Fabric Apps

Storage Virtualization a Corporate Priority and a Cloud Building Block

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:39:00 +0000

You may have seen the press on the recently released Symantec survey on the state of the Data Center 2010. Having been involved in these efforts in the past, I know they are typically generated by a PR agency and can be thinly veiled platforms for product promotions. Yet this one rings true at least as it pertains to the continued importance of certain technologies such as Storage Virtualization. So long as data growth continues about 60% a year, regardless of a company's size, or top line growth, something needs to be done to manage the growing torrent of bits & bytes, but with about the same number of IT staff. Because, as they say, even bad numbers need to be stored somewhere.

The bigger trend I'm seeing is that virtualized storage resources are becoming an atomic unit of a Dynamic IT operation. Companies are adopting ‘private cloud computing’ and are using capabilities like storage virtualization to make their environments more dynamic, cost effective and responsive to the needs of the business. In order to realize these benefits, virtualized storage, server and network resources need to be managed in a unified way, and this requires a unified, intelligent fabric connecting it all.

I echo the recommendation of leading infrastructure players that IT organizations proceed cautiously and develop an infrastructure that can support the performance, security and distributed data aspects of cloud computing and virtualization.

We can expect to see continued innovation in managing larger data sets either via private cloud array and fabric-based solutions or external cloud-based services -- both with the goal to achieve greater scalability, reduced total cost of ownership and improved ability to manage geographically distributed data sets. All of these efforts will benefit from a high-throughput, converged network that can intelligently manage data at the packet-level and optimize connections between resources.

5 Reasons to Virtualize Storage

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:27:00 +0000

It's great to see proponents of Storage Virtualization out there, and especially those promoting network-based approaches such as Invista. Enjoy this recent blog post from someone who apparently knows a thing or two about the benefits of storage virtualization.

More info on a leading heterogeneous storage virtualization offring is available at www.InvistaOnBrocade.com.

"Fabric Based Computing" the future of Fabric Apps?

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:25:00 +0000

If you attended the Gartner Data Center conference a week ago, you may have already heard the buzz on “Fabric-based computing”. It’s a fancy new label for Cisco’s entry into the market with the UCS platform. It’s almost a marketspace of one, but with the addition of the HP BladeCenter matrix and a couple other smaller players, 3 leaf networks and Liquid Computing. And that surprisingly, 30% of Global 2000 companies will run some form of it by the end of 2012.

Is this really a market? Or just a server bundling exercise being wrapped in revisionist PR. When Gartner first published about Computing Fabrics they were speaking to the emerging enterprise compute-clustering space, now populated with just a few remaining players such as Egenera, Scalent and Surgient. The others have died or been bought – some just for their IP – such as Virtual Iron/Oracle, Cassatt/CA, Platespin/Novell, Qlusters. The problem is that the Cisco modular blade server / network switch chassis is a world away from an offering that does virtualized server compute, shared system memory, automated/dynamic resource management, etc.

Also, I’d love to think that “Fabric-based computing” will enable a rebirth of the network-based application space. Again, products like UCS are just a server chassis (Cisco now offers both blades and rack-mounted servers) that run Intel processors and standard operating systems. This is decidedly different from how Invista or RecoverPoint runs actually within the network fabric, able to work with heterogeneous host operating systems. Not saying it’s better or worse, but just that it’s different.

Anyway, in Gartner’s study on the topic (just published, not yet available online), they point out that “Adoption will likely follow a similar pattern to that of the early years of the blade server market.” This is because UCS is primarily a blade server. No need for a fancy new name. And no need to invoke the spirits of Fabric Application or Compute clustering.

