The Right Approach to Cloud StorageStephen Foskett

Interop, November 2009

Storage Is Supposed To Be Getting Cheaper!

o Disk cost is dropping rapidly

o $250 buys:• 1994: 2 GB• 1999: 20 GB• 2004: 200 GB• 2009: 2000 GB

o But enterprise storage costs keep rising!

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Meet The Cloud!

Products Services

Infrastructure

Platform

Software

Physical, Virtual, and Cloud Compute

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Each server’s CPU load varies throughout the

week

The CPU load of two servers is even more

variable

Ten servers swing wildly, but there is

still lots of idle time

We really only need this much CPU

time…

…but we have to buy this much on physical servers!

Server virtualization allows us to combine workloads,

buying 30% less Cloud compute services allow us to buy only what

we need: 66% less!

Cloud Storage Is Different

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Storage grows continually

Multiple servers compound the use of storage capacity

We would like to buy just what we need…

…but disk drives only come in certain sizes and it takes

time to provision

We try to plan for storage capacity growth, but there is always lots of wasted space

Cloud storage services allow us to buy just what we need

and can react instantly to new capacity demands

High

Low

Low High

Cloud Offers Better Access at Lower Cost

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Accessibility

Co

st

Tape

VTL

NAS

Increase Accessibility

Reduce Cost

SAN

Data Types Suitable for Cloud Storage

Internal Storage Cloud Storage

Access Type Block LevelDatabases, ERP

File LevelUnstructured Data

Access Speeds Fibre Channel Gigabit Ethernet

Access Latency <10 ms <500 ms

Business DriverMission CriticalProduction DataTrade Secrets

ArchivalEncrypted

Collaborative

ExamplesERP, tape-out, design

flows, simulations, exchange server

email archives, database backups, video, image, media, personal drives

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Public Cloud Storage Economics

o Just-in-Time Provisioning• Plan/buy for usage and not for peak capacity

o Fully Managed Storage• Managed GB = Power, space, cabling, racks, monitoring,

software, hardware, migration to new media… all included

o Enterprise Purchasing and Pricing Model• Flat, bundled price starts at $0.25/GB/month, $3K/TB/year• Enterprise sales, engineering, and support staff• Consulting and strategy available

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Enterprise Cloud Storage: Why Not?

Security & Reliability

No System is Perfect (including yours)

What to look foro Security audit (by a respected firm or customer)o SAS 70 (especially Type 2)o Customizable SLA (with remedies)o Transparencyo Encryption (but who holds the keys?)

Encryption for Cloud Storage

Where should encryption live?(and who holds the keys?)

Performance

Cloud storage is not for all data

But it’s for a lot of data!

Cloud-appropriate data:o File-based, unstructuredo Non mission-criticalo Value in keeping it accessibleo Requirement to be outside the firewallo Multi-user, multi-siteo Rarely written, frequently read

Ingestion

Loading initial data can derail even the best cloud use cases

Bandwidth is sized to daily requirements

Initial data loading often requires an

alternate path

Can you ship tapes? Disk arrays?

Who manages? Who pays?

Implementation

APIs Aren’t “Simple” to Integrate

What to look foro Robust integrated functionality in applicationso Solutions & integration serviceso Enterprise supporto Standard storage protocol support

Paths to the Cloud

Economics

TCO is More Than Just $/GB

What to look ato Infrastructure costso Connectivity/network costso Security feeso Hardware utilizationo System complexityo System management

Use Case: Protect Data Off-Site

o Data must be protected off-site…• Local outages and small-scale data losses are frequent• Regulations and standards call for off-site storage

o IT responded by…• Shipping backup tapes• Using storage replication features

o But…• Is it really secure?• Can you bear the cost and effort for replication?• Do backup tape-based solutions even work?

