I think this sentiment is just as valid today as when I posted it in 2008!

Although many discussions in the storage industry focus on the relative merits of one protocol or another, the conversation occasionally turns to the core issue at hand: We continue to patch together a system based on outdated concepts. Most storage protocols continue to mimic direct attached storage, and most of our so-called networks act as point to point channels. An ultra-modern virtualized storage infrastructure with all the latest bells and whistles still holds the concepts of block and file at its core. Whenever the storage industry has tried to bring about real storage management they have been stymied by a lack of context for data.

No amount of virtualization, and no new protocol, will fix this. Put simply, we need a storage revolution.

Channels, Blocks, and Files

Most innovation in the 1980s and early 1990s focused on moving storage out of the server. SCSI allowed disk to exist in a separate cabinet, RAID allowed multiple physical disks to become a single virtual one, and these were mixed to become the prototype storage array. Although SCSI allowed one-to-many connectivity, it was never a true peer-to-peer network, even once it was mixed with network concepts in the form of Fibre Channel.

Even today, SAN storage is focused on providing faster, more flexible, and feature-packed direct-attached storage. A modern virtual SAN hides a complex arrangement of caching, data protection, tiered storage, replication, and deduplication, masquerading the lot as a simple, lowly disk drive. It is sad but true that all of our work as an industry has been dedicated to recreating what we started with.

Networked file-based storage is no better. Although NAS devices have all the advanced features of their SAN cousins, they must present a simple file tree to the host to retain compatibility. File virtualization merely presents a larger homogenous tree.

Inside the server, too, features and complexity are hidden to retain a familiar file system format. Volume managers can do anything a virtualization device can, but must present their output as a simple (though virtual) disk drive. File systems, too, have added features but still present a familiar tree of mount points, inodes, and files. Even ZFS, possibly the most advanced combination of volume management and file system technology yet, must present a simple tree of storage to applications.

The Metadata Roadblock

This outdated paradigm, of disks and file trees, is ill-suited to today’s storage challenges. Data must be categorized so actions can be taken to preserve or destroy it based on policies. Data must be searchable so users and applications can find what they want. Data must be flexible so it can be used in new ways. Our antiquated notions are not capable of meeting these challenges.

One simple problem is that we lack context for our data. Most file systems merely assign to a file a name, location, owner, and security attributes. The most advanced can contain extended metadata, but this is rarely seen in practice since many applications cannot agree on how to use this data. Microsoft’s Office suite can store and share extended file attributes, for example, but these live inside the file rather than in the file system. The promise of expanded Office attributes is only realized in conjunction with a content management system like SharePoint which lies above the lowly file system.

What if the storage system could keep this data instead? What if it could logically group files according to project or client, mining keywords and authors, and maintaining revisions? These concepts are not new, having been implemented in content management systems for years, and certain elements appeared in file systems, like Apple’s HFS and VMS’ Files-11, for decades.

Cut Down the Tree

File metadata would allow advanced features, but truly taking advantage of them requires a more fundamental shift in the way applications access files. Rather than sticking to a traditional hierarchy of directories in a tree (which was, after all, simply a primitive metadata system), we should remove the tree altogether. Allow files to become data objects, identified by arbitrary attributes and managed according to an overarching policy.

This future vision is decidedly different from our current notion of storage, but is not so far off. Many organizations now rely on central data warehouses based on SQL-language relational databases. As many storage managers have grumbled, databases tend to ignore storage management concepts entirely, managing their own content independently.

But not all applications need a database back-end, so another initiative seeks to provide generic object storage for wider use. Called content-addressable storage or CAS, these devices have traditionally been used only for archival purposes, since that was their first market application. As vendors break free of proprietary interfaces in favor of open ones like XAM, CAS could transform storage itself by eliminating both file and block storage at once.

Similar concepts are already at work in the so-called Web 2.0 world. Non-traditional databases like Google BigTable, Amazon S3, and Hadoop allow massive scalability for object storage. API-sharing initiatives with many Web 2.0 companies can be seen as similar prototypical object storage frameworks. Any of these could be leveraged to provide a new world of data storage, and many are gaining traction even now.

