The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Virtualization has been something of a buzzword in
storage for more than half a decade. It is defined
in a variety of ways, depending on whom you
ask. So what exactly is it?
“Storage virtualization is defined as the presentation to
users of a single interface that provides
a logical view of data or storage
devices different from the way data of
storage is physically configured,” says
Fred Moore, president of Horison,
Inc. of Boulder, Colo. “Virtualization
shifts the burden of management
from intelligent people to intelligent
products.”
According to John Webster, an analyst
with the Data Mobility Group
(DMG) of Nashua, N.H., the single
most important attribute of any storage
virtualization solution is the ability
to mask complexity and thereby make
manageable that which is increasingly
becoming unmanageable.
The first wave of storage virtualization
products, however, failed to measure up to that vision.
These consisted mainly of block storage virtualization
appliances or engines from the likes of Hewlett
Packard, IBM, DataCore Software Corp. of Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and FalconStor Software Inc. of
Melville, N.Y. According to Webster, these products
never captured a broad following due to perceived
issues with robustness and scalability.
Now a catalog of vendors has released second-generation
tools. Cisco Systems released
better virtualization tools with its MDS
fabric switch line. Hitachi Data
Systems, EMC Corp., IBM, and
McData Corp. of Broomfield, Colo.,
have followed suit.
“The next major phase for SAN technology
is the development of
advanced management services that
will simplify deployment and operation
of shared storage,” said Tom
Clark, of McData's Director Solutions
and Technologies unit. “Storage virtualization
is really only in its infancy,
and holds great promise for streamlining
storage management via intelligent
services such as automation, policy-
based engines, and application
awareness. This is the enabling foundation
for services like information lifecycle management,
which requires automation and the ability to
operate seamlessly in multi-vendor environments.”
2 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
The State of Storage
Virtualization
By Drew Robb
The single most important attribute of any storage virtualization solution is
the ability to mask complexity and thereby make manageable that which is
increasingly becoming unmanageable.
“
”
Jupiterimages
There remains, however, an ongoing debate about
where exactly storage virtualization should be
done and who has the best technology. Some say
it should be done in the switch, some prefer the array,
and others at the host. Some say it belongs in an appliance;
others say the technology must be seamlessly
incorporated into existing gear.
DMG favors the array/controller
approach, and touts HDS
TagmaStore Universal Storage
Platform (USP) as the industry's
first implementation of an external
full-function controller with a
built-in virtualizer. Instead of
bringing about virtualization at
the host or in a switch or appliance
at the core, USP places it in
the storage controller at the
edge of the storage network.
“This is the best place for performance
and security reasons,”
said James Bahn, director of software,
HDS. “By virtualizing the
physical storage, it's easier to
manage heterogeneous components as a single entity,
reducing the impact on personnel, and ultimately keeping
operating expenses in check.”
But others advocate alternate approaches. Aarohi
Communications (acquired by Emulex Corp. of Costa
Mesa, Calif.) believes the next generation of storage
virtualization is embodied in intelligent SAN components
such as its AV150 Intelligent Storage Processor. It
believes that the appliance approach, though perhaps
relatively easy to deploy, tends to be too applicationspecific.
Countering that view is Network Appliance, Inc. It is of
the opinion that storage virtualization is best done on
the network via an appliance.
“This provides customers with
the most flexibility in array
choice, doesn't lock them in an
array-based solution like
TagmaStore, and does not
require all the complexity and
costs of host-based virtualization
solutions with client code,” says
Jeff Hornung, vice president of
storage networking at NetApp.
“The appliance can be in-band
or out of band within the network.”
To make things even more complex,
the virtual lines are blurring
as vendors acquire rivals or add
innovation to their equipment.
McData, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. of San
Jose, Calif., Cisco, and others have made acquisitions
or partnerships aimed at the virtualization arena.
“It's very hard to compare storage virtualization technologies
as they are mostly theories at this point,” says
Rick Villars, a storage analyst for International Data
Corp. (IDC) of Framingham, Mass. “We will need time
to see how well they deploy in the real world.”
3 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Virtually Where?
It's very hard to compare storage virtualization technologies
as they are mostly theories at this point
“
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While nobody has established firm market
dominance, IBM is reported to have the most
sales to date via its SAN Volume Controller
(SVC) appliance.
“IBM is best placed to make the most of virtualization
technologies, if it can crack how to make them provide
a consistently defined and managed service across
their product portfolio,” says Jon
Collins, an analyst with U.K.-
based Macehiter Ward-Dutton.
Cisco, too, may be gaining traction
with its Topspin acquisition
that now means it can link server,
storage, and networking virtualization.
“Topspin was one of those
acquisitions that could change a
company,” says Collins. “If Cisco
chooses to fully embrace virtualization
capabilities they'd have a
pretty compelling result.”
Cisco, though, remains largely on
the outer rim of the storage galaxy, looking in. “Cisco's
challenge is that all the intellectual property on replication,
provisioning, and other core storage functions lies
in the hands of storage vendors,” says Villars. “It needs
to add value to gain more ground.”
