Netapp - Storage Efficiency Insights

Why is VCE important to me?

Unfortunately, I was heads-down on a separate project and when I surfaced EMC, Cisco and VMware finally birthed their VCE announcement - the gestation period of an elephant mixed with the suspense of gardening.

So, to catch up, I read the 47 blog posts from EMC (and various twitter cat fights), a blog from Jay Kidd, one from Val Bercovici and more than a few from analysts and customers.  I particularly identified with Storagebod's blog:

If VMware take the compelling route of adding value to the partnership by tuning their software to run better on EMC/Cisco kit; their value to me, even as an existing EMC/Cisco customer is a lot less. I look to the hypervisor to give me infrastructure neutrality and common capability; I hope VMware maintain this ethos.

With the VCE announcement, you had a lot of analysis on the plumbing of the solution - the VBlock.  Then I had to go look up what a VBlock was and, coming from a customer background myself many moons ago, I had to ask why this would be important to me.

Have a Laugh on Us!

Sometimes I read through some Twitter messages filled with seemingly breathless news on the new Mac OS, Windows 7, Halo ODST, a hard drive pun, a Microsoft joke, a micro-rant on backups and I have to laugh.  What a dork!  Not you.  Me.  I just finished a book on Marine snipers and another one on Seal Team Six.  O.K. enough living vicariously now let me get back to kicking the tires on Sun's VirtualBox!  Sure - you may be able to free-fall 500 ft into the ocean, mine an enemy boat and then hitch a ride out to deep water in a submarine, but can you set up DDNS and run a remote demo of VMware on NetApp?  That's right, pal.  Keep walking!  You don't want a piece of this!

I look over at my wife and wonder how I ever fooled her into marrying me.  Storage architect doesn't exactly have "chick magnet" written all over it.  Putting out oil fires in Iraq?  That may have some traction.

There have been some pretty spirited debates on a number of blogs.  I started to link to a few but it turns out there are more than a few loaded with FUD, charges, counter-charges.  I wonder if customers get anything out of this or do they just walk by the sandbox and laugh at us as we throw dirt at each other? 

Every now and then you have to take a step back and put ourselves back in context.  Ask the average person off the street about some of the topics we seem to be very passionate about and the results can be pretty funny.  Take a look at Dr. Dedupe in Time Square.  Share, enjoy, and have a laugh at our expense!

Mike Riley
Engineer, Data Protection & Retention
NetApp Storage Efficiency Community
Twitter: MSR11

"All you have to do to shut me up..." is apparently ZIP

Also, all you have to do to shut me up on the V thingie is do a simple side-by-side comparison with "money saved on storage" on one side of the equation and "overall cost of the V thingie" on the other.  -- Chuck Hollis

Believe me, the NetApp ZIP program wasn't conceived with this in mind but, one can dream, right?  (Before the nasty-grams start - it's a joke, I'm kidding).

Today - and you will see this at Oracle OpenWorld - NetApp announced a new program targeted at helping customers squeeze additional efficiencies out of their existing storage infrastructures.  The whole "spend money to make money" (or, in this case, save money) is a tough sell and Chuck does have a point - how do you prove it?

Look, customers have some rock solid EMC Clariion and HP EVA SAN architectures out there.  They work and they work well. Let's step back, take a look at that environment, and maybe we can come up with some ideas on how to use what you have a little more efficiently.  That's the basis of the ZIP program.

NetApp will sit down with you to talk about your current environment.  We'll come up with a plan to leverage your current SAN investment.  We'll put that plan into writing.  All that's left is to execute on that plan.

Now, part of that plan will include a V-Series from NetApp.  It's the best way we can think of to introduce the tools we would need to achieve those savings.  The up-front cost of the V-Series is zero, zip, nada.  If we achieve the savings, then you pay for the V-Series.  If not, the V-Series stays for free or we take it with us. 

Now, we're not delusional.  We would need some investment of your time and effort in understanding your environment and getting the V-Series installed.  We would ask for that much investment.  I don't know if we can help you or not, but having that conversation would be a great place to start.  The program itself is a great way to get that side-by-side comparison for zero investment in hardware and to show you how we can take a good environment and make it better.

Really, when you look at this, Chuck's question and the ZIP program come from the same place: how can you prove that this is an advantage for the customer?  Here's a chance to once again put our money where our mouth is.  Give it a try.

