Survey says…"Keep Storage Simple"

June 19th, 2006: US-based DataCore Software has come up with 10 'key findings' from a survey of its storage control, storage management and storage consolidation users.

The survey, which took in opinions from users as diverse as Canon (US), World Savings (US), Yorkshire Water (UK), Bitburger (Germany), also pushed the 'virtualisation' bandwagon stating, "DataCore has thousands of virtual SAN deployments around the world and an interesting point made by many of the users who choose to adopt virtual infrastructures was that while many were hesitant at first, once they did make use of virtual server technologies (e.g. deploying VMware or Microsoft virtual servers) or DataCore software for storage virtualization that they became champions for the need to further virtualise their IT environments."

While the survey has no third-party validation and should, as with all survey's that do not state their questions but only their findings, be viewed with a critical eye, its does forefront issues of interest to IDM readers. In the order presented, these are:

• 1 Keep it simple and avoid complexity.
While hardware independence is crucial for purchasing advantages, within a given site users were in heated agreement to standardize on common hardware where practical (i.e. a maximum of 2 or 3 models/vendors), to zone by function (i.e. backup) or by application type so it makes it simpler to isolate problems; to set up a simple and obvious naming convention; and to protect systems with redundant paths and mirror key elements of your configuration wherever possible.

• 2 Avoid vendor lock-in and proprietary hardware.
Select hardware independent, portable management software that enables flexibility to meet change and greater purchasing choices on what hardware to incorporate. It was interesting to note that many virtual storage users were first introduced to the benefits of virtualization through seeing the benefits of virtual server technologies.

• 3 Document your storage area network (SAN) environment.
Often ignored, this was a key point that many users cited that they wished they had known earlier. Planning and documenting the naming convention of your SAN environment can enable you to avoid complexity as your network grows. Take the time to think through the naming convention and make it simple and logical so it can grow with your systems.

• 4 Test, test, test.
Users worldwide hailed the benefits in setting up a test or pre-production SAN.

• 5 People, Product and Procedure are all equally important.
Storage management requires an understanding of skill sets, training and procedures of your organization. Don't expect miracle software cures; software is important but it is only one dimension of the solution. If you are going virtual, you should also rethink many of your processes to exploit the new benefits and cost savings possible.

• 6 Good fences make good neighbours.
Segregate your storage traffic from your internal/public network (e.g. security) and limit access to "trained" personnel who understand the SAN. SANs support many servers and users; best practices and training must be embraced and instituted.

• 7 Deploy a SAN with advanced storage management features to get more than connectivity.
Today's state-of-the-art features for storage management include storage virtualization, automated tools, snapshots, CDP technologies, storage pooling, "Auto-Grow" virtual capacity and remote replication. These advanced features enable a great deal of automation and allow your SAN to scale as well as to meet new requirements.

• 8 Deploy a SAN solution with redundancy throughout.
A SAN architected correctly will achieve much higher levels of availability. Obviously, to get best results, your SAN solutions should be fully redundant and have dual controllers, power supplies, fans, network connections, as well as hot-swappable disk drives and components.

• 9 Future-proof for storage management.
Computers are advancing every year, disk prices are dropping dramatically, new innovations like iSCSI and SAS are now practical - make sure your infrastructure is hardware independent and can absorb new innovations when they make sense. Select storage management software and a SAN that can start small, that can ensure easy and cost-effective growth, and that can offer upgrades that do not require downtime.

• 10 Keep it simple and avoid complexity for backups and disaster recovery.
Where practical, simplify and reduce backup procedures using continuous data protection (CDP) technologies, disk-to-disk copy and snapshots that give users greater control of their data protection and backup process as well as make it possible for users to utilize disk technologies to buffer storage and avoid the ever shrinking backup windows. Also where practical, utilize simple synchronous mirroring of your storage pool for disaster recovery (cross campus, cross town) or new Asynchronous IP-based mirroring for cost effective replication across longer distances.

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