One sleeper in the race is Microsoft. The company has
quietly been establishing itself as a storage force over
the past two years and recently overcame some licensing
hurdles that stood in the way of virtualization.
“Microsoft may be late to the party but it is probably
going to come out with some impressive technology,”
says Collins. “Microsoft will make virtualization part of
the server operating system.”
In addition, there are plenty of interesting developments
in virtualization that are
worth investigating. Here are just
a few:
File Virtualization
“File virtualization addresses a
key end user problem -- the proliferation
of NAS and file
servers,” says Stephen Foskett,
director of strategy services at
GlassHouse Technologies Inc. of
Framingham, Mass. “Some
organizations have tens (or even
hundreds) of file servers, and virtualization
promises to organize
those into a coherent whole and
allow a greater level of flexibility
for the storage managers.”
The oldest way to solve the file virtualization problem
was to consolidate lots of smaller file servers into a single,
large file server. The next approach was to use an
even larger file server -- one that was easier to manage
and maintain. At some level of scale, however, it's
either impossible or doesn't make sense to keep finding
a bigger box. The current batch of file virtualization
tools allow customers to have more boxes, but make it
4 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Who’s on First Base?
The problem with standalone SAN islands is that they can be difficult to
manage. If there is a problem, the whole SAN has to come down.
“
”
Jupiterimages
look like it's just one big box.
Already, most of the startups in this area have been
gobbled up. Rainfinity was bought by EMC, Spinnaker
by NetApp, and NuView by Brocade. Some of the
remaining independents include Acopia Networks Inc.
of Lowell, Mass., and Attune Systems Inc. of Santa
Clara, Calif.
Attune calls NAS Virtualization by the term Network
File Management (NFM). Its Maestro File Manager creates
an abstraction layer between where the files and
directories are stored and where they are viewed by
clients. This allows the storage infrastructure to change
as needed without disturbing clients and the applications
that use files. Maestro also centralizes monitoring,
alerting, and preventative maintenance actions so that
instead of logging into hundreds of machines, administrators
can manage their file servers from one pane of
glass.
EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization, on the other
hand, virtualizes NAS and file servers by operating at
the CIFS and NFS file protocol level. It supports multivendor
file storage environments; i.e., it works with
EMC and NetApp NAS boxes, as well as general-purpose
file servers based on Unix/Linux and Windows.
Prices start at $80,000 per appliance.
NetApp is also in the game with its Virtual File Manager
(VFM) and its V-Series virtualization hardware. They can
be utilized either to add NAS functionality to existing
SAN storage or to consolidate and simplify third-party
SAN environments.
Virtual SANs
Another approach to virtualization is the Virtual Storage
Area Network (VSAN).
“A VSAN enables users to tie their existing SAN fabrics
into a central 'core switch,' protecting the integrity of
each fabric,” says Moore. “VSANs enable different fabrics
to exist on the same switch and each is unaware of
the existence of other fabrics.”
The problem with standalone SAN islands is that they
can be difficult to manage. If there is a problem, the
whole SAN has to come down. SAN routing and VSAN
technology makes it possible to isolate parts of SAN.
5 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Advances in various technologies are likely
to make managing mass storage, and
storage security, much more effective in
the near term. Virtualization, for example, is likely
to make an increasingly large impact on storage
systems because the capability to pool across
multiple storage arrays makes the managing,
migration and backup of data faster and cheaper.
"Most vendors are incorporating virtualization
technology into their products and I can see that
continuing even more so moving forward," says
Sal Capizzi, a senior analyst at Boston, Mass.-
based Yankee Group. "Virtualization will be the
underlying technology for data management,
data protection, and computing and storage technology,"
he says.
Perhaps the most significant development that is
likely to have an impact is continuous data protection
(CDP). Using CDP, all data in a company's
storage system is backed up every time a data
change is made. In effect a storage snapshot is
made at every modification, rather than every
hour or so, or several times a day. As a result,
should a database become corrupted or infected
with a virus it can be restored to the state it was
in immediately before this event took place. And
what's more, data can be recovered in a matter of
seconds.
In the end, every company's storage architecture
and security requirements will be different, so
there is no easy to follow 10-step plan to storage
security. But if nothing else, don't ignore it.
Storage security is a fundamental part of IT security,
so incorporating storage security into security
policies at a fundamental level, not as a boltedon
afterthought, is absolutely critical.
Storage Security:
Neglect It at Your Peril
by Paul Rubens
Not only does this make maintenance easier, it also
increases your options within the SAN. You can have a
virtualized disk library SAN for backup running at 4
Gb/sec, while the rest of the SAN functions at 2
Gb/sec. You can also introduce policies on who can
manage which parts of the VSAN, i.e., certain storage
administrators can access one part but not another.