Stephen’s Stance

Although traditional block storage is here to stay for disk drives, and tree-type file systems are likely to remain the foundation of operating system storage, new object-based concepts could change the world in fundamental ways. As applications become “web aware”, they also become object aware, increasing the likelihood of such a storage revolution. For the majority of applications, this new world would be a welcome one indeed.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | We Need a Storage Revolution
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Iomega's StorCenter Pro ix4-100 is VMware certified, hot swappable, and not bad to look at!

As I expected, EMC’s Iomega subsidiary today rolled out the StorCenter Pro ix4-100 a big brother to the popular but plain StorCenter ix2 NAS device. This new model add hot-swappable drives (there are four now), RAID-5, and a longer warranty to make it suitable for small office use. It uses a blacked-out version of the chassis from the non-LifeLine StorCenter Pro 150d.

Like the ix2, the Pro ix4 is certified for VMware ESX using NFS. iSCSI is still absent, though EMC folks have talked about adding this in short order.

This is the third member of the LifeLine-powered NAS family from Iomega: The confusingly-named single-drive Home Media Network Hard Disk Drive, the dual-drive StorCenter ix2, and this four-drive StorCenter Pro ix4-100. The “-100″ nomenclature suggests that more 4-drive models might be on the way, perhaps a “-200″ model sharing its rackmount chassis with the existing non-LifeLine StorCenterPro 200rl.

With NetApp exiting the small-business market by ending their StoreVault line, who would have thought big old EMC would be the one to step up? At $799 or $1,299 for the 2 and 4 TB versions, the ix4 is about the same price as a Drobo, which is $749 or $999 plus $199 for the DroboShare NAS.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | EMC LifeLine Spreads To The Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-100
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Zip drives like this 1996 parallel-port example made Iomega famous, but EMC is giving the company a second act

Pity poor old Iomega. The company responsible for hot products like the Zip drive and coulda-beens like the Clik drive was stumbling in the early part of this decade, unable to distinguish itself from all of the other providers of commodity external storage devices for consumers. Although the company had built the Zip into a viable floppy drive successor, USB “thumb drives” took that market by storm, replacing removable disks with flash memory.

The company was working to break into the small business market in the middle of this decade, offering Rev disk-based backup, small desktop and rack-mount NAS servers, and internet storage in addition to well-regarded software add-ins. But by that time, Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital had come to dominate the external USB drive market, and Lexar, PNY, and the like had taken over the removable world.

Then EMC stepped in with their March, 2008, $178 million buyout offer. Iomega rebuffed the offer at first, since it was in the process of being merged with China’s Excelstor. But after some apparently tough back and forth between the companies, Iomega finally accepted a $213 million offer in early April, completing the acquisition in June. Although it made sense for EMC to move down-market, as Cisco did with their similar Linksys acquisition, many wondered how this would work out, especially when one considers the contentious buyout process.

We needn’t have worried – ever since the EMC buyout, Iomega has rocketed forward, introducing intriguing new products, finding synergies within EMC, and gaining mindshare. Although they still peddle commodity storage, Iomega’s new line of EMC-powered NAS systems is getting the real attention (VMware geeks especially should take a hard look at the StorCenter ix2!) But the company ought to make a few marketing changes if it is to really succeed.

EMC Throws a Lifeline

Without a doubt, it was EMC’s LifeLine software that injected the most adrenalin into Iomega. Although it predated the acquisition, LifeLine is a perfect fit for Iomega: It’s a Linux-based NAS operating system with RAID, Retrospect backup, integrated media services (compatible with iTunes, Xbox, Wii, and UPnP), print services, and unusual features like Picture Transfer Protocol, Bluetooth, and Axis surveillance storage.

It’s a great combination of home features, and Iomega quickly launched a product including this software: the StorCenter ix2. Although Iomega had used the StorCenter brand name for years on a variety of NAS devices, the ix2 was the first to use EMC’s LifeLine software. The combination of Iomega, LifeLine, and Retrospect makes for a compelling home product, and many a “terabyte home” is switching to the platform. But the product’s inherited industrial design is plain (one blogger suggested it had a Wife Acceptance Factor issue), and the naming is confusing. A casual shopper would have no way of differentiating the various StorCenter products – indeed, it is difficult for me to figure out the various product lines from Iomega’s sales-oriented web site!