New Video on Fabric-based RecoverPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000

A product update video about RecoverPoint on Brocade was posted today on youtube featuring Rick Walsworth of EMC. It provides an update about this leading fabric-based Replication and Data protection solution. Known as the product of choice for enterprises and large organizations protecting heterogeneous storage envuronments, the offering now works with Virtualized environments and supports Brocade's newest SAN directors, the DCX and DCX-4S. Highlighted in this video are how RecoverPoint works with Brocade fabrics, protecting Virtualized environments, and EMC / Brocade technology synergy. The video is available here, and more info on the solution is available at www.RecoverpointOnBrocade.com.

Fabric-based Replication In the News

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:04:00 +0000

A recent Storage Magazine story addresses network or Fabric-based storage management including Replication. The article, "The pros and cons of network-based data replication" by Jacob Gsoedl specifies, "Network-based replication combines the benefits of array-based and host-based replication. By offloading replication from servers and arrays, it can work across a large number of server platforms and storage arrays, making it ideal for highly heterogeneous environments."

The writer clearly gets the core benefit of fabric apps for enabling the management of mixed storage environments. It cites a number of replication and virtualization products including EMC RecoverPoint, IBM SVC and HP SVSP.

To learn more of the specific features and benefits of a leading fabric-based replication offering, go to www.RecoverpointonBrocade.com.

The Golden Age of Fabric Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:13:00 +0000

I found myself describing Fabric Applications as being in their "Golden Years" the other day. For being completely off-the-cuff, it's not a bad description. They are very mature and in that sense, people understand what they are and the value they bring. For instance, Network-based storage virtualization is still written about as an efficient approach to deliver the benefits of virtualization across a cross-vendor or heterogeneous storage environment.

Having said that, we're seeing more developments in array-based storage such as FCoE. And we can continue to expect more virtualization and replication capabilities consolidating onto the array, esp. with new modular designs like V-Max. Network-based offerings from IBM SVC and HP SVSP seem to defy this trend but those roadmaps should converge towards the DS8000 and EVP respectively at some point, as HDS offered the market solid validation of array-based heterogenous virtualization with the USP-V.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not sounding the death knell of network-based storage services. I'm guessing just the opposite: more intelligence being built into converged networks leveraging advanced standards such as FCoE, CEE and TRILL. And also continuing to provide common data management services and offload that allow applications using the fabric to be that much more efficient.

So for now, in addition to fabric apps, I'll be spending more time in the cloud space. Please follow the conversation on my new CloudItch blog (www.clouditch.com).

Congrats on V-Max

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:59:00 +0000

EMC had big news today thanks to their virtual launch of the new Symmetrix V-Max. It has garnered broad industry coverage, as well as its share of competitive brickbats.

It's a revolutionary break from the old-line monolithic array. Based on x86 components, designed with modular 'engines' to enable more granular scale-out, and built-in automated tiering makes it more like an offering from a nimble innovator like Compellent or 3Par. But with scale-up to a claimed 3PB and "tens of millions of IOPS" this is still gold-tier enterprise storage.

EMC's Chuck Hollis paints a typically empassioned view of the technology. It includes storage virtualization features such as pooling data across multiple arrays, non-disruptive data mobility and I/O load-balancing. He listed architectural approaches customers have to achieve Storage Virtualization: "today, we've got three different approaches to putting storage virtualization in the network: (1) use a server appliance (e.g. IBM SVC), (2) use an array controller (e.g. HDS USP), or (3) use an intelligent switch (e.g. EMC Invista)." Forgiving the over site of "host-based" (e.g. DataCore), this list does cover the typical enterprise, large service provider or government agency considered set. There are a number of choices each with its pros and cons.

And despite all the greatness of V-Max, the Storage Virtualization buyer often needs to address issues of heterogeneous storage resources, performance and vendor lock-in. Where these are issues, a fabric-based approach is still the best way to go. (And if you're an EMC shop, you can still make your sales rep happy by choosing Invista.)

Congrats to the Symmetrix team on the launch -- we're all eager to see how the new V-Max vision rolls out over the coming months.

Virtual Storage as well as Coffee Cups

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:37:00 +0000

The report from SNW: still a big show but not quite as large as last year. Cost cutting was top of mind, with one attendee sharing that his company eliminated styrofoam coffee cups to save $70k!