There are a variety of different approaches out there to
connecting SAN islands, a technique known in some
circles as SAN routing. The Brocade Multiprotocol
Router, for example, enables resources on separate fabrics
to be shared without merging the fabrics. By
adding greater intelligence to the switch, it maintains
the practical isolation of SANs, with benefits from a
management and operational viewpoint, while allowing
data to flow between server and storage resources.
HP, too, has added what it calls virtualized multi-protocol
routing capabilities to
its switch infrastructure.
The FC, iSCSI, and FCIP
protocols are supported as
a means of lowering the
cost of SAN extension, and
making SANs easier to
manage. The HP
StorageWorks Multi-
Protocol Router uses subnet
routing technology to isolate SAN islands. Thus
customers can share devices like arrays and tape
libraries between SANs without increasing stability
risks.
Cisco has also introduced the Cisco MDS Multi Layer
Data Center SAN Switch. It functions with multiple protocols
(FC, FCIP, iSCSI, and FICON), all supported with
the same management. Its VSAN technology permits
logical partitioning of SANs so users can consolidate
individual SAN fabrics into one. Inter VSAN routing
allows communication between the SANs without
meshing the fabric together. Result: you can backup
multiple VSANs to a common pool of back-up devices
instead of backing up each SAN fabric separately.
Without Inter VSAN routing, for example, you could
have 15 percent utilization on one tape system and the
other running at 75 percent. But with the establishment
of a VSAN, you take one switch, partition it into logical
segments, and optimize utilization rates throughout the
SAN. This arrangement heightens security as no communication
or traffic can flow between the partitions. It
also adds central management.
Grid Storage
Whenever grids are mentioned, people tend to get the
idea that it is a distant dream. Yet many large companies
are already deploying massive grids of virtualized
storage. Search engines like Google, for example, harness
storage grids to process search queries in a fraction
of the time it would take to perform these on a single,
large monolithic processing engine.
Storage grids are also realizing their potential in diskbased
backup applications by allowing data to be
reduced across multiple grid nodes in parallel. And
they are being used to more efficiently perform parallel
operations on data in
heavy R&D, scientific, and
business environments.
So where will storage
grids ultimately end up?
The nodes of a grid are
basically just servers with
some amount of internal
disk storage. The cost of
one of these servers with ~1TB of SATA disk storage is
about the same or less than the cost of a RAID disk
subsystem with FC or iSCSI connectivity.
“It makes sense to deploy each terabyte of additional
storage capacity as a server to gain the benefits of scalable
processing power as well as ubiquitous gigabit
ethernet technology as a grid backplane,” says Dave
Therrien, CTO and founder of ExaGrid Systems Inc. of
Westborough, Mass. “The parallel processing power of
each grid node will bring new data management features
to mainstream IT environments.”
ExaGrid offers a disk-based backup and virtualization
solution that incorporates a grid-based architecture.
According to Therrien, grid technology can provide
many benefits in data storage. In terms of availability,
for example, if one or more nodes fail, other nodes in
the grid take over the task of delivering data to clients
and applications. As resources are virtualized, tens to
thousands of storage nodes act as a unified pool. Each
6 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Some SAN specialists quibble that NAS
isn't really storage networking as it is
just another box plugged in to the existing
IT infrastructure.
“
”
storage node can also monitor the health of all other
nodes. When one fails, any or all of the other storage
nodes can help in the reconstruction of lost data.
SoIP Opera
Some SAN specialists quibble that NAS isn't really storage
networking as it is just another box plugged in to
the existing IT infrastructure. Now another vendor is
arguing that both Fibre Channel (FC) and IP SANs are
not true SANs as they require dedicated hardware
whereas Storage over IP (SoIP) does not.
SoIP is said to deliver true virtualization as it can be
used to access storage devices over TCP/IP networks.
As the storage becomes accessible to users directly
across the network, much of the overhead imposed by
server and operating system intervention is removed.
“Fibre Channel and iSCSI have
done a good job of putting storage
on a network, but they are not
really network storage,” says Ryan
Malone, director channel marketing
for Zetera Corp., a technology
licensing company based in Irvine,
Calif. “They use IP as an extension
cord between a server and a disk
array that still uses direct-attach
disk commands.”
According to Malone, FC, and iSCSI have multiple fabrics
-- one for the network and one for the disks (RAID).
SoIP takes a different approach, using IP as the only
fabric. SoIP addresses groups of disk blocks as IP
addresses. Using IP commands like unicast, broadcast,
and multicast, SoIP virtualizes storage as opposed to
what Malone characterizes as the brute force version
offered by FC and ISCSI vendors.
SoIP solutions are defined by three critical criteria. First,
SoIP uses IP as the only storage fabric so its solutions
enable the direct mapping of IP addresses to each storage
element without controllers or aggregators.
Secondly, SoIP virtualizes storage elements through IP,
which is inherently virtualized. IP's use as the storage
fabric eliminates the need for virtualization software.
Thirdly, SoIP leverages the power of IP to scale, stripe,
mirror, and transfer data without regard to the physical
location of the physical drives.
