E-guide Enterprise Storage Area Networks Buyer’s...
Transcript of E-guide Enterprise Storage Area Networks Buyer’s...
E-guide
Enterprise Storage Area Networks Buyer’s Guide Your expert guide to enterprise storage area networks
Page 1 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
SAN system buying guide: The fundamentals
Jacob Gsoedl
Use this guide to determine if a SAN is right for your environment, or
if you should go with DAS or NAS.
Even with the continuous use of DAS and increased use of NAS, SANs
continue to provide medium- and large-sized enterprise organizations with
reliable shared storage over high-speed Fibre Channel, iSCSI and Fibre
Channel over Ethernet protocols.
And if you've ever had the pleasure of purchasing a SAN system, you know
slogging through the marketing and sales speak can make getting the right
system tough.
This article is the first in a series that will guide you through the SAN buying
process and give you the information you need to make an educated purchase
decision. This article will help you to decide if a SAN system is right for your
organization, or if another storage architecture like DAS or NAS would be a
better fit.
Page 2 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
The second article will describe the critical features, performance metrics and
purchasing criteria you should consider when preparing a vendor request for
proposal.
The third article will compare market-leading SAN systems against purchasing
criteria, as well as against each other, to give you an expert opinion to ensure
your ultimate purchase is the right system for your organization.
Storage platform architectures: The basics
SAN is a highly scalable, high-performance network that connects hosts, usually
servers, with a shared pool of block-level storage over SCSI-based protocols,
including Fibre Channel (FC), iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
DAS is attached to and managed by a single host. DAS storage consists of
disks in a host and/or external disk enclosures that are directly connected to
storage controllers in the host.
NAS is another shared-storage option that is commonly used to store and share
files via standard file-system protocols -- mainly the Network File System and
Server Message Block protocols -- over IP networks.
Page 3 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Arrays are the essence of a SAN system because they provide the physical
storage resources. They are available as iSCSI arrays that communicate over
IP networks and as FC arrays that require an FC network.
For a long time, SAN was equated with FC, but in the last decade, Ethernet-
based iSCSI arrays have emerged and quickly encroached on the lucrative SAN
market, first in the small- to medium-sized business space, and, with the
emergence of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, in the enterprise space. An iSCSI SAN runs
over IP networks and Ethernet-based network components that can be
managed by traditional network administrators, significantly lowering price and
complexity. In general, FC still surpasses iSCSI in reliability and robustness.
The ability to scale capacity and performance is one of the primary reasons for
deploying a SAN. The SAN architecture and network, as well as the SAN arrays
themselves, are designed to be highly scalable. Other reasons to deploy a SAN
rather than DAS include high availability, resilience, efficiency and centralized
management.
FC SANs are more complex and costly to operate than DAS and NAS systems.
They require specialized knowledge, and are typically run by dedicated
administrators to manage FC switches and directors, and deal with the various
FC-specific configurations, including zoning, logical unit number (LUN) masking,
virtual SANs and ISL-trunking to FC host bus adapter configurations.
Page 4 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Although iSCSI SANs have narrowed the gap, and DAS and NAS systems have
become more popular with the rise of remote computing, big data analytics and
unstructured data, FC SANs are usually still the technology of choice for very
large and demanding networks.
Page 5 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Examining the scale, capacity and performance of the SAN
An FC SAN's ability to scale capacity and performance is a primary driver for its
continued popularity, and that starts with the SAN architecture and network. An
FC SAN can be as simple as attaching servers directly to multi-port SAN arrays,
or it can consist of multiple director-level FC switches that connect servers and
SAN arrays in high-availability configurations. SAN arrays can be scaled-up
(vertically) by adding additional processing power, memory, ports and disk
drives.
Many contemporary SAN arrays support solid-state storage, which performs at
an order of magnitude better than mechanical disk drives. Some SAN arrays
leverage solid-state drives (SSD) as cache to front-end disk drives, others allow
substituting mechanical disk drives with SSD and some support both.
Multiple tiers of storage, such as the combination of a fast solid-state tier and
slower disk tiers, and the ability to automatically move data between different
tiers of storage enable SAN arrays to scale cost efficiently.
Some SAN arrays support quality of service (QoS) features that allow some
LUNs and data to have a higher priority than others, enabling oversubscription
without jeopardizing critical applications. Like the support of multiple storage
tiers, QoS enables cost-efficient scaling of a SAN.
Page 6 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Scaling a SAN array vertically has its limits; it requires moving to a higher
performance array or having to add multiple arrays once the scale-up limit is
reached. To avoid this, a growing list of SAN arrays support scaling-out
(horizontally) by adding additional storage nodes to scale both capacity and
performance at the same time.
SAN system availability and resilience
Continuous availability and resilience are other reasons for deploying SANs.
Highly available SANs are designed to have no single points of failure, starting
with highly available SAN arrays and switches with redundant critical
components and redundant connections to the SAN network.
One of the strategies in designing redundant SANs is to connect each storage
node via dual or multiple paths with the next node. To protect against
unsolicited interferences, isolation techniques like zoning and LUN masking
provide isolation within a SAN fabric; Cisco Systems' Virtual SAN and Brocade's
Logical SAN protocols enable isolation across multiple SAN fabrics.
