Storage

Growth and applications driving networked storage

MBs are taking baby steps towards networked storage—moving from DAS to NAS and SAN storage. 2008-09 will see significant networked storage adoption by this segment. By Vinita Gupta

Data is one of the most valuable assets in today’s business environment. The need for critical information is not restricted to large organizations, it is equally important for MBs.

Most mature MBs are dealing with LBs and some are even part of an LB’s global supply chain. This makes their business more demanding. As they interact more with global players, they have to bring their infrastructure on par with what their global counterparts have. In such a scenario, comes the need to deploy cutting-edge solutions for growing storage and keeping data secure.

The kind of storage solutions deployed by MBs depend upon the kind of applications that they use or have deployed. A Storage Area Network (SAN) is needed for handling large databases that are par for the course when you are talking about enterprise applications. Files that need to be shared with different people and departments as is the case in software development and design will require Network Attached Storage (NAS). Companies that do not have much data and require less expensive solutions can go for Direct Attached Storage (DAS).

DAS: a viable option

DAS remains popular with MBs. 44% of these companies had invested in DAS. Not only that, DAS remains a popular investment option with 23% of MBs planning to make further investments.

DAS is a viable option for MBs that do not have much data to store. In comparison to SAN and NAS, DAS does not require the setting-up of a new infrastructure or upgrading of the existing infrastructure. Secondly, for a MB, DAS remains an attractive option because of the simplicity of set-up. What’s more, it does not require re-training of existing personnel to manage NAS and SAN environments.

The survey indicates that out of 194 respondents, the professional/other services sector has the highest incidence of DAS (61%) followed by manufacturing (46%), BFSI (43%) and Utilities/ Transportation/Real Estate/ Construction 41%. IT/ITES (39%) has the least interest in further investments (18%) as this sector is more interested in networked storage—NAS and SAN as well as a disaster recovery site and business continuity solution.

DAS as a technology optimized for a single server with a low initial cost. The storage is directly attached by an I/O cable to the server. DAS is like a desktop system with its internal hard disks. The key to DAS architecture is that all the storage is directly controlled by the server, and not mounted remotely on a network node, as is the case with NAS.

Considering scalability as one of the key growing demands from the MB segment, if a company needs more than one DAS unit, it ends up with islands of storage. Each server or PC has to be managed one at a time in the multi-DAS scenario creating bottlenecks.

The percentage figures represent planned technology penetration /usage within MBs. These numbers may add up to more than 100% since a particular respondent may plan to invest on multiple technologies. Base = 189

Sharing of files

When storage requirements are constantly increasing, DAS becomes incapable of meeting these requirements in an efficient manner. This is when LAN-based network storage, NAS, becomes inevitable thanks to its strengths of easy deployment, management and usability.

With DAS, each server is running its own operating platform so there is no common storage in a typical environment that includes a mix of Windows, Mac and Linux workstations. Additionally there is poor utilization of storage. On the other hand, NAS systems can integrate into any environment and serve files across all operating platforms. On the network, a NAS system appears like a native file server to each of its different clients. This means that files are saved on the NAS system, as well as retrieved from the NAS system, in their native file formats. NAS works on industry-standard network protocols such as IP and Fiber Channel.

Kapil Gupta, System Engineer, Pioneer group of companies revealed that they create around 100 GB of data every month and use Linux server storage solutions.

Another point worth mentioning here is that NAS has brought centralized storage for MBs, unlike DAS’ distributed model. Earlier, this benefit was available only to large enterprises that deployed expensive SANs. This made NAS the popular option for this segment even though it supports slower file-based data access as opposed to the speedy block-level access used in SANs.

According to the survey, 35% of companies have already deployed NAS and 26% of the respondents are planning to invest in 2008-09. [Refer graph]. The fact that IT/ITES companies are the ones that are likeliest to go in for this technology (50%) does not mean this segment has not already deployed NAS, 37% of the companies in this sector already have it. MBs are attracted to NAS because when the number of users and average file sizes grow on a company’s network, response times slow noticeably. The existing storage system, which has served a company for years, needs an upgrade.

Barring wholesale/retail sector that has the lowest deployment levels (25%) and also has the least interest in making investments (17%), the other sectors notably BFSI and professional/others services are looking at NAS investments.

SAN for high performance

SAN enables centralized management and provisioning of storage resources. It streamlines the numbers of IT and storage administrators that an organization needs to deploy.

Segments such as manufacturing (23%), professional/other services (24%) and Utilities/Transportation/ Real Estate/Construction with 22% are the biggest users of SANs and IT/ITES companies deploy SANs mostly in line with their project or client-specific requirements and hence had made the highest deployment (57%). Upcoming segments like retail will also contribute to SAN adoption as 25% of this segment is planning to invest. BFSI tops this with 29% of organizations in this sector looking at investing in SAN in 2008-09.

Nagraj Poojari, Manager-IT, Kotak Wealth Management said, “We are looking at SAN solution because we can then plan disaster recovery and automatic archival. Presently we use LTO tape for backups.” Under Kotak Mahindra Bank there are different entities and one of them is Kotak Wealth Management.

MBs are finding that SAN solutions are becoming more affordable. At the same time, some of them have grown rapidly and so has their data. SAN storage boxes are highly secure, allow companies to store a good amount of data with redundancy, and are easy to manage, scalable and affordable solutions allowing data and storage consolidation. However, before planning for disaster recovery and BCP, a MB should consolidate its storage resources and then plan for networked storage.