Storage news included the apparent maturing of Storage Virtualization, with 76% of attendee orgs either having already deployed or expecting to deploy a solution by next year. Companies are realizing savings from Storage Virtualization through efficient resource pooling, reduced management complexity and the ability to manage more data with the same staff. One company shared that they had 15PB all on a performance SAN, and wanted to reduce cost through tiering to cheaper arrays -- a compelling use for Storage Virtualization.

With the maturing of the category, the key players will stabilize their respective positions. But there's a potential disruption on the way, because the market still hasn't found an equilibrium in terms of form-factor, with shares split between array-based (e.g. HDS USP), appliance-based (e.g. IBM SVC and NetApp V-Series), Host-based (e.g. Datacore) and Fabric-based (e.g. EMC Invista). Expect to see innovation in how network-based technology works to improve the performance of these and other storage apps...

Pay-as-you-go Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:58:00 +0000

It's exciting to see as both vendors and customers become more evolved with this IT business, that the nature of our transactions change. The recent buzz about the expected explosive growth in Cloud computing has not-surprisingly coincided with continued IT cost reduction pressures. Some is certainly due to the current global economic crisis, but the trend has been in play for a long time. What has gone from an exercise in procuring something cool and breakthrough, has become buying something basic and vital, like milk. I've taken a stab at capturing some key aspects of this evolution to cloud computing.

What I'm seeing as especially significant is how we as infrastructure technology providers are going to have to package our solutions in a more pay-as-you-go fashion. Very much like how we all buy our power at home - it sounds like a no-brainer, but let's say you make your living selling network hardware. How does that work? And as the customer, what do you expect this utilization-based arrangement to look like? Or maybe the real takeaway is that you don't want the arrangement at all. You want email, a way to track your sales pipeline, and a means to do book-keeping, and don't want to have to staff experts to determine if the best way to do this requires Fibre Channel, Ethernet, FCoE, CEE, or M-O-U-S-E.

The New Multi-Tier Support Model

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:31:00 +0000

First of all, I want to give credit where it's due. Intuit redeemed themselves and found our lost TurboTax Online 2007 return. I didn't think it was really deleted or inaccessible. Even though their support person did.

The real story is their breakthrough Customer Support model. It leverages a typically un-tapped resource: the spousal network. After being told 'Sorry' by the Support rep, I shared my frustration with my wife, who works at Intuit, and 24 hours later the problem is solved. Why waste expensive call-center resources when you can just have a spouse help solve customer problems? It worked for Intuit, and it can for you, too.

Step 1. Operationalize the new support model, see diagram.

Step 2. Require your employees to marry your customers. May require some convincing, and depending on company size, polygamy, but you can achieve anything with the right attitude.

Setting back network-based computing one return at a time

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:40:00 +0000

There are many advantages to running applications on a network, like not having to worry about an operating system, eliminating your local host footprint, etc. But there's a big unspoken but widely understood issue: it's trust. You need to be able to trust that things will work just as well on the network as they would on your local server. You hand-over control and therefore accept some risk in exchange for the benefits. The overall function should net benefits to the customer.

Back in the early days of 'cloud computing' circa 1999 when we were running client-server apps like Exchange straight over public IP, customers were taking trade-offs in performance but conscientious ASPs more than delivered in terms of cost savings, availability and reliability. The last thing you wanted to do was make things on balance worse for the customer. And the ABSOLUTELY last thing you wanted to do was lose someones data even if it was 'just email'.

Well, fast foward a decade later. Here's a $3 billion so called leader in personal finance software, Intuit, with thier leading tax prep solution, Turbotax, trying to remain relevant within a growing market of online personal finance and related alternatives such as mint.com, wesabe.com , and others, many founded by Intuit alumni. These startups get that the key to the battle is in building trust. Well, let me tell you, if you are trying to build trust in an online business, you don't do it by losing someone's data.