Finally, robust error handling and error management, and the ability to self-
correct are critical capabilities to ensure continuous storage services.
Page 7 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Lowering costs with storage efficiency
Reducing total cost of ownership of storage is yet another reason for deploying
SANs. The total cost of SAN storage decreases as the number of servers and
amount of managed storage grow.
To start with, SANs enable high storage utilization and treat unused storage as
spare capacity to support storage growth. Furthermore, most contemporary
SAN systems support one or more of the following storage efficiency features to
help maximize utilization of the available physical storage:
Thin provisioning allows storage to be assigned to hosts beyond available
physical capacity, and physical storage resources are allocated to a thin-
provisioned LUN on an as-needed basis. The cost savings of thin
provisioning can be tremendous and it enables storage utilization beyond
90%.
Efficient clones enable LUN cloning by referencing blocks in the source
LUN, and as a result, the cloned LUN uses a very small amount of physical
storage. Also called zero-cost clones, they aid in reducing deployment
times and required storage capacity.
Page 8 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Data deduplication reclaims storage by identifying duplicate blocks of data
and replacing them with a reference, usually a unique hash code, to unique
data blocks.
Data compression reduces the amount of required storage by applying
compression algorithms while data is written and decompressing data when
it is read.
Centralized storage improves management
Unlike DAS, where storage is managed separately on each server, a SAN
provides for a centralized mechanism and place to provision storage, analyze
storage usage and performance, and perform storage configurations. Central
management also simplifies the governance of storage infrastructure and
enables compliance with service-level agreements and regulatory requirements.
Some contemporary SAN arrays support heterogeneous storage virtualization
to combine smaller storage arrays into larger virtual storage pools that are
managed under the same SAN umbrella. Last but not least, SANs simplify data
protection of storage with features like snapshots that enable restores to prior
points in time, and data replication to copy data to other arrays and sites.
Page 9 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
SAN vs. DAS
Without a question, shared storage that's accessed over a network is appealing,
but does it justify the additional expenditure and complexity inherent to SANs?
After all, servers ship with storage and, with the availability of very large disk
drives, a server can be stuffed with tens and even hundreds of terabytes of DAS
at a very reasonable cost.
One of the big challenges of DAS is that it's only accessible by a single host,
and as a result only a fraction of the available storage is usually in use. The
larger the number of servers, the more unused DAS storage capacity you'll end
up with, resulting in dismal overall storage utilization. While 70% to more than
90% storage utilization is very common in SAN storage, DAS storage utilization
is usually a fraction of that.
The other challenge with DAS is storage management. From provisioning,
monitoring and backup to reporting, storage directly attached to servers is
managed individually. The larger the number of servers, the more difficult DAS
becomes to effectively manage.
In environments without shared storage, the quality of storage management is
typically in direct relation to the relevance of servers and applications on those
servers. Besides the challenge of having to manage each server's storage
Page 10 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
individually, DAS lacks advanced storage management features that are
common in SAN arrays, such as snapshots, replication and thin provisioning.
SAN vs. NAS
NAS systems share many of the storage management features of a SAN,
including snapshots, replication and thin provisioning, and NAS systems are
usually simpler to manage than SANs. If you primarily store and share
unstructured data, a NAS system would be a better storage platform than a
SAN.
But pure NAS systems are ill-suited for applications that require block-level
storage access. In an attempt to get a piece of the lucrative SAN market, some
NAS vendors, most noticeably NetApp, have added block-level protocol support
to their NAS filers.
Likewise, SAN vendors have been adding file-system protocol support to their
SAN platforms either natively or via NAS gateways. Today, an increasing
number of shared storage platforms support both block- and file-level protocols.
In general, a SAN is more versatile than NAS. While it's relatively easy to share
block-level storage as a file share, it's significantly more challenging to add
block-level protocol support to a pure NAS.
Page 11 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Conclusion
SANs, especially FC SANs, are more complex than DAS and NAS, and should
be deployed for the right reasons. They are used for applications that require
shared block-level storage, such as certain clustered applications and
databases, but their main use is for storage consolidation.
Storage consolidated in a SAN enables more efficient use and management of
storage, especially in environments with a large number of nodes. Consolidation
demands scale and robustness, and this is where a SAN system excels. Better
storage utilization and improved storage management result in substantial cost
savings. Additionally, a SAN creates a clean separation between storage and
other IT services. Even though this may create an additional management layer,
the resulting focus yields better storage services -- increased security, improved
performance and higher availability.
Next article
Page 12 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
How to create a SAN array request for proposal
Jacob Gsoedl
This article outlines the areas to consider when comparing products
in the SAN market so you can choose the best system for your
organization.
If you've completed a business case for purchasing a SAN, the next step is to
determine which criteria to include in your vendor request for proposal (RFP) to
ensure you evaluate systems that fit your environment, use cases, budget and
business needs.
With a relatively large list of SAN array vendors and products, this can be a
somewhat overwhelming task. Without a structured approach, you may end up
with an inadequate product that will most likely cause some adverse financial
impact due to workarounds, reduced efficiency, or having to supplement or
replace a product misfit.
