.
Symantec also licenses its product based on the front-end capacity
of the data being protected vs. the back-end capacity of the data
being stored, so replicated copies dont incur additional costs.
Target deduplication system vendors bundle their storage hardware
with the deduplication software, so refreshing the hardware platform
means the software is repurchased. Again, Symantec takes a different
approach, licensing software and hardware separately.
USERS DRIVE NEW DEDUPE DEVELOPMENTSIn addition to Arkeias progressive deduplication approach, other develop-
ments have been pushing the dedupe envelope. CommVaults ability to
deduplicate on physical tape media is one such example. In spite of the
initial hype regarding disk-only data protection and the potential to elimi-
nate tape, for most companies the reality is that tape is still an obvious,
low-cost choice for long-term data retention. Dedupe has been considered
only a disk-centric process due to the need for the deduplication index
and all unique data to be available and accessible to rehydrate whats
stored. That means when deduplicated data is copied or moved from the
deduplication store to tape media, it must be reconstituted, reversing all
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
19 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
20/53
the benefits of data reduction. But CommVaults Simpana software enables
archival copies of deduplicated data without rehydration, requiring lesstape media. Importantly, data can be recovered from tape media without
having to first recover the entire tape to disk.
When source deduplication approaches gained traction, the key benefits
touted were the end-to-end efficiency of backing up closer to the data
source (content-awareness, network bandwidth savings and faster backups)
and distributing deduplication processing across the environment (vs. having
the proverbial four-lane highway hit the one-lane bridge downstream at the
target deduplication system). These two themes are evident in HPs Store-
Once deduplication strategy and EMC Data Domains Boost approach.
While HP Data Protector software doesnt have deduplication built intoits backup architecture today, users can benefit from HPs StoreOnce dedu-
plication strategy. StoreOnce is a modular component that runs as a service
in a file system. It can be integrated with HP Data Protector backup soft-
ware and HPs scale-out file system or
embedded in HP infrastructure compo-
nents. The StoreOnce algorithm involves
two steps: sampling large data se-
quences (approximately 10 MB) to
determine the likelihood of duplicates
and routing them to the best node for
deduplication, and then doing a hash
and compare on smaller chunks. HPs
dedupe strategy is differentiated be-
cause its portable, scalable and global.
The implication is that dedupe deploy-
ments can extend across a LAN or
WAN and among storage systems
without flip-flopping data between
rehydrated and deduplicated states.
EMC Data Domains Boost option
enables Data Domain to perform
deduplication pre-processing earlier in the backup flow with NetBackup,
Backup Exec, EMC Avamar or EMC NetWorker. A Data Domain software
component is installed on the backup server or application client. The
tasks performed there help improve deduplication performance by distrib-
uting the workload while introducing network efficiency between the
backup server or application client and the Data Domain system.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
20 STORAGE August 2011
EMC Data DomainsBoost optionenables Data
Domain to performdeduplicationpre-processingearlier in thebackup flow withNetBackup, BackupExec, EMC Avamar
or EMC NetWorker.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
21/53
WHATS IN STORE FOR DEDUPLICATION?
Disk-based data protection addresses backup window issues and dedupli-cation addresses the cost of disk used in backup configurations. But new
capture techniques, such as array-based snapshots, are emerging to meet
high-performance requirements for those organizations with little or no
backup window and minimal downtime tolerance. In many cases, block-level
incremental capture and deduplication are baked into snapshot products.
NetApps Integrated Data Protection products (SnapMirror, SnapProtect and
SnapVault), coupled with NetApp FAS-based deduplication, eliminate the
need for deduplication in backup software or target deduplication systems.
Similarly, Actifio VirtualData Pipeline (VDP) takes a full image-level backup
and continuous block-level incrementals thereafter, and deduplicates and
compresses the data so a third-party data reduction application isnt needed.
Nimble Storage takes a similar approach. It combines primary and second-
ary storage in a single solution, leverages snapshot- and replication-style data
protection, and employs capacity optimization techniques to reduce the
footprint of backup data. These approaches undermine traditional-style
backup and, therefore, traditional deduplication techniques. 2
Lauren Whitehouse is a senior analyst focusing on data protection software and
systems at Enterprise Strategy Group, Milford, Mass.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
21 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
22/53
Year after year, some companies stick with legacy data
protection software not designed to handle todays 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, visitAchieveOneness.comor call 888-311-0365.
