The Iomega StorCenter PX4 is both an evolution of the older IX4 and the start of a new line of business-focused devices

Iomega today announced a new line of small desktop and rackmount storage devices. The PX Series addresses many of the limitations of the IX line, bringing high-performance CPUs, SSD, “bring your own drive” options, and “personal cloud” data protection. But the PX will not replace the recently-refreshed IX; instead, it segments the market between home office (IX) and small business (PX).

A Look Back At the IX

I have been ambivalent about Iomega’s IX line of StorCenter devices since they appeared in 2009. Although they bring impressive features like iSCSI and multimedia at a low cost, devices like the ix4-200d in my lab left me wanting more. This was especially true in the area of performance, where the 4-drive ix4 delivered a mediocre 25-30 MB/s of iSCSI throughput in my testing.

The core issue for the ix4 was its reliance of an under-powered embedded CPU and modest 512 MB of integrated DRAM. It was nice to have a sub-$1000 iSCSI array for VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Server testing, but there was no way I would deploy it in a production business environment. The performance issue was addressed with the ix12-200r, but it came at a steeper price and that rack-mount device was not intended for use outside the data center.

Another concern about the IX was its dizzying set of features. One got the feeling that EMC’s engineers were given free rein when adding features to the StorCenter’s “LifeLine” platform, and the result was something of a mess. This improved with each successive release, but the IX feels like a servant of too many masters: Is it a home multimedia device, a security server, an office file server, or an iSCSI target for virtualization?

PX: A New Level of Performance?

The PX changes everything, or appears to at least. Clearly aimed at the small business and remote office market, the PX promises an enterprise feature set and the horsepower needed to deliver serious performance.

		PX4-300d	PX6-300d	PX4-300r
Form Factor		Desktop		Rack-Mount
Disk Slots		4	6	4
CPU		Intel Atom D525		Intel Celeron
RAM		2 GB SO-DIMM

Let’s start with the brain. All StorCenter PX devices include a dual-core Intel CPU: An Atom D525 in the PX4 and PX6 desktop models and a Celeron multi-core in the rack-mount PX4. All three models also feature 2 GB of RAM, and SSD can be used for high-performance applications. The StorCenter operating system should perform much better on this platform, which is reminiscent of the existing ix12 array. Expect that device to be refreshed shortly with SSD support and perhaps a Sandy Bridge CPU.

The new devices have been completely redesigned mechanically. The PX4 is similar in total volume to the IX4, though it appears smaller since it is taller and skinnier. The PX6 is a veritable tower, while the rack-mount PX4 has a conventional look but adds an optional swappable power supply and redundant fans for datacenter use.

Flexible Drive Options

Iomega has added "bring your own drive" capability to the PX line

There are three firsts in terms of drive support:

1. Iomega has added a “bring your own drive” (BYOD) option, allowing end users to buy an empty or partially-populated PX device and add supported drives in the future. The software does not support dissimilar drives as flexibly as some competitors, but this lowers the price point substantially.
2. The PX Series supports solid state drives (SSDs), as we will discuss in a moment.
3. Finally, the included drive carriers now support 2.5-inch drives, though capacity and price points make this less interesting except when it comes to SSDs.

This is a big step forward for Iomega, who has long required their own drives to be used in these devices. Iomega will ship 1, 2, and 3 TB Hitachi 7200 rpm Deskstar drives at first, but may add other options in the future. I expect a low-power “green” drive from Seagate or Western Digital.

The PX Series approved vendor list (AVL) includes many popular options, including the Hitachi Deskstar, Seagate Barracuda (including the LP line) and Western Digital Caviar and Green. The company has created an area in their support forums for customers to discuss other drive options, though only AVL-listed drives are supported. Since many of these drives are 4K natively, the PX Series should have no trouble with the shift to Advanced Format.

SSD Ahoy!

The introduction of solid state disk (SSD) storage is a major step forward. Iomega will use the excellent Micron C400 (aka Crucial M4) SSD in 128 or 256 GB capacity points. These  are installed in pairs and will typically be used as a RAID 1 mirror for performance-sensitive data. The best application for the SSD, therefore, is the 6-bay PX6-300d, along with a 4-disk RAID 5 set.

There is no automated storage tiering or SSD caching in the Iomega PX series. Administrators simply create RAID sets, LUNs, and shares on SSD or HDD and manually place data there based on need. It is possible to leverage the StorCenter’s included “copy job” functionality to create a rudimentary tiering system, but it seems likely that most users will rely on manual data placement.

It will be interesting to see what the combination of the dual-core 1.8 GHz Atom CPU and C400 SSD will offer in terms of performance. This represents a “maximum speed” configuration for the Iomega device and will likely set a new benchmark in the segment. Although just two Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for connectivity (no 10 GbE or USB 3.0), iSCSI and NFS performance should be very respectable. Iomega tells me they will be demonstrating a VMware VDI “boot storm” scenario using a PX6 with SSDs at EMC World next week.

Updated Software

Beyond the hardware, Iomega has revved the LifeLine software stack for performance, features, and integration. Iomega previewed many of these updates in the “Cloud Edition” versions of the IX2 and IX2 products earlier this year. This includes a cleaner interface as well as “Personal Cloud” software for SOHO or small business users.

The Personal Cloud is pretty clever, allowing different devices (StorCenter, IX Cloud, PX, PC and Mac) to share data using a peer-to-peer architecture. Desktop users experience Personal Cloud similar to Dropbox, using Explorer or Finder to mount a volume for drag and drop copies. This Iomega technology can be accessed remotely or scripted for data distribution between locations.