Predictably, Iomega is expanding their LifeLine-powered lineup both down- and up-market. The company recently introduced a smaller single-drive LifeLine-powered home NAS device, and we are hearing rumors of larger office-oriented versions. But the little guy also uses hand-me-down clothes, and is tagged with a mouthful of a name that is at once inconsistent and forgettable: Home Media Network Hard Drive. The average consumer would have no way of knowing what lurks under the skin of this home NAS, since it looks exactly like the basic USB-connected Prestige line! Why can’t the company that gave us the pretty eGo drive design something a little more attractive – check out what the competition is offering!

Moving On Up

Although their home-oriented offerings are compelling, VMware geeks should keep their eye on the upscale uses of the LifeLine platform! It hasn’t been officially announced, but EMC folks are saying that iSCSI will be added to LifeLine in short order. And the platform is already VMware certified!

Interested in building your own VMware lab? Pick up an ix2 and use NFS until the iSCSI software is added. It’s on the HCL, and makes an excellent platform for playing around with ESX! Plus, you can stream iTunes and store webcam video of your door at the same time!

Although the rest of the StorCenter line isn’t currently LifeLine powered, I’m sure it’ll be upgraded in short order. It might not be powerful enough for real enterprise computing, but a small office or lab would be well served by EMC’s kid-brother systems.

Although Iomega’s latest offerings are compelling, the company really needs to do something about its marketing. Ditch the bland and confusing names and cases and come up with something really compelling. Let buyers know which systems are LifeLine-powered and transform the web site from an online store into a site that draws attention to the unique features of these systems. Although EMC’s products might sell themselves, the consumer / prosumer / small business market is a tough one, as Iomega must already know.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | EMC Makes Iomega Relevant Again
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Great! But I thought the new era for IT was a cloud with choice, mobility, and application support, as trumpeted by EMC’s VMware subsidiary! Wasn’t Cloud vServices from VDC-OS supposed to be the prototype cloud strategy for the datacenter?

What we have here is a simple clash of marketing amusingly taking place at (nearly) the same company. VMware figured out how to extend their server virtualization products outside the confines of the data center, and laid that technology out as a strategy with the trendy “cloud” name. Meanwhile, mother EMC is working on next-generation content storage software and decides to roll that out as a strategy and also jumps on the “cloud” meme. What’s an IT manager to do?

Defining Atmos

As predicted, EMC’s Atmos (code-name Maui) is a distributed software layer to handle the storage and management of data objects across geographically-dispersed storage devices. EMC’s Chuck Hollis demonstrates Atmos with a simple, practical example, perhaps making it sound too much like Akamai but generally getting the point across. You have a data object, write it to Atmos through REST/SOAP or CIFS/NFS, assign some metadata, and the software takes care of data placement for you. It’ll add local copies, replicate for availability and performance, compress or deduplicate, manage versions, and all sorts of goodies (if you ask it to).

But EMC already has a capable object storage platform, the Centera. We’ve just got used to the content-addressable storage (CAS) label for object storage (even though this name misses the point of object storage, in my opinion) and now EMC wants us to learn a new label for a somewhat-similar device? Steve Todd, EMC’s object guy extraordinaire, lays it out:

SAN Value = Centralized, secure multi-tenancy for blocks.

NAS Value = Centralized, secure multi-tenancy for files.

CAS Value = Centralized, secure multi-tenancy for objects (content + metadata).

COS Value = Globalized, secure multi-tenancy for content with rich policies.

Ok, so the defining capabilities of Atmos are its global scale and rich policies. And the fact that “objects” has become “content”, presumably since Atmos can handle traditional NAS (CIFS/NFS) chores as well.

Prayers Answered?

It sounds like EMC is answering my prayers for a storage revolution, delivering a highly-capable object storage platform that transcends the old limits of blocks, directories, and files. Steve Todd points out that Atmos handles five policy categories out of the box:

• Replication
• Compression
• Spin-down
• Object de-dup
• Versioning

So we write some data to Atmos, using either traditional NAS or webby dubby protocols like SOAP, and can then apply policies in any of these five categories to that data. One can also extend the Atmos to accept other policies, but the absence (out of the box) of concepts like encryption, secure deletion, retention, and access control are surprising.

I am quite puzzled about how practical these policy capabilities will be in the real world. How exactly would an application say “I want you to compress that file I wrote over NFS just now?” Hitachi’s HCAP platform, for example, also has policy capabilities and a NAS front end, and although archiving applications can communicate their policy needs, I don’t see lots of current general-purpose applications using it.

Strategic Storage?

