8.5 Chapter Summary

Initiating Deployment

• Effective deployment couples traditional SAN concepts with nontraditional models for new storage platforms.

• Nontraditional models involved both network and intelligence shifts.

8.1 Infrastructure Design Shifts

• The storage infrastructure chain is undergoing rapid commoditization of hardware platforms.

• Disk drives such as serial ATA provide more density with lower power requirements and at lower cost than other drive types.

• x86 server platforms are now used to build NAS servers, multiprotocol routers, and storage subsystems.

• New I/O interconnects such as PCI-X and PCI-Express provide higher throughput and smaller form factors, eliminating previous systems design constraints.

• Device interconnects such as Fibre Channel, parallel SCSI, and Ethernet are increasing in speed, becoming more functional.

• Networking and I/O spaces are converging.

• Including x86-based systems in the storage hardware food chain dramatically affects the overall cost structure due to benefits of the x86 ecosystem, such as size reduction, power reduction, development reach, and industry shipment volumes .

• The migration to a more open -systems and commoditized infrastructure means that storage services can more easily move throughout the system.

• Specialized storage hardware based on proprietary ASICs and accompanying software will continue to dominate the high-end enterprise markets.

8.2 Qualifying and Quantifying IT Deployment

• The IP storage model maps network utilization across storage platforms to key storage services locations.

• IT professionals need to balance products in access, distribution, and core layers across storage platforms.

• Product consolidation opportunities exist across categories to deliver cost savings.

• Effective migrations couple existing environments with open-systems deployment.

• Use of the IP storage model leads to product lifecycle extension through applications such as storage replication.

• Realizing financial gains from technology requires treating IT as a corporate investment.

• Coupling IT investment with corporate planning processes ensures financial fits with business goals.

• IT professionals must manage both strategic and tactical goals of project management.

• Use of portfolio management for technology guarantees long- term sustainability.

8.3 IP Storage Network Scenarios

• SAN extension, storage consolidation, and service provider IP storage scenarios make use of core IP networking infrastructure for cost savings and return on investment.

• Use of an IP core for remote mirroring benefits TCO and ROI.

  • Familiar IP and Ethernet management tools for IP network lead to lower training costs.

  • More IP and Ethernet components lowers hardware costs for end users.

  • Centralization on IP core enables migration path to new IP storage deployments.

  • Robust IP security and encryption tools protect mission-critical data.

• Use of an IP core for storage consolidation benefits TCO and ROI.

  • Single enterprise focus simplifies management and administration costs.

  • Network consolidation leverages existing IP and Ethernet resources and staff.

  • Consolidation reduces overall storage amount and perhaps the number of servers.

  • Use of additional IP and Ethernet components lowers TCO in hardware and software.

• Use of an IP core for service provider SANs benefits TCO and ROI.

  • Readily available IP bandwidth saves provider and end- user costs.

  • IP infrastructure can be easily partitioned, allowing multiple customers to be segmented within one network.

  • The IP network makes use of OSPF, BGP, and autonomous regions for maximum scalability.

8.4 Maximizing Operational Efficiency

• Maximizing operational efficiency requires merging common IP storage networking applications with new storage applications, such as those dealing with fixed content.

• Fixed content, or reference information, is growing at a faster rate than other types of data storage.

• Fixed-content storage characteristics differ from dynamic content in performance characteristics, availability requirements, and TCO.

• Email is one of the largest consumers of corporate data storage and falls into the fixed-content category.

• The cost of managing email typically exceeds the cost of email storage by a factor of as much as 50 times.

• Since indexing information is so critical to email, separating the index information (or metadata) from the email itself helps build more scalable systems.

• Intelligent storage nodes can be used as indexing nodes to allocate resources to speed query and retrieval times.

• IP storage networks deliver a highly scalable, flexible platform for distributed content-addressed storage.

• Imaging fixed content has different indexing requirements than imaging text-based information.

• As a vital part of business costs, one online photography company, Snapfish, learned how to manage its storage costs effectively through aggressive networked storage strategies.

• Initial costs per terabyte for Snapfish were close to $200,000.

• Two years later, the company was assessing storage configurations at less than 10 percent of that cost.

• Snapfish built core competencies in migrating between vendors .

• Snapfish took risks on new technologies.

• Snapfish is currently evaluating a distributed NAS model that would include NAS heads and scalable back-end storage.

• The distributed NAS platform moves NAS functions into the IP storage distribution layer and retains inexpensive disk space in the access layer.

• All of Snapfish's configurations have built upon a core IP and Ethernet network.