Owners of older Iomega IX devices can’t officially upgrade to Personal Cloud, but I’m told it is possible. Call the support team and ask for help. Sadly, this upgrade is destructive to data, so back up first!

One important change (necessitated by the BYOD option) is that the LifeLine operating system image is stored in (and executed from) flash rather than on the disks. The iSCSI stack finally supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations and trusted domains for clustering, and Iomega also promise that the updated iSCSI target software performs better with simultaneous file and block traffic.

Pricing and Availability

The PX Series is shipping to resellers now, and will be in end-user hands next week. Pricing is up from previous offerings, but still reasonable, especially in BYOD configurations. CDW has an exclusive on the pre-populated models, but others will sell BYOD versions (and the pre-populated arrays after 30 days).

Iomega will continue to sell the IX lineup for SOHO users but will focus on the PX for business and server use cases.

Stephen’s Stance

The StorCenter PX line is a major step forward for Iomega. The BYOD option is welcome, as is SSD performance and improved specs. With official Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server, and VMware ESX support, the PX is finally up to the task of business computing. We look forward to putting these new devices through their paces in the future!

Strategically, it makes sense for Iomega to segment their “network storage” offerings into the home/home office-oriented IX line and business-focused PX series. I would prefer even stronger differentiation and perhaps the elimination of home media features from the PX line. It pains me to mention it, but perhaps the IX no longer needs iSCSI support, since it was so woefully underpowered and unable to deliver on the promise of block storage. At least these features should be de-emphasized since they don’t appeal to the intended audience of the products.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Iomega StorCenter PX Series Preview
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Features, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Thoughts on Hitachi Data Systems, their products and market

I’ve been following the progress of Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) for well over a decade. When I participated in high-end enterprise storage system shootouts as an end-user, HDS routinely placed second against EMC, HP and NetApp in the, and the decision was always a close one. But the storage market has changed, with nimble startups innovating around established competitors and industry giants flexing their marketing muscles.

Where Does HDS Fit?

Concerned with the question of where HDS fits in this new market, I was pleased to be invited to join the company at their Sefton Park, UK briefing center to get some answers. After two days of intense briefing and discussion, I remain unsure of HDS’ future: The company impressed me as always with their technology, but it takes more than a few good people and products to compete effectively.

I always respected HDS and its products, but they remain stubbornly fixated on the high end of the market. The HDS USP/VSP may be the only really credible competitor to the EMC Symmetrix in the stratosphere of enterprise storage, but these products are analogous to the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747. No one expects them to go away any time soon, and they represent a nexus of innovation and profitability, but the market as a whole has moved on.

Ask an application developer about the infrastructure of their dreams and they’ll start talking scale-out platforms that sound awfully cloudy. The Symmetrix and USP/VSP are the mainframes of storage, and will be desired and required for certain use cases for decades to come. But CIOs are much more interested in the next wave of applications that their businesses will grow on in the future, and these applications need something totally different: A storage platform.

HCP: Positioned for the Next Generation

The best move HDS ever made was acquiring Archivas, developer of what is now known as the Hitachi Content Platform (HCP). A crossover between content-addressable storage (CAS) and the new generation of cloud storage systems, HCP is an excellent product for next-generation enterprise applications, with an HTTP/REST interface, object-level metadata-driven storage, and solid credentials for reliability.

The more I learn about HCP, the more I feel that EMC made a mistake by developing an entirely-new cloud storage platform (Atmos) rather than further developing their CAS system (Centera). HDS remained committed to HCP, and the result better matches the needs of enterprise applications than either of EMC’s products. I remain skeptical of HCP as a public cloud platform, but would not hesitate to recommend it for internal use cases.

HDS’ Data Ingestor (HDI) shows how the HCP platform can benefit an enterprise environment. As a NAS gateway, HDI pulls data from “the edge” (remote offices, file servers, and other applications) and stores it in a core HCP repository. This allows enterprise data to be better managed, protected, and manipulated than traditional distributed storage solutions. HDS is pitching HDI as an alternative for remote office backup, but it is really an example of the next-generation storage platforms enterprise CIOs wish they had today.

The Hitachi Clinical Repository vividly demonstrates what this future storage platform looks like. HDS surrounded the HCP with integration points for electronic health records applications and systems, allowing hospitals and other healthcare organizations to handle this rapidly-expanding data set. Departments as diverse as payroll and radiology can share the same platform, tracking and organizing data across applications and locations. The Clinical Repository at once demonstrates the strength of the HCP technology, the strategic value of integrated storage platforms, and the fact that HDS will not be left behind in this new world. Bravo!

Serious Challenges for HDS

But HDS’ future is not a slam dunk. The company faces serious obstacles in all directions, and it is not clear that they are ready to overcome them.

Let’s start with baggage. HDS is the exact opposite of a startup. This is an industry stalwart with a history of technology stronger than its sales execution; a private organization that must open up and change course without sinking; a company at once supported by and saddled with its link to “the mothership”, Hitachi Limited; and a group of talented people whose pride does not always serve their objectives.

The recent sale of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), a key hard disk drive manufacturer, to Western Digital set some tongues wagging that HDS would be next. But HDS is nothing like HGST: Hitachi is first and foremost a developer and manufacturer of technological products, from televisions to nuclear reactors, and HDS is an integrator and distributor of their storage products. Hitachi could, in theory, decide to exit the storage space, and this would be the end of HDS. But this is highly unlikely. Hitachi is in the IT space for the long haul, with a slate of products that also includes servers and networking gear, and HDS is key to internationalizing this business.