Zetera and Marvell Semiconductor of Santa Clara,
Calif., have created the first commercial realization of
SoIP technology. They have combined forces to match
Zetera's Z-SAN distributed controller architecture with
Marvell's Orion family of processors. Bell Microproducts
in San Jose, Calif., plans to be the first distributor to
release this technology in its Hammer Storage brand.
The Hammer line includes desktop and rack-mounted
equipment with capacities up to 24 TB.
“Zetera's Z-SAN technology enables products that
simultaneously optimize performance, scalability, reliability,
and cost,” says Malone. “It offers the speed and
sophistication of Fibre Channel with the simplicity of a
NAS while scaling up to 128 petabytes per volume
without virtualization software.”
The Virtual OS
Just as the boundaries are fading
between the storage virtualization
categories, so they may be blurring
between storage and server virtualization.
As well as Microsoft's
efforts via Windows Storage Server
2003, NetApp has added virtualization
capabilities to the Data
ONTAP GX OS in its V-Series
arrays. This provides a single
Global Namespace that can scale
to incorporate dozens of servers,
many petabytes of data, and provide data to tens of
thousands of compute nodes -- all in what appears as a
single NAS storage system.
“Virtualization software is becoming more robust and
more tightly integrated,” says IDC's Villars. “It is evolving
into more of an overall operating system.”
Collins of Macehiter Ward-Dutton agrees. He thinks
that the argument of where to best accomplish virtualization
-- in the switch, the array or appliance -- is false.
He says it should be done in all of them, and united by
one overarching virtualization layer. It is an enabler
rather than a technology in its own right.
“Virtualization is about adding a management layer to
enable a resource to be controlled more transparently,”
says Collins.
7 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Just as the boundaries
are fading between the
storage virtualization
categories, so they may
be blurring between
storage and server
virtualization.
“
”
Virtualization, then, may be morphing into one element
of distributed operating system for servers, networks,
and storage, with each of the three being virtualization
aware. Put virtualization in only one of them, and you
run into trouble. On the server side, for example, some
initial server virtualization projects caused problems
with storage addresses and other advanced functions
of storage management. For virtualization to work
properly server virtualization must leverage storage virtualization
capabilities or it will run into a roadblock.
Similarly, network devices or storage switches can
employ all kinds of clever packet inspection techniques
to understand the nature of the data that is being
transported, and make decisions about how to deliver
or store it efficiently. While the network can know that a
given stream makes up a JPEG and that it may be useful
to cache it, it cannot tell the difference between an
X-ray and a pornographic photo. And virtual stores or
virtual server pools can only go so far in terms of interpreting
what they are for, i.e., a server pool may choose
to allocate extra processing to a certain application
when other applications are running idle, but it can't
necessarily tell the difference between a payroll run and
a denial of service attack against the server.
“It is important to consider virtualization within each of
the three areas, but also to incorporate management
tools that understand the need at the application layer
and can make virtualization decisions accordingly,” says
Collins
Such dreams, though, are a long way off -- perhaps
three years out according to Villars.
Block-Level Virtualization
And, of course, there is block virtualization in a SAN
environment. But NetApp dismisses it as vastly inferior
to file-based methods.
“Compared to the SAN/block virtualization solutions
out there, file virtualization is just easier to deploy and
easier to use,” says Rogers.
This view is supported by TIP.
“File virtualization is easier, faster, and less invasive,
with less interruption to storage availability,” says
Robert Stevenson, managing director of TIP's storage
practice. “NAS file virtualization rates are exceeding
block rate adoption.”
EMC, however, takes a more neutral stance. It is talking
up both technologies. “Block virtualization and file virtualization
are both critical components of an overall
information infrastructure,” says Norris.
8 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
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Despite the constant hype, the corporate world
has been slow to adopt storage virtualization
technology. According
to an IDC study of 269 IT managers
in companies ranging
from 100 to tens of thousands
of employees, only 8 percent
are doing any virtualization at
all. An average of 23 percent
plan to implement some in the
next 12 months. If you focus on
companies with 10,000 or more
employees, usage rises to 19
percent, with 31 percent planning
to add a virtual component within a year. In the
mid-sized segment (1,000 or more employees), very
few are using it, though 33 percent state a desire to
harness the technology before the end of 2006.
Within these various camps, then, there are varying
pressures and needs at play.
Until the technology achieves
maturity and true end to end virtualization
of the entire storage
infrastructure, companies are
going to cherry pick small zones
of virtualization to suit their most
pressing needs.
“Midsize companies mainly want
to manage data migration and
reduce their administrative burdens,”
says IDC's Villars. “Larger shops want virtualization
for functions like data replication and volume management
for provisioning.” ■
9 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
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Slowly Virtual
Jupiterimages
Portions of this content were adapted from EarthWeb's Enterprise Storage Forum Web site.
Written by Drew Robb. Copyright 2007 Jupitermedia Corp.
