leaping to sds? make sure you can answer these questions
TRANSCRIPT
Software Defined StorageThree Questions To Answer Before You Leap
Leaping to SDS? Answer These Questions:
1. Is Software Defined Storage Right For You?
2. What are the Hardware Requirements For Software Defined Storage?
3. How do you Transition To Software Defined Storage?
Software Defined Storage
Available On Demand
For audio playback and Q&A go to:
http://bit.ly/LeapSDS
Our Speakers
George Crump is the founder of Storage Switzerland, the leading storage analyst focused on the subjects of big data, solid state storage, virtualization, cloud computing and data protection. He is widely recognized for his articles, white papers, and videos on such current approaches as all-flash arrays, deduplication, SSDs, software-defined storage, backup appliances, and storage networking. He has 25 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US.
Gavin McLaughlin is Vice President of Strategy & Communications at X-IO and is responsible for all press and analyst relations, together with development and articulation of X-IO’s core strategy. Gavin brings over 25 years of technical, sales and marketing experience of the storage industry at organizations such as EMC, HP and Sun Microsystems.
He is also a regular speaker with regards to the use of various storage technologies, implementations and techniques and is based in the United Kingdom.
● Analyst firm focused on storage, cloud and virtualization
● Knowledge of these markets is gained through product testing and interaction with end users and suppliers
● The results of this research can be found in the articles, videos, webinars, product analysis and case studies on our web site:
http://storageswiss.com
Who Is Storage Switzerland?
did you know that X-IO….
provides industry leading price/performance disk, hybrid and all-flash arrays?
has thousands of units installed across the world delivering worry-free storage?
provides the only platform for both SAN and Software Defined Storage?
Agenda
• What is Software Defined Storage?
• Software Defined Storage Myths
• Three Questions to Ask
• Q&A
Polling QuestionWhat are your plans for Software Defined Storage (SDS)?
A) None – Sticking with full featured arrays
B) Researching – Trying to figure out what SDS is
C) Evaluating – Want to know if it is right for us
D) Ready – Developing an SDS implementation strategy
E) Running – Already have SDS, looking for complimentary hardware
What is Software Defined Storage?
● Abstraction of Storage Services from Storage Hardware
● Brings flexibility and should reduce costs
● Available in a variety of forms● Pure Software
● Bundled with Hardware
● Part of the Operating System / Hypervisor
● Some methods require a new silo of storage
Software Defined Storage Myths
● Everybody should use SDS
● Hardware doesn’t matter with SDS
● Transitioning to SDS is easy
Question 1: Is Software Defined Storage Right For You?
SDS Makes Sense If…
● You have more than one or two storage systems
● You have the time to independently evaluate hardware and software
● You are looking to add to existing storage to address a capacity or performance problem
SDS
SDS Does NOT Make Sense If…
● You only have one shared storage system
● You are looking to consolidate storage systems to one
● Despite SDS Improvements, one of something is still easier
Question 2: What are the Hardware Requirements for SDS?
Hardware Matters!
SDS Hardware Needs to Be
● Reliable
● Acceptable performance
● Cost effective
Commodity Hardware Costs Money
● SDS can create levels of redundancy but that requires extra hardware
● Commodity hardware is often not a serviceable
● Commodity hardware often does not perform as well as purpose built hardware
Hardware Needs to Cooperate with SDS
● Removable software services
● Order-able without software services
● Provides software services that SDS does not
● Enhanced reliability● Enhanced tiering● Data replication
Question 3: How Do You Transition To SDS?
First, Some Realities
● Most SDS solutions need full control over the LUN
● Most SDS solutions want to replace all data services
● But…Many are not complete in the services they do offer
Transitioning to SDS
1. Assign free capacity to the SDS System
2. Implement new workloads on that capacity first
3. As comfort/confidence rises migrate existing workloads
Need to do a block level copy
Look for SDS solutions that have a built in migration tool
4. Leverage Storage System Capabilities to fill in SDS Gaps
Summary
● Hardware is Key
● Enables smooth transition to SDS
● Fills in gaps in SDS Functionality
● Software Selection is Important
● Does it support existing storage?
● Does it provide a robust feature set?
● Can it work with existing storage?
© 2015 X-IO Technologies. All rights reserved.
delivering unique storage systems today
grid technology to deliver more performance with less components
automated tiering to deliver flash performance at lower cost
active-active controllers that enable high availability and lower risk
end-to-end management that enables full performance at full capacity
full-featured data services that provide unique adaptability to SDS
not all storage suits all workloadsthere are many tools to solve the challenge
to fill a round hole – is a square peg and a hammer the most efficient method?
X-IO gives you
adaptability with a single core architecture
© 2015 X-IO Technologies. All rights reserved.
low cost shouldn’t mean low performance
high-performance shouldn’t mean high-risk
low risk shouldn’t mean high cost
X-IO gives you
balanced cost, risk, & performance
© 2015 X-IO Technologies. All rights reserved.
100% performance at 100% utilization
simple integration = lower cost
avoiding regular service = lower risk
modular scale = adaptive business
X-IO gives you
modular, low-touch storage that needs no specialist skills
© 2015 X-IO Technologies. All rights reserved.
© 2015 X-IO Technologies. All rights reserved.
Software Defined Storage
Fully Featured Storage
Thank you!Storage Switzerlandhttp://[email protected]
StorageSwiss on Twitter:http://twitter.com/storageswiss
StorageSwiss on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/user/storageswiss
X-IO Technologieshttp://[email protected]
X-IO on Twitter:http://twitter.com/xiostorage
X-IO on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/xiostorage
Software Defined StorageThree Questions To Answer Before You Leap
Software Defined Storage
For complete Audio and Q&A please register for the On Demand Version at:
http://bit.ly/LeapSDS