But Hitachi is also an anchor, restricting the flexibility and creativity of HDS, and the curious case of Hitachi’s blade servers is a case in point. As noted, Hitachi is a major server vendor in Japan, and the company has named HDS the international custodian of these products. But HDS lacks the resources to sell into the highly-competitive server market. HDS has little choice but to put on a brave face and try to use these blade servers for their content platform, NAS, and unified “datacenter block” offerings, but there is no way they would have sought this product if not for Hitachi’s influence.

More pressing, however, is the challenge HDS faces with their sales force. Time and again one hears tales of clueless HDS sales reps pushing the same old SAN products to the same old customers rather than talking about HCP and the value of a strategic storage platform. One fellow event attendee remarked that his rep hadn’t ever mentioned HCP and HDI, even though it would have been a perfect fit for his large multi-national corporation. The rep either didn’t know about it or didn’t want to bother rocking the boat, and both are equally damning for HDS’ future growth.

One also senses a certain frustrated pride from some HDS employees, and this can be off-putting. This event was populated by some of the best and brightest representatives the company has to offer, but some continually resorted to a pointless “been there, done that, invented it” grouchiness. To hear them tell it, Hitachi is the secret force behind just about every enterprise storage innovation of the past two decades and their failure to dominate the market is a cruel injustice. But this is patently false: HDS is an innovator to be sure, but they play in a competitive market of equals. They must take responsibility for their own failings and work harder for success rather than whining about pretenders and upstarts.

Stephen’s Stance

As the baseball season begins, I can’t help but compare HDS to a big-budget team like the Chicago Cubs: They have all the tools and talent they need to succeed, but only time will tell how competitive they can be.
HDS should be commended for acquiring and developing the HCP technology, as well as spotting and fostering great new faces like Michael Heffernan, David Merrill, and Dave Wilson. But HDS must execute.

My prescription is simple but difficult: Lose the hubris and really dive into the battle for hearts and minds. Engage thought leaders and customers alike and show them how you can solve business problems rather than blathering on about unrecognized technical superiority. Educate the sales force and better incentivize them to “go strategic” instead of falling back on “speeds-and-feeds” SAN sales, and cut off anyone who isn’t on board. Let Heff and Wilson run free, find more like them, and bring Merrill into every CIO-level meeting.

HDS has to step up and be the healthy competitor for NetApp and EMC that the enterprise storage industry so desperately needs.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Concerning HDS
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The ioSafe SoloPRO protects your data from a house on fire. Seriously! That's really what it does!

It’s hard to stand out in the world of external storage devices, and doubly-hard to compete with the hard disk drive makers themselves. This hasn’t stopped folks like Iomega, Verbatim, and LaCie from trying to impress customers with flashy cases, software bundles, and clever functionality. But clever new twist on the external hard drive concept just rolled into the Pack Rat lair: The ioSafe SoloPRO is fireproof and waterproof. Cool!

A New Kind of Data Protection

I’m an enterprise storage specialist. I talk about backups, snapshots, mirroring, replication, and archiving all the time. I’ve also delved deeply into the physical reliability of hard disk drives versus flash, tape, and RAID systems. But pretty much every data protection conversation takes for granted that storage is not meant to be robust. We just assume that the disk itself will be lost in the event of fire or flood, so we had better figure some way to protect the data off-site.

But what id this wasn’t the case? What if the disk itself could survive a house fire, standing up to the heat, crushing weight of collapse, and a thorough soaking from the fire hose? That’s exactly what ioSafe is promising with their line of storage devices!

The ioSafe line has a few tricks up its sleeve:

1. The hard disk drive mechanism is wrapped in a “HydroSafe” water barrier
2. This is encased in a thick layer of “DataCast” endothermic insulation, releasing water which evaporates and cools the drive when exposed to extreme heat
3. The “FloSafe” cooling channels allow airflow during normal operation but seal shut in a fire
4. A tough steel case surrounds everything, offering some protection against physical damage and allowing the device to be bolted to the floor for theft protection
5. Every ioSafe drive also includes data recovery services in the event of a fire or drive failure

All these CamelCase trademarks appear to work just fine, thank you. Numerous tests have been performed by amused journalists and bloggers, including backyard fires, dousing the unit in a swimming pool, and running over it with a bulldozer. In each case, the housing is ruined but the data survives. My favorite is the following video from HomeServerReview, but a quick glance through YouTube is worth the time if you like watching people destroy perfectly-good technology!

The Pack Rat Test: Performance

When ioSafe offered to send me a SoloPRO for evaluation, I was excited to burn, drown, and mutilate it. But considering just how many torture tests were already performed, I decided to give that a miss. Instead, I hooked the SoloPRO to my test rig to see how well it handled everyday storage tasks. After all, most owners will never experience the kind of damage the ioSafe line can sustain!

My tests used Intech Software’s ZoneBench and QuickBench tools on a late-2009 iMac. The ioSafe SoloPRO was connected to the iMac’s secondary internal SATA port using my iMac eSATA mod. This is a 3 Gb/s SATA connection and ought to sustain just about anything a spinning disk can currently sustain. Tests were performed on a freshly-booted Mac OS X 10.6.4 64-bit system with no other programs running.

32 MB transfers reveal the performance limits of the ioSafe controller and Hitachi hard disk drive. Performance was excellent - better than the 7200 rpm Seagate drive in the iMac!

Sustained throughput was excellent as well, delivering between 130 and 140 MB/s in my tests. Real-world transfers were just as quick!

