Much of the storage technology found in use today is

dated, while our consumption and need for data storage capacity skyrockets. Basic storage system designs, until recently, were predicated on technologies developed in a different era. Systems were designed with the belief that applications and workloads would always run on dedicated servers. However, as users required more storage and faster data movement, combined with the rise of virtualization, storage technology has rapidly moved from the simple architecture of the past to the complex present architecture.

As scale-out architectures, cloud-based systems, and virtualization rise in use and popularity, storage developers have raced to embrace new technologies. No storage

technology has ever had, and it continues to have, as much buzz as software defined storage, or SDS.

In previous eras, hardware was the major focus of IT professionals developing storage solutions. IT departments worked in a scale-up architecture world, focusing on ways of adding larger arrays, bigger drives, and faster systems. However, in the past few years a whole new generation of storage technologies has emerged with software as the focus. Much of the push in this direction has been in order to find a new layer of control and integration that could automatically adapt to the constantly changing needs of users, along with rapid hardware development.

So, just what is the definition of SDS? That’s a good question, and one much debated in magazines, blogs, and social media. The term has its origin in Software Defined Networks, and has been, arguably, co-opted or hijacked by the storage community,

depending upon whom you listen to. While many attempts at defining it have failed to achieve widespread acceptance, here is the one

definition that seems to be generally agreed upon. Software defined storage is a term used to describe storage platforms that are entirely implemented in software, and therefore, can run independently of underlying server hardware.

As a result, implementers of SDS are able to choose their own configurations, vendors, etc., as opposed to being locked in to a provider of a proprietary solution.

SDS has emerged as a smarter, more scalable method of storage management, but it is not without its own challenges. This type of storage development has taken time and been costly. Initially, this resulted in proprietary SDS systems, and while delivering high performance results for users, they limit system flexibility and are very expensive to deploy. As off-the-shelf systems have emerged, costs have come down appreciably. However, many IT managers have found themselves in deeper technology waters than anticipated, with inconsistencies in compatibility, use and

IT Solution Series

Leveraging the Benefits of SDS, Software Defined Storage Technology: Off-the-Shelf Solutions with Proprietary System Performance

How IT departments can have proprietary system SDS performance with low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware thanks to Aberdeen’s SDS Plus™ solution in partnership with Nexenta!By The Aberdeen IT Solutions Team

performance. The appeal of commodity storage and servers is high, but not always the easiest to configure if this is your first move into true SDS.

Today’s SDS LandscapeSDS technology separates storage control and logic from the physical hardware of a system. By separating these two, the software is now unencumbered by many, if not all of the challenges in traditional storage scenarios. By employing SDS, the storage logic layer can determine which data goes where, and which services can, or should be applied during read and write operations.

With the advent of the current iteration of SDS, the promises of advantages are numerous. These include the belief that SDS can be “do-it-yourself,” that it enables scale-out solutions and that administrators are given more growth flexibility, automation, and management options. When properly executed, all of these can be true. However, it is not always the case that these benefits are realized, or at least easily realized. In their 2014 white paper on SDS, the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) identified the following five key capabilities that go into what we now refer to as SDS:

• Automation• Standard Interfaces• Virtualized Data Paths• Scalability• TransparencyVarious storage

manufacturers have created proprietary SDS storage solutions. Some of these manufacturers have, in fact, developed SDS solutions that deliver all of the capabilities listed above and do deliver the features a proper SDS system should; however, they come with significant costs in hard dollars, time, and operational problems interfacing with legacy and existing storage infrastructure.

The manufacturers of these proprietary systems would like you to believe they can be implemented with relative ease, but reality has shown otherwise. If proprietary systems were always developed specifically for each new company, new division, new location, or even new initiatives, implementation would likely be easier. However, IT managers can attest to the fact that this optimal scenario is most often not the case. IT departments and IT systems do not always enjoy the luxury of being able to easily shut down, deploy new systems, test, troubleshoot, and master changes in management quickly. Hence, development and deployment times of proprietary systems

can be significant. Also, when something custom is needed, such as replacement or additional programming, there is additional time and cost involved.