1999-2011 CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, the CV logo, Solving Forward, Simpana, and AchieveOneness are trademarks or registered trademarks o CommVault
Systems, Inc. All specifcations are subject to change without notice.
http://www.achieveoneness.com/http://www.achieveoneness.com/http://www.achieveoneness.com/http://www.achieveoneness.com/ -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
23/53
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
23 STORAGE August 2011
NEW TRENDS
in STORAGE
tHE ENTERPRISE DATA storage industry doesnt have a reputation as a hotbedof innovation, but that characterization may be unfair. Although bedrocktechnologies like RAID and SCSI have soldiered along for more than twodecades, new ideas have flourished as well. Today, technologies like solid-state storage, capacity optimization and automatic tiering are gainingprominence, and specialized storage systems for virtual servers are beingdeveloped. Although the enterprise arrays of tomorrow will still be quiterecognizable, theyll adopt and advance these new concepts.
It may seem as if storage technologies are a
little stodgy and out of date, but theres plenty of
technical development going on at both big storage
vendors and smaller upstarts. BY STEPHEN FOSKETT
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
24/53
SOLID-STATE CACHE
Spinning magnetic disks have been the foundation for enterprise datastorage since the 1950s, and for just about as long theres been talk of
how solid-state storage will displace them. Todays NAND flash storage is
just a decade old, yet it has already gained significant traction thanks to
its performance and mechanical characteristics. Hard disk drives (HDDs)
wont go away anytime soon, but NAND flash will likely become a familiar
and dependable component across the spectrum of enterprise storage.
Hard disks excel at delivering capacity and sequential read and write
performance, but modern workloads have changed. Todays hypervisors
and database-driven applications demand quick random access thats
difficult to achieve with mechanical arms, heads and platters. The best
enterprise storage arrays use RAM as a cache to accelerate random I/O,
but RAM chips are generally too expensive to deploy in bulk.
NAND flash memory, in contrast,
is just as quick at servicing random
read and write requests as it is with
those that occur close together, and
the fastest enterprise NAND flash parts
challenge DRAM for read performance.
Although less expensive, flash memory
(especially the enterprise-grade single-
level cell [SLC] variety) remains an
order of magnitude more costly than hard disk capacity. Growth in the de-
ployment of solid-state drives (SSDs) has slowed and isnt likely to displace
magnetic media in capacity-oriented applications anytime soon.
Flash memory has found a niche as a cache for hard disk drive-based
storage systems. Caching differs from tiered storage (see the section on
Automated tiered storage) in that it doesnt use solid-state memory as
a permanent location for data storage. Rather, this technology redirects
read and write requests from disk to cache on-demand to accelerate per-
formance, especially random I/O, but commits all writes to disk eventually.
Major vendors like EMC Corp. and NetApp Inc. have placed flash memory
in their storage arrays and designed controller software to use it as a
cache rather than a tier. NetApps Flash Cache cards use the internal PCI
bus in their filers, while EMCs Clariion FAST Cache relies on SATA-connected
SSDs. But both leverage their existing controllers and expand on the algo-
rithms already in place for RAM caching.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
24 STORAGE August 2011
Flash memory hasfound a niche as acache for hard diskdrive-based storage
systems.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
25/53
Avere Systems Inc. and Marvell Technology Group Ltd., a couple of rela-
tive newcomers, take a different tack. With a history in the scale-out net-work-attached storage (NAS) space, Averes team developed an appliance
that sits in-band between existing NAS arrays and clients. No single
technology is best for all workloads, said Ron Bianchini, Averes founder
and CEO, so we built a device that integrates the best of RAM, flash and
disk. Bianchini claims Averes FXT appliance delivers 50 times lower ac-
cess latency using a customers existing NAS devices.
Marvells upcoming DragonFly Virtual Storage Accelerator (VSA) card is
designed for placement inside the server itself. The DragonFly uses speedy
non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) as well as SATA-connected SSDs for cache capac-
ity, but all data is committed to the storage array eventually. This is focusedon random writes, and its a new product category, claims Shawn Kung,
director of product marketing at Marvell. DragonFly can yield an up to 10x
higher virtual machine I/O per second, while lowering overhead cost by
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
25 STORAGE August 2011
All-Flash storageALTHOUGH FLASH is expensive on a capacity basis compared to
hard disk technology, many applications can be run completely
in flash. iSCSI pioneer Nimbus Data Systems Inc. transitioned
to an all-flash offering last year and has seen good results. Our
S-Class enterprise storage arrays deliver 90% lower energy costs
and 24x better I/O performance, said CEO Thomas Isakovich.