This article is the second in a series that guides users through the SAN buying
process, and outlines the important information needed to make an educated
buying decision. The first article outlined SAN fundamentals to help you
Page 13 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
determine whether a SAN -- or a storage architecture such as DAS or NAS --
would be the best fit for your environment.
This article digs deeper into SAN essentials to describe the critical features,
performance metrics and other purchasing criteria to consider when preparing a
vendor RFP. A well-structured RFP that considers relevant evaluation aspects
is a key factor in compiling a short list of SAN arrays and, eventually, your
product of choice.
The third article will compare SAN arrays against these purchasing criteria to
make sure your ultimate purchase is the right system for your organization.
Hardware: Architecting the SAN array
SAN array hardware architecture is an essential evaluation criterion, since it
greatly impacts your system's availability and ability to scale. There are two
main ways to architect a SAN array:
As a monolithic single-system, multi-controller array with each controller
accessing a single shared pool of storage.
As a multi-node array that consists of loosely coupled independent nodes,
each with its own processors, storage and ports.
Page 14 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Single-system multi-controller arrays have been around since shared storage
systems came into existence and most storage systems are still architected this
way.
Midrange to high-end, single-system SAN arrays typically provide two storage
controllers. Some are offered as active-passive controller arrays, where one
storage controller does all the work and the second only comes into the picture
when the primary controller fails. Other systems on the market are architected
as active-active controller arrays, where both controllers are used for data
processing.
The maximum number of controllers supported directly relates to scalability and
performance. High-end and very high-end SAN arrays typically offer more than
two controllers; as the maximum number of supported controllers grows, the
more high-end the SAN array.
Multi-node SAN arrays consist of independent storage nodes, each with its own
storage controllers, disks and ports. Multiple nodes are coupled to form a single
scale-out SAN array. As nodes are added, performance and capacity scale.
While some multi-node SAN arrays stripe data across all nodes to maximize
performance, others work with smaller stripe sets. Similar to their single-system
counterparts, the number of nodes and maximum number of supported nodes
determines performance and scalability.
Page 15 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Disk subsystem: Drive types and features
Disk subsystem and disk options are another essential evaluation aspect. SAN
arrays range from all-flash solid-state arrays, to hybrid arrays with both solid-
state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs), to arrays with no SSD
support.
A hybrid SAN array with mechanical disk drives and SSD drives usually
provides the best price/performance ratio. A mix of high-capacity HDDs and a
small percentage of SSDs is able to outperform traditional high-performance all-
disk arrays at a better cost and with a smaller form factor while requiring less
power and cooling.
You'll need to correctly size the amount of solid-state storage to optimize both
price and performance. As far as large-capacity HDDs are concerned, near-line
serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives are preferred over SATA drives because
SAS is becoming the preferred back-end protocol to connect to disk
subsystems.
Even though SSDs are reducing the need for high-performance HDDs, 10,000
rpm or 15,000 rpm SAS drives are becoming the norm. As SAS-3 becomes
more prevalent, look for 12 gigabit per second (Gbps) SAS drive support.
Page 16 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
All-flash arrays come into play when very high performance is required. SSDs
are still significantly more expensive than high-end HDDs. However, if
architected correctly, an all-flash SAN array embraces writing data randomly
rather than trying to get data in sequence to accommodate mechanical HDDs.
As a result, these arrays can support real-time compression, deduplication,
clones and snapshots, which can somewhat offset the high cost of NAND flash.
An increasingly relevant consideration is the ability to encrypt the data stored on
drives. Encryption can be performed in the array back end, usually combined
with an integrated encryption key manager, or via self-encrypting drives. Having
the SAN array capable of performing encryption is preferable in most use cases.
For SAN arrays with multiple tiers of storage, such as hybrid SSD/HDD arrays,
the ability to automatically move active data to a faster tier and inactive data to a
slower tier is a factor. SAN arrays vary in how granularly data can be moved,
and the more granular your data can be moved, the better.
As part of the disk subsystem evaluation, you need to review the RAID options
supported by the SAN array and how data is distributed across disks and
nodes. As a rule of thumb, wider stripe sets result in better performance and
higher resilience.
Does the SAN array have a RAID 6 or equivalent option that enables more than
one simultaneous drive failure? And what's the performance impact while a
RAID is rebuilt? With increasingly larger drives, RAID rebuild times get longer
Page 17 of 43
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SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
and longer, and the ability of the SAN array to survive two concurrent drive
failures becomes more relevant.
Solid-state storage cache
Supporting NAND flash as cache rather than, or in addition to, SSD drives is a
worthwhile consideration. Using NAND flash as a cache benefits all data
traversing the SAN array, not just what resides on a NAND flash tier. It also
automatically keeps active data in NAND flash without additional mechanisms to
shuffle data between the flash and slower disk tiers.
Some arrays offer NAND flash cache in the form of SSDs, others as PCI
Express add-in cards. In some arrays, NAND flash cache only supports read
transactions, while both reads and writes are supported in others. Ideally, the
NAND flash cache should support reads and writes.