The SoloPRO uses a 7200 rpm Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000.C (HDS721010CLA332) hard disk drive. This is a modern, quick mechanism with a 32 MB buffer and 3.0 Gb/s SATA interface. Kudos to ioSafe for picking such a solid performer for this unit – I expected a slower 5400 rpm “green” drive given the modest performance expected by most buyers.

Connected to my iMac with eSATA, the SoloPRO could outrun the internal hard disk drive, both in benchmarks and real-world use. Moving data back and forth was a joy, and backing up the internal disk using Time Machine was amazing: I averaged over 100 MB/s, with Activity Monitor showing frequent peaks over 160 MB/s during the operation!

Although I did perform these tests using the USB interface, the outcome is predictably disappointing. USB 2.0 just can’t go faster than about 35 MB/s in sequential throughput, so the graphs and comparisons look awfully predictable. That said, the ioSafe SoloPRO was able to hit that 35 MB/s mark with ease.

The Pack Rat Test: Usability

The SoloPRO was delivered in a large box with generous packing material. It’s amazingly large, really, considering that it contains a single 3.5″ hard disk drive mechanism. ioSafe includes both USB and eSATA cables, though the latter cable was the short-necked “type I” variety.

The SoloPRO is larger and heaver even than it looks, with solid build quality. The power supply and switch aren’t much to get excited about, however, but no cheaper than the power devices most other manufacturers use. I would have like a power connector that locked in more securely, however.

I appreciate the protruding steel flange with holes for floor-mounting, and finally located a Kensington-style lock hole next to the fan. I was surprised that the holes in the face do not light up when using eSATA, though they do glow while using USB. On the other hand, the flashing light show is pretty distracting for a desktop drive.

The SoloPRO is somewhat noisy, though not any more than a desktop PC. The built-in fan runs continually, though the drive itself will spin down if the computer allows it to. Due to the short range of the cables, an under-desk location is about all an eSATA user can hope for. USB users will likely move it a bit further away so they won’t have to listen to the fan noise. Of course, it would be just fine in a wiring closet attached to a small server.

As mentioned, the SoloPRO is a mid-range offering from ioSafe. They also offer a basic USB 2.0 model (the Sol0), versions of the SoloPRO with SSD or USB 3.0, and an internal drive. This last is particularly clever: It packs the fire- and water-protection technology into a standard 3.5″ SATA drive form factor for use inside a computer.

My biggest complaint about the ioSafe products is that they’re all single-drive only. Although I appreciate their design and construction, all of the protective features ignore the most-common causes of data loss: Logical corruption and the loss of a disk. No storage system can protect data from a “fat-finger” error or operating system fault, but many do include reliability features for the device itself. The ultimate data protection system would include more than one disk drive and would go beyond merely mirroring the data and instead use advanced math (erasure coding, perhaps?) to ensure the consistency of data.

Perhaps ioSafe will consider using two 2.5″ drives and erasure coding in a smarter unit in the future. They could call it the “DuoPRO” – in fact, maybe that’s why they chose the curious “Solo” moniker to begin with!

Stephen’s Stance

No one is suggesting using such a drive as one’s only copy of data, but it makes lots of sense to back up your home or small-office computer to an on-site ioSafe drive. In fact, I would go so far as saying that it makes no sense not to use an ioSafe drive for on-site backups! The drives are somewhat more expensive than basic alternatives but well worth the premium.

A USB-only 1 TB ioSafe Solo costs just over $200 on Amazon, about 50% more than a basic external drive. The eSATA SoloPRO I tested does not appear to have reached Amazon, Buy.com, or NewEgg yet, but ioSafe sells it online for $249. The PRO unit includes the faster eSATA or USB 3.0 port, making it easier to fill up, but not every computer has one of these ports.

Update: The ioSafe SoloPRO is now available online! Amazon lists it for about $250.

For comparison, the only real competition, a SentrySafe Waterproof 160 GB Hard Drive, is $300 for 160 GB! Another option is the SentrySafe Data Storage Chest, which accepts your 2.5″ portable USB drive for a massively-discounted $55. The 250GB ioSafe Pilot internal drive is much more expensive ($250 for 250 GB) but might be just what the doctor ordered if you want to protect data inside a computer.

I am very impressed overall by the ioSafe product. It is solidly-built, and I believe their fire- and water-proof claims. I would not hesitate to recommend this type of drive to small-business owners or “pro-sumer” users concerned about data protection. I do advise keeping an off-site copy of critical data, but the ioSafe is the safest method yet to store an on-site backup.

Disclosure: ioSafe provided the SoloPRO free of charge for testing after I expressed interest in the product

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | ioSafe SoloPRO Review: Is It The Safest Place For Your Data?
This post was categorized as Apple, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Seagate is first to deliver 500 GB 2.5" platters in their new GoFlex 1 TB drive

Storage capacity continues to move forward on both 3.5″ and 2.5″ hard disk drives. On the small form factor side, Western Digital was first with a 250 GB platter, then Seagate shot back with a 320 GB platter, then it was Hitachi at 375 GB. So it was only a matter of time until the magical half-terabyte mark would be reached, yielding 1 TB in a 2-platter drive. Now Seagate has done it, shipping a 2-platter 9.5 mm hard disk drive in their latest GoFlex portable case.

Two Platters is Magic

I already have a 1 TB 2.5″ hard disk drive from Seagate, and Western Digital was first to that party. But the makers pulled shenanigans to reach this capacity point, thickening the case to 12.5 mm or even 15 mm to accommodate three platters (or more!). This slight increase in thickness (or “z-height” in drive lingo) wouldn’t matter except for one important fact: 2.5″ hard disk drives are often used in laptops.