Mike Riley
Engineer, Data Protection & Retention
NetApp Storage Efficiency Community
Twitter: MSR11

The Gathering Storm

Well, I enjoyed the opportunity to return to Notre Dame and give a talk on "The Future Data Center." Thank you for all of the direct input from competitors and NetApp employees alike prior to the talk. I especially appreciated the consumer advocate, non-FUD based perspective brought to the table.  Forsythe Solutions put on a great event!  As a reminder, as part of the event I had a 45 minute speaking slot.  The audience was C-Level executives.

Prior to the talk I received a good list of technologies to comment about: server virtualization, network virtualization, storage virtualization, Cisco UCS, "you have to mention a cloud vision", FCoE, Unified Storage, object storage, backup strategies, dedupe, non-dupe, compression, encryption - and on, and on, and on.  As an engineer, you look at all of this great stuff and you start trying to figure out how you can cram all this into a 45-minute presentation (less if you want to leave room for questions along the way).  I couldn't do it. 

First of all, I don't work that well in monologue mode.  I'd rather have a conversation with someone or foster a conversation in a small group setting.  I get more out of it and I think the C-Level folks get more out of it hearing from each other and having me join in when appropriate to keep things moving.  The plain truth of the matter is I couldn't figure out how to stitch all of these technologies together without boring the executives to tears.  It was a Friday afternoon before a football weekend and next up was a round of cocktails and dinner.  Pulling out a visio diagram that gives a technical dissection of the Future Data Center didn't seem like the way to go - at all.

The Power of "AND"

I help coach my son's football team.  I'd be remiss if I didn't give credit where credit is due: Frank Ribaudo founded the team for All Saints Catholic Academy four years ago.  At the time, there were about 30 kids: 14 kids on the JV team (5th and 6th graders) and about 16 kids for Varsity (7th and 8th graders).  The catholic grade school league here in IL is highly competitive and, as the new kids in the league, we took our share of beatings the first few years (even with rules that allowed you to freeze the score to put in your 2nd and 3rd teamers with a running clock).  A lot of coaches clinics, car washes and All Saints spirit wear sales later and we now have 71 kids in the program.

Storage Efficient Data Protection?!?!

Part 2:  Disaster Recovery

In the first post, I discussed some of the challenges faced by general data protection solutions (including Backup/Recovery and Disaster Recovery).  In part 1, I discussed how NetApp can make Backup and Recovery storage efficient by leveraging NetApp SnapVault and Open Systems SnapVault solutions.  Now I would like to discuss how using NetApp SnapMirror technology improves your storage efficiency and how a recent the efficiency is further improved based on a recent announcement. 

How to Measure Storage Efficiency - Part III - The most important measure of efficiency

Now that we’ve dealt with the subject of taxes, we can get to some reasonably useful and easily understood definitions. For those of you who aren't interested in the nitty gritty details of thin provisioning, de-duplication, and fractional reserves I’ll cut to the chase and tell you what I believe is the most important and most easily compared measure of storage efficiency.

Storage Efficiency in an Oracle Environment

For the most part, I'd say you hear a lot about the NetApp Storage Efficiency strategy in this blog.  We have a number of customer case studies.  Vaughn Stewart (aka. The Virtual Storage Guy) had some great customer feedback on the results they were seeing in their VMware environments.  No doubt about it we get plenty of real world flash and sizzle in virtualized environments. 

Yes, VMware gets a lot of press (as it should - huge impact for customers).  File services is a natural when it comes to thinking about an area where tools like deduplication could apply.  

I'd be willing to bet Oracle isn't on the tip of the tongue.

My friend, Preetom Gaswami gave me a heads-up on a recent Storage Efficiency whitepaper the Oracle Alliance team put together.  Here's a note Preetom recently sent out to folks at NetApp:

We are very pleased to share that a new white paper on storage efficiency in Oracle data base and apps environment has been published recently.  You can find discussions on various design decisions that can be taken when implementing data center infrastructure for Oracle® Database and application environment to maximize storage efficiency.

Among various other things, two important questions addressed in this document are:

• How does one use the storage efficiency technologies from NetApp so that the storage consumed by an end-to-end Oracle infrastructure can be optimized?
• How does one quantify the storage savings achieved in a sample end-to-end Oracle infrastructure?

The white paper can be downloaded from here.

We believe you’ll find the information provided in the document useful while designing your storage infrastructure for Oracle database and apps. As always, we appreciate your feedback and suggestions on the same.