Offsite Data Protection ASU/NASA Case Studyo Images transmitted from moon via satelliteo 3 copies required (2 local 1 offsite)o Current offsite tape solution difficult to managed and scale

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Secondary

Data Receiving Servers

Image Processing Servers

Uncertaino outdated technologyo deteriorating media

Expensiveo labor intensiveo delivery costs

Limitedo inaccessibleo only used for 1 copy

Primary

Tertiary

o Optimized management of tertiary datao Gained accessibility, security, and integrity

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Primary Secondary

Data Receiving Servers

Image Processing Servers

Cache

Encryption

SSL

Cloud GatewayAPI

Secureo monitored transfero easy to verify

integrity

Economicalo 40% cost reduction

Functionalo accessible for reuse o can replicate

instantly

Offsite Data Protection ASU/NASA Case Study

Use Case: Tiered Storage

o Storage capacity just keeps expanding…• Larger files + More files = Growing volume of data

o IT responded by…• Consolidating on SAN and NAS• Tiered storage concepts• HSM and ILM

o But…• Storage systems getting more complex and expensive• Management effort keeps growing• Cost savings aren’t materializing

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Tiered Storage

Per

form

ance

an

d C

ost

Capacity

Fulfilling The Promise of Tiered Storage

o Tiered disk storage has not yet lived up to its promise• Small cost and

performance differential between FC and SATA disk

• TCO is very closeo SSD gives extreme

performance at high cost

o Cloud storage gives massive capacity at low cost

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Tiered Storage

FC

Disk

SATA

SSD

Cloud

Tier NFortune 50 Financial Firmo Legal requires email archiving systemo Filled up planned on-site storage in one yearo No capital budget, space, or desire for more hardware

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o Using email system

Employees

Costlyo storage hardware is

expensiveo data center is full

Inflexibleo must buy 100 TB at a timeo can’t be mixed with other

apps

Legal Risko email must be preservedo e-discovery needs data on-

line

Archive Storage

Email ServersEmail Archive Servers

Email Storage

Legal Staff

o Reviewing for complianceo Performing e-discovery

Tier NFortune 50 Financial Firmo No changes to user or legal use of systemso Cloud gateway enables conventional apps to access cloud storageo Re-enables archiving without capital investment or data center footprint

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Cost Effectiveo pay as you growo reuses existing assets

Flexibleo unlimited capacityo scales instantly

Reduced Risko messages are preserved and

secureo online access to data

o Using email system

Employees

Local Archive Storage

Email ServersEmail Archive Servers

Email Storage

Legal Staff

Cloud Gateway

API

o Reviewing for complianceo Performing e-discovery

Use Case: Scalable Collaboration

o Companies are going global• Need to distribute data between sites and organizations• New applications need programmable storage• More rich media, massive data volumes

o Conventional systems don’t work• SAN and NAS don’t work well over wide area networks• Relational databases don’t scale to huge files, datasets• Lack of APIs, granular data controls• Everything is firewalled off anyway!

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Distributed Content and CollaborationFortune 50 High-Tech Firmo Follow the sun customer support solutiono Built on a database with an insufficient 10 MB file size limitso Current solution is ad hoc transfer via e-mail or ftp with no persistent storage

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North Carolina

SydneyBrussels Bangalore

o Log files associated with support ticket

o Files over 10 MB stored Ad Hoc

Customer

Technical Support Application

o Files need to be transferred to continue support

o Sent via e-mail, FTP

CaliforniaInsecureo lacks security controls

Inefficiento affects employee

productivity o does not scale

Liabilityo impossible to audito no record after ticket

closed

Distributed Content and CollaborationFortune 50 High-Tech Firmo Integrated cloud storage via APIo Global file re-use optimized, persistent storage implementedo Gained global footprint with no capital investment, increased time to market

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North Carolina

SydneyBrussels Bangalore

o File uploads to nearest node to the customer

Customer

Technical Support Application

California

Secureo File transferred to SDN via

SSL

Efficiento increased workflow

efficiencyo scales instantly

Reduced Risko easy to audito persistent storageo low capital and resource

commitment

Cloud Storage API

o Policy based file replication ensures high performance across the globe

o When ticket is closed, files replication scaled down to one location

Cloud Storage Can Help

o Key use cases:• Offsite data protection• Tiered storage• Distributed content and collaboration

o Get started:• Start with cloud proof-of-concept• Match dataset with security & bandwidth needs• Select a provider based on TCO• Perform test & measure outcomes• Secure multi-year agreements

Thank You!

Stephen Foskett

stephen@fosketts.net

twitter.com/sfoskett

+1(508)451-9532

blog.fosketts.net

GestaltIT.com

bit.ly/ESSBlog

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