This brings me to my puzzlement: The default Atmos policies are all general-purpose, production computing ideas, not the special-purpose, archiving and retention needs served by Centera, HCAP, and the rest. So the Atmos is clearly intended to be a production data storage system, not an archiving system to compete with Centera.

Since mainstream business applications currently don’t have any capability to specify policies like these when writing files, and since NAS protocols lack any means to communicate them even if the apps want to, we can conclude that EMC expects that Atmos users will write special applications to take advantage of it.

EMC certainly doesn’t expect that the NAS-capable Atmos will simply replace today’s distributed NAS solutions. NAS is a sideshow for Atmos. The real action will be in the REST/SOAP webby dubby applications that will be written with the platform in mind and will take full advantage of these capabilities.

If this is true, and I and others suspect that it is, then Atmos really isn’t a game-changing platform unless you change your game. If you write new applications to store data with SOAP, Atmos is a nice in-house alternative to Amazon S3 or Nirvanix, and offers a very compelling set of data management capabilities. And if you want to set up shop to compete with those service providers, Atmos is a dream come true with built-in multi-tenancy.

Datacenter Strategy

So EMC alone has two seemingly competitive datacenter strategies. And then there’s Microsoft, which announced its Azure cloud platform recently, and Amazon and the other cloud providers.

So let’s say you’re a CIO for a large corporation. Which of the following strategies is more compelling:

1. Use VMware VDC-OS to add capabilities and Cloud vServices extend your current virtual infrastructure geographically
2. Recompile and tweak your Windows applications to leverage Microsoft Azure
3. Develop new applications to take advantage of the impressive storage capabilities of an in-house EMC Atmos system
4. Point your new applications at a third-party cloud provider like Amazon or Nirvanix

IT people are practical. Although we love new technology, we tend to be cautious. We also hate massive software development efforts, and only sanction them when they’re absolutely necessary. Given these personality traits, I’d say VDC-OS and perhaps Cloud vServices still stands out as the most likely and practical scenario for the majority of applications and businesses.

This is not to say that EMC Atmos will be a flop. I’m impressed by the technology, and expect that Atmos will find buyers, just as Centera did. And Atmos might even replace Centera once EMC adds retention policies to it and scales it down as well as up and out. But Atmos will not redefine the datacenter. We’re stuck with blocks and files, and VMware’s practical strategy is a winner in that world.

Update: Marc Farley compares Atmos to WAFS, with ominous implications, and echos my recent question on what is and is not innovative.

Update 2: Chuck Hollis, Storagezilla, and Len Devanna have all come right out and said that this is only intended for certain customers with massive distributed storage needs, and is not intended as a new datacenter strategy. Even the “cloudfella” says “ciao”:

Update 3: More great information, including a reply regarding VDC-OS and Atmos from the one and only Chad Sakac, more great detail about the inner workings of Atmos from Steve Todd, and even more info from Dave Graham. Finally, although I think that Cloudfellas video is cute, I wouldn’t categorize it as viral. But those Mozy ads are awesome!

See my posts on Gestalt IT for similar enterprise IT infrastructure commentary

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | EMC Atmos Versus VMware VDC-OS: Will The Real Cloud Strategy Please Stand Up?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Homes now need data storage as well as closets...

This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday as part of an experiment in offering more in-depth content.

Along with my professional focus on enterprise storage systems, I’m enamored of home networking, and recently passed the three terabyte mark at home! This got me thinking about where home storage is heading.

As you can see in the photo, my office closet is overflowing with computer equipment (and one sweet guitar), but my data storage is much better organized. I have a hacked Linksys NSLU2 with 500 GB as a file server, a 500 GB PC backup disk, a 160 GB Time Machine disk, 1 TB of TiVo storage, and the rest. But wouldn’t it be nice if this could all be combined into some kind of super home server?

Past Failures: Home Servers

Home storage appliances and servers have come and gone over the year, with none seeming to make much of a mark. The market remains littered with UPNP media servers and home NAS boxes dashed on the shoals of an unappreciative public. Nearly every home network device company has produced one or two home storage servers, none of which have succeeded. Although I use a Linksys NSLU2 at home, I had to hack its Linux software and completely replace Linksys’ features to create a useful device! The un-hacked NAS devices of Buffalo, Western Digital, Netgear, and the rest have generally failed to find buyers as well. So far, consumers seem content with simple USB and FireWire external drives.