Performance: Benchmarking is key
Although SAN array performance is difficult to gauge as a result of workload
dependency and array configuration, your evaluation wouldn't be complete
without discussing IOPS, latency and throughput. To get some level of
objectivity, request independent third-party performance benchmarks and, if
Page 18 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
available, understand what configurations and type of workloads the test results
were obtained from.
Find out if the vendor has submitted the SAN array to the Storage Performance
Council (SPC) and compare SPC-1 and SPC-2 test results if available. SPC
benchmarking is one of very few independent benchmarks where you can
compare arrays tested the same way.
Like any benchmark, SPC results need to be viewed with the hardware
configuration in mind. To give some level of specificity to performance numbers,
IOPS over 1 million and latency below 1 millisecond rank at the top of the
performance spectrum.
Protocol support
Fibre Channel (FC) was the original SAN protocol, and 16 Gbps or 8 Gbps FC
is still the top choice for high-end networks.
ISCSI emerged in the SAN space about a decade ago, first in the small and
medium-sized business space. With the emergence of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10
GbE), SANs began encroaching on the high-end storage space where it now
competes with FC.
Page 19 of 43
In this e-guide
SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Support of FC over Ethernet (FCoE) enables running FC protocols over
Ethernet networks, which reduces the need to deploy and run FC networks and
switches. FCoE also reduces the complexity associated with attaching FC
arrays to an otherwise Ethernet-based storage infrastructure.
Fiber Connectivity support is important if you need to connect computers based
on the IBM z/Architecture, the latest offspring of IBM's System/360, System/370
and System/390 series mainframes. The z/Architecture has historically been
supported by very high-end SAN arrays, and is not only important for
companies that run mainframes, but a good indication as to how high end a
SAN array is.
Besides block-level protocol support, you should look at file system protocols
such as the Microsoft-supported Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and
Network File System (NFS). While some SAN arrays provide native file-system
protocol support, others depend on NAS gateways for SMB and NFS access to
SAN storage.
Front-end and back-end ports
Front-end ports enable servers, switches and other arrays to connect with the
SAN array over supported protocols. You should look at the type of ports
supported by the array -- such as 16 Gbps and 8 Gbps FC, 10 GbE and 1 GbE,
and 10 FCoE -- and the maximum number of available ports.
Page 20 of 43
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SAN system buying guide: The
fundamentals
How to create a SAN array
request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Back-end ports connect to the disk subsystem and disk shelves. The number of
ports and type of ports, such as 12 Gbps SAS, determines the maximum
throughput an array can handle and directly impacts its scalability.
Availability and reliability
Besides performance, availability and reliability of the storage system should be
at the top of your list. A service-level agreement (SLA) is a good indicator for
how robust a SAN array is.
While 99.99% (also referred to as "four nines") availability relates to
approximately 1 hour of downtime during the year, 99.999% (five nines) relates
to a mere 5 minutes and 99.9999% (six nines) to 31 seconds.
You should look for at least 99.99% availability; 99.999% availability or higher is
best for high-end enterprise arrays.
Determine how the vendor arrived at its SLA and, if possible, have them provide
documentation. Inquire about all single points of failure and determine what
hardware component replacements require downtime.
Understand if firmware upgrades can be done in a non-disruptive manner and
the rollback options of firmware and software upgrades. You should aim for a
Page 21 of 43
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fundamentals
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request for proposal
HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
SAN array with no single points of failure and where all maintenance tasks can
be performed while online.
Robust error detection and system health checks should also be assessed. For
instance, the array should run frequent system diagnoses and be able to repair
common repairable drive issues. If there is an issue, the storage system should
report back to the vendor, who should proactively take actions such as sending
replacement drives. Look for a SAN array that pushes the limits on self-
correcting and self-healing capabilities.
Data efficiency features
Capabilities that help to maximize the use of storage resources result in
significant cost savings and should be an important aspect of your evaluation. In
addition to looking at how your hybrid and all-flash arrays use data efficiency
features to maximize your solid-state investment, these features should be
available for all-HDD arrays.
Thin provisioning and efficient clones are widely supported and should be on
your must-have list. Increasingly, primary storage systems support data
deduplication and compression, and although they are not yet must-have
features, both are big pluses. Regarding data deduplication, storage systems
with real-time data deduplication capabilities rather than post-process
Page 22 of 43
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DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
deduplication are preferable. Real-time data deduplication and compression are
must-haves in state-of-the-art all-flash arrays.
Quality of service (QoS) enables storage efficiency by allowing oversubscription
of storage resources without impacting critical applications and data. Since SAN
arrays consolidate a wide range of workloads, QoS should be on your must-
have list. However, QoS capabilities vary greatly in contemporary SAN arrays.
Data protection
Data protection capabilities are another critical aspect. Make sure the SAN
array supports snapshots efficiently, since they can be disk-fillers.
Understand how much disk space a snapshot/subsequent snapshots use and
the maximum number of snapshots supported. A SAN array should support
asynchronous replication for long-distance replication, and synchronous
replication to support high-availability storage area networks.
Storage management capabilities
Storage management and the ability to automate storage management tasks
are an important aspect of any SAN RFP. You should be able to manage the
SAN array via a command line interface that enables scripting of certain storage
Page 23 of 43
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HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
management tasks, and through a user-friendly management console that's
preferably browser-based.