Virtualization has been something of a buzzword in
storage for more than half a decade. It is defined
in a variety of ways, depending on whom you
ask. So what exactly is it?
“Storage virtualization is defined as the presentation to
users of a single interface that provides
a logical view of data or storage
devices different from the way data of
storage is physically configured,” says
Fred Moore, president of Horison,
Inc. of Boulder, Colo. “Virtualization
shifts the burden of management
from intelligent people to intelligent
products.”
According to John Webster, an analyst
with the Data Mobility Group
(DMG) of Nashua, N.H., the single
most important attribute of any storage
virtualization solution is the ability
to mask complexity and thereby make
manageable that which is increasingly
becoming unmanageable.
The first wave of storage virtualization
products, however, failed to measure up to that vision.
These consisted mainly of block storage virtualization
appliances or engines from the likes of Hewlett
Packard, IBM, DataCore Software Corp. of Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and FalconStor Software Inc. of
Melville, N.Y. According to Webster, these products
never captured a broad following due to perceived
issues with robustness and scalability.
Now a catalog of vendors has released second-generation
tools. Cisco Systems released
better virtualization tools with its MDS
fabric switch line. Hitachi Data
Systems, EMC Corp., IBM, and
McData Corp. of Broomfield, Colo.,
have followed suit.
“The next major phase for SAN technology
is the development of
advanced management services that
will simplify deployment and operation
of shared storage,” said Tom
Clark, of McData's Director Solutions
and Technologies unit. “Storage virtualization
is really only in its infancy,
and holds great promise for streamlining
storage management via intelligent
services such as automation, policy-
based engines, and application
awareness. This is the enabling foundation
for services like information lifecycle management,
which requires automation and the ability to
operate seamlessly in multi-vendor environments.”
2 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
The State of Storage
Virtualization
By Drew Robb
The single most important attribute of any storage virtualization solution is
the ability to mask complexity and thereby make manageable that which is
increasingly becoming unmanageable.
“
”
Jupiterimages
There remains, however, an ongoing debate about
where exactly storage virtualization should be
done and who has the best technology. Some say
it should be done in the switch, some prefer the array,
and others at the host. Some say it belongs in an appliance;
others say the technology must be seamlessly
incorporated into existing gear.
DMG favors the array/controller
approach, and touts HDS
TagmaStore Universal Storage
Platform (USP) as the industry's
first implementation of an external
full-function controller with a
built-in virtualizer. Instead of
bringing about virtualization at
the host or in a switch or appliance
at the core, USP places it in
the storage controller at the
edge of the storage network.
“This is the best place for performance
and security reasons,”
said James Bahn, director of software,
HDS. “By virtualizing the
physical storage, it's easier to
manage heterogeneous components as a single entity,
reducing the impact on personnel, and ultimately keeping
operating expenses in check.”
But others advocate alternate approaches. Aarohi
Communications (acquired by Emulex Corp. of Costa
Mesa, Calif.) believes the next generation of storage
virtualization is embodied in intelligent SAN components
such as its AV150 Intelligent Storage Processor. It
believes that the appliance approach, though perhaps
relatively easy to deploy, tends to be too applicationspecific.
Countering that view is Network Appliance, Inc. It is of
the opinion that storage virtualization is best done on
the network via an appliance.
“This provides customers with
the most flexibility in array
choice, doesn't lock them in an
array-based solution like
TagmaStore, and does not
require all the complexity and
costs of host-based virtualization
solutions with client code,” says
Jeff Hornung, vice president of
storage networking at NetApp.
“The appliance can be in-band
or out of band within the network.”
To make things even more complex,
the virtual lines are blurring
as vendors acquire rivals or add
innovation to their equipment.
McData, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. of San
Jose, Calif., Cisco, and others have made acquisitions
or partnerships aimed at the virtualization arena.
“It's very hard to compare storage virtualization technologies
as they are mostly theories at this point,” says
Rick Villars, a storage analyst for International Data
Corp. (IDC) of Framingham, Mass. “We will need time
to see how well they deploy in the real world.”
3 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Virtually Where?
It's very hard to compare storage virtualization technologies
as they are mostly theories at this point
“
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While nobody has established firm market
dominance, IBM is reported to have the most
sales to date via its SAN Volume Controller
(SVC) appliance.
“IBM is best placed to make the most of virtualization
technologies, if it can crack how to make them provide
a consistently defined and managed service across
their product portfolio,” says Jon
Collins, an analyst with U.K.-
based Macehiter Ward-Dutton.
Cisco, too, may be gaining traction
with its Topspin acquisition
that now means it can link server,
storage, and networking virtualization.
“Topspin was one of those
acquisitions that could change a
company,” says Collins. “If Cisco
chooses to fully embrace virtualization
capabilities they'd have a
pretty compelling result.”
Cisco, though, remains largely on
the outer rim of the storage galaxy, looking in. “Cisco's
challenge is that all the intellectual property on replication,
provisioning, and other core storage functions lies
in the hands of storage vendors,” says Villars. “It needs
to add value to gain more ground.”