Portable computers prioritize compactness and power performance above all else. So two-platter 9.5 mm hard disk drives have become must-have, balancing capacity, performance, and cool running. Many laptops don’t have physical space for a 12.5 mm internal drive, let alone a 15 mm whopper like my Seagate.

So, although it’s nice to see capacity points like 1.5 TB reached in a 2.5″ small form factor hard disk drive, it’s not really relevant in the portable computer space. There, we have to wait for 2-platter drives like this new Seagate. Note that the company also introduced a mammoth 1.5 TB drive using three of these same 500 GB platters.

Note that increased areal density from 500 GB platters will bring increased performance as well. Throughput to this new drive should improve by about 30% for sequential operations, though this will be masked by the USB interface. I expect the eSATA version of this drive to fly, perhaps topping out over 110 MB/s even on a 5400 rpm spindle. USB 3.0 performance should be in this same vicinity, while USB 2.0 will strangle the drive, limiting it to about 30 MB/s.

External Only (For Now)

But we’ll have to wait a bit longer. Seagate’s first customer for the 2-platter 1 TB drive is (surprise) Seagate itself. For now, the only way to get this new drive is to buy their GoFlex 1 TB external portable drive, available now from major retailers as well as Seagate itself. We expect a new rev of the Momentum drive family shortly, followed by wider availability of the device outside a GoFlex enclosure.

You might want also to read Lemons Into Lemonade: Seagate Repackages SATA As GoFlex

Note that Seagate sells a few different drives in this space, and not all are created equal:

• The older STAA1000100 is a 3-platter drive in a 22 mm case. It’s cheap at under $120.
• This new drive is the STAA1000103, which comes in a 14.5 mm case. It’s pricier at over $179
• There’s also the new STAA1500100, which is a 3-platter 1.5 TB model in the thicker 22 mm case. It’s most expensive at $229, but just look at the size of it!

Both drives look similar, but it’s easy to tell them apart in person: The 22 mm case is noticeably thicker.

Note to Mac users: This drive is compatible with Mac OS X thanks to the bundled NTFS drivers and USB 2.0 compatibility, and you can always reformat it as HFS+. Seagate sells a FireWire 800 dock and cable for the GoFlex line as well. You might even be crazy like me and have eSATA on your iMac or MacBook. However, there is as of now no USB 3.0 support in Mac OS X. So most users will be stuck in the slow lane. Thanks, Apple!

Stephen’s Stance

Seagate’s new thin GoFlex 1 TB drive is impressive technologically, though I can’t imagine the average consumer would be willing to spend over $50 more to shave off 8 mm of thickness from a portable drive. The increased performance and reduced power consumption would be invisible to many of these buyers as well. Laptop users looking to expand internal storage should wait for a bare drive to be released.

But this new density achievement is important for the hard disk drive industry in general and Seagate in particular. It marks a new generation of storage devices, and the technology will certainly find its way into other products. A 1 TB Momentus XT hybrid drive would be especially tempting! I applaud Seagate for being the first to cross this line, and look forward to a hands-on test as soon as I can manage it.

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Seagate Breaks the Areal Density Limit With 1 TB 2 Platter 2.5″ Drive
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Do you want X-series or P-series storage? Is A-series networking gear any good? And where did all these HP products come from?

HP has always been an alphabet soup company, assigning just about every item in their bewildering array of products a unique product number. Like Mercedes-Benz cars, even the product names are a mix of letters and numbers that can be off-putting to browsers. Now that they have grown to supersize proportions through internal expansion and acquisition, just about everyone outside the company seems to have trouble decoding the product line, so I decided to take a stab at decoding the enterprise lineup in plain english.

An Important Note

This is not a political activity. I’m not trying to comment on which product is better than which or pigeonhole something by calling it “midrange” when HP thinks it’s “high-end”. I’m trying to be descriptive and helpful to prospective buyers working to understand the multitude of products sold by HP.

I welcome your input. In fact, I demand it! I don’t know which product is which and need your help to improve this list. Please feel free to comment and suggest corrections and additions (wireless?)

Storage Products (“StorageWorks”)

HP’s storage products are divided into three categories:

• P-series is block (SAN) storage using Fibre Channel or iSCSI
• X-series is file (NAS) storage
• Disk backup will presumably get a letter series in the future

Storage Product Notes

HP engineering input into OEMed products ranges from minimal to substantial. The EML tape library, for example, is very different from the standard Oracle (STK) product on which it is based. The high-end Hitachi-based storage includes substantial HP input as well.

HP StorageWorks VP of Marketing Tom Joyce informed me that the 3PAR T- and F-Class boxes won’t be renamed at this point. This is probably a good move – capitalize on the value of the 3PAR name rather than the virtually-unknown “P-series” nomenclature.

Others tell me that the StorageWorks 4400 is hitting end-of-life in the now-ish timeframe. So it won’t get a new name either.

Networking Products

HP’s networking products are divided into three categories:

• A-series is enterprise-class core switching, routing, and 200+ AP wireless
• E-series is mid-market and SMB switching and smaller wireless
• V-series is SMB and SoHo web-managed and unmanaged switching and wireless

Networking Product Notes

HP’s 3Com acquisition focused primarily on the H3C (former Huawei/3Com joint venture) high-end switching and routing products. Although some 3Com gear remains in the E-series line (particularly stackable switches), the low-end fixed-port switches have seemingly been eliminated from the product line. The Colubris acquisition provided HP with scalable wireless products now slotted below the H3C gear.

Stephen’s Stance

Product lines are always confusing at large companies, and doubly so where acquisitions bring in legacy products and customers. I wish HP the best of luck sorting all this out!