Integration with hypervisor management tools such as VMware vCenter is a big
plus. Analytics tools and reporting capabilities that can comment on various
storage metrics, including performance and issues, are pertinent. The ability to
configure alerts and policies that trigger actions if certain thresholds or
conditions are met are critical capabilities.
Integration capabilities
Integration is another crucial aspect. Request all supported VMware vSphere
and vCenter integrations and supported application programming interfaces
(APIs), such as vStorage APIs for Array Integration and vStorage APIs for
Storage Awareness, as well as supported Microsoft Hyper-V integrations and
APIs, such as Operation Data Store and Volume Shadow Copy Service.
Determine which application integrations are relevant for your environment and
use cases, and include those requirements in your RFP.
Page 24 of 43
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HUS VM SAN
IBM Storwize V7000
Fujitsu Storage Eternus
DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Conclusion
SAN arrays are purchased for a wide range of use cases, and those use cases
and specific requirements determine how relevant certain features and RFP
aspects are. While this article comments on relevant aspects, focus on what
matters for the problems you are trying to solve. A good RFP should ask very
specific, non-confusing questions, include all relevant aspects, and be vendor
agnostic so you can arrive at an objective SAN array decision.
About the author
Jacob Gsoedl is an IT and Technology Leader with 20+ years of experience
managing and leading all aspects of information technology, software
development and security. He writes frequently for TechTarget's Storage media
group sites on a variety of data storage topics, including storage array
architectures, software-defined storage and storage for virtual environments.
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DX8700 S3
Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
HUS VM SAN array platform
Aditya Gune
The Hitachi Unified Storage VM is a storage array designed for
enterprise SAN environments requiring high storage capacities.
The Hitachi Unified Storage virtual machine (HUS VM) is a SAN platform
designed for heavily virtualized data centers with large storage requirements. It
comes with a large feature set, such as support for block- and file-level storage,
automated data tiering and multi-tenant readiness. The HUS VM also supports
a hybrid flash configuration, which combines the performance of flash storage
with higher-capacity and less expensive hard disk drives (HDDs).
The HUS VM array supports a maximum of 1,152 small or large form-factor
HDDs, 576 flash module drives (FMDs) and 128 solid-state drives (SSDs). It
has a maximum raw capacity of 64 petabytes (PB), including all internal and
external virtualized capacity, but the internal storage capacity depends on the
type of storage medium used. The unit can support up to 4.608 PB of raw
storage when using 4 TB HDDs with a rotational speed of 7,200 rpm. It can
support up to 1.382 PB if used with 1.2 TB 10,000 rpm drives; 2.206 PB with 3.2
TB FMDs; and 51 TB with 400 GB SSDs. The array supports HDDs using SAS
drives in sizes from 300 GB to 4 TB, and supports 3.5- and 2.5-inch drives. It
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NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
also supports SAS FMDs in 1.6 TB and 3.2 TB capacities, and multi-level cell
2.5 inch SSDs in 200 GB and 400 GB capacities. The unit supports RAID 1,
RAID 5 and RAID 6.
The HUS VM uses the same storage virtualization controller as the higher-end
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP), but lacks features for the largest
enterprises. The HUS VM has less memory than the VSP G1000, and lacks
FICON ports for mainframes.
The HUS VM array supports a wide range of external storage, including almost
the entire range of Hitachi external storage modules. It also supports EMC VNX,
Fujitsu Eternus, HP 3PAR, IBM System Storage, Generic Profile and others.
The array supports up to 48 8 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) ports per file module,
delivering 38.4 GBps of bandwidth to hosts. It supports up to 256 hosts per FC
port, and a queue depth of 2,048 per FC port. In addition, the HUS VM supports
iSCSI, but not FICON.
The array uses Hitachi Command Suite management software and Hitachi
Universal Volume Manager for storage virtualization. It uses Hitachi Dynamic
Tiering for its automated tiering system, which automatically moves data
between arrays for better performance and storage management. The HUS VM
supports most major operating systems, including Windows, HP-UX, Hyper V,
Red Hat and Enterprise Linux, and VMware.
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Hitachi does not publish HUS VM pricing, but a fully configured unit with storage
may cost more than $200,000. Hitachi's list price for the controller, base
software and maintenance contract is approximately $156,000. This does not
include storage capacity or additional features like tiering and replication, which
must be purchased separately. However, the base software does support thin
provisioning.
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Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
IBM Storwize V7000 storage array platform
Aditya Gune
IBM's Storwize V7000 SAN array platform supports hard disk drives
and flash drives, and is marketed to high-capacity enterprises.
The IBM Storwize V7000 is for large and highly virtualized data centers. The
IBM SAN array comes with a range of features, such as FlashCopy, and
supports a number of IBM storage management applications. Block- and file-
level storage are supported, as well as hard disk drives and 2.5-inch flash
drives. Flash-based storage does not use mechanical drives, reducing latency
and increasing read/write speeds at a higher cost.