And since we include inline deduplication and thin provisioning,
were competitive on a cost-per-used-capacity basis as well.
All-flash storage in a PCI card form factor is popular in high-
performance applications as well. Fusion-io has gained traction
with its ioDrive cards, and LSI, OCZ Technology Group Inc., Texas
Memory Systems Inc. and Virident Systems Inc. have also found
enterprise success with solid-state systems. Flash maker Micron
Technology Inc. recently jumped into this market with a PCI Ex-
press flash storage card priced 25% lower than its competition.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
26/53
http://www.efficientvirtualstorage.com/ -
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
27/53
50% or more. The company plans to deliver production products in the
fourth quarter.EMC, famous for its large enterprise storage arrays, is also moving into
server-side caching. Barry Burke, chief strategy officer for EMC Symmetrix,
said EMCs Lightning project will integrate with the automated tiering
capabilities already delivered to VMAX and VNX customers. EMC previewed
the project at the recent EMC World conference and plans to ship it later
this year.
VIRTUALIZATION-OPTIMIZED STORAGE
One common driver for the adoption of high-performance storage arraysis the expanding use of server virtualization. Hypervisors allow multiple
virtual machines (VMs) to share a single hardware platform, which can
have serious side effects when it comes to storage I/O. Rather than a
slow and predictable stream of mostly sequential data, a busy virtual
server environment is a fire hose torrent of random reads and writes.
This I/O blender challenges the basic assumptions used to develop
storage system controllers and
caching strategies, and vendors are
rapidly adapting to the new rules. The
deployment of SSD and flash caches
help, but virtual servers are demand-
ing in other ways as well. Virtual
environments require extreme
flexibility, with rapid storage provi-
sioning and dynamic movement of
workloads from machine to machine.
Vendors like VMware Inc. are quickly
rolling out technologies to integrate
hypervisor and server management,
including VMwares popular vStorage
API for Array Integration (VAAI).
Virtual server environments are an opportunity for innovation and new
ideas, and startups are jumping into the fray. One such company, Tintri Inc.,
has developed a VM-aware storage system that combines SATA HDDs,
NAND flash and inline data deduplication to meet the performance and flex-
ibility needs of virtual servers. Traditional storage systems manage LUNs,
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
27 STORAGE August 2011
This I/O blender
challenges the basicassumptions usedto develop storagesystem controllersand caching strate-gies, and vendorsare rapidly adapting
to the new rules.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
28/53
volumes or tiers, which have no intrinsic meaning for VMs, said Tintri CEO
Kieran Harty. Tintri VMstore is managed in terms of VMs and virtual disks,and we were built from scratch to meet the demands of a VM environment.
Tintris VM-aware storage target, isnt the only option. IO Turbine Inc.
leverages PCIe-based flash cards or SSDs in server hardware with Accelio,
its VM-aware storage acceleration software. Accelio enables more appli-
cations to be deployed on virtual machines without the I/O performance
limitations of conventional storage, claims Rich Boberg, IO Turbines CEO.
The Accelio driver transparently redirects I/O requests to the flash as needed
to reduce the load on existing storage arrays.
CAPACITY OPTIMIZATIONNot all data storage innovations are focused on performance. The growth
of data has been a major challenge in many environments, and deleting
data isnt always an acceptable answer. Startups like Ocarina and Storwize
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
28 STORAGE August 2011
The endof the SAN?
ALTHOUGH SCSI IS still the dominant enterprise data storage pro-
tocol in the form of Fibre Channel and iSCSI, that might change
in the future. The rise of PCI Express storage suggests that cen-
tralized networked storage might not always dominate. Internal
cards dramatically reduce access latency, and the performance
of these solutions is an order of magnitude better than tradi-
tional SCSI-based technology.
The rise of virtual machine-specific and cloud storage suggests
that other changes are imminent. In both cases, some products
eschew traditional block or file access in favor of an application
programming interface (API). These devices are designed to be
integrated, automated components of a larger environment,
application platform or hypervisor, and would no longer require
storage architects and managers.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
29/53
updated existing technologies like compression and single-instance storage
(SIS) for modern storage applications. Now that these companies are inthe hands of major vendors (Dell Inc. and IBM, respectively), users are
beginning to give capacity optimization a serious look.