The most adventurous home storage servers came from Zetera and Ximeta, both of whom relied on proprietary IP SAN protocols. Note that these were SAN products, sharing block storage over Ethernet, rather than conventional NAS solutions. Both required drivers, limiting client support. The one Zetera buyer I know was pleased by the performance but never used the device as anything but a large hard drive for one PC.

Then there is Microsoft. Recall that the latest Windows Home Server is only their latest attempt to enter this market, and yet I know of no one who has adopted the device. The same can be said of the various media center servers from Microsoft and others. At this point, it seems likely that the future of home storage servers will not come from Microsoft, though their two XBox generations have great potential as clients.

Even EMC has entered the market with their nifty (but largely unnoticed) LifeLine product and Iomega acquisition. Supporting file services and backup for computers as well as audio and video for media players, EMC positions LifeLine much like their Retrospect backup product, but goes further in offering a complete software solution for hardware OEMs wanting to offer a non-Windows home server. Although an impressive offering, it is too early to tell if EMC will have much success with this product.

The Sleek, Shiny Elephant in the Living Room

Of course, there is one company that sells media players and servers by the bushel, complete with sleek, shiny interfaces. Apple’s tremendous success with the iPod has led to their iTunes software becoming the dominant media organization platform, complete with its own proprietary discovery and sharing protocol. Now, with the Apple TV and video iPods, the company is broadening into more media categories. Surely their dominance here puts them in a special position when it comes to setting the stage for a home server or storage revolution.

They also have a strong position in the world of dedicated home storage. Their Airport products are among the only routers to be widely implemented with shared storage. Although many other companies offer similar products, low customer understanding means that these functions are not widely used. And the new Time Capsule device is surely already the most widely-used home NAS product.

But Apple has not yet shown any home server strategy. Administering multiple iTunes servers can be frustrating for users, with no inter-iTunes synchronization or centralization capability. Although the Mac Mini, Apple TV, or Time Capsule could certainly be seen as a home server, the company does not position them as such in the market. Indeed, some iTunes users like myself rely on compatible third party media servers like Firefly and TwonkyVision rather than using iTunes itself. Still, rumors of an Apple home server persist.

One issue for Apple is their reliance on proprietary protocols. Although the Bonjour discovery protocol is certainly simpler than UPnP in practice, Apple stands alone in relying on it. They also steadfastly stick to AFP for NAS and DAAP for remote media streaming. This limits the number of third-party clients and servers that can be used with their hardware and software.

The Future is Friendly

Although Apple has not yet tipped a home storage strategy beyond Time Capsule and Airport Extreme, they are best positioned to deliver a real home storage solution. A simple step would be to create an iTunes media server integrated with Time Capsule and add client/server media synchronization. The company already has OS X backup and file services integrated, and this move would further centralize the digital home around Apple products. But the company’s reliance on closed protocols like DAAP is worrisome, since it locks consumers into nearly all-Apple solutions.

Microsoft’s Media Center and Home Server combination, based around UPnP, shows great promise, with many compatible third-party clients and servers already available. But my own experience with the solution has not been at all positive (I still can’t get my Roku SoundBridge, Vista Ultimate laptop, and Media Center PC to see each other!), leading me to question the viability of this option.

Although Apple or Microsoft could come to dominate, I suspect the future of home storage is out of both companies hands. A number of others are working on improved home server experiences, including EMC’s LifeLine and the expanding use of Debian Linux and open source tools. But all could be sidelined by improved Internet-based services. Google, Microsoft, and Apple continue to expand their online consumer suites with greater storage, synchronization, multimedia integration, and all have the potential to reduce or eliminate the need for in-home storage.

Although I cannot yet tell which service will win, one thing is certain: Consumers demand friendly, flexible solutions. They don’t want to fuss with their media, and they don’t want simple shared storage. They want integration with multiple devices and flexibility to access their content on any device. The first company to offer a simple, flexible storage server for the home will surely be on the right track!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | The Future of Home Storage
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I am not the typical enterprise storage user. In fact, I am not an enterprise storage user at all – I am a consultant focused for over a decade on assisting enterprises with their storage architecture and strategy, working with businesses of all sizes. My background is both a blessing and a curse – I have seen far more enterprise storage environments in much more detail than most people, but I am unable to truly empathize with my corporate storage compatriots since it’s not really my gear and data that I am working with.

