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Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be

May 3, 2012 – 3:41 pm
Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be In a recent conversation with Dave Raffo about the nand flash solid state disk (SSD) market, we talked about industry trends, perspectives and where the market is now as well as headed. One of my comments is, has been and will remain that the industry has still not reached anywhere near full potential for deployment of SSD for enterprise, SMB and other data storage needs. Granted, there is broad adoption in terms of discussion or conversation and plenty of early adopters. SSD and in particular nand flash is anything but dead, in fact in the big broad picture of things, it is still very early in the game. Sure, for those who cover and crave the newest, latest and greatest technology to talk about, nand flash SSD might seem old, yesterday news, long in the tooth and time for something else. However, for ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, convergence, Data and Information Management, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, ssd, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, virtualization | 3 Comments »

More storage and IO metrics that matter

May 3, 2012 – 3:39 pm
It is great to see more conversations and coverage around storage metrics that matter beyond simply focusing on cost per GByte or TByte (e.g. space capacity). Likewise, it is also good to see conversations expanding beyond data footprint reduction (DFR) from a space capacity savings or reduction ratio to also address data movement and transfer rates. Also good to see is increase in discussion around input/output operations per section (IOPs) tying into conversations from virtualization, VDI, cloud to Sold State Devices (SSD). Other storage and IO metrics that matter include latency or response time, which is how fast work is done, or time spent. Latency also ties to IOPS in that as more work arrives to be done (IOPS) of various size, random or sequential, reads or writes, queue depths are an indicator of how well work is flowing. Another storage and IO metric that matters is availability because without it, ...

Posted in Cloud, Data and Information Management, Data footprint and proliferation reduction, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, Power and Cooling, server, ssd, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access | 1 Comment »

What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

May 3, 2012 – 3:38 pm
If no IO (input/output) operation is the best IO, than the second best IO is the one that can be done as close to the application and processor with best locality of reference. Then the third best IO is the one that can be done in less time, or at least cost or impact to the requesting application which means moving further down the memory and storage stack (figure 1). Figure 1 memory and storage hierarchy The problem with IO is that they are basic operation to get data into and out of a computer or processor so they are required; however, they also have an impact on performance, response or wait time (latency). IO require CPU or processor time and memory to set up and then process the results as well as IO and networking resources to move data to their destination or retrieve from where stored. While IOs cannot be ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, convergence, Data and Information Management, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, server, ssd, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, virtualization | 4 Comments »

Congratulations to new and returning 2012 VMware vExperts

April 30, 2012 – 10:54 am
A quick note of congratulations to all the new as well as too my fellow returning 2012 VMware vExperts from around the world. Here is a link listing the 2012 VMware vExperts including how you can follow them on twitter if you are interested in virtualization, cloud, data and storage networking related topics either VMware specific or industry and technology general. Also, here are some added links to follow and check out. twitter @VMwareCommunity plantetv12n blogs and information Wmware and community blogs VMware communities vExpert spotlights (follow links to various profiles) I'm honored to be among such a great group of people and again, congratulations to all. Ok, nuff said for now. Cheers Gs Greg Schulz - Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004) twitter @storageio All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO All Rights Reserved

Posted in announcement, Cloud, Comment, convergence, Education, fun, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, news, perspective, server, Storage Architecture and Access, virtualization | No Comments »

More Storage IO momentus HHDD and SSD moments part II

April 29, 2012 – 12:00 pm
This follows the first of a two-part series on my latest experiences with Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD's) and Solid State Devices (SSD's). In my ongoing last momentus moment post I discussed what I have done with HHDD's and setting the stage for expanded SSD use. I have the newer HHDD's, e.g. Seagate Momentus XT II 750GB (8GB SLC nand flash) installed and have since bought another from Amazon as well as having some of the older 500GB (4GB SLC nand flash) in various systems. Those are all functioning great, however still waiting and looking forward to the rumored firmware enhancements to boost write capabilities. This brings me up to the latest momentus moment which now includes SSD's. Well its two years later and I now have a 256GB (usable capacity is lower) Samsung SSD that I bought from Amazon.com and installed in one of my laptops and just as when I ...

Posted in Comment, convergence, Data and Information Management, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, Personal Computing, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, ssd, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access | 2 Comments »

More Storage IO momentus HHDD and SSD moments part I

April 29, 2012 – 11:54 am
This is the first of a two part series on my latest experiences with HHDD and SSD's About two years ago I wanted to start installing solid state devices (SSD's) into my workstations and laptops. Like many others, I found the expensive price for the limited capacity gains of the then generation SSD's did not make for a good business decision based on my needs. Don’t get me wrong, I have been a huge fan of SSD for decades as an IT user, vendor, analysts, consultant and consumer and still am. In fact I have some SSD's used for different purposes as well as many Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD's). Almost two years ago when I first tested the HHDD's, I did an first post in this ongoing series and this two-part post is part of that string of experiences observed evolving from HDD's to HHDD's ...