Reducing storage has ripple effects,
requiring less capacity for replication,
backup and disaster recovery (DR) as
well as primary data storage. The
Ocarina technology is flexible enough
to be optimized for the platforms were
embedding the technology into, said
Mike Davis, marketing manager forDells file system and optimization
technologies. This is an end-to-end
strategy, so were looking closely at
how we can extend these benefits
beyond the storage platforms to the cloud as well as the server tier.
Data deduplication is also moving to the primary storage space. Once
only used for backup and archiving applications, NetApp, Nexenta Systems
Inc., Nimbus Data Systems Inc., Permabit Technology Corp. and others
are applying deduplication technology in arrays and appliances. NetApps
deduplication technology [formerly known as A-SIS] is optimized for both
primary [performance and availability] as well as secondary [capacity-
optimized backup, archive and DR] storage requirements, said Val Bercovici,
NetApps cloud czar. NetApp integrated deduplication into its storage soft-
ware and claims no latency overhead on I/O traffic.
AUTOMATED TIERED STORAGEOne hot area of innovation for the largest enterprise storage vendors is
the transformation of their arrays from fixed RAID systems to granular,
automatically tiered storage devices. Smaller companies like 3PAR and
Compellent (now part of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell, respectively) kicked
off this trend, but EMC, Hitachi Data Systems and IBM are delivering this
technology as well.
A new crop of startups, including Nexenta, are also active in this area.
NexentaStor leverages SSDs for hybrid storage pools, which automatically
tier frequently accessed blocks to the SSDs, noted Evan Powell, Nexentas
CEO. Powell also said that his firms software platform allows users to
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
29 STORAGE August 2011
The Ocarina technol-ogy is flexible enoughto be optimized forthe platforms were
embedding thetechnology into.
MIKE DAVIS, marketing manager, Dell
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
30/53
supply their own SSDs, which he claims reduces the cost of entry for this
technology.EMC has added virtual provisioning and automated tiering across its
product line. EMC took a new storage technology [flash] and used it to de-
liver both greater performance as well as cost savings, said Chuck Hollis,
EMCs global marketing chief technology officer. Best of all, its far simpler
to set up and manage.
Like caching, automated tiered storage improves data storage system
performance as much as it attacks the cost of capacity. By moving hot
data to faster storage devices (10K or 15K rpm disks or SSD), tiered storage
systems can perform faster than similar devices without the expense of
widely deploying these faster devices. Conversely, automated tiering canbe more energy- and space-efficient because it moves bulk data to
slower but larger-capacity drives.
INNOVATION IN STORAGEEnterprise storage vendors must maintain compatibility, stability and per-
formance while advancing the state of the art in technologygoals that
may sometimes seem at odds. Although smaller companies have been a
little more nimble at introducing new innovations like capacity optimization
and virtualization-aware storage access, the large vendors are also moving
quickly. Theyve put into service solid-state caching and automated tiered
storage, and are moving forward in other areas. Whether through invention
or acquisition, innovation is alive and well in enterprise storage. 2
Stephen Foskett is an independent consultant and author specializing in enter-
prise storage and cloud computing. He is responsible for Gestalt IT, a community
of independent IT thought leaders, and organizes their Tech Field Day events. He
can be found online at GestaltIT.com, FoskettS.net and on Twitter at @SFoskett.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
30 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
31/53
Products shown above are GSA compliant
ReadyNAS Pro 6 ReadyNAS 3100, 2100, 4200, 3200 (Top to Bottom)
*The 5-Year Hardware Warranty only covers hardware, fans and internal power supplies, and does not include external power supplies or software. Hardware modifications or customization void the warranty. The warranty is only valid
for the original purchaser and cannot be transferred.
NETGEAR, the NETGEAR logo, Connect with Innovation, ReadyNAS, ReadyNAS Replicate, and ReadyNAS Vault are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other
countries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s). Information is subject to change without notice. 2010 NETGEAR, Inc. All rights reserved.
