Storage Effect

Video surveillance drags massive storage wherever it goes

Dot Hill’s US Army contract reported by Byte and Switch points to a big increase in data collected and exploited by the military over the next few years.  A key driver will be integration of surveillance data into battlefield and strategic decision making.

Sound familiar?  The video surveillance data tsunami that has already washed over the Gaming industry has reached the military’s shore. 

Look at video’s effect on casino storage:

• Sixteen surveillance cameras can churn out 11 terabytes of data in 90 days - all of which must be kept on hand. 
• Higher resolution video analytics can up that to 44 terabytes.
• Most casinos use a lot more than sixteen cameras.

A new universal storage need

Video surveillance is racing into the mainstream as well.  This is a high growth, high capacity space to grow your storage business.

You don’t have to look far  to participate - uh, your customers?

Seagate is a Top Five technology brand for a surprising number of IT end users

An end user IT survey by Everything Channel on CRN.com shows that disk drives aren’t as much a commodity as one might think. 

When asked what five vendors are most important for their technology provider to have a relationship with, Seagate was mentioned by a surprising number of IT folks.  All the more impressive given that Microsoft, HP and Dell take up 3 of the 5 spots for over 40% of the respondents.

For small businesses, Seagate was mentioned more than EMC, Sun, CA, SAP, Toshiba, Hitachi Data Systems and NetApp.  No other pure storage vendor (device or system) was on the list. 

Seagate had an even higher ranking on the list for medium-sized businesses. (more…)

In the Petabyte Age, new applications are redefining “Big Storage”

Think you’re with it now that you say “terabytes” instead of “gigabytes”?  You’re behind the curve.  For some applications, a petabyte is not nearly enough.

Wired Magazine says we’re living in the Petabyte Age.  One example: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, taking a billion “photos” of protons a second with each of six detectors. 

The LHC, expected to run 24/7 for most of the year, will generate about 10 petabytes of data per second. That staggering flood of information would instantly overwhelm any conceivable storage technology, so hardware and software filters will reduce the take to roughly 100 events per second that seem most promising for analysis. Even so, the collider will record about 15 petabytes of data each year, the equivalent of 15,000 terabyte-size hard drives filled to the brim.

Just one of many extreme data examples in this great read.  Soon, petabytes for all! Remember, scientists used to get giddy over 5 megabytes.  Dell’s David Graves at Inside IT says ”More storage please!”

Better learn to spell exabyte.

Content comes first, opening up new uses and usefulness

Seagate announced Maxtor CentralAxis today, a really cool New Thing in home storage.  Until now, external storage devices have mostly been storage add-ons for a PC.  Even the NAS devices out there have focused on providing a “PC drive for the home”.  It’s shareable storage, but shackled to the PC model.

CentralAxis puts the content first, rather than the PC.  That opens up uses that until now have been reserved for the techies among us:

• OS-independent content sharing. Content doesn’t have to decide to be Windows or Mac OS X, and can be used by either one.
• File sharing with DLNA-compliant devices like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.  Easily watch videos and view photos on TV screens instead of a PC.
• Access content directly via the web. CentralAxis allows this with a simple username and password, without going through a PC or compromising a network firewall. 

CentralAxis does all the “home storage” basics as well: 1 TB capacity, centralized backups from PCs on the network, etc.  But it’s the new approach to content that makes it a game changer. 

SAS drives get bigger and smaller to take share from SATA for business applications

IDC data from InfoStor shows this year and next are the golden age of SATA drives in the enterprise. 

It’s not that the trend for high capacity storage abates in the future; it’s that SAS drives are expanding their capabilities to replace SATA in many applications. 

• Bigger SAS: 1 TB SAS drives, matching the largest available SATA capacity.
• Smaller SAS:  2.5″ SAS drives, rapidly replacing 3.5″ SCSI, FC and SAS drives. 

Why settle for an interface originally designed for PCs if you can get the same thing in SAS for a little bit more?

SATA drives won’t go away of course - they still provide the most capacity for the dollar.  If it’s good enough for an application, people will continue to use it. 

Have you made the jump to SAS?  Why or why not?

Becomes the first major supplier to offer a 2.5″ SAS storage system

Dell uncharacteristically took the role of technology leader and launched the MD1120, a direct-attach storage system with 2.5″ SAS drives for their PowerEdge servers (thanks Blocks and Files). It’s likely that their major competitors (and others) will follow with their own announcements in the near future.

Why 2.5″ SAS?

Make no mistake - they may be small, but they are the cream of the crop.  Fastest (for 10K rpm), most reliable, highest data integrity.  Oh - and they use less space and a lot less power than 3.5″ drives.

