2.5″ enterprise drives reduce storage system power
Conventional wisdom is that 2.5″ enterprise drives are great for servers, but need more capacity to be viable in storage systems. Problem is, conventional wisdom didn’t account for the vast quantities of these systems packed into an internet data center.
Mario Apicella, InfoWorld’s Storage Advisor, takes a look at Infortrend’s B12 storage system and says the future is now for 2.5″ SAS drives.
Why? Less real estate, obviously. But also much lower power for the same performance: 2.6 Watts less per drive than same-capacity 3.5″ drives. And dramatically less weight to ship, move around and pile on floors.
Re-engineering current systems for smaller-format drives is the easiest, most effective way to make storage more energy friendly.
Deduplication is hip. It’s happenin’. How do you tout it/explain it in your solutions? The Backup Blog posted a thorough overview of the technology. Start cramming.
Physical theft is a relatively recoverable event. Data theft? Not so much
Why do you backup your data? In case your computer crashes, or there’s a fire, right?
Here’s a new twist on the benefits of backup - theft protection. Seagate received this letter from a customer recently:
I deployed a Linksys NAS200 solution with 2 raided Seagate 500g SATA drives a few months ago for my client. As fortune would have it when my clients’ office was burglarized the thieves took his server. Fortunately they did not take the NAS unit and I was able to restore the entire contents to a new server the same day it was discovered. Needless to say, dependable hardware and good planning saved the day and made for a satisfied client.
Best Wishes
Gary Popkin
Command Computer
N Lauderdale, FL
Losing hardware vs. losing business data? No contest. This holds true just as clearly for personal digital content. Gary was a hero for his customer, but dodged a bullet thanks to less than thorough thieves. Will your customers be so lucky?
Anybody out there lost your hardware, but not your data? I’d love to hear some happy recovery stories, but nightmares are instructive as well.
Don’t take it from me this time…here’s an analyst’s report on the disk drive industry and how it so far is avoiding being pulled down by the threatening U.S. recession. (Full disclosure: I work for Seagate, one of the companies recommended in the article). I can’t speak for their stock picks, but their view of the trends for storage in general are something I’ve posted on before.
Your customers need their data more than ever. How’s demand holding up for you?
Disk is the new Tape, and Tape is the new Microfiche
Beth Pariseau at Storage Soup asks if tape is finally dead. Back in 2000 when I worked at StorageTek, that was the mantra from EMC, and we took it personally. There was lots of life left in tape then, and there still is today.
But life goes on. Tape continues to shift right in the scheme of things, storing data that is older and less active. The good news for tape is that even geriatric data is highly valued, and there’s a ton of it.
Enter flash
Meanwhile, the young whippersnapper flash is just starting to replace disk in applications needing the highest performance or the lowest capacity. That’s the way it begins - that’s how disk started out vs. tape decades ago. It’s the natural order of things - the circle of life.
Dream about the future but act on the present
This trend will take years - probably decades - to play itself out. So while it pays to respect your elders and encourage the youngest generation, disk should be in no hurry to make reservations at the retirement home.
Disk is the breadwinner of the family, in its prime earning years. Make sure you’re fully employing it in your solutions.
Comments please! How are you using tape and/or flash today, for work or play?
1 TB in 10 years is a yawner, unless price/performance is truly unique
The latest announcement on the future of storage tech comes from Nanochip, Inc: An array-based flash memory that scales to 1 TB, is cheaper and easier to manufacture than today’s flash, and is supported by Intel and others. Exciting!
Before you get too enthralled, note that the techology is 10 years from production. Two problems with this:
Flash will have replaced disk in many applications by then, but spinning disk will still be around and will be heading towards a petabyte a disk per drive by then. This is not a cure-all device that replaces all storage technologies.
The technology has yet to face the scrutiny that comes with actual existence. Reliability, cost and functionality in a real-world machine are the true tests that tend to morph such visions as they go from “apparate” to “operate”. Ask the guys with flash products out today about this.
Keep filling the pipe with fun technology! But don’t take your eye of the ball on your current storage solution plans for this one.
Byte and Switch says IBM is looking at acquiring Diligent, which includes what was EMC’s Israeli lab. The interesting connection is Moshe Yanai, who engineered the recent purchase of Israeli-based XIV a few months ago.
An added incentive for IBM is that they have been relatively quiet about deduplication, which is Diligent’s forte.
Update:Storagezilla adds some color on Diligent, EMC and IBM.
Here’s a thorough article on disk drive-based encryption, with comparisons to software-based encryption. Key takeaway: if you encrypt within the disk drive, there are no external access points for an intruder to exploit.
What’s the real-world risk of someone going to such lengths? Someone could break down my locked door at my house as well.
The “no-worries” benefit
A major commercial value of hacker-proof encryption on a business PC is the “no-worries” benefit. If a disk-encrypted notebook with customer records on board is lost or stolen, there is no credible risk of the data ever being retrieved. Whether or not the notebook is found, the business is safe from becoming a media poster child for lax security of their customers’ personal information.
Storage demand is bucking negative trends, thanks in large part to video
Byte and Switch’s list of the hottest storage networking market segments shows a powerful trend at work. Four out of their six hottest markets are video-intensive, demonstrating that moving pictures are the byte-hogs pushing content volume.
Video surveillance is number one on their list, forecast to be a $46 billion market in 2013. These dollars are not all storage, but storage devices play a key enabling role in these solutions.
Entertainment (video production and distribution) is at #2, followed by Web 2.0 (including YouTube) at #3. Sixth on the list is medical archiving, spurred by medical records heavy with hi-res patient images.
Conspicuously absent from Byte and Switch’s list is the home market. Granted, much of this is not networked, but for the first time, consumer data has surpassed business data in volume. Not as sexy as some of the above categories, but definitely worth considering if you’re a local provider looking to satisfy a growing need.
Tenfold notebook failure rates for SSDs vs. disk drives
Engadget reports a 10X failure rate for SSDs in notebook PCs compared to hard drives. Can you say “early adopter”? SSDs are an exciting future, but a future still for mainstream markets.
Reliability is relative, especially in terms of the technology being replaced. The same goes for pricing - see my Flashtags posts.
Any flash early adopters out there? What’s your experience with returns or failures, either personally or through solutions you’ve sold to someone?