Preetom Goswami
Technical Marketing Engineer
NetApp

I highly recommend giving it a read.  The whitepaper includes best practices cross-referenced with detailed implementation guides along with a rationale on how and when to apply specific storage efficiency features.

Mike Riley
Engineer, Data Protection & Retention
NetApp Storage Efficiency Community
Twitter: MSR11

One NetApp T-Shirt = $1M (Includes free FAS6080)

If you read Jon Toigo or have heard him speak, you know he is a passionate customer advocate.    Speak softly but carry a big stick - doesn't quite capture the essence of Jon.  I like Jon but he violates one of his basic Tenets of Toigo with his blog on the NetApp $1M challenge: stop the Marketecture.  (Jon, you can't data hygiene away 50% of the physical VMs in a virtualized environment).  However, that doesn't take away from the fact that Jon raised a good question: "Heh, NetApp, what do I get for a million dollars?" 

First, let me say, "Jon, who says you get the $1M?!"  Remember, this is a challenge, a bet, a wager, a put up or shut up for NetApp.  If we can't save you at least 50% vs. your legacy storage vendor when it comes to your virtualization environment, we will pay for the additional storage, software and services up to $1M to make it right.  Does it shock anyone that we feel we've tilted the odds in the house's favor?   We've had nearly a year to validate savings with customers.  Did we look at the savings and put together a $1M wager based on the high end of the savings spectrum?  Heck no!  We fully expect to win the wager at a 50% level BUT what that means to a customer is we fully expect to reduce the storage footprint at their site by at least 50%.  WIN-WIN.  Even if we lose the bet the customer still wins up to the tune of $1M.  Heck, in some cases we've even see our competitors kick in at least that much in order to persuade customers to NOT take the bet!  WIN-WIN-WIN. 

A Stitch In Time….

How any times do you remember your Gran or Mum telling you that “a stitch in time saves nine” ?

Just finish that job off.....it'll only take a minute now, whilst the tools are out....

....but it is so much easier to leave things for another time...the sun is out, that job will wait.... mañana !

Particularly on lazy days of summer….should I fix that loose brickwork or watch a little more cricket…..

Well, I wish I’d fixed the loose bricks in the garden wall….a few years ago, when we first noticed it.  

Hmmmm: we noticed the crack had gently worked it’s way down towards the ground earlier in summer, and were forced into action…..and what might have been a £100 task a year or two turned into a quote for over £3,500 to replace the whole wall, foundations and all: “It might be a weakness in the foundations, Mr Walters”.    I wouldn’t mind if we lived in some massive Victorian Palace, and the wall were 20 feet high, but it is only about 30’ long and 6’ high !

Bah !

Well, it made us consider things, and we ended up with a new fence that has a secure gate, so we can get to the little open park space behind the house…..kind of like an extended garden now !

Out of interest, the handiman that performed the work (I’m more suited to painting fences than digging out & building them myself!) said the wall went down incredibly easily, and with a huge WHUUUMP – someone in the park behind came round to check all was okay, I told him he should have laid down and groaned, just for amusement…..)

 

Anyway, replacement with fencing was a much cheaper option, and indeed one that allows us more opportunities:

• before, we rarely ventured into the park on account of having to go all the way round the small estate we live on…..now I can wheel my own mower out if I want & cut a volleyball lawn in the middle for our team to enjoy in summer !!   
• the fencing is now painted a nice rustic green and blends in with the garden that much more……
• the fence spikes on top are more of a deterrent than just a capping stone to both burglers and cats (not that I don’t like cats, of course, I just wish they would chose to cr*p in their owners  garden than mine….)….I think the neighbourhood watch (& my wife..) might have taken exception to the use of razor wire…
• if the fence panels wear out in the future (as they are likely to), using concrete posts & gravel boards means I (or my descendents...) will be able to replace the panel easily

Why hadn’t the builders originally thought of that ?   A much more useful option than just a plain single-brick-thick wall !

Anyway, after a weekend of enjoying the garden-park, it occurred to me that many people treat their backups like the builders did our wall……don’t plan ahead, sometimes deploy it and then discover they could have done things better……perhaps build their primary data platforms based on something that sounds great but with no regard to the ability to protect them efficiently and easily.....

....which made me think about what a powerful backup mechanism we offer with Storage Efficient Data Protection, compared with any traditional tape mechanism or aftermarket dedupe-only solution......and of course, the most benefits can be gained by planning ahead a little !

Cheers

Mike