Posted in Comment, convergence, Data and Information Management, Education, I/O Networking, IT Industry Activity, metrics, Performance and Capacity, Personal Computing, perspective, server, ssd, Storage Architecture and Access | 3 Comments »

IT Optimization, efficiency, convergence and cloud conversations from SNW

April 13, 2012 – 4:19 pm
Recently I did a presentation titled Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (hmm, I think I know of a book with the same title) at the spring 2012 SNW in Dallas. My presentation was on the first morning of the session as I needed to be in Boston to record a video the following Tuesday morning, thus I missed out on the storm clouds and tornadoes that rolled in the next day. While I was at SNW, had the honor of being a guest on Calvin Zito (aka @HPStorageguy) pod cast that can be found on his Around the Storage Block Blog or by clicking here. Check out our conversations about clouds, related topics and more from a practical perspective cutting through the hype and fud. Oh, if you are interested in Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking, click here to ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, Data and Information Management, Education, fun, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, Travel, virtualization | 1 Comment »

Part IV: PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue

April 12, 2012 – 8:33 pm
This is the fourth in a five-part series around the recent IBM PureSystems announcements. You can view the earlier post here, and the next post here. So what does this mean for IBM Business Partners (BPs) and ISVs? What could very well differentiate IBM PureSystems from those of other competitors is to take what their partner NetApp has done with FlexPods combing third-party applications from Microsoft and SAP among others and take it to the next level. Similar to what helped make EMC Centera a success (or at least sell a lot of them) was inclusion and leveraging third-party ISVs and BPs to add value. Compared to other vendors with object based or content accessible storage (CAS) or online archive platforms that focused on the technology feature, function speeds and feeds, EMC realized the key was getting ISVs to support so that BPs and their own direct sales force ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, Data and Information Management, Data archiving and preservation, Data protection, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, virtualization | 4 Comments »

Part V: PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue

April 12, 2012 – 8:32 pm
This is the fifth in a five-part series around the recent IBM PureSystems announcements. You can view the earlier post here. So what about vendor or technology lock in? So who is responsible for vendor or technology lock in? When I was working in IT organizations, (e.g. what vendors call the customer) the thinking was vendors are responsible for lock in. Later when I worked for different vendors (manufactures and VARs) the thinking was lock in is what was caused by the competition. More recently I'm of the mind set that vendor lock in is a shared responsibility issue and topic. I'm sure some marketing wiz or sales type will be happy to explain the subtle differences of how their solution does not cause lock in. Vendor lock in can be a shared responsibility. Generally speaking, lock in, stickiness and ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, Data and Information Management, Data archiving and preservation, Data footprint and proliferation reduction, Data protection, Data security, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, Travel, virtualization | 2 Comments »

Part III: PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue

April 12, 2012 – 8:30 pm
This is the third in a five-part series around the recent IBM PureSystems announcements. You can view the earlier post here, and the next post here. So what about the IBM Virtual Appliance Factory? Where PureFlex and PureApplication (PureSystems) are the platforms or vehicles for enabling your journey to efficient and effective information services delivery, and PureSystem centre (or center for those of you in the US) is the portal or information center, the IBM Virtual Appliance Factory (VAF) is a collection of tools, technologies, processes and methodologies. The VAF helps developers or ISVs to prepackage applications or solutions for deployment into Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) on Intel and IBM PowerVM virtualized environments that are also supported by PureFlex and PureApplication systems. VAF technologies include Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Open Virtual Alliance (OVA) Open Virtualization Format (OVF) along with other tools for combing operating systems (OS), middleware and solution software ...

Posted in Cloud, Comment, Data and Information Management, Education, I/O Networking, Infrastructure Resource Management, IT Industry Activity, IT Infrastructure Topics, metrics, Performance and Capacity, perspective, Power and Cooling, server, Storage and Storage Management Tools, Storage Architecture and Access, tools, virtualization | 4 Comments »

Part II: PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue

April 12, 2012 – 8:26 pm
This is the second in a five-part series around the recent IBM PureSystems announcements. You can view the earlier post here, and the next post here. So what are the speeds and feeds of a PureFlex system? The components that make up the PureFlex line include: IBM management node (server with management software tools). 10Gb Ethernet (LAN) switch, adapters and associated cabling. IBM V7000 virtual storage (also see here and here). Dual 8GFC (8Gb Fibre Channel) SAN switches and adapters. Servers with either x86 xSeries using for example Intel Sandy Bridge EP 2.6 GHz 8 core processors, or IBMs Power7 based pSeries for AIX. Note that IBM with their blade center systems (now rebadged as part of being PureSystems) support various IO and networking interfaces include SAS, Ethernet, Fibre Channel (FC), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and ...

Part I: PureSystems, something old, something new, something from big blue

April 12, 2012 – 8:22 pm
This is the first in a five-part series around the recent IBM PureSystems announcements. You can view the next post here. For a certain generation of IBM faithful or followers the recently announced PureFlex and PureApplication systems might give a sense of DejaVu perhaps even causing some to wonder if they just woke up from a long Rip Van Winkle type nap. Yet for another generation who may not yet be future IBM followers, fans, partners or customers, there could be a sense of something new and revolutionary with the PureFlex and PureApplication systems (twitter @ibmpuresystems). In between those two groups, exist others who are either scratching their heads or reinvigorated with enthusiasm to get out and be able to discuss opportunities around little data (traditional and transactional) and big data, servers, virtualized, converged infrastructure, dynamic data centers, private clouds, ITaaS, SaaS ...