NetApp - Ask Dr Dedupe

Deduplication and Hyper-V are bringing NetApp and Microsoft closer together

I don't want to say that dedupe was the only reason that NetApp was named Microsoft's Storage Solutions Partner of the Year, but I can dream can't I ?....

Steve Ballmer:  DrDedupe, on behalf of our bazillion Microsoft employees, I'd like to personally thank you for your contribution to our success.

DrDedupe:  Aw shucks Steve, it was nothing really.  Just a couple hundred lines of code the team wrote over a long weekend.  We were kind of bored you see and it seemed like a fun project...

OK seriously, as Hyper-V begins to gain in popularity, there is some real synergy going on between NetApp and Microsoft.  Check out this video, where can you see a demonstration of a Hyper-V LUN being created and then easily re-sized after being dedupe'd.

Using NetApp storage with Microsoft apps seems to makes alot of sense not only for Hyper-V but also for some other apps you might have heard of such as Exchange, SQL, and Sharepoint.

SQL and its nephew Sharepoint offer some interesting (and largely unexplored) use cases for dedupe that I will discuss in upcoming blogs.  Exchange, as I noted in a previous blog, has jettisoned single instance storage (SIS) in 2010, presenting yet another compelling opportunity for NetApp dedupe.  Yes - I know that Microsoft often espouses server-attached storage for Exchange, but sooner or later they'll realize that people stopped doing that around a decade ago - for many good reasons.  (Microsoft are you listening?)

Speaking of blogs, here's a good one that Nick Triantos posted about one of our newer features, SnapManager for Hyper-V.  This feature brings automation to Hyper-V for DR and D2D Backups and is integrated with Microsoft's Volume Shadow Service (VSS).  Very cool indeed, and OK maybe the real reason we won the partner award...

Anyway, if you are a Microsoft app user (sorry Sun) you owe it to yourself to check out what NetApp can do for you.  Our latest issue of Tech OnTap also features an article on the 5 best practices for Hyper-V.

DrDedupe

The Cost of Efficient Storage can be ZIP

Storage efficiency is a funny thing.  Vendors these days are asking customers to spend money so that they can save money on their data storage.  Huh? This is a bit of a paradox.  Here's the example I use, lets say my wife comes home with a brand new pair of shoes.  "Hey honey, look at these great shoes I just bought!  Regular price was $200 but I got them for 50% off!"  My wife sees this transaction as saving us $100, but I see the transaction as $100 gone from the family checking account, never to be seen again.  Who has the correct perspective?  Well, that all depends on just how necessary those shoes were.  If the closet is overflowing with shoes just like the new ones, this was probably a wasted expense.  However if the shoes were bought to perform a specific function that no other shoe could accommodate (like this), then its probably a worthwhile investment.

Storage efficiency is kind of like that.  You shouldn't invest in it unless it provides some type of new functionality that you don't already own.  Plenty of vendors will offer to sell you cheaper storage, with heavy discounts to entice you, but if its just like all the other storage already in your closet, what are you buying?  More shoes just like the ones you already have?  When you invest in storage efficiency, you should look for something different, something that lets you do things you haven't been able to do before.

Why am I bringing this up?  This week NetApp rolled out a new promo called ZIP, or Zero Investment Promise.  Here's the concept:  instead of buying more shoes, er I mean storage, why not make your existing storage more efficient?  With ZIP, NetApp will loan you a shiny new V-Series Open Storage Controller, but before it hits your dock a promise is made that the V-Series will immediately save you x, (x is defined once we do an onsite evaluation, for free.)  We'll put this promise in writing and give you 90 days to run your tests.  If your tests deliver what we promised, you buy the V-Series (heck its probably already paid for itself by now anyway) - but if you believe we broke our promise, and we agree - the V-Series is yours to keep - gratis.

OK get ready, here comes the fine print.  You and your data center must be in North America (some countries strangely have a problem with promos like this), you cannot already be using V-Series (duh), you have to be a current user of EMC Clariion or HP EVA systems, and you have to agree to use 5 key features on your EMC and HP system, provided via the V-Series (Snapshot, FlexClone, Thin Provisioning, Thin Replication, and of course Deduplication).  That's about it.

So check it out.  And don't assume you have pay alot to bring efficient storage into your world.  In this case, you'll pay ZIP.

DrDedupe

NetApp Replaces OR with AND

I spent last week in New York City, where I was asked to brief many of our largest customers on the merits of deduplication and how it fits into our storage efficiency story.  I also walked the streets of Manhattan in my Dr's garb with a film crew and conducted spontaneous "Man on the Street" interviews, but more on that in another blog...

