Planning and Building Tiered Storage

Brad O’NeillSenior Analyst and ConsultantTaneja Group, Inc.

Agenda

What is Tiered Storage

A Planning Strategy for Tiered Storage

Example Deployment Scenarios

Conclusions

Q&A

A Definition of Tiered Storage

“The deployment of two or more classes of

disk storage within a primary or

secondary storage environment, wherein

the residence of data across these

classes of storage is determined by

business-driven variables.”

Sounds Complex, But…

Tiered Storage Is Straightforward 1. You deploy multiple classes of storage

• FC, SCSI, SATA, TAPE

2. You might move data from various apps across those storage classes, or, just originate your data assets on the right class• Online migration, disk archiving, disk backup

3. You do this to create efficiencies in time, money or other resources• Improve operations, boost ROI, increase productivity

The Net-Net on Tiered Storage

Forget all buzzwords. It’s about data placement on cost/performance appropriate storage.• Largely manual, not automated

• 50% of tiered storage: originate on the right platform

• Yes, future ILM dreams will leverage the storage classes we create today

What really kicked-off this trend? ATA/SATA.• To reduce primary and secondary storage costs

• To increase recovery and data protection measures

• Critical mass of vendor announcements

• 53% of surveyed users intend to deploy disk by 2005!

Something the industry forgot to mention…

Tiered Storage MANAGEMENT!

BEFORE you deploy, you need a tiered

storage management strategy!

BEFORE you evaluate vendors, you need

a tiered storage management strategy!

BEFORE you even think about devices,

you need a tiered storage management

strategy!

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail!

“Our first tiered storage deployment wasn’t planned as such. We jumped at the cost savings. We bought ATA arrays and started loading up… If I could do it over, I would have spent a lot more time on planning.”

Director of Storage, Retail, California

TIERS OF STORAGE

H O S T S

4

2 3

Applications Web Database Backups

STRATEGY!

1

YOUR STRATEGY WILL DETERMINE SUCCESS!

5 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage

1. Define your business drivers: Why do this?

2. Define storage “asset classes and traits”

3. Evaluate architectural choices

4. Go out and whip your vendors

5. Deploy your plan

1. Define Your Business Drivers

Do you seek to improve data protection?

(RTO, RPO, Availability, Backup windows)

Are you solving compliance requirements?

(disk-based archives, tape archives, accessibility)

Are you aiming to reduce capital outlays?

(Footprint control, utilization improvements)

Can you need human management efficiencies?

(Few heads, higher managed capacities, wider roles)

5 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage

1. Define your business drivers: Why do this?

2. Define storage “asset classes and traits”

3. Evaluate architectural choices

4. Go out and whip your vendors

5. Deploy your plan

2. Create Asset Groups and Traits

ID the data assets against descriptive “groups”.

Make these grouping more specific or less specific as required!

• BUSINESS-CRITICAL

(Primary data. Traditional “5 9’s”, High availability)

• BUSINESS-OPERATIONS

(Primary data. Share-intensive, reference data, aging data)

• PROTECTION and ARCHIVAL

(Primary or Secondary data. Reference, copies and protection)

• LONG-TERM ARCHIVAL

(Secondary data. No day-to-day use, long-term retention)

Assign All Your Storage Using Resources To Asset Groups!

ASSET GROUPS

H O S T S

Applications Web Database Backups

Which Group?

Biz Critical Biz Ops Protection/Archival Long-Term

EXAMPLE ASSET GROUPINGS

BUSINESS-CRITICAL

“My Oracle databases”

“Our ERP data… all of it”

BUSINESS-OPERATIONS

“Our MS Exchange”

“Departmental Files”

PROTECTION and ARCHIVAL

“Copies of SQL Server data sets”

“Completed trade contracts”

“All compliance information”

LONG-TERM ARCHIVAL

“Stuff we don’t use but have to keep”

“Our last ditch DR bucket”

2. Create Asset Groups and Traits

ID concrete STORAGE TRAITS for each ASSET GROUP:

• Uptime Goals

• Performance requirements

• Protection needs

• Mirrors/Snapshots/Other SW reqs

• Security and access

• Fully Loaded Target Price/Managed TB

Asset Groups + Storage Traits = Storage Tiers

How Did We Get Our Tier Definitions?

All data assets are assigned to groups

The traits of each group were defined

As a Result, We Then Know:

The expected service level from each storage tier

The desired price-points for each storage tier

Therefore, We Have A Tiered Storage Plan!