Don’t confuse 2.5″ SAS drives with notebook drives.  They’re similar in size, but that’s about the only thing they have in common.

The beginning of the end for 3.5″ enterprise drives

The only fatal flaw for 2.5″ and storage has been capacity. These drives are already the standard for servers, but storage system makers couldn’t make the numbers work with only 147GB per drive. 

It looks like 300GB may be the tipping point.  Seagate recently launched the first 300GB 2.5″ SAS drive, the Savvio 10K.3. 

What’s your 2.5″ storage plan?  Is it time?

First order for “black box” storage takes it beyond demoware

Xiotech was the Belle of the Ball at Storage Networking World with their demo of ISE technology.  Much more significant is that customers are starting to do more than kick the tires.  Evidence: an honest-to-goodness order for ISE-based Emprise systems from Argus Information & Advisory Services.

I saw some early private screenings of this technology.  It’s special because it breaks the conventional rules of storage devices and systems.  That allows Xiotech to create the “how did they do that?” specs and support commitments that have been generating such a buzz. Not to mention the benefits of its simplicity.

Let’s see how they do with the next major milestone: volume production.

Anyone out there considering Emprise?  Fill us in on your thought process.

Survey shows virtualized servers are to storage what salted peanuts are to an ice cold drink

Dave Simpson at InfoStor reported on Enterprise Strategy Group’s recent survey on server virtualization.  They explored how this new technology is affecting storage plans and practices.  Results:

• Over half of respondents saw storage volume increase due to server virtualization
• Only 7% saw storage volume decreasing
• Network storage performance was a bigger server virtualization concern than storage cost
• Half of respondents use multiple storage technologies for their virtual server environment (#1: FC SAN)

Server virtualization is a leading indicator for storage

A clear lesson here is that server virtualization adopters are fertile ground for storage solutions.  

How aware are you of your customer’s virtual plans? 

How familiar are you with server virtualization-friendly storage solutions like Compellent?

Video production’s not just for Hollywood anymore

I had the opportunity to tour Boston Scientific’s internal media center last week.  It’s yet another example of digital content inserting itself in the mainstream business process.

Craig Davies and Tom Torborg showed me around their sound stage, editing workstations and storage systems that produce the surprising amount of video and audio content needed to market and sell medical products. 

For example, instructional videos that are critical to users of their products.  Video and audio pieces that are key teaching tools for doctors as well as their sales force. They’ve produced two programs that have been broadcast on television - one a documentary on heart failure that’s appearing nationally on cable TV.  They’ve even been nominated for an Emmy!

The facility is state of the art, buried in the basement of their corporate facility.  That makes it ultra quiet - great for filming without interference from rumbling trucks or thunderstorms.

Their setup:

• 2 video editing workstations using Avid technology
• A 3.2 TB array for each workstation with 10K 300GB FC Cheetah drives in a RAID 0 configuration.
• An additional 10K FC storage array for an encoding station (to convert video for distribution)
• Extensive use of external drives for “nearline” storage - their archive of past projects.  They have a 2 TB storage device at each video station and at their audio station.
• Sony AIT tape for long-term backup.

Lessons learned for their business:

• HD adds a lot of time and cost.  Tom says that going to HD processing slows video processing (rendering, etc) down by about 10 years, and quadruples the storage needed per minute of video.
• Legal requirements are an integral part of their production process.  Due to the life-and-death nature of their products, the legal team has a say in what they produce, and stringent archiving requirements.
• Audio content is a productive and practical way to communicate with their time-starved sales force.

What’s most interesting to me about Boston Scientific’s media center is that it exists.  In-house, full-fledged, professional video production, a necessary part of Boston Scientific doing business.  Look in the basement of a surprising number of even smaller companies and you’ll find the same thing.

Video production isn’t just for Hollywood anymore!

Servers are already there; 300GB could be the tipping point for storage systems

Seagate announced a 300GB version of its Savvio 10K rpm drive, the highest 2.5″ SAS capacity yet available.  Is this the dawning of the Age of Small Form Factor for enterprise storage?  Information Week thinks so.

The server market has already made the turn.  HP and other high-volume server makers have committed to 2.5″ SAS drives for performance servers.  Power, size and reliability benefits make it a no-brainer.  And while 2.5″ hasn’t yet taken over servers from system builders, the switchover has begun.

For storage systems, the capacity just hasn’t been there. At 300GB, it may be.  A 2.5″ drive is 70% smaller than 3.5″ SAS drives, which max out at 450GB today (although 600 GB will be along before long). 

What say you?  How are you using 2.5″ 10K or 15K drives in storage applications today?