Backup, Restore and Disaster Recovery
Ideal disk-to-disk backup target for Symantec,Acronis or StorageCraft
Improves Symantec Backup Exec performance by upto 120%
Ideal target for virtual machine backups with Veeamor Vizioncore
ReadyNAS Replicate option for easy offsite disasterrecovery
Virtualization
Build affordable virtualization solutions in small orremote offices
VMware Ready and Microsoft Hyper-V certified
Ideal backup target for VMs
Cloud Computing
Hybrid cloud solutions for combination local andhosted file sharing and archiving
FREE! 100GB of ReadyNAS Vault offsite archive
ReadyNAS Pro 4
ReadyNAS Pro 2
Learn more at:t /b i t
NETGEAR is Smart IT, Not Big IT
Simply SmarterBusiness Storage for Virtualization,
Backup and Cloud Computing
Reliable
5 year warranty
Enterprise hard disks
Embedded offsite archive
Affordable
A fraction of the cost of traditionalvendors
No consultants required, no new
training or licenses needed Reduces operating expenses through
automation
Simple
Easy installation
Painless remote management
Embedded VPN remote access
Centralized multi-site backup manage-ment with optional ReadyNAS Replicate
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
32/53
w
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
32 STORAGE August 2011
HILE THERE MAY BE some dispute over an exact definition, storage virtualization
is generally considered technology that provides a flexible, logical arrange-
ment of data storage capacity to users while abstracting the physical loca-
tion from them. Its a software layer that intercepts I/O requests to the
logical capacity and maps them to the correct physical locations.
The most basic implementation of storage virtualization is at the host
level, where a logical volume manager allows the simple provisioning of
storage capacity to apps and users. While also implemented with file
storage systems, block storage virtualization is more commonly imple-
mented due to the complexity of LUN management and the requirements
STORAGEVIRTUALIZATION:
Its ready,
areyou?Adoption of storage virtualizationhas been accelerating as some of theearly obstacles to implementationhave fallen by the wayside. Theresa wide choice of mature products
whether you decide to deploy
storage virtualization at the
array or in the network.
BY ERIC SLACK
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
33/53
for flexibility in storage provisioning, especially in multi-user environments.
This article covers storage virtualization technologies at the network andstorage device level, not at the host level.
GOODBYE TO GROUPS, LUNs AND PARTITIONINGThe legacy process of creating array groups, allocating LUNs and partition-
ing volumes is a complicated and inefficient way to provision storage, par-
ticularly when it involves balancing performance and reliability of physical
disks across drive shelves. Similarly, expanding an existing hosts volume
can be a time-consuming process of concatenating LUNs and copying
data. Storage virtualization providesa better way to keep up with the
demands of provisioning storage to
applications and servers while reduc-
ing time and resources expended by
allowing the brains of the storage
system to make most of the deci-
sions. It can also improve utilization
by replacing the guesswork of manual
allocation while supporting technolo-
gies like thin provisioning.Initially, virtualization was simply
a tool used to provision and manage
storage efficiently. But by isolating
the host from physical storage, the
technology also enabled storage capacity in different physical chassis
(even from different manufacturers) to be logically combined into common
pools that could be managed more easily. While some of these heteroge-
neous systems were used to create larger volumes than were physically
present on any one disk array, most use cases employed storage virtual-
ization as a common management platform. This enabled existing storage
systems to be repurposed and reduced the overhead associated with
managing multiple silos of storage, although the physical disk systems still
needed to be maintained.
Virtualization can improve performance as host volumes are easily spread
across larger numbers of disk drives, which could negatively affect capacity
utilization. Virtualization also allows storage tiering and data migrations
between devices, such as moving older data to an archiving appliance or
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
33 STORAGE August 2011
Virtualization canimprove performanceas host volumes areeasily spread acrosslarger numbers ofdisk drives, which
could negativelyaffect capacityutilization.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
34/53
hot database indexes to a solid-state drive (SSD) cache. These activities
are typically carried out based on policies set at the host, application or filelevel, and the same data movement mechanism can be used to migrate
data offsite for disaster recovery (DR) purposes.
DEVICE-BASED VIRTUALIZATIONIn the traditional scale-up architecture where the controllers are sepa-
rate from the disk shelves, virtualization at the storage device level is
typically built into the controller operating system. As a standard feature
it essentially provides a workable solution for provisioning the tens or
hundreds of terabytes that modern storage arrays can contain. Mostsystems include the ability to create tiers of storage within a single virtu-
alized system or among discrete systems, using different storage types
(performance drives, capacity drives or SSDs) and different RAID levels.