2. Create Asset Groups and Traits

Asset Groups Drive Your Tier Choices

ASSET GROUPS/STORAGE TIERS

H O S T S

4

2 3

Applications Web Database Backups

Groups/Tiers

Biz Critical Biz Ops Protect/Archival Long-Term

1

5 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage

1. Define your business drivers: Why do this?

2. Define storage “asset classes and traits”

3. Evaluate architectural choices

4. Go out and whip your vendors

5. Deploy your plan

3. Evaluate Architecture Choices

Guidelines We’ve Heard From Your Ranks:

1. “Do Not Create Net-New Management”

2. “Look beyond array pricing alone”

3. “Take an infrastructure-wide approach”

4. “Execute your tier strategy in stages”

So, Where To Begin?Your Tier 1 Business Critical Storage Sets The Pace.• Your Crown Jewel Assets

• Most Expensive Storage Investment

• Disruption and Change Management are painful

• Your High Bar for Storage Management practices

95% of Tiering Strategy centers on Tiers 2 and 3: Business Operations and Protection/Archiving Tiers• “How Do We Improve our Tier One ROI?”

• “How Do We Get Less Critical Data on Cost-Appropriate Storage?”

• “How do we leverage disk to improve data protection?”

Key Points For Tier 2 Evals: “Business Operations” Storage

SATA pricing is still all over the map! Examine best of breed approaches vs. your asset groups• From under $4000 to $15,000+ per TB!

Protection matters. What do you need?• RAID support in SATA typically 0,5

Given asset groups, how much performance?• SATA performance gains are real and coming fast

• Smaller cache sizes in most SATA arrays

How much capacity growth?• Can you maintain existing management framework?

Decide if you need a Stand-Alone array or disk-space in a unified platform.

Multi-disk Systems Mix FC and SATA trays in the same array Example vendors: EMC, HDS, 3Par, BlueArc, Pillar

Stand-alone SATA arrays• Plethora of players from entry-level to enterprise

• Example vendors: NetApp, IBM, NexSan, Candera

Of course, Pros and Cons To Both Approaches!

Key Points For Tier 2 Evals: “Business Operations” Storage

Key Points for Tier 3 Evals: “Protection and Archival”

What asset you archive or protect drives your choices:

Standard SATA array Online copies of data

CAS Software or Appliance Online archiving of reference information

Virtual Tape Software or Appliance Fast disk-based data protection

Traditional BU/R Software to Disk Fast disk-based data protection

5 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage

1. Define your business drivers: Why do this?

2. Define storage “asset classes and traits”

3. Evaluate architectural choices

4. Go out and whip your vendors

5. Deploy your plan

Choosing The Right Solutions

Sage End User Comments

“Look wider than you usually do.”• Resist temptation to roll with your existing trusted vendor

“Tiered Storage Has Many Purchasing Impacts”• Tier One = Potential footprint impact from offloading

• Tier Two = unique requirements for primary

• Tier Three = backup or archiving requirements driven by higher tiers

“If you go ‘best of breed’, ensure management commonalities across tiers”• You can create more problems than you solve.

2 Key Questions For All Vendors

“How will I move and place my data?” Volume-level copy/snapshots

File-level copy

Application-integrated/controlled

“Can I use my existing management tools?” Discovery, partitioning, provisioning

Capacity management, device-level management

Drill the emerging vendors on these points

Who Are Some Worthy Players?

In Tier 2 “Business Operations”• EMC, NetApp, HDS, IBM, STK

• NetApp, BlueArc, 3Par

• Candera, NexSan

In Tier 3 “Protection and Archiving”• STK, ADIC, Quantum

• Diligent

• EMC Centera, Permabit, DCT, Archivas

Deployment Example

Company #1: Financial Services, East Coast

220 TB primary storage on Tier One

Wants to reduce Tier 1 footprint growth by 50%Deploys combination of two SATA vendors for Tier Two

assets. Uses existing SM tools for migration.

Has a disk-backup appliance at Tier Three, exploring CAS for compliance archiving.

Maintains tape libraries, exploring CAS for long-term disk.

Deployment Example

Company #2: Online/Store Retailer, California

10 TB primary storage on SAN. 5 TB on Tier One storage.

Happily w/ deployed disk backup for Tier 3.

In 2005, will deploy Tier 2 on SATA.

Goal is to reduce total amount of storage in Tier 1 by 3 TB via migrating less critical SQL Server and MS Exchange to SATA

Will use existing volume management software

Conclusions on Tiered Storage

Plan before you leap. Think deeply in terms of asset groups and storage traits.

Move in steps. Resolve for key business drivers first. You have plenty of time.

Look at all the vendors. Choices abound!

Preserve your existing management investments

Conclusions on Tiered Storage

Call us if you need help or input!

Taneja Group works with dozens of end

users on RFPs and general questions

Info@tanejagroup.com

Brad@tanejagroup.com

925.417.0329

Questions!