Note: The photo at the top is of a Japanese clone of the Enigma Machine from World War II.

Image credit: Japanese WWII Enigma Machine by Radio Rover

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Stephen’s HP Product Line Decoder Ring
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Who will power the enterprise? The smart money is betting on a few superpowers taking over.

After years spent focusing on personal technology, businesses are increasingly turning back to the enterprise. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is the poor economy. Individuals simply have less free cash to spend on gadgets and software, and the meagre profits are increasingly going into the pockets of a single company: Apple.

The corporate IT market is much more dynamic and competitive, with a few very large “superpower” companies discovering their power to drive purchasing decisions. If a supplier can create an integrated “stack” of hardware and software, they can push product purchases that might otherwise be overlooked or postponed. This is the main reason that enterprise IT acquisitions work so well: Where a small company must fight to sell their product, a large one can hitch it to a much more strategic sale and have it pulled along.

The old IBM model is the prototype, with that company once selling everything from office equipment to datacenter gear as well as the consulting and integration services to make it all work.

HP has spent almost two decades bulking up to become the new IBM, buying their way into open systems laptops, desktops, and servers (Compaq), networking (3Com), services (EDS), and storage (Compaq, LeftHand, Ibrix, and perhaps 3Par). HP has been remarkably proficient at executing on this enterprise plan: In talking to enterprise IT folks, I often hear IBM-esque sentiments regarding the new HP. They tell me they’re willing to give HP the benefit of the doubt when it comes to new technologies and products, buying on basis of the company’s reputation and ability to make everything work. This bodes well for the company’s post-Hurd future, and HP has the most-complete “enterprise stack” in the business.

But HP has a target on its back, pinned there by Dell. The folks from Round Rock believe they can be more efficient (and thus profitable) than HP in the same markets, and have been making moves to fortify their enterprise offerings. Dell was always more of a manufacturing than R&D business, but they have shown a desire to broaden their focus. Intrigued by the high-margin mid-enterprise storage business built from their EqualLogic acquisition and their success selling EMC storage, Dell is moving into the enterprise. They matched HP/EDS by purchasing Perot and have made smaller buys in storage (Ocarina, Exanet) as well as the big move for 3Par.

The next big emerging stack player is Oracle. The acquisition of Sun gave Oracle a strong hardware base to complement their command of enterprise software, and many expect further acquisitions. But Oracle is playing a different game than HP and Dell, focusing on the high-margin enterprise space and ignoring more competitive outlying areas. Many suspect the company might make a play in the network space (Brocade, Juniper, and F5 have been mentioned) but storage is possible as well. CEO Larry Ellison is a major investor in Pillar Data Systems, so many expect a spin-in here. But Oracle has the appetite for something much bigger, even EMC or NetApp.

Then there is Cisco, who have attempted to parlay their data center networking strength into a broader position. But Cisco’s halting moves into storage (Fibre Channel switching and SAN extension) did not displace the market leaders, and their server products (UCS) have not made much of a dent on HP, IBM, and Dell either. A solid partnership with EMC has delayed further forays into the enterprise storage market, and Cisco seems puzzlingly interested in low-margin access businesses (Linksys, Flip) and their Cius tablet.

There are other players in the enterprise space as well. EMC has diversified under CEO Joe Tucci, taking a dominant position in server virtualization (VMware) and making a strong enterprise security acquisition (RSA). But the many faces of enterprise storage remains EMC’s strength, and they seem content to partner with Cisco for a stack sale. Hitachi, NEC, and Fujitsu also offer varying enterprise hardware and software stacks, but their comparatively small sales presence in the US market limits their ability to execute. In the final analysis, only IBM, HP, Dell, and perhaps Oracle can claim to be enterprise IT superpowers at this point.

Image credit: Steam Engine by Stuck in Customs

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Meet the Enterprise IT Superpowers
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

But there’s an amazing short-term win to be had for whoever acquires 3Par. According to IDC, the race for number two in external disk storage system sales is a bitter fight. IBM, NetApp, HP, and Dell are all within striking distance of each other, pulling in between $500 and $579 million dollars while big daddy EMC makes more than any two of them. The battle between HP and Dell in storage arrays is a dead heat, with just $6 million separating the two.

The 3Par acquisition creates a massive market-share shift!

It’s no wonder HP and Dell are fighting over 3Par! That acquisition is good for an easy $50 million in quarterly revenue, and a strong sales push could make this $60 million. This extra revenue cements the buyer ahead of his rival and makes him a challenger to IBM and NetApp. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see the winner vault into the number 2 spot within a year.

This is a huge win for HP or Dell and a serious egg-on-the-face moment for NetApp, IBM and the loser. Sure, $1.7 billion is a lot to pay for $250 million in revenue, but the winner gets immediate bragging rights and a serious prospect of breaking free of the second-place pack. 3Par’s technology is unique in being a real tier-1 threat. This was an issue for the company as a startup, but becomes a serious asset in the hands of HP or Dell (or, dare I suggest, Oracle or NetApp). A well-executed transition and sales execution will cement HP or Dell as the most-credible competitor to EMC within a few years.

Stephen’s Stance

The 3Par acquisition makes so much sense, one wonders why it didn’t happen sooner. Dell clearly sees this as a higher-end repeat of their success with EqualLogic and gives them a chance to earn some additional enterprise credibility. An HP acquisition makes just as much sense, giving them fresh SAN technology and letting them pull ahead of Dell once again. A big deal like this also gives HP’s Dave Donatelli some internal clout in the aftermath of the Hurd fiasco. I expect a counter-offer or two before this is done, but 3Par remains attractive at even a billion more.