Now, since the layer of data control is separated from hardware, and open-source SDS software has emerged, many IT departments have taken it upon themselves to deploy off-the-shelf solutions in “do-it-yourself ” fashion. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with that, and there can be huge cost savings, but it’s not as easy as just loading the software and away you go. There are significant technological issues that need to be addressed, beginning with integration into your existing hardware and network environment. Also, just “buying in” to SDS doesn’t eliminate all of your existing storage issues, such as software, hardware, network and human capital.

Aberdeen Nexenta —The Best Of Both Worlds SolutionAberdeen has been developing and manufacturing custom server and storage solutions for more than 25 years. This has created a wealth of knowledge and experience that has been poured back into our products. It has also given Aberdeen front row seats to every promise of IT innovation for a quarter

of a century. Some of these innovations have materialized, and many have not.

So, when Aberdeen began to develop SDS solutions more than six years ago, it was important that its solutions fit into Aberdeen’s primary mission of providing the highest quality state-of-the-art technology at the greatest value. It didn’t take Aberdeen long to realize that many IT professionals were seeking more flexible and affordable solutions than those being offered by the makers of the tightly controlled, first proprietary systems. Likewise, as off-the-shelf solutions arose, Aberdeen believed there was a better way of achieving success than just building the hardware.

This path led Aberdeen to join forces with Nexenta as an early adopter of NexentaStor. Aberdeen has been building Nexenta based SDS solutions with full compatibility for more than five years. This long term partnership has helped Aberdeen create its latest generation of powerful, off-the-shelf solutions which deliver the level of performance that until now has only been found in considerably higher priced, proprietary systems. Aberdeen calls this latest generation SDS Plus™.

SDS Plus™ was a concept created from the ground up in developing our new SDS

Leveraging the Benefits of SDS, Software Defined Storage Technology: Off-the-Shelf Solutions with Proprietary System Performance

platform, which includes the AberSAN series of storage appliances, the Petarack™ and Nexenta’s powerful NexentaStor, Nexenta’s enterprise-grade, unified block level and file level SDS storage software.

Aberdeen engineers worked closely with Nexenta engineers to develop a highly stable and durable package with a focus on ease of deployment. In addition to design and planning, both Aberdeen and Nexenta independently carried out extensive testing to make sure all elements of design, implementation, and configuration were optimized for top level performance, complete flexibility and uncompromised reliability.

AberSAN’s features are numerous, including shared pools of storage from any combination of storage hardware, unlimited snapshots and clones, unlimited file size, block and file-based replication, end-to-end data integrity, integrated search, hybrid storage pools via automated use of SSDs, in-line deduplication, multi-user write (file-level or block-level access), inherent virtualization enabling, thin provisioning, I/O pooling and much more.

The Petarack™ is cloud and virtualization ready with features such as 128-bit addressing, huge storage

file sizes and support for VMware and other major virtualization software and services. Virtualization enables thin provisioning, while improving performance via I/O pooling, which actually improves performance as more storage is added. I/O performance can be further enhanced through the strategic deployment of optional, fast SSDs in hybrid storage pools.

NexentaStor is widely recognized as an industry leader in open source SDS software. It delivers unified file (NFS and SMB) and block (FC and iSCSI) storage services, supports all-flash, hybrid, and all-disk scaling from tens of terabytes to multi-petabyte configurations, and includes all data management functionality by default. Its benefits include dramatically lower storage costs for cloud and enterprise workloads and simple swap-in replacement of legacy block and file storage appliances. With best in class VMware integration, NexentaStor is designed with a multi-tenant VMware vCenter Plug in and VMware Virtual Volume (VVOL) support. The VMware vCenter Web Client plug in simplifies day-to-day operational tasks for VMware administrators by allowing customers to incrementally scale storage

by adding datastores from within the vCenter interface, identifying performance bottlenecks and reviewing capacity utilization trends.

By combining these three elements in a unified partnership, Aberdeen and Nexenta have effectively merged the performance benefits of a proprietary system with the cost effectiveness of an “off-the-shelf ” SDS solution.