Based on this experience, what does the future hold? Where is enterprise storage heading? Read on for my thoughts.

Fibre Channel

Although the commoditizing storage market would seem ripe for stagnation, the opposite is happening. In fact, the enterprise storage market has continued to diversify, with iSCSI recently expanding the options for storage connectivity to a new market and FC seeing rapid uptake in the virtual server arena. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), whether or not part of the datacenter Ethernet push, is joining virtualized I/O technology based on InfiniBand as the next wave in connectivity. Simply put, the market is not standing still.

Focus on the new world of storage area network (SAN) connectivity can take away from the basics, however. Traditional switched Fibre Channel (FC) remains the healthy market leader, and the recent upgrade to 8 Gb speed has attracted customer attention. Although they are unlikely to run out and perform a mass upgrade, 8 Gb FC is as as much of an inevitability as 4 and 2 Gb before it. The switch will be made, and customers will upgrade organically.

One of the big beneficiaries of 8 Gb FC will be those with virtual servers. This new hardware is coming just as N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) is maturing, and this technology, which enables multiple servers to share a single FC interface, in combination with a doubling of bandwidth will make modern Fibre Channel tech extremely attractive to virtual server shops.

Even those who do not adopt 8 Gb FC connectivity in their SAN will benefit from the upshift in throughput, as native 8 Gb disks appear and enterprise arrays are redesigned to accept them, just as devices like the DMX-4 from EMC benefited from 4 Gb FC back ends.

IP Storage: iSCSI and NAS

As far as iSCSI goes, those of us who saw the promise of this technology can finally declare victory. Every storage device that matters offers iSCSI as a connectivity option, and most buyers are considering adopting it. It is being weighed fairly against FC, and the promise of reduced heterogeneity and cost are proving attractive to many. In fact, it is wrong to continually compare it against FC, since many iSCSI buyers would never adopt an FC SAN due to concerns about cost or learning curve. Indeed, much of the uptake in iSCSI comes from areas where SAN was never adopted, and iSCSI’s growth can be partly attributed to these happy customers spreading the technology wider than originally intended.

A hidden benefit of iSCSI adoption is the technologies and techniques that have come along with it. Clustering of smaller storage systems has become a common option for scalability, and has proven itself against old modular “head/shelf” arrays. Although the rate of adoption for security technologies like CHAP and IPsec in iSCSI remains low, they are far more common than their FC relatives. And Microsoft’s simplified and universal iSCSI drivers, which include multi-path and snapshot technologies, have been much more successful than their proprietary equivalents.

Let us not forget humble old network attached storage (NAS), either. File server consolidation to NAS filers continues to be a healthy (but less flashy) market, and NAS virtualization is on the rise as these devices proliferate. And some in the server virtualization community are beginning to consider NFS for their servers, especially when it comes to VMware. NAS definitely still has life and legs and will benefit from the shift to 10 Gb Ethernet just like iSCSI and FCoE.

The Future

As for the future, it is clear that most storage vendors are lining up behind Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) . Although true I/O virtualization, as envisioned by datacenter Ethernet (DCE) and InfiniBand, may not gain traction outside the largest data centers, FCoE seems to be the inevitable next generation for massive enterprise storage. Just about every vendor is committed to it, and the customers I have spoken to accept it as the future. Although 8 Gb FC might delay FCoE in some cases, it will almost certainly be the predominant SAN connectivity mechanism for large block storage devices within five years.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | A Consultant’s View Of The Enterprise Storage Market
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Data Robotics today introduced the second generation of what I think of as a personal storage array, but although the Drobo 2 offers great enhancements, making it a top choice for those needing massive and protected storage on a single computer, it’s still not what I’m looking for in a home storage device.

First, the good bits.  Drobo 2 adds FireWire 800 (and 400) for quicker storage access – the company claims it’s twice as fast, and I’d believe it.  They also beefed up the internal CPU and tightened the firmware to speed up USB transfer rates and added a larger, quieter fan to keep it quiet.  And the price remains the same at US$499.

There’s a lot to love here, just as with the first-generation device.  Drobo is a fully virtualized device with next-generation storage capabilities like thin provisioning, sub-disk RAID that can tolerate multiple drive failures (once the array has reconfigured after the first failure), and on-the-fly drive swapping and upgrades.  When attached to a PC or Mac, it appears as a single massive storage volume, and all of the technical bits just work in the background to keep your data protected.