Will anyone else join the fray? IBM seems happy with XIV, though the market doesn’t see that product as tier-1. I expect them to stand pat. Oracle should jump in, given the souring of their Sun-era Hitachi OEM deal. Passing on 3Par leaves them with no enterprise SAN chair when the music stops, but they might not feel that they need this kind of hardware. Cisco could use the 3Par technology to reject EMC, but they might not be ready for that move. Another idea is perennial second-place storage company NetApp, who might be able to afford to play this game and could really use a new product line.

What’s left for the loser? Not much. There isn’t another startup with credible tier-1 SAN intentions. Compellent is a great alternative in the midrange SAN market, and Xiotech has great SAN technology here, too. Everyone assumes Oracle will pick up Pillar, and then there’s BlueArc and Isilon waiting in the NAS space. But none of these are a slam-dunk in terms of market share, and the value question looms large when it comes to any high-P/E acquisition. Expect more acquisitions in the coming quarters, but the 3Par game looks like a highlight.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Everyone Loves 3Par – Here’s Why!
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I’ve long wished for a new enterprise storage superpower. Competition is good for everyone, and the enterprise storage space has always been highly competitive. Traditional SAN storage powers (EMC, HDS, HP, and IBM) have been under continual attack from tech-heavy upstarts like EqualLogic, LeftHand, Compellent, Xiotech, and 3Par. The smaller (revenue-wise) NAS market has been more serial, with NetApp knocking off Auspex, then challenged by EMC. Yet innovators have been thick there as well, from Exanet to Ibrix, Isilon to Onstor.

Through it all, one thing has been clear: The major companies, though perhaps lagging in technology, were usually able to withstand the attack of the upstarts through sheer strength of salesforce. Storage is a strategic investment, and selection of a storage platform is much more far-reaching than many IT product decisions. The inertia of an installed storage environment makes it a real challenge to switch vendors, giving the established players massive leverage.

It became clear to me and many others that the best way for upstart companies (and, by extension, technologies) was to be part of an established vendor’s sales process. OEM relationships were a big part of this (witness the success of BlueArc and even NetApp and HDS) but acquisition was a much stronger proposition. If customers were warmer to OEM products than independent sales, they are much hotter when it comes to acquired technology. HP, Dell, IBM, and EMC have all demonstrated the power that comes when an established company buys a startup and puts the power of their sales force behind these new products.

This explains Dell’s fantastic success with EqualLogic. They took a product that was emerging as dominant in its niche (midrange iSCSI SAN) and blasted it into the market, while at the same time optimizing manufacturing and deployment. EMC did the same with Clariion and DataDomain, and HP is showing strong signs of health with LeftHand and Ibrix. Then there is IBM, who took XIV out of Israel and made it a source of irritation to the rest of the industry.

Many industry watchers have long wondered what would happen if the smaller guys got together, forming a new superpower of their own. Would 3Par, BlueArc, and Sepaton be a real challenger? What about Xiotech or Compellent and Isilon or FalconStor? Is mixing and matching some smaller companies a recipe for success? The answer was often a counter-question: What if someone like Dell, who knows how to manufacture and sell, picked them up instead? This seemed much more like a sure-thing, since the established management and financials stave off potential integration issues.

It appears that this is the future. Established players will pick up smaller companies, fortifying their offerings and accelerating sales in a way the little guys weren’t capable of. Dell’s billion-dollar acquisition of 3Par reportedly headed off a similar offer from HP, and will likely spark another acquisition. I imagine the management teams at Compellent and Xiotech just got a lot busier…

Clearly, Dell and HP are playing this game. IBM and EMC are in it, too. But what about Cisco and Oracle? Could they be planning storage acquisitions of their own, to the detriment of partners like EMC and Hitachi? What about the strong contingent from Japan, NEC and Hitachi? And who gets picked up next? We shall see!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Dell + EqualLogic, Exanet, Ocarina, 3Par = What?
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Seagate's new GoFlex external drive lineup moves the smarts into the cable, simplifying function and connectivity upgrades

The external hard disk drive market is incredibly hot right now, but it’s also ultra-competitive. Stalwarts Seagate and Western Digital battle it out with everyone from disk makers like Toshiba and Hitachi to PC hardware companies like HP, Iomega, LaCie. The latest trend is dockable multi-function drives that are friendlier to use and offer advanced features like video playback. Most docks rely on USB 2.0, but Seagate just dropped a bomb on the industry with a simple twist: They moved the intelligence outside the case, repackaging the standard internal SATA connector as GoFlex, an external link to a variety of docks and adapters.

The Trouble With Hot Products

External drive makers face a dilemma: Fierce competition has driven down the price of external USB hard disk drives, hurting profit margins. Most brick-and-mortar stores sell basic external USB drives even cheaper than the bare hard disk mechanism contained inside, and sales can push them lower than online bulk drive purchases. It’s nice to be in a hot market, but not so great when it squeezes out all of the profit.

Drive makers responded by adding features. A few years back, the trend was upscale “pro” models with 400 or 800 megabit FireWire interfaces, one-touch backup software, or built-in encryption. We also saw “fashion” drives with sleek lines and bright colors. But these were one-sale sweeteners and did nothing for the brand as a whole. The next step was the introduction of desktop docking stations, encouraging the purchase of more devices from the same vendor. Then came a wave of video playback stations that connect to a television.

But all of these devices were limited by the USB 2.0 interface they used. USB was good enough for many uses, but it was too slow for some users. Those wanting faster performance simply ignored the dockable lines and went straight for FireWire 800, eSATA, or iSCSI over Gigabit Ethernet. The release of USB 3.0 forces vendors to scrap their current docks anyway.