One sleeper in the race is Microsoft. The company has
quietly been establishing itself as a storage force over
the past two years and recently overcame some licensing
hurdles that stood in the way of virtualization.
“Microsoft may be late to the party but it is probably
going to come out with some impressive technology,”
says Collins. “Microsoft will make virtualization part of
the server operating system.”
In addition, there are plenty of interesting developments
in virtualization that are
worth investigating. Here are just
a few:
File Virtualization
“File virtualization addresses a
key end user problem -- the proliferation
of NAS and file
servers,” says Stephen Foskett,
director of strategy services at
GlassHouse Technologies Inc. of
Framingham, Mass. “Some
organizations have tens (or even
hundreds) of file servers, and virtualization
promises to organize
those into a coherent whole and
allow a greater level of flexibility
for the storage managers.”
The oldest way to solve the file virtualization problem
was to consolidate lots of smaller file servers into a single,
large file server. The next approach was to use an
even larger file server -- one that was easier to manage
and maintain. At some level of scale, however, it's
either impossible or doesn't make sense to keep finding
a bigger box. The current batch of file virtualization
tools allow customers to have more boxes, but make it
4 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Who’s on First Base?
The problem with standalone SAN islands is that they can be difficult to
manage. If there is a problem, the whole SAN has to come down.
“
”
Jupiterimages
look like it's just one big box.
Already, most of the startups in this area have been
gobbled up. Rainfinity was bought by EMC, Spinnaker
by NetApp, and NuView by Brocade. Some of the
remaining independents include Acopia Networks Inc.
of Lowell, Mass., and Attune Systems Inc. of Santa
Clara, Calif.
Attune calls NAS Virtualization by the term Network
File Management (NFM). Its Maestro File Manager creates
an abstraction layer between where the files and
directories are stored and where they are viewed by
clients. This allows the storage infrastructure to change
as needed without disturbing clients and the applications
that use files. Maestro also centralizes monitoring,
alerting, and preventative maintenance actions so that
instead of logging into hundreds of machines, administrators
can manage their file servers from one pane of
glass.
EMC Rainfinity Global File Virtualization, on the other
hand, virtualizes NAS and file servers by operating at
the CIFS and NFS file protocol level. It supports multivendor
file storage environments; i.e., it works with
EMC and NetApp NAS boxes, as well as general-purpose
file servers based on Unix/Linux and Windows.
Prices start at $80,000 per appliance.
NetApp is also in the game with its Virtual File Manager
(VFM) and its V-Series virtualization hardware. They can
be utilized either to add NAS functionality to existing
SAN storage or to consolidate and simplify third-party
SAN environments.
Virtual SANs
Another approach to virtualization is the Virtual Storage
Area Network (VSAN).
“A VSAN enables users to tie their existing SAN fabrics
into a central 'core switch,' protecting the integrity of
each fabric,” says Moore. “VSANs enable different fabrics
to exist on the same switch and each is unaware of
the existence of other fabrics.”
The problem with standalone SAN islands is that they
can be difficult to manage. If there is a problem, the
whole SAN has to come down. SAN routing and VSAN
technology makes it possible to isolate parts of SAN.
5 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Advances in various technologies are likely
to make managing mass storage, and
storage security, much more effective in
the near term. Virtualization, for example, is likely
to make an increasingly large impact on storage
systems because the capability to pool across
multiple storage arrays makes the managing,
migration and backup of data faster and cheaper.
"Most vendors are incorporating virtualization
technology into their products and I can see that
continuing even more so moving forward," says
Sal Capizzi, a senior analyst at Boston, Mass.-
based Yankee Group. "Virtualization will be the
underlying technology for data management,
data protection, and computing and storage technology,"
he says.
Perhaps the most significant development that is
likely to have an impact is continuous data protection
(CDP). Using CDP, all data in a company's
storage system is backed up every time a data
change is made. In effect a storage snapshot is
made at every modification, rather than every
hour or so, or several times a day. As a result,
should a database become corrupted or infected
with a virus it can be restored to the state it was
in immediately before this event took place. And
what's more, data can be recovered in a matter of
seconds.
In the end, every company's storage architecture
and security requirements will be different, so
there is no easy to follow 10-step plan to storage
security. But if nothing else, don't ignore it.
Storage security is a fundamental part of IT security,
so incorporating storage security into security
policies at a fundamental level, not as a boltedon
afterthought, is absolutely critical.
Storage Security:
Neglect It at Your Peril
by Paul Rubens
Not only does this make maintenance easier, it also
increases your options within the SAN. You can have a
virtualized disk library SAN for backup running at 4
Gb/sec, while the rest of the SAN functions at 2
Gb/sec. You can also introduce policies on who can
manage which parts of the VSAN, i.e., certain storage
administrators can access one part but not another.