I can’t imagine a better Time Machine backup device.  And now that FireWire 800 is available with its faster speeds, the Drobo makes a lot of sense as a budget array for video editing and other pro applications.

What’s not to love?  First, a Drobo still can’t be shared between computers without an add-on like the company’s aptly-named DroboShare NAS unit.  Although home users generally don’t need to partition their storage, pros might want to create separate volumes for Time Machine, Video, and Photos.  And many might want to share the device between multiple computers, perhaps using FireWire for their Mac and USB for a PC or DroboShare.  I suppose you could buy two, but $500 for a bare unit with no drives is a pretty penny!

But the device just can’t do this – if you want to share it, you have to dedicate it all to the DroboShare, which uses USB and presents SMB shares over gigabit Ethernet.  Actually, the DroboShare is an awfully nice NAS in its own right, supporting DLNA/UPnP for media streaming, and the company recently announced an SDK to allow additional applications to be added.

So all in all, Drobo 2 is a nice upgrade but not much of a revolution.  If you’re looking for massive, protected storage for a single computer at home, and have upwards of $700 to spend on it, you can’t make a better choice.  And FireWire makes it even more attractive to Mac users.  But I still wish Drobo could take all these Maxtor drives off my desk, offering speedy storage to both of my computers and my network devices.

PS: Data Robotics is currently offering the original Drobo at $349 to clear them out.  If you wanted one before, this price might get you off the couch!

[Engadget], [Blocks & Files]

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Drobo 2: Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Dave called me for this piece, and I was pleased with the question.  Truth be told, there really are compelling benefits from virtualization, but most folks have been waiting for a real “must have” killer application for the technology.  In order for this tech to make the impact it should, we in the industry have to change some of our thinking:

• Storage virtualization means more than just Fibre Channel block aggregation.  There are great applications inside servers and arrays and in the NAS world, too.
• Speaking of NAS, Microsoft DFS is probably the most-implemented storage virtualization product, and just about every NAS array has cool aggregation and migration features.
• Virtualization is a feature, not a product.  HDS has seen the amazing potential for block virtualization in migration and storage flexibility, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
• Storage and server virtualization go well together – so well, in fact, that ESG reports that 24% of those who have implemented the latter are also using the former!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Storage Virtualization: What Is It Good For?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

What’s so great? Like most Apple products, it doesn’t do everything it could, but it does everything you need. It’s got gigabit Ethernet and (presumably) enough CPU power to use it, putting my NSLU2 (and Linksys’ embarrassing NAS200) to shame. It has two USB ports, supporting tons of storage from a pair of Drobos. It also natively supports all major PC filesystems (NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, and yes EXT3) so you don’t have to reformat to use it.

In fact, this last is a pretty interesting feature. You can just unplug your current Drobo from your PC or Mac and plug it into the DroboShare and all your data is preserved! Talk about easy migration! Not just that, but you can later unplug the Drobo again and plug it back into a PC or Mac if you need to! Very cool, and very much the kind of intuitive plug and play operation most end users will expect.

Interestingly, Drobo decided to introduce the DroboShare at Macworld instead of CES, where it would likely have been overlooked. Good move, I say! Now they just have to get these things into the brick-and-glass Apple Stores! Louis Gray and I were able to evangelize the Palo Alto Apple Store about the merits of Drobo in about five minutes – let’s hope the company can do the same!

Let’s hope Data Robotics repeats its $50 off promo from CES (“CES2008″ at drobostore.com) at Macworld!  Or, better still, how about a DroboShare promo code, too!  Maybe I’ll even buy one sometime…

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | The Drobo of My Dreams
This post was categorized as Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

What Is Drobo?

First, let’s talk about what Drobo’s current product is and isn’t. It is basically an external USB drive enclosure for a single PC – think about your basic Western Digital MyBook or Seagate FreeAgent and you’re almost there. But it doesn’t come with any hard disks; instead, it has slots for four that you add yourself, so adjust your thinking accordingly.

OK, you say, I’ve got that. A shiny 4-slot RAID enclosure, right? Well not so fast. It doesn’t use any of the common RAID levels, and proudly so. Instead, it uses virtualization and what looks to be automated block-based data mirroring to protect the data. It appears to protect data “on write”, meaning it is ready to run quicker when you add or replace a disk. Instead of running through a time-consuming RAID rebuild, it would just copy the blocks needing protection to the new disk.