I just got off a call with the Turbotax support line, because the help page directions I had been following to access a previous years return didn't seem to work. After spending 30 minutes waiting for an answer (this is actually the average hold time) and another 20+ on the phone with support, I'm told that the 2007 to 2008 conversion I had attempted, per the online help instructions, can only work once. If it didn't work the first time then your tax data has been deleted.

Never in my years of experience with various forms of online-based services would I ever have expected to encounter a system that would, by default, delete customer data. I wouldn't write an MRD for a program like that. I had never worked with an engineer that would code something like that. Nor do I recall a sys admin who would ever manage an environment where you couldn't recover data even if the program couldn't access it.

Not only is Intuit showing incompetance in application development, but by losing customer data they risk pulling down the entire industry. Whether you're doing online storage, CRM, ERP or security across the public cloud or within a private cloud, we absolutely must be stewards of the customer's data and ultimately thier trust. We strive to bring net benefits. But at the very least, even if you as a company are incapable of evolving yourself, even if you can't deliver customer value within an online model, then for the sake of those companies around you who will make it, please at least 'do no harm' and don't drag down the industry around you.

Technology Value vs. Doom and Gloom

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Granted times are tough. But it’s gotten to the point where economic fear-mongering is beyond a popular political tool and has become a competitive weapon. It would be laughable when math-challenged vendors spread rumors of layoffs that exceed the competitor’s headcount. But layoffs, furloughs and slowdowns are not a laughing matter.

Luckily some companies remain focused on delivering valuable technology, esp. where it’s solving important problems, like how the new KMIP encryption standard will make organizational data more secure. Or they're innovating to reduce data center complexity, lower costs or save the environment. Some of us will remain focused on delivering new benefits and savings through technology -- hopefully customers are finding this helpful and maybe even hopeful.

Fabric Applications = Private Cloud computing

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:21:00 +0000

I've never been one to add to what is already some serious vendor over-hype, e.g. 'Cloud Computing', but then again I'm not one to rant against something either (regardless of how funny that can be). I'm hearing that some customers find the concept helpful. Cool. I know I find it helpful to review why these things have value to customers.

In my day job, we've been delivering what we call Fabric Applications for many years. In concept Fabric Applications are similar to what is being called a Private Cloud, especially as it relates to fabric apps such as Storage Virtualization. Our company's focus up to this point has been specific to Storage networks (vs. LANs), though this will change with FCoE and CEE.

And I had been wondering if given the current economy, or trends in vendor consolidation, or a new administration, or Jessica Simpon's weight challenges, etc... if customers' needs were really changing with regard to Fabric Apps and this whole cloud computing thing. As you may recall, a key driver to network-resident computing is the value it brings to managing resources from many different vendors. As it turns out, this is still a growing need for companies.

Data recently released by a leading IT research firm shows that more that 80% of Enterprises are working with 2 or more storage vendors, and more than 25% of companies are now working with 6-10 different vendors - an increase over last year! In addition, enterprises that have products for Storage Virtualization are continuing to expand their use. The hype around ‘cloud computing’ and ‘private clouds’ is apparently there because there's value in it: companies want best-of-breed solutions along with management flexibility. And Fabric Apps or Private Clouds or Enterprise Clouds or insert-your-favorite-term-here, are the way to achieve it.

Bringing Clarity to Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:29:00 +0000

There's a great deal of news out there on Cloud Computing. And a number of new innovators and recent deals show this to be an IT hot spot for '09. But as shown in earlier posts, the idea of running applications on a network fabric isn't new. Storage management apps have been running within the SAN fabric for sometime.

So, What fabric apps are on the market today?

If you're looking for a more efficient way to do Storage virtualization, Data replication or Data migration, to name a few, you can accomplish this Today with established, enterprise-class applications from brand name suppliers. Here's a focus on one:

EMC Invista -- this leading Storage Virtualization app runs on the SAN fabrics of hundreds of leading global companies, some with up to a Petabyte of data virtualized. Invista enables non-disruptive data movement, ILM, increases storage hardware utilization, supports server virtualization efforts, and does it all across a heterogeneous storage environment.