The V7000 supports a maximum of 504 drives per control enclosure, or 1,056
per clustered system, for a maximum capacity of approximately 6 petabytes
(PB). The array supports SAS and near-line SAS (NL-SAS) interconnects, and
can fit 3.5-inch NL-SAS disk drives in capacities of 2 TB, 3 TB, 4 TB and 6 TB,
with rotational speeds of 7,200 rpm. It can also fit 15,000 rpm 2.5-inch SAS
drives in capacities of 300 GB and 600 GB, and 10,000 rpm 2.5-inch SAS drives
in capacities of 600 GB, 900 GB and 1.8 TB. The Storwize array supports 2.5-
inch flash drives in capacities of 200 GB, 400 GB and 800 GB.
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NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
The V7000 integrates with IBM's Tivoli suite of storage management, including
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy, Tivoli Storage Manager, Storage Manager FastBack
and more.
The IBM Storwize V7000 is organized by control enclosures. Each enclosure
contains dual redundant controllers, running on an 8-core 1.9 GHz Intel Xeon
processor with 32 GB or 64 GB of cache. Each control enclosure supports up to
20 expansion enclosures, which attach with a 12 Gbps SAS interconnect,
providing approximately 1 PB of capacity. The Storwize V7000 can also be
organized by scalable clustered systems, which are essentially four control
enclosures and any associated expansion enclosures acting as one storage
system. The clustered system layout supports a maximum of 1,056 drives and a
maximum of 6 PB of capacity. The V7000 has a variety of host interfaces,
including 8 Gbps/16 Gbps Fibre Channel, 1 Gbps iSCSI, 10 Gbps iSCSI or 10
Gbps Fibre Channel over Ethernet. It also supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5,
RAID 6 and RAID 10.
The Storwize V7000 comes with a list of features for data center management.
The array supports thin provisioning and comes with IBM Easy Tier software, an
auto-tiering function that responds to the presence of a hybrid flash
configuration by placing the most frequently used data in the fastest tier of
storage. The V7000 integrates with IBM's Tivoli suite of storage management,
including Tivoli Storage FlashCopy, Tivoli Storage Manager, Storage Manager
FastBack and more. The array also supports remote file-based replication.
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IBM does not publish pricing for the Storwize V7000, but various sources
provide a list price for a configured hardware and software bundle ranging from
$375,000 to $600,000, depending on the configuration. In addition to the
included features, IBM has a three-year limited warranty on hardware, including
customer-replaceable units, on-site service and next business day response. A
software maintenance agreement is available, and IBM provides an online
support service.
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Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Fujitsu Storage Eternus DX8700 S3 storage array platform
Aditya Gune
The Fujitsu Storage Eternus DX8700 S3 SAN array offers a number
of features to help organizations manage large amounts of storage.
The Fujitsu Storage Eternus DX8700 S3 is a large enterprise SAN array for
highly virtualized environments. It has a modular architecture that allows users
to add components as requirements increase.
The DX8700 S3 array supports up to 64 drive enclosures, fitting a maximum of
1,536 hard disk drives (HDDs). It has a maximum storage capacity of 4.608
petabytes (PB). The unit supports 2.5-inch SAS HDDs in capacities of 300 GB,
400 GB, 600 GB, 800 GB, 900 GB, 1.2 TB and 1.6 TB. In addition, the Fujitsu
Storage Eternus DX8700 S3 supports 3.5-inch near-line SAS HDDs in
capacities of 2 TB, 4 TB and 6 TB. It can fit 3.5-inch solid-state drives in
capacities of 400 GB, 800 GB and 1.6 TB. The unit has up to 1.024 TB of cache
memory.
The Eternus DX8700 S3 supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 1+0, RAID+5, RAID 5
0 and RAID 6.
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Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
The Fujitsu Storage Eternus array's main drive interface is 6 Gbps SAS. Multiple
external host interfaces -- such as 16 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC), 10 Gbps Fibre
Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and RAID 1 Gbps/10 Gbps iSCSI -- are also
supported. The unit can have up to 128 FC ports or 64 iSCSI/FCoE ports,
connect to up to 8,192 hosts and support up to eight controllers.
The Eternus DX8700 S3 supports RAID 0, 1, RAID 1+0, RAID 5, RAID 5+0 and
RAID 6. Features include thin provisioning and automated storage tiering to
automatically move data between arrays for better performance and storage
management. The array supports remote replication and has a data safety
feature that uses self-encrypting drives. It also uses a non-RAID array called
massive array of idle disks, which saves power by spinning down disks that are
not in active use. Fujitsu's Eternus SF storage management software is
included. The size of the array depends on the number of drive or controller
enclosures added.
Vendor pricing for the Fujitsu Storage Eternus DX8700 S3 is not published and
varies based on the configuration chosen. A fully configured offering will likely
cost approximately $200,000. In addition, software license prices for the Eternus
DX8700 S3 depend on the number of controllers used, and customers can add
controllers at any time. The array comes with a global base three-year warranty.
Fujitsu offers a series of support packs, including 24/7 support with a four-hour
on-site response time, 9-5 support with a four-hour on-site response time and 9-
5 support with next business day on-site response time.
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Oracle FS1-2
HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
Oracle FS1-2 storage array system
Aditya Gune
Oracle FS1-2 SAN arrays can scale to petabytes and ship complete
with data storage features, such as replication and auto-tiering.