Some also include a policy engine and the ability to move file or sub-file
data blocks among the tiers based on activity, application and so on.
Most systems allow data to be copied to a second chassis for high avail-
ability or moved to a second system at a remote site for DR. While the
majority of storage systems include virtualization, most dont support
storage from other vendors. For a heterogeneous virtualization solution,
one that can consolidate different vendors storage systems, most options
are network based.
NETWORK-BASED VIRTUALIZATIONA number of years ago, the conventional storage wisdom was that storage
services, like virtualization, and to an extent storage control, would even-
tually reside in smart switches on the storage-area network (SAN). While
at least one storage virtualization product is moving in that direction, the
network implementation of storage virtualization technology has com-
monly been in the form of appliances. These appliances are essentially
storage controllers that connect to disk arrays or storage systems from
certified vendors, or theyre software thats installed on user-supplied
servers or virtual machines (VMs). Storage virtualization appliances con-
nect to heterogeneous storage arrays directly, or via Fibre Channel (FC) or
iSCSI SANs, but most provide the option of using their own disk capacity
as well. Most solutions include some storage services, like file sharing,
snapshots, data deduplication, thin provisioning, replication, continuous
data protection (CDP) and so on.
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
34 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
35/53
Feel the exhilaration ofBusiness Continuity without Limits
Introducing NEWShadowProtectVirtual from StorageCraft
Maintaining business continuity in todays complex
business world can seem very constricting because IT environments are
constantly changing.
ShadowProtect Virtual frees you to backup everything in any virtualized
Windows environment and then recover it anywhere: onsite, off-site or in
the cloud! It:
SupportsVMware,MicrosoftHyper-V,CitrixXenServerorOracleVirtualBox
IspricedperVMandcanbedeployedonmultiplehosts
IncludesVirtualBoottechnologysoanyShadowProtectbackupcanbebooteda
a VM in less than 5 minutes
ProvidesHardwareIndependentRestoretoallowyoutorecovertothesame
system, a physical system or even to a different hypervisor
The result is a solution that provides business continuity
that is virtually limitless.Now thats freedom!
For yourFREE 30-day trial, visit
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
36/53
IN-BAND AND OUT-OF-BAND VIRTUALIZATION
Early on in the lifecycle of storage virtualization technology two primaryarchitectures emerged: in-band and out-of-band virtualization. In-band
implementations placed a controller between users and physical storage
or the SAN, and passed all storage requests and data through that con-
troller. Out-of-band products placed a metadata controller on the network
that remapped storage requests to physical locations, but didnt handle
the actual data. That added complexity to the process but reduced the
CPU load compared to in-band virtualization. Out-of-band storage virtual-
ization also removed the potential disruption associated with decommis-
sioning an in-band device, as users are disconnected from their data while
storage is remapped. Most network-based virtualization solutions today
use the in-band architecture, probably because CPU power is relatively
plentiful compared to when storage
virtualization first appeared. Another
reason for the popularity of in-band
solutions is that theyre easier to
implement, which means faster time
to market and fewer problems.
STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION PRODUCTSVirtualization has become an essential
function for storage provisioning and
is included in some form with most
midsized and larger storage systems.
While there are many differences be-
tween arrays and their virtualization
technologies, the majority of these
device-based implementations dont
support disk capacity from other man-
ufacturers. Instead of listing the large
number of these storage systems, well
focus on the smaller category of het-
erogeneous storage systems. The fol-
lowing are examples of heterogeneous
storage virtualization as implemented
in hardware and software products
available from a variety of vendors.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
36 STORAGE August 2011
WHAT IS
SCALE-OUTSTORAGE?
Scale-out storage refersto modular systems that
combine processors and
storage capacity into discrete
physical nodes. This clustered
architecture lets processing
power expand with capacity as
nodes are added, and provides
for a more incremental, albeit
non-heterogeneous, growth.
While it could be called de-
vice based, virtualization in
the scale-out space is more
than a standard feature, its
required. It enables these
systems to scale non-disrup-
tively while user volumes
span nodes in the cluster.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
37/53
DataCore Software Corp.s SANsymphony is a network-based, in-band
software product that runs on commodity x86 servers. It supports hetero-
geneous storage devices via FC, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) oriSCSI, and connects to hosts as FC or iSCSI storage. Multiple-node clusters
can be created to scale capacity and provide high availability. The system
provides remote replication and storage services like synchronous mirroring,
CDP, thin provisioning and tiered storage.