What’s the Big Idea?

Seagate took these marketing lemons and turned them into lemonade. Their idea is simple: Move the interface and feature smarts outside the drive case and into the cable or dock. The GoFlex interface is almost identical to the standard SATA data and power interface found on physical hard disk drives. This gives plenty of performance, future-proofs the line as drive speeds increase, and allows a wider variety of interfaces to be used.

Take a good look: GoFlex uses SATA data and power connections!

Let’s say you go out and buy a simple basic 500 GB FreeAgent GoFlex portable drive. It comes with the USB 2.0 cable but not much else. You can still get a TV dock like before, but now you can also order up some speed with a FireWire 800 or eSATA Upgrade Cable. And you can mix and match drives and cables, using eSATA with your desktop and USB with your notebook.

This is a win from Seagate’s perspective, too. Assuming they made the connector just different enough to not be compatible with other vendors’ SATA drives, they retain the brand lock-in advantage while offering enticing features to their customers. Assuming they eventually offer GoFlex drives without the cable as upgrades for existing users, the technology also allows them to underprice their competitors.

My Take

GoFlex is definitely a clever marketing idea, repackaging existing technology in a novel way. I am pleased to see an upgrade path to faster interfaces like USB 3.0 and eSATA, though I wish Apple would hurry up and offer these ports on their machines. And I am eager to try the technology out, especially with third-party drives.

I imagine that GoFlex will give Seagate quite a differentiator in a competitive market and will encourage brand loyalty among customers. But TV docks have not been a big success (judging from the clearance section at my local Best Buy) and I doubt this will change that situation. I expect this technology to be a hit, but drives will be drives.

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Lemons Into Lemonade: Seagate Repackages SATA As GoFlex
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Reader Dave Emery asked a question that I’m sure many others have wondered:

Are “enterprise” drives worth the extra cost in a RAID enclosure? The reason I ask is I’ve had 2 of 4 Seagate ‘consumer’ (7200.12) drives fail in my (Other World Qx2) enclosure.  The two drives that failed were maybe a year old, well short of any ‘MBTF’ expectation. Enterprise drives cost nearly twice that of consumer drives.

Do you have any recommendations (for or against) consumer or enterprise drive brands?  I’ve generally had bad luck with Seagate over the years, but generally good luck with WD.  I don’t have enough service history with other brands to have an opinion.  Hitachi enterprise drives are the least expensive, and OWC said they’ve had good luck with that brand.

The first drive failed, I replaced it with a (Hitachi) drive, and the RAID 5 set rebuilt OK.  The second drive failed, and when I put a drive from another machine in it, the rebuild failed.  (Not sure why, maybe because this wasn’t a “bare” drive, it had been formatted and partitioned on the machine I pulled it from.)  I’m still talking with OWC about what happened with failure #2.  (They did not sell me the drives, just the bare enclosure.  The two drives that failed were ‘rescued’ from another enclosure, and I bought two more to match.)

p.s.  I think I have everything backed up & current, but I’ll find out when I go to rebuild the partitions in the RAID enclosure  My goal is 3 copies of stuff, my problem has been getting the automated backup scripts to work correctly.

Stephen’s Stance

I don’t use enterprise drives in consumer RAID systems. My Drobo has two 1.5 TB Samsung EcoGreen F2 drives and two 1.5 TB Western Digital GreenPower drives, all consumer models purchased under $100.

I do believe that enterprise drives are more reliable, but not enough to justify the cost to me as a SOHO user. They are just so much more expensive! I can afford to replace a drive a year rather than spend much more on a drive that might fail half as often. Plus, consumer green drives use much less energy and produce much less heat and vibration (since they spin slower). I’m concerned that a desktop unit like a Drobo or OWC RAID might no be designed to handle high-RPM hot drives. Even if it can, it’s unlikely it will make any practical use of this extra performance.

On the other hand, enterprise drives have longer warranties and this offsets the replacement cost advantage if you take advantage of it. And most consumers don’t use RAID and routinely lose data due to drive failures…

Looking through my Hall of Shame (failed drives), I count 1 DOA Samsung F2, 1 flaky Seagate 7200.10, 1 dead-then-replaced-then-dead-again WD Caviar SE, and 1 dead Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9. That covers just about every major brand but Toshiba (I have one working drive) and Hitachi (I don’t own any). So I can’t say which is best, really. I generally buy WD or Seagate but tried the Samsungs and am not happy with a failure one day after powering on. I do like the WD green drives, though, and recently bought two. The Seagate 5900 drives are nice, too, and I’ve got four in my Iomega ix4.

Just be glad you have RAID and didn’t lose data. I was thrilled that the Drobo protected my data when the Samsung drive died! Good on you for the backups, too. I generally keep two or three sets of backups on different drives, including a copy in the cloud. But then I’m crazy for data protection!

David later clarified his drive failure:

I went with the OWC 4 bay enclosure over a Drobo for a couple of reasons:

1. Bias against proprietary solutions
2. The OWC box is a bit cheaper and supposedly has better FW800 performance (I sure wish Apple would adopt eSATA!)
3. I’ve had great customer service from OWC on their products

This morning’s failure was a UPS, the one that I use for ‘infrastructure’ (cable modem, router, a couple of USB hubs, etc.)  It made a nasty non-localized noise and I had to stick my head under a bunch of desks to find which unit was complaining.

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Should Home Users Buy Enterprise Hard Disk Drives?
This post was categorized as Apple, Ask a Pack Rat, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.