Originating Author: Peter Burris
EMC’s recent storage platform announcement is as broad as any in the history of the storage industry, touching each of the company’s major hardware lines, from Rainfinity at the file appliance level to Symmetrix at the high-end. The dual cores of the announcement are the inclusion of new 750GB SATA II drives across the line and introduction of integrated security technology for features like subsystem logging and audit. Missing, however, are any bold moves to lead the storage industry closer to realizing the simpler, cost-effective vision heralded by technologies like virtualization and thin provisioning. The lessons therein say much about EMC, the reality of the storage industry, and the nature of the storage challenges facing users.
What does it say about EMC? It says that despite “big picture” marketing campaigns (e.g., information lifecycle management), EMC is continuing to emphasize being quick to market with “small picture” technology advances that provide real, tactical benefits to customers. This announcement features no “eureka” moment, but it does sport plenty of practical product enhancements that will be compelling, especially to existing EMC customers.
At the high end, still the bellwether of EMC, the Symmetrix line is refreshed with the DMX-4, which gets a faster back-end (matching the front-end 4Gb/s speed), a big bump in the performance of Enginuity (which also benefits DMX-3 users) in RAID 5/6 applications (30% improvement) and SRDF/S (33% improvement), and support for mixing Fibre Channel and the new 750GB SATA II drives. This combination of enhancements raises the ceiling on in-box tiered storage for the DMX-4, at least for Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage requirements. The DMX-4 does not share a common drive bay design with the DMX-3, which means field upgrades from the DMX-3 to the DMX-4 are not an option. For high-end customers, it’s a good announcement, but to take full advantage of the new features, users will have to have mastered data classification at the application level. As well, users are going to have to align their organizations to prepare for serious negotiations as they'll be making capacity commitments that will overlap with EMC's stated intent to announce thin provisioning in the first half of 2008.
Similarly, the CLARiiON, Celerra, and Centera lines each have been enhanced to take full advantage of the bigger drives and new subsystem security technologies. Of particular note, CLARiiON gets native iSCSI replication and RAID 6 via a free, non-disruptive upgrade and Celerra gains multi protocol connectivity (iSCSI, FC, and IP), all in a single NS20 or NS40 system, which also now features a competitive set of configuration and installation software functions.
EMC is loudly touting energy efficiency with the announcement, but most – if not all – of the improvements stem from comparing average kWh/GB figures between systems that don’t include the lesser performance, higher capacity 750GB SATA II drive. As other suppliers start incorporating new high-capacity drive technology in their platforms, EMC’s energy advantage should, in theory dissipate. EMC, however has traditionally been much more adept than competitors at integrating new drive technologies. Nonetheless, for big Symmetrix installations, the operational savings from these drives, today, can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per quarter.
What does the announcement say about the storage industry? It says that competition will continue to be highly segmented for the foreseeable future. Although in the midst of a period of significant technology and market discontinuity, no vendor seems willing to bet its business on a top-to-bottom, integrated, comprehensive, storage platform solution (although HDS is flirting with this approach). Virtualization, tiered storage, thin provisioning, storage-as-a-service, green storage, etc., will each emerge or be advanced in point product lines from a multitude of vendors, including start-ups. Standards will be advanced, but heterogeneity across storage tiers – often within a single vendor’s portfolio – will remain elusive. Perhaps this will open the doors to radical new approaches to providing integrated hosted storage solutions (e.g., general purpose Google File System), but that fork in the road is still years away.
What does this announcement say about the challenges facing users? It says that users won’t be able to buy “out of the box” the storage infrastructure services required by their businesses anytime soon; they’ll have to keep building them from multiple piece parts. There are many storage panaceas out there, but all are placebos. This may not be ideal; clearly, information management works best when storage works together. However, it’s the reality: For the foreseeable future, storage solutions will remain one part product, one part negotiation, and three parts IT labor (planning, integration, administration).
Action Item: EMC’s big announcement ushers in a new period of important negotiations, but no big storage revolutions. EMC loses no ground where it’s strong (high-end/midrange) and makes up a bit where it has been behind (IP storage). However, not even improvements in the energy footprint of EMC’s portfolio should distract users from the goal of meeting tactical storage needs at the optimal price.
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