EMC Corp.s Invista is an out-of-band software solution that runs on
a pair of servers (called a Control Path Cluster or CPC) and interacts with
intelligent switches from Brocade or Cisco. It can virtualize storage from
most major vendors, connecting to storage and host servers via Fibre
Channel. Invista provides mirroring, replication and point-in-time clones
between storage arrays.FalconStor Software Inc.s Network Storage Server (NSS) is a net-
work-based, in-band appliance that connects to heterogeneous storage
systems via iSCSI, FC or InfiniBand, and supports host connectivity with
Fibre Channel or iSCSI. Expansion and high availability are provided by con-
necting multiple controller modules. Besides WAN-optimized replication, NSS
also provides synchronous mirroring, thin provisioning, snapshots and clones.
Hitachi Data Systems Universal Storage Platform V (USP V) is a tier
1 storage array system that also provides in-band heterogeneous connec-
tivity to most major storage vendors arrays. It includes the kinds of features
and services expected from a tier 1 solution, including thin provisioning ofinternal and externally attached storage.
IBMs SAN Volume Controller (SVC) is a network-based, in-band virtu-
alization controller that sits on the SAN and connects to heterogeneous
storage systems via iSCSI or FC. Pairs of SVC units provide high availability,
and up to eight nodes can be clustered to scale bandwidth and capacity.
Each SVC module features replication between storage systems and a
mirroring function between local or remote SVC units.
NetApp Inc.s V-Series Open Storage Controlleris an in-band virtual-
ization solution thats very similar to a NetApp filer controller, but config-
ured to support heterogeneous storage arrays. It connects to a FC SAN on
the back end to consolidate as much storage as desired from existing
LUNs, and pools them into NetApp LUNs for block or file provisioning as
would a regular NetApp filer.
NetApp recently acquired the Engenio Storage Virtualization Manager
(SVM), a network-based, in-band virtualization controller that supports
heterogeneous storage systems. Details of how NetApp will market this
solution have yet to be announced.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
37 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
38/53
HANDLE WITH CARE
Because most storage virtualization products are in-band, care should betaken to understand the effective performance of the virtualization appli-
ance or cluster as this will be the gating factor to capacity expansion. In
addition, storage services or features will also consume CPU cycles, further
reducing effective capacity.
Storage virtualization is a powerful tool to reduce Capex by improving
capacity utilization or performance, but its biggest benefit may be on the
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
38 STORAGE August 2011
FILE STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION
WHILE MANY STORAGE systems include file services, they virtualize
data at the block level. However, there are network-attached
products that can consolidate standalone network-attached
storage (NAS) systems. These appliances provide a global namespace
to users on the front end and map file requests to the right physical
NAS on the back end. These systems can also provide file storage tier-
ing and migration, some even to cloud storage providers. Examples of
file virtualization products include the following:
AutoVirt Inc. markets an out-of-band file storage virtualization
software product that runs on a pair of Windows servers or virtual
machines (VMs). It also provides a global namespace and a policy
engine for data tiering, migration and archiving. Being out-of-band,
it can be taken out of the environment without disruption.
Avere Systems Inc.s FXT is a heterogeneous, scale-out NAS appli-
ance implemented in clusters of up to 25 2U modules, each containing
primarily solid-state (DRAM and solid-state drive) storage. The FXT
cluster supports a global, tiered file system, typically encompassing
NAS systems from other manufacturers; it also provides file virtualiza-
tion across platforms.
F5 Network Inc.s ARX products are a series of in-band file virtual-
ization appliances that can consolidate multiple heterogeneous NAS
devices behind a global namespace, supporting CIFS and NFS protocols.
They also provide a policy engine that can automatically move files
between NAS systems, locally or to the cloud, based on file attributes,
activity or other criteria.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
39/53
Opex side. It can simplify storage management, even across platforms,
and reduce administrative overhead. Virtualization can also make storageexpansion a relatively simple operation, often done without taking storage
systems down or disrupting users. 2
Eric Slack is a senior analyst at Storage Switzerland.
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
39 STORAGE August 2011
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
40/53
Dont miss the next generation of blockbuster solutions from EMC, #1 in disk-based
backup and recovery. Learn more at www.EMC.com/backuptothefuture.