Yeah, I said virtualization, but that’s not the only enterprise storage buzzword you’ll find in this little device! It’s also got thin provisioning! No kidding – in order to deal with the fact that operating systems don’t like to see their disks grow, the Drobo just tells the OS that it always has 2 TB available, regardless of the number or size of the disks installed. This might prove disconcerting to users, though…

Data Protection

This alternative approach to data protection can lead to some strange capacity situations. Basically, the device reserves an amount of space equal to the largest drive for data protection. Note: the following examples use the weird disk industry capacity numbers, not the actual usable numbers…

Put in three 500 GB drives and you’ve got 1 TB to use (500+500+500-500). Add another and you’ve got 1.5 TB (500+500+500+500-500).

Swap one of those half-terabyte drives out for a 1 TB unit and the Drobo “reserves” half of the big drive and treats it like a 500 gigger, so you still have 1.5 TB available (500+500+500+1000-1000). This can lead to some weird situations when really large drives are mixed with small ones – A 100 GB drive and a 1 TB drive equals 100 GB of space (100+1000-1000), potentially confusing customers who just spent some big bucks on a giant disk!

This guy would be better served capacity-wise by popping out that little 100 GB disk and just using the terabyte unit, which would give 500 GB of usable space. That’s right, the unit also allows you to use a single drive, and configures it to “protect” itself! Of course, the engineer in me wonders about the logic in mirroring blocks to the same drive – protection from drive failure, of course, would be lacking, but also think of the seeking as the drive churns to write every I/O twice!

Try out the online “Drobolator” to see how it works for yourself…

Drobo Grows Up

But I digress. Just put two or more drives of similar sizes in your Drobo and be done with it. One really nice thing about the device is that you can mix and match drives as needed, swapping out big and small depending on what you have available. Mixing drive types and sizes would disagree with most RAID controllers, but the Drobo eats them up, allocating as effectively as possible.

This is probably the nicest aspect of the device. You just leave it on and connected and in use and add and remove drives according to your needs and resources. Drobo handles all the setup and configuration – just slide the drive in and you’re done. Once you’ve initially formatted the 2 TB (thin provisioned) drive, you never have to do any more configuration. Data migration is unneeded too, since Drobo’s data protection system keeps the information continually available. Start with the old 160 GB drives you have today and swap them out for 500 GB or 1 TB drives next year and everything just works.

One of the best sources for big cheap drives is likely to be those selfsame MyBook and FreeAgent external disks I mentioned above. These often go on sale at big-box retailers for well below the cost of a bare drive, and most use the best SATA drives offered by their manufacturers. The MyBook Premium ES I have, for example, included Western Digital’s impressive 500 GB Caviar SE16 drive mechanism. Purchased at Best Buy for $139, it was far cheaper than the drive alone would have been at the time. While the old Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 used a PATA drive (I checked…), the newer ones apparently switched to SATA, too, and were on sale for $79 for 500 GB last week!

I’ll Buy One When…

Despite my interest in the device, I don’t have a Drobo myself, and probably wouldn’t buy one at this point since it doesn’t really meet my needs. First, Drobo is a USB-only device for PCs and Macs. Although I bet the Linux EXT3 filesystem used by my Linksys NSLU2 home server would work, it’s not explicitly supported by the company. If it was a NAS device, serving storage over Ethernet, I would be much more interested in adding it next to the Slug.

But I’m not a typical end user – most people use a home desktop as a standalone device and would be pleased with an easy to use USB device with massive storage. One issue for these folks is that many use a laptop as their only system, moving around the house, and the chunky Drobo wouldn’t be a good solution for them.

But if you’re a Mac desktop user, Drobo looks like an awesome choice. Add Leopard’s innovative Time Machine to a Drobo and never lose data again!

One device that I would love to hook a Drobo to is my TiVo Series 3. It would be brilliant to have a super-reliable, upgradable storage system to hold video content with no management needed. But the device lets me down here again since the TiVo needs eSATA not USB storage.

Maybe Drobo 2 will add eSATA? NAS? Coffee making?

Oh, and if you were wondering what Geoff Barrall of BlueArc did for his next act, look no further than Data Robotics! Quite a change – enterprise NAS to consumer storage… Who’s your marketing genius, Geoff?

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, 2007. | Why I Like Drobo
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.