There are a variety of different approaches out there to
connecting SAN islands, a technique known in some
circles as SAN routing. The Brocade Multiprotocol
Router, for example, enables resources on separate fabrics
to be shared without merging the fabrics. By
adding greater intelligence to the switch, it maintains
the practical isolation of SANs, with benefits from a
management and operational viewpoint, while allowing
data to flow between server and storage resources.
HP, too, has added what it calls virtualized multi-protocol
routing capabilities to
its switch infrastructure.
The FC, iSCSI, and FCIP
protocols are supported as
a means of lowering the
cost of SAN extension, and
making SANs easier to
manage. The HP
StorageWorks Multi-
Protocol Router uses subnet
routing technology to isolate SAN islands. Thus
customers can share devices like arrays and tape
libraries between SANs without increasing stability
risks.
Cisco has also introduced the Cisco MDS Multi Layer
Data Center SAN Switch. It functions with multiple protocols
(FC, FCIP, iSCSI, and FICON), all supported with
the same management. Its VSAN technology permits
logical partitioning of SANs so users can consolidate
individual SAN fabrics into one. Inter VSAN routing
allows communication between the SANs without
meshing the fabric together. Result: you can backup
multiple VSANs to a common pool of back-up devices
instead of backing up each SAN fabric separately.
Without Inter VSAN routing, for example, you could
have 15 percent utilization on one tape system and the
other running at 75 percent. But with the establishment
of a VSAN, you take one switch, partition it into logical
segments, and optimize utilization rates throughout the
SAN. This arrangement heightens security as no communication
or traffic can flow between the partitions. It
also adds central management.
Grid Storage
Whenever grids are mentioned, people tend to get the
idea that it is a distant dream. Yet many large companies
are already deploying massive grids of virtualized
storage. Search engines like Google, for example, harness
storage grids to process search queries in a fraction
of the time it would take to perform these on a single,
large monolithic processing engine.
Storage grids are also realizing their potential in diskbased
backup applications by allowing data to be
reduced across multiple grid nodes in parallel. And
they are being used to more efficiently perform parallel
operations on data in
heavy R&D, scientific, and
business environments.
So where will storage
grids ultimately end up?
The nodes of a grid are
basically just servers with
some amount of internal
disk storage. The cost of
one of these servers with ~1TB of SATA disk storage is
about the same or less than the cost of a RAID disk
subsystem with FC or iSCSI connectivity.
“It makes sense to deploy each terabyte of additional
storage capacity as a server to gain the benefits of scalable
processing power as well as ubiquitous gigabit
ethernet technology as a grid backplane,” says Dave
Therrien, CTO and founder of ExaGrid Systems Inc. of
Westborough, Mass. “The parallel processing power of
each grid node will bring new data management features
to mainstream IT environments.”
ExaGrid offers a disk-based backup and virtualization
solution that incorporates a grid-based architecture.
According to Therrien, grid technology can provide
many benefits in data storage. In terms of availability,
for example, if one or more nodes fail, other nodes in
the grid take over the task of delivering data to clients
and applications. As resources are virtualized, tens to
thousands of storage nodes act as a unified pool. Each
6 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Some SAN specialists quibble that NAS
isn't really storage networking as it is
just another box plugged in to the existing
IT infrastructure.
“
”
storage node can also monitor the health of all other
nodes. When one fails, any or all of the other storage
nodes can help in the reconstruction of lost data.
SoIP Opera
Some SAN specialists quibble that NAS isn't really storage
networking as it is just another box plugged in to
the existing IT infrastructure. Now another vendor is
arguing that both Fibre Channel (FC) and IP SANs are
not true SANs as they require dedicated hardware
whereas Storage over IP (SoIP) does not.
SoIP is said to deliver true virtualization as it can be
used to access storage devices over TCP/IP networks.
As the storage becomes accessible to users directly
across the network, much of the overhead imposed by
server and operating system intervention is removed.
“Fibre Channel and iSCSI have
done a good job of putting storage
on a network, but they are not
really network storage,” says Ryan
Malone, director channel marketing
for Zetera Corp., a technology
licensing company based in Irvine,
Calif. “They use IP as an extension
cord between a server and a disk
array that still uses direct-attach
disk commands.”
According to Malone, FC, and iSCSI have multiple fabrics
-- one for the network and one for the disks (RAID).
SoIP takes a different approach, using IP as the only
fabric. SoIP addresses groups of disk blocks as IP
addresses. Using IP commands like unicast, broadcast,
and multicast, SoIP virtualizes storage as opposed to
what Malone characterizes as the brute force version
offered by FC and ISCSI vendors.
SoIP solutions are defined by three critical criteria. First,
SoIP uses IP as the only storage fabric so its solutions
enable the direct mapping of IP addresses to each storage
element without controllers or aggregators.
Secondly, SoIP virtualizes storage elements through IP,
which is inherently virtualized. IP's use as the storage
fabric eliminates the need for virtualization software.
Thirdly, SoIP leverages the power of IP to scale, stripe,
mirror, and transfer data without regard to the physical
location of the physical drives.
