Comments on: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Storage Automation

By: Binghamton Process Service

Binghamton Process Service — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Storage automation is good, but expensive.

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By: Storagezilla

Storagezilla — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:31:51 +0000

How much would an SVC config cost me for 64000 devices? Indeed, how much would SVC cost me to add thin to an entry level DMX? You support what, 2000 devices per IO group 8000 per cluster total?

SVC is only cheap when you're not operating at scale. You've been living off the fat of the land in the midrange market but when we talk DMX scale the wheels fly off the SVC cart and the engine drops out.

By: Storagezilla

Storagezilla — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:31:51 +0000

How much would an SVC config cost me for 64000 devices? Indeed, how much would SVC cost me to add thin to an entry level DMX? You support what, 2000 devices per IO group 8000 per cluster total?

By: Barry Whyte

Barry Whyte — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:12:20 +0000

Well given that the DMX is slower than DS8000 then what does that say? (unless you have some independent benchmark that shows otherwise you'd like to share?)

You could put SVC nodes infront of anything in the open systems world, and get thin provisioning for no extra charge – still be cheaper than paying for it on DMX or USP.

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:59:07 +0000

Of course you are right about pricing. Add-on software and features are expensive almost everywhere – I just love how EqualLogic includes everything with the base cost of the array, but this drives that base cost up enough to cost them some sales, I'm sure.

So let's sum up: Storage automation is good, but expensive. But it's gotten so good (in general) that everyone should be using it instead of relying on spreadsheets and hopes like I used to a decade ago!

By: tsa

tsa — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:22:24 +0000

For the record, Symm Virtual Provisioning is priced almost identically to Dynamic Provisioning on the USP-V, and in fact very close to the way 3PAR charges for the same functionality. Storagebod might not like paying a little to save a lot, but it's a misrepresentation of the facts to complain about VP pricing as if it were the only product that carried a price tag.

And watching all the speculation about "DMX5" is fun, especially for those of who know how Cold (and Hot) you are. While we're waiting for that future, let's imagine instead what IBM must have to be doing to improve the DS8000 back-end efficiency enough to deliver ANY benefit from flash drives! Fast drives in a slow system are still going to be slow!!!

Of course, they could alway just put a few flash-laden SVC nodes in front of the DS8000 and call it a day!

No wait - that won't work for mainframes...

By: 3parfarley

3parfarley — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:32:14 +0000

Did I call you a nerd……., let me think about that…… yes,,,,,, but its not exactly fair and I am wearing a black shirt right now. How about Geek? I know you have a life outside of technology using technology to enhance a life full of technology, like others of us.

BTW, did you watch the Grammy awards? I thought the Radiohead number with the USC marching band was by far the best mini-show.

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:24:56 +0000

Marc, I'm not focused on SSDs at all, and certainly not because vendors want to sell them. What I said was that technologies like dynamic optimization, thin provisioning, and wide striping and essential if one is to get value from SSDs. But I also said that these technologies are great no matter what type of storage is used!

Perhaps the SSD focus is in the mind of the reader, not the writer? And did you just call me a nerd? Pot kettle black!

By: 3parfarley

3parfarley — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:07:29 +0000

Stephen, your focus on SSDs is understandable, considering its the NEXT BIG THING, but how many people really give a rip today about SSDs given their budget circumstances. For most IT organizations today, it's just technology for technology's sake. By comparison, wide striping on a large number of high RPM disks provides excellent performance for most everything, with single threaded transaction processes being the exception. But most transaction applications today are multi-threaded and can take advantage of wide striping. Of course, wide striping across all types of drives provides a more cost-effective approach because you can match data with resources most effectively. The real killer for most customers is the inability to mix workloads effectively on a storage array. Wide striping provides excellent performance for mixed workload environments which means customers can consolidate storage onto single arrays as opposed to having specialized arrays for transaction, streaming, email and file/print applications. If you think about all the different application types that people are putting on virtual server platforms, its pretty important that storage arrays can handle mixed workloads well.

You ask in your post that you'd like to see 3PAR introduce fine grained control of SSDs. Of course, fine grained control of storage resources is our bread and butter – from Thin Provisioning to Wide Striping on Chunklets (I like to think of them as mini-disks). We're not going to release SSDs that are bulk devices and difficult for customers to leverage and we're not anxious to rush them out the door in order to stake our claim with the press or blog-nerds – especially when customers are trying to figure out how to get more done with less expensive resources for the foreseeable future.