Oracle FS1-2 is a SAN array designed for large enterprise data centers with
high levels of virtualization. The array supports both all-flash and hybrid flash
configurations. All-flash configurations use solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of
mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs) to reduce latency and increase read and
write speeds. Hybrid configurations combine the performance of flash with
higher-capacity and less expensive HDDs. In addition, Oracle FS1-2 arrays
come with high-availability support and other features, such as Oracle's Data
Protection Manager, Quality of Service (QoS) Plus and more.
Oracle FS1-2 has a maximum of 30 drive enclosures, and supports up to 2.88
PB of storage in disk drives or 912 TB of storage in SSDs. It supports
performance- and capacity-focused enclosures for both SSDs and HDDs. The
SSD enclosures fit 2.5-inch drives with a SAS-2 interface. The HDD enclosures
fit both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives, connecting with SAS-2. The array supports
HDDs running at rotational speeds of 10,000 rpm and 7,200 rpm.
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HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
The array supports up to 12 host ports in either 16 gigabit Fibre Channel (FC),
10 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) or 10 gigabit iSCSI. It supports RAID 5, RAID 6 and
RAID 10. It also supports thin provisioning. The FS1-2 array supports two types
of controllers: Base Controller and Performance Controller. The Base Controller
has 64 GB of memory cache and 4 SAS-2 storage ports. The Performance
Controller has 384 GB of memory cache and 12 storage ports.
FS1-2 includes software and additional features for redundancy and storage
management.
FS1-2 includes software and additional features for redundancy and storage
management. Oracle FS Data Protection Manager is a tool that allows
administrators to back up and restore applications using clones. Data Protection
Manager has operating system support for Oracle Solaris and Linux, and
application-consistent support for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint or any
Windows application running Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service.
Oracle QoS Plus is a virtualization, auto-tiering software that collects detailed
information regarding storage use profiles, and then performs automated tiering
and movement based on the usage analysis.
Oracle MaxRep is a replication engine that supports synchronous and
asynchronous replication to local and remote locations. The software allows for
many-to-one, one-to-many and multi-hop replication.
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E-guide
Oracle FS1-2 pricing is confidential, and is dependent upon configuration.
However, a fully configured FS1-2 array is estimated to cost between $100,000
and $200,000. Oracle offers a one-year standard warranty, which categorizes
issues in three tiers: a Severity 1 issue warrants a phone or Web callback
response time of four hours, a Severity 2 issue warrants a time of eight hours
and a Severity 3 issue has a next business day response time. The warranty
also includes 24/7/365 Web coverage.
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HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
HP XP7 storage enterprise SAN array
Aditya Gune
The HP XP7 Storage SAN array offers high-availability and disaster
recovery features for highly virtualized data centers with large
storage requirements.
The HP XP7 Storage enterprise storage SAN array has high-availability (HA)
and disaster recovery (DR) features to limit downtime, and employs the
Common/Consistent Command Line Interface. The XP7 offers a Disk Controller
Chassis rack and Drive Chassis rack, and each rack can be configured to
prioritize capacity, performance or a balance of the two.
The XP7 Storage unit fits up to 2,304 small form-factor (SFF) drives, 1,152 large
form-factor drives, 384 SFF solid-state drives or 192 flash module drives. All
drives use SAS interconnect, though the unit also supports near-line SAS
drives. A fully configured unit has a total usable capacity of 5.9 petabytes (PB)
and a raw capacity of 6.8 PB. The unit supports an additional 247 PB of external
storage. In addition, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 6 are supported with a variety of
data-to-parity ratios. The HP XP7 Storage array comes with 192 8 Gbps Fibre
Channel (FC) ports, 96 8 Gbps/16 Gbps FC ports, 176 8 Gbps Fibre Connection
ports or 176 10 Gbps Fibre Channel over Ethernet ports. It has a maximum
supported cache of 2 TB, with up to 80 GB of shared memory. A variety of
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HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
operating systems are supported, including HP NonStop, HP OpenVMS, HP-
UX, VMware, Linux, Oracle Solaris and Microsoft Windows.
The XP7 Storage shares the same basic hardware architecture as the Hitachi
Virtual Storage Platform because of Hewlett-Packard’s joint technology
relationship and OEM agreement with Hitachi Ltd. However, HP develops its
own software and firmware for the XP7 Storage.
HP XP7 Storage array features include dedicated High Availability Software, a
Data Replication Solution Service and Critical Service software called HP C-
Track. The High Availability Software uses an active-active configuration,
allowing two XP7 Storage arrays to provide simultaneous read-write access to
multiple hosts or a cluster. This means if one half of the cluster fails, the data
load will be passed to the remaining half with no downtime or service
interruption.
HP XP7 Storage array features include dedicated High Availability Software, a
Data Replication Solution Service and Critical Service software called HP C-
Track.
HP's Critical Service software provides 24/7 monitoring of the environment.
Outages are addressed with a dedicated critical support helpline, with a six-hour
timeline from call to repair. The Data Replication Service comes in one of two
forms: Business Copy software or the Continuous Access suite, which are both
data redundancy tools. Business Copy is a local replication software that
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provides data copies within a single XP7 Storage unit and its attached storage,
using array-based mirroring and snapshot technology. Continuous Access is a
family of HA and DR tools that perform data mirroring between XP7 Storage
units, including remote mirroring in high workload environments.