Join us at the EMC Backup Showcase on September 8 to learn more about EMC
backup solutions.
DISCOVER THE POWER OFBLOCKBUSTERBACKUP SOLUTIONS
EMC PRESENTS
Discover the Powerof Disk-Based Backup
Improve BackupPerformance and Reliability
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
41/53
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
41 STORAGE August 2011
dUE TO THE wide distribution of corporate data across sites, organizations
with remote offices/branch offices (ROBOs) are often challenged by the
demands associated with backup and recovery. Enterprise Strategy Group
(ESG) recently surveyed more than 450 IT professionals regarding people,
process and technology at ROBO locations (2011 Remote Office and Branch
Office Technology Trends, June 2011) and found that 59% of firms with few-
er than 10 employees at ROBOs
function without any local IT
staff, even though 71% indicated
that on-site storage is leveragedat some point in the backup
processes at these locations. Both
disk and tape storage systems
remain the go-to components
of most ROBO data protection
strategies, but newer wide-
area/remote backup technologies
are garnering more serious con-
sideration as a primary means of
data backup. Specifically, 26% of
organizations currently back up data from these locations over the WAN
directly to a centralized corporate site vs. a mere 7% employing this
methodology back in 2007.
Those with more storage capacity at ROBOs cited improving backup and
recovery processes as a top IT priority. For example, ROBOs with more than
25 TBs of storage capacity ranked this as their No. 1 priority, those with 1 TB
to 25 TBs of storage capacity ranked it second and ROBOs with less than
hot spots | lauren whitehouse
Both disk and tape storage
systems remain the go-tocomponents of most ROBOdata protection strategies,but newer wide-area/remote backup technologiesare garnering more seriousconsideration as a primarymeans of data backup.
Options for ROBOs: Choose abackup method for the agesSatellite offices and workers are changing the look of companies
of all sizes, and backup technology is changing to keep pace.
Learn which strategy is best for your remote office, and
whether remote copies and tape are necessary or not.
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
42/53
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hybrid
clouds loom
emote backup
nder control
Sponsor
resources
42 STORAGE August 2011
1 TB ranked it fourth. Data growth is a contributing factor. The top ROBO
data storage challenges include keeping pace with overall data growth, theneed to improve backup and recovery processes, and storage system costs.
ROBO DATA PROTECTION STRATEGIESThere are many options available when planning and configuring a data
protection strategy for ROBOs. Choices will depend on the availability of
on-site staff, the volume of data to protect, corporate policies regarding
retention and privacy/security, available bandwidth and the capabilities
of the backup infrastructure.
Centralized backup with no ROBO-based copy: With this option, datais backed up directly to an off-site corporate location, such as a corporate
headquarters (HQ) data center, with no on-site copy. All backup data is cen-
tralized and under the direct control of the IT organization. This ensures the
security of the backup copies, and the ability to enforce requirements for
corporate or regulatory mandates. It also eliminates the need for local
backup infrastructure and personnel. The downside is that the bandwidth
required between sites to transfer daily backup streams could be costly
and/or it could take considerable time to transmit backup data to/from the
central siteunless source deduplication is employed to reduce the vol-
ume of data transferred between sites. Thats probably why ESG research
found this to be the top method for companies with 1 TB or less of data to
protect.
Software as a Service (SaaS) with no ROBO-based copy: Data is
backed up to a third-party service providers cloud storage directly over
the WAN, with no on-site copy. Similar to a centralized backup strategy,
this approach maintains only a remote copy of data for recovery. After the
initial configuration via a Web-based application, data is automatically
backed up over a WAN connection at scheduled intervals to the service
provider. Because data is transmitted over the WAN and theres no on-
premises copy, the pros and cons of the SaaS model are similar to the HQ
centralized approach; however, backup data custody is with a third party,
so you have to be comfortable with everything that accompanies that
strategy. The most important thing here is to make sure you understand
your service-level agreements (SLAs) and that they work for you.
Local-only backup: Data is backed up to on-site storage with no off-
site copy. This approach ensures a duplicate copy of data is made, but
doesnt provide contingencies for a possible outage at the site. In the
-
8/2/2019 Storage Mag Online August 2011 Final
43/53
STORAGE
Lax laptop
backup
eed for speed
State of
ackup dedupe
Storage
ech evolves
Virtualize
your storage
ackup options
for ROBOs
Hyb