Planning and Building Tiered Storage

Brad ONeill Senior Analyst and Consultant Taneja 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. Its 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 wasnt 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

YOUR STRATEGY WILL DETERMINE SUCCESS!

HOSTS Applications Web Database Backups

STRATEGY!

TIERS OF STORAGE

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 9s, 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!

HOSTS Applications Web Database Backups

Which Group?

Biz Critical

Biz Ops

Protection/Archival Long-Term

ASSET GROUPS

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 dont 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

2. Create Asset Groups and Traits

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!

Asset Groups Drive Your Tier Choices

HOSTS Applications Web Database Backups

Groups/Tiers

1
Biz Critical

2
Biz Ops

3
Protect/Archival

4
Long-Term

ASSET GROUPS/STORAGE TIERS

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 Weve 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?

Key Points For Tier 2 Evals: Business Operations Storage

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 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!