The HP XP7 Storage array has a starting price of $462,000, though this may
change based on the configuration chosen. It comes with a series of dedicated
helplines for support bundled with the Critical Service software, as well as a
three-year warranty for parts, labor and on-site maintenance.
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HP XP7 Storage
NetApp FAS8000
E-guide
NetApp FAS8000 storage array platform
Aditya Gune
The NetApp FAS8000 is a series of enterprise SAN arrays marketed
toward high-capacity environments that support multiple flash
configurations.
The NetApp FAS8000 line of SAN arrays are used in highly virtualized data
centers that require large amounts of storage space. The array comes in four
models -- FAS8080EX, FAS8060, FAS8040 and FAS8020 -- that are available
in all-flash and hybrid flash configurations. All-flash configurations do not use
hard disk drives (HDDs), reducing latency and increasing read/write speeds.
Hybrid configurations combine the performance of flash with higher-capacity
and less expensive HDDs. All of the array models come with high-availability
support.
The FAS8080EX is the flagship array in the NetApp FAS8000 lineup. In a SAN
environment, it can support eight nodes and up to 5,760 drives for a maximum
capacity of 34 petabytes (PB). It has a maximum flash pool capacity of 576 TB,
a maximum all-flash capacity of 1.5 PB and a maximum memory of 1,024 TB.
The FAS8080EX can also be used in a NAS environment. In this type of setup,
it can fit a maximum of 17,280 drives for a maximum raw capacity of 103 PB. A
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NAS setup can have up to 24 nodes, a maximum flash pool capacity of 1,728
TB and a maximum all-flash capacity of 4.6 PB. A NAS setup has a maximum
memory of 1.024 TB. The FAS8080EX has up to 64 Fibre Channel (FC) ports at
4 gigabits per second (Gbps), 8 Gbps or 16 Gbps; 32 Fibre Channel over
Ethernet (FCoE) ports; 64 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports; 72 1 GigE ports;
and 56 SAS ports at 6 Gbps. The array also comes with a wide range of
additional connectivity, such as NetApp's Unified Target Adapter 2, which
provides additional FC support.
The FAS8060 can support 4,800 drives in a SAN environment, with up to 28 PB
of capacity, 288 TB of flash pool capacity and 1.5 PB of all-flash capacity. It also
has a maximum memory of 512 GB. In a NAS environment, the FAS8060 can
have up to 14,400 drives, for a total capacity of 86 PB, a maximum flash pool
capacity of 864 TB and a maximum all-flash capacity of 4.6 PB. The FAS8060
has up to 24 16 Gbps FC ports, 40 4 Gbps/8 Gbps FC ports, 24 FCoE ports, 32
10 GigE ports, 40 1 GigE ports and 40 6 Gbps SAS ports.
The FAS8040 can support 2,880 drives in a SAN setup, with a maximum
capacity of 17 PB and a maximum memory of 256 GB. In a NAS setup, the
FAS8040 supports up to 8,640 drives, with a maximum capacity of 51 PB. The
array has a maximum memory of 768 GB. The FAS8040 has a maximum of 24
16 Gbps FC ports, 40 4 Gbps/8 Gbps FC ports, 24 FCoE ports, 32 10 GigE
ports, 40 1 GigE ports and 40 6 Gbps SAS ports.
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E-guide
All NetApp FAS8000 models support high-availability and RAID 4, RAID 6,
RAID 4 1 and RAID 6 1.
The FAS8020 can support 1,920 drives in a SAN setup, with a maximum
capacity of 11.5 PB and a maximum memory of 576 GB. The array supports
NAS configurations of up to 5,760 drives yielding a maximum capacity of 34 PB.
The FAS8020 has 12 16 Gbps FC ports, 20 4 Gbps/8 Gbps FC ports, 12 FCoE
ports, 16 10 GigE ports, 20 1 GigE ports, and 20 6 Gbps SAS ports.
The All-Flash FAS 8000 series scales to 2,880 solid-state drives and 4.6 PB of
solid-state capacity per cluster. The all-flash versions use clustered Data Ontap,
which includes FlashEssentials software that optimizes reads and writes, and
handles inline compression and data deduplication.
All NetApp FAS arrays are built on the Data Ontap and clustered Data Ontap
operating system software.
All NetApp FAS8000 models support high-availability and RAID 4, RAID 6,
RAID 4 + 1 and RAID 6 + 1. The series supports most OSes such as Windows
2000/XP, Windows Server versions 2003/2008/2012, Linux, Oracle Solaris, HP-
UX, Mac OS and VMware ESX.
The vendor does not publish pricing for the FAS8000 series, but based on
prices for equivalent products, units may cost upward of $100,000, depending
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E-guide
on configuration. NetApp also has a series of support tools, including a support
line and online technical assistance.
About the author
Aditya covers IT hardware and software solutions, focusing on infrastructure
from a purchasing perspective. Prior to joining TechTarget, he spent four years
covering the consumer technology market, including semiconductors,
smartphones and tablets. He received his bachelor's degree from the University
of California in 2013.