Invista has proven benefits: one company realized a 3:1 consolidation of storage equipment. Another saved 91% on storage provisioning time via pooling. And another reduced a 22-month migration plan to just 4 months. And being able to mix-and-match storage allows organizations to optimize on lower-cost hardware and reduce thier overall Cost/TB - a big deal in today's economy.

The hallmark of todays fabric apps is Enterprise-class functionality with very high-performance. If this is the space you're operating in, then you should definitely be looking into this quieter corner of cloud computing: SAN fabric applications.

Enjoy this very recent story on reducing storage cost through things like storage virtualization.

An old idea to get your brain around

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:31:00 +0000

I was swapping email with a pretty bright colleague of mine the other day, telling him about Fabric Applications, and he responded that he 'couldn't get his brain around it'. I assumed it was understandable given that Fabric apps are a fairly new idea to many. But just how new are Fabric apps? Not very - especially in IT-years.

With a little googling you can turn up a number of stories about the Brocade Fabric Application Platform, as well as Gartner's write-up announcing the company's entry into the market via the Rhapsody acqusition.

This was on November 8, 2002.

So turns out, Fabric Apps go back further than Camera phones and even VoIP.

The primary appeal of Fabric apps in 2002 was the same as it is today, to quote from a story at the time, "...to run [applications] in the SAN without the need for a seperate server."

For more info on this time-tested approach to enterprise-class data management that lowers administrative cost of ownership, visit the Brocade Fabric applications page.

Why Fabric Apps?

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:35:00 +0000

You may wonder, "Why Fabric Applications?" We already have servers, appliances and even storage arrays that can be used to run applications -- why another platform?

As it turns out, there's a huge demand for better, more intelligent management of organizations' data: whether to more optimally store it, more dynamically redeploy it, do more with it, better secure it, lower the cost per gigabyte or the required energy to support it. Running these data management applications 'on the fabric' turns out to be more effective, efficient and cheaper. Specifically:

Broad OS Support -- Storage fabrics aren't tied to server operating systems, so they can easily work across heterogeneous server environments.
Heterogeneous Storage Support -- Similarly, fabric apps work across vendors' arrays. This comes in very handy for lease expirations or any time you need to move between different vendors' storage equipment.
Eliminating Host Footprint -- Fabric apps don't require server agents - this is a huge area of savings for large enterprises who would otherwise have to touch hundreds or thousands of servers, not just for the deployment, but every patch, upgrade, etc.
Leverage for your SAN Infrastructure -- most companies have a SAN, and this is a way to leverage your current investment rather than deploy additional servers or appliances to support a new application. You also leverage your existing staff's expertise in SAN administration.
Enterprise Scalability -- Fabric apps are designed to scale with the SAN - to thousands of hosts and Storage Arrays.
Highest Performance -- Fabric apps run on purpose-built hardware rather than generic x86 boxes. This means that applications execute at wire-speed, on devices capable of millions of IOPS.
Enterprise Reliability -- Fabric apps are using the same trusted data backbone that deliver 99.999% reliability in the data-path day in and day out.

Today there are a growing number of applications finding their way onto storage fabrics. An upcoming topic will be about some of these types of Fabric apps.

Fabric Applications - Welcome to the Fabric

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Harding) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:48:00 +0000

Welcome to the inagural post of the Fabric Applications blog. What are Fabric Applications? The term encompasses data management programs that run within a SAN. It's derived from the Fabric Application Interface Standard or FAIS, which is a common API framework for implementing storage applications in a storage networking environment. More info can be found on the FAIS project site.

This blog is intended to become a mecca for all things Fabric Apps -- I hope you'll come here to read, contribute and help grow the shared knowledge of this new and valuable technology.