Apart from regular attractions of this technology, there are many other advantages of a SAN system. With SAN in place, varied data from multiple sources can be stored online. Techniques like virtualization and DR site creation for varied types of data has become another helpful asset. Though FC SAN is expensive, MBs can evaluate other cheaper SAN technologies such as IP SAN, which is much more affordable and offers a decent level of performance.

IP based storage is also gaining momentum because of its strengths of cost, capacity, scalability and manageability, especially in the SMB sector. IP SAN has emerged as a perfect solution for low-mid tier organizations that are planning to move to networked storage or could help in consolidating existing SANs at the high-end. It helps in total network storage consolidation of storage resources at a lower cost and centralizes the storage architecture.

The deployment of Server Attached Storage (SAS) is decreasing in MB. The direct cost per megabyte of SAS is less than the direct cost per megabyte of consolidated storage, but when indirect costs are factored in, consolidated storage works out to be the less expensive proposition.

Rajiv Thampy, Manager-IT, Birla Sun Life said, “We use SAS and presently have no investment plans. The amount of data we generate is around one or two terabyte.”

Wanted: shorter backup/retrieval window

Of the total base of 194, 40% of the respondents are using tape to backup their data because it is the most cost-effective, reliable and convenient mechanism available.

Tape drives ensure the scalability of storage and archival with the data explosion, especially tape back-up because of its technology growth, adaptability to changing requirements, cost-per-gigabyte leadership, standardization, superior data reliability and ruggedness.

The manufacturing sector has the highest deployment of tape (47%), followed by BFSI (45%), IT/ITES (41%) and professional/other services (39%).

Additionally, there have been significant improvements in tape technology over the last several years in terms of capacity, performance, manageability and functionality. As far as the technology is concerned, in tape drives there are a variety of options to choose from, starting from single-cartridge tape drives and auto-loaders to multiple cartridges, tape libraries autoloaders that can take large volume back-ups.

With security of data becoming an important area of concern for businesses, there are technologies such as WORM (Write Once Read Many) which are available on tape; WORM tape ensures that the information or data cannot be modified.

However, the survey also indicates that all the sectors are not planning to make huge investments on tape as manufacturing leads here with just 19%, followed by BFSI (14%), professional/other services (8%), Utilities (7%) and IT/ITES (4%). The reason behind this would be that the companies have already made the investment and hence are not looking at it or they are unaware of the significant improvements in tape technology.

Along with tape back-up, disc-based back-up is also gaining acceptance. Tape and disc-to-disc back-up remains popular because of device and media management simplicity. The sheer ubiquity of these technologies tends to drive the cost down while increasing reliability.

Jayesh Dubey, Head of Networking, Velankani Infrastructure said, “We use Microsoft Windows storage backup solutions as these are more user friendly and meet our requirement. We have around one terabyte of data stored that consists of project reports, financial and critical data.”

“We use one DAT data storage drive. The capacity of the drive is to store 12 GB of data and we backup disc to tape,” said Pavan Kumar, Manager-IT, Green Park.

Birla Sun Life use LTO tape backups, Pioneer group of companies take disc backup, and Style Spa uses eBack storage software.

T Sivakumar, System Administration, Style Spa said, “We use eBack storage software as it automates data backup.”

Although tape continues to be a prime medium for long-term archival, backups are increasingly being taken onto disc to reduce backup window time as critical data applications need to be restored quickly and efficiently.

At the medium business level, people are doing disc-to-disc backups because recovery time seems to be more important than cost, but they do want to have some archival with a vaulting function. In addition, the use of discs gives them a solution for their remote offices.

Virtual tape library

A virtual tape library is a disk-based data protection solution that offers a non-disruptive alternative to tape. Virtual Tape Libraries or VTL emulate popular tape libraries and appear as physical libraries to a backup application. Companies having huge stores of data will be able to define their storage policies better with virtual tape library.

Through a VTL, additional disk capacity can be added dynamically, in many cases to satisfy larger backup streams. IT administrators can define more virtual tape drives to set up more concurrent batch streams without having to purchase additional physical tape drives. It facilitates smoother backup and recovery policies in an organization as they create a single window through which data can be accessed.

VTL is the key driver behind online storage picking up. Today virtual tape libraries are becoming more intelligent and capable of leveraging the true value of disk.

The survey indicates that 19% of MBs have invested in VTL with the highest investment been made by the BFSI (29%), followed by professional/other services (24%) and wholesale/retail (21%).

Unfortunately, medium sized companies are not planning to make huge investment on VTL in 2008-09 as only 6% of 189 respondents across verticals are planning to invest in this category, with the highest percentage in the BFSI (14%) sector followed by manufacturing (10%).

Safeguarding critical applications

Another key area that is driving the storage market in India is business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR). Most organizations in India are today looking at implementing effective BC/DR strategy and policies. Data replication from storage in the primary site to the secondary or DR site is an important aspect of any BD/DR plan and consolidated and networked storage is a prerequisite for such initiatives.

Poojari from Kotak Wealth Management revealed that it is very important to secure their data, especially during a disaster, and hence they have their DR site at Bangalore.

Velankani Infrastructure has a DR site situated in Bangalore. Thampy said, “At Birla Sun Life we have 120 employees with two branches in Mumbai and the DR site in Hyderabad.”

The survey indicates that the MBs are investing in all types of storage solutions depending on their requirement and amount of data generated but till date DAS adoption is the highest however, as the storage demand of this segment would be increasing they would be in fact have started shifting from DAS to networked storage.

vinita.gupta@expressindia.com