SDS Plus™ Customer BenefitsIn developing the SDS Plus™ offering, Aberdeen has leveraged the process of matched and paired ultra-high-performance storage appliances with Nexenta’s flagship software. In keeping

with Aberdeen’s highly customizable and configurable approach to server and storage solutions, you can now get fully implemented SDS Plus™ solutions with Aberdeen storage products at all storage capacity levels.

SDS Plus™ and AberSAN SDS solutions are perfect for big data as they provide a flexible architecture for large data banks where critical data can be transformed into valuable business intelligence with lightning speed. Thanks to the robust Nexenta software combined with the customizable AberSAN hardware, SDS Plus™ can help you integrate SDS into your existing networks and data centers regardless of their size or scope.

ZXP4n 2U Head Unit & JBOD

expandable SAN

n Enables the most flexible SAN environment growth

n RAID-Z advanced storage technology

n Expandable SAS2 storage beyond 1PB

ZXP4-HAn Dual 2U Head Unit & JBOD

expandable SAN

n High availability with the most flexible growth SAN

n RAID-Z advanced storage technology

n Expandable HA SAS2 storage beyond 1PB

PETARACKn One petabyte, expandable to 5.4PB

of raw data storage, in a single rack

n High availability with no single point of failure

n RAID-Z advanced storage technology

SDS Plus™ In Action

Aberdeen developed a truly custom graphic user interface (GUI) that delivers a big benefit to users of SDS Plus™. As many IT professionals can attest to, when a drive fails and needs to be replaced, it can be a challenge to identify and pull the correct drive, especially if you have racks of drives and multiple arrays for different purposes. Aberdeen’s custom GUI gives you the facility to click on a simple toggle, which then illuminates the failed drive in the correct chassis. You never have to worry about pulling the wrong drive and potentially losing data. (To learn more about this feature, see the Aberdeen video on YouTube called “Drive Identification Simplified!” youtube.com/watch?v=Og4LTBtUQy8.)

Finally, though most certainly not last in terms of benefits, is the price. Aberdeen’s SDS Plus™ systems are far more affordable than proprietary systems. A typical SDS Plus™ sells for about 1/3 of the price of the equivalent proprietary system in terms of features and storage

capacity, making it not only a much better value, but immensely more flexible as well.

SummarySDS Plus™ was conceived, designed, and built with the single focus of making SDS a rapidly deployable, extremely cost effective storage solution. It can be purchased off-the-shelf in highly customized configurations. Its buyers receive the benefit of top performance and incredible value in a highly reliable solution, thanks to the partnership, teamwork, and expertise of Aberdeen and Nexenta. •

About Aberdeen LLC—Aberdeen LLC is a manufacturer and developer of customizable server and storage hardware and solutions for companies of all sizes. They are the only server and storage company to offer their unique 5 Year Warranties, fully customizable hardware, and their special “try for 30 day” test-drive program. For more information visit them at www.aberdeeninc.com or call (800) 500-9526.

Leveraging the Benefits of SDS, Software Defined Storage Technology: Off-the-Shelf Solutions with Proprietary System Performance

Aberdeen LLC10420 Pioneer Blvd.Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670

(800) 500-9526 n (562) 903-1500aberdeeninc.com n salesinfo@aberdeeninc.com

VMware® CertificationA challenge to building your own “off-the-shelf” system is that you’re not guaranteed efficacy. Not only that, if your hardware and software is not VMware Certified together as an appliance, you will likely be denied VMware customer support.

Aberdeen is a VMware Professional Partner, Systems Builder, and Technology Alliance Partner. This allows Aberdeen, as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), to develop and create world-class VMware solutions for its customers. The Aberdeen Nexenta line of SDS storage is VMware certified with both NFS and iSCSI (File and Block Storage).

Features and Benefits of Aberdeen’s VMware Certified Storage:n VMware certified storage comprised of VMware

certified components

n Affordable and highly scalable

n Fully customizable with VMware certified components

n Out of band, Web based, OS independent management and administration

n Zero downtime clustered and redundant solutions

n Industry-leading 5 Year warranty

NOTE: VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United

States and/or other jurisdictions.