Anyway back to my briefings.  Most, but not all, of the dozen or so customers I talked to were already implementing deduplication and praised its effectiveness.  A few of the customers I briefed were not actually customers, but rather perspective customers that wanted to learn more about the technology behind NetApp storage efficiency and how it could help them improve their current storage environment.  One thing I've mentioned before but bears repeating is that NetApp deduplication is not limited to NetApp storage systems.  Our V-Series open storage controller brings deduplication and storage efficiency to HP, Sun, EMC and many other arrays.  We didn't make those storage systems, we just made them better.

This brings me to the title of today's blog and the message I always convey during my briefings.  At NetApp, we never ask you to sacrifice performance or resiliency for the sake of reduced storage capacity.  In fact, we'll improve your ability to quickly and safely serve data to your users and applications while at the same time reducing your physical storage footprint.  Thats the message behind our new ad campaign - Replace "Or" with "And" - a clever play on words but one we take to heart.  If you are interested in seeing more - here's a link to our new ad page - including a video I recorded on the topic, yes I do serious videos too.  Also, heres a link to our revamped storage efficiency page featuring yours truly again.  I wonder if the Dr runs the risk of being over-exposed?  Nah you can never see too much of DrDedupe.  Enjoy-

Another NetApp Innovation – The Deduplication Odometer

I've got to hand it to our marketing folks; they come up with some darn clever ideas.  If you go to this page, you'll see a live odometer that displays the current amount of storage that NetApp has delivered with deduplication enabled.  I've been told that this odometer is calibrated based on the average usable capacity of systems going out the door each month with the deduplication license enabled.  Currently 268 PB  - pretty impressive.

But here's my question.  After gazing at the odometer for a few minutes (OK more than a few minutes, its mesmerizing) I started to think about when it would roll over to 275 PB.  I have my guess, but what's yours?  Send your guesses in - closest to predicting the actual date and time we hit 275 PB will get a coveted "We Got Your Back" t-shirt. from me.  Oh what the heck, its almost Christmas - I'll send a t-shirt to the first 25 people that offer a guess.  To keep you all honest, you must make your guess on a comment to this blog before the odometer reaches 272.5 PB.  To get your shirt, make your guess on this blog, then email me at wegotyourback@netapp.com with your shirt size and mailing address.

Gentlemen, start your calculators...

The Magic of Deduplication

 In a paper published by NetApp about a year ago, I wrote about the well-known story from Goethe’s 1797 poem “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” -  made famous in the Disney movie “Fantasia”. The story goes like this - a magician's assistant, having watched his master ply his craft, casts a spell on a broom to fetch his water. Once the water is fetched, the assistant forgets the incantation to stop the broom, which continues to overflow his basin with water and shows no sign of stopping. Desperate, the apprentice attacks the broom with an ax. Naturally (or should I say, supernaturally) the halves all come to life and continue to proliferate. Water, water everywhere. Just when all hope seems lost, the master arrives and calls all of the brooms to a halt, much to the relief of the apprentice.

In this story, the apprentice felt the full effects of proliferation, and was powerless to stop it. Storage administrators often have the same feeling of helplessness as they watch their data volumes grow larger and larger, but in this case it’s users and applications storing redundant data that are the cause of proliferation, not a magic spell created by the administrator.

Once data is created, it begins to multiply faster than any administrator can control it. Many people don’t realize that the average UNIX or Windows enterprise disk volume can contain thousands or even millions of duplicate data objects. As these objects are modified, distributed, backed up, and archived - duplicate data objects continue to proliferate at an alarming rate. Needless to say, storing the same data over and over again is a very inefficient use of data storage resources.

But wait, a wizard has arrived in the form of data deduplication (dedupe for short.) Deduplication seeks out and destroys duplicate data, but makes it appear as though all the data still exists. Data volumes magically shrink as if under a sorcerer’s spell. But how can this be possible you ask? Ah, that is where things start to get complicated.

I have spent more time researching the subtleties of deduplication over the past few years than I’d care to admit. In fact some here at NetApp jokingly started calling me the Doctor of Deduplication, or Dr Dedupe for short. Well, its time for the Doctor to start sharing his knowledge. Over time, within this blog, I will help unravel the mysteries behind the magic of deduplication.

While we prepare, please feel free to send me your questions and comments about deduplication, and check back often for more insight from the Doctor.