Zetera and Marvell Semiconductor of Santa Clara,
Calif., have created the first commercial realization of
SoIP technology. They have combined forces to match
Zetera's Z-SAN distributed controller architecture with
Marvell's Orion family of processors. Bell Microproducts
in San Jose, Calif., plans to be the first distributor to
release this technology in its Hammer Storage brand.
The Hammer line includes desktop and rack-mounted
equipment with capacities up to 24 TB.
“Zetera's Z-SAN technology enables products that
simultaneously optimize performance, scalability, reliability,
and cost,” says Malone. “It offers the speed and
sophistication of Fibre Channel with the simplicity of a
NAS while scaling up to 128 petabytes per volume
without virtualization software.”
The Virtual OS
Just as the boundaries are fading
between the storage virtualization
categories, so they may be blurring
between storage and server virtualization.
As well as Microsoft's
efforts via Windows Storage Server
2003, NetApp has added virtualization
capabilities to the Data
ONTAP GX OS in its V-Series
arrays. This provides a single
Global Namespace that can scale
to incorporate dozens of servers,
many petabytes of data, and provide data to tens of
thousands of compute nodes -- all in what appears as a
single NAS storage system.
“Virtualization software is becoming more robust and
more tightly integrated,” says IDC's Villars. “It is evolving
into more of an overall operating system.”
Collins of Macehiter Ward-Dutton agrees. He thinks
that the argument of where to best accomplish virtualization
-- in the switch, the array or appliance -- is false.
He says it should be done in all of them, and united by
one overarching virtualization layer. It is an enabler
rather than a technology in its own right.
“Virtualization is about adding a management layer to
enable a resource to be controlled more transparently,”
says Collins.
7 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
Just as the boundaries
are fading between the
storage virtualization
categories, so they may
be blurring between
storage and server
virtualization.
“
”
Virtualization, then, may be morphing into one element
of distributed operating system for servers, networks,
and storage, with each of the three being virtualization
aware. Put virtualization in only one of them, and you
run into trouble. On the server side, for example, some
initial server virtualization projects caused problems
with storage addresses and other advanced functions
of storage management. For virtualization to work
properly server virtualization must leverage storage virtualization
capabilities or it will run into a roadblock.
Similarly, network devices or storage switches can
employ all kinds of clever packet inspection techniques
to understand the nature of the data that is being
transported, and make decisions about how to deliver
or store it efficiently. While the network can know that a
given stream makes up a JPEG and that it may be useful
to cache it, it cannot tell the difference between an
X-ray and a pornographic photo. And virtual stores or
virtual server pools can only go so far in terms of interpreting
what they are for, i.e., a server pool may choose
to allocate extra processing to a certain application
when other applications are running idle, but it can't
necessarily tell the difference between a payroll run and
a denial of service attack against the server.
“It is important to consider virtualization within each of
the three areas, but also to incorporate management
tools that understand the need at the application layer
and can make virtualization decisions accordingly,” says
Collins
Such dreams, though, are a long way off -- perhaps
three years out according to Villars.
Block-Level Virtualization
And, of course, there is block virtualization in a SAN
environment. But NetApp dismisses it as vastly inferior
to file-based methods.
“Compared to the SAN/block virtualization solutions
out there, file virtualization is just easier to deploy and
easier to use,” says Rogers.
This view is supported by TIP.
“File virtualization is easier, faster, and less invasive,
with less interruption to storage availability,” says
Robert Stevenson, managing director of TIP's storage
practice. “NAS file virtualization rates are exceeding
block rate adoption.”
EMC, however, takes a more neutral stance. It is talking
up both technologies. “Block virtualization and file virtualization
are both critical components of an overall
information infrastructure,” says Norris.
8 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
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Despite the constant hype, the corporate world
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to an IDC study of 269 IT managers
in companies ranging
from 100 to tens of thousands
of employees, only 8 percent
are doing any virtualization at
all. An average of 23 percent
plan to implement some in the
next 12 months. If you focus on
companies with 10,000 or more
employees, usage rises to 19
percent, with 31 percent planning
to add a virtual component within a year. In the
mid-sized segment (1,000 or more employees), very
few are using it, though 33 percent state a desire to
harness the technology before the end of 2006.
Within these various camps, then, there are varying
pressures and needs at play.
Until the technology achieves
maturity and true end to end virtualization
of the entire storage
infrastructure, companies are
going to cherry pick small zones
of virtualization to suit their most
pressing needs.
“Midsize companies mainly want
to manage data migration and
reduce their administrative burdens,”
says IDC's Villars. “Larger shops want virtualization
for functions like data replication and volume management
for provisioning.” ■
9 An Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2007, Jupitermedia Corp.
The State of Storage Virtualization [ ]
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Slowly Virtual
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Portions of this content were adapted from EarthWeb's Enterprise Storage Forum Web site.
Written by Drew Robb. Copyright 2007 Jupitermedia Corp.
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