META Group Evolving Towards a Storage Utility Dr Kevin McIsaac Server Infrastructure Strategies META...

META GroupMETA Group

Evolving Towards a Storage Utility


Dr Kevin McIsaacServer Infrastructure Strategies META Group

© 2002 META Group Australia 2

Business and Technology Scenario

Continued economic uncertainty

Constrained/declining IT budgets though 2003

2003 net storage capacity growth of 60%-65%

10x growth by 2005/6 Hardware cost declines @

35% PA (55% in 2001) People do not get cheaper

Storage represents upwards of 15% of the IT budget, and 60%+ of the hardware budget

Hardware budget impact 8%, 1.6% of total IT budget

Continued economic uncertainty

Constrained/declining IT budgets though 2003

2003 net storage capacity growth of 60%-65%

10x growth by 2005/6 Hardware cost declines @

35% PA (55% in 2001) People do not get cheaper

Storage represents upwards of 15% of the IT budget, and 60%+ of the hardware budget

Hardware budget impact 8%, 1.6% of total IT budget

Uncontrolled storage growth will strain IT budgets. Leading ITOs will focus on “demand management”.

IT Budget IT Budget


Critical Issues

Creating a Shared Storage Service

Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management

People Processes, & Tools

Creating a Shared Storage Service


People Processes, & Tools


Creating a Storage Services Portfolio

Matching Storage to Business Needs

Categorizing Data Assessing Capabilities


Categorizing Data Assessing Capabilities

Package People, Process and Technology as ServicesPackage People, Process and Technology as Services

To control demand make business units accountable for the storage they consume!

To control demand make business units accountable for the storage they consume!

Storage TechnologyStorage Processes

Storage People

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Understand the business’ storage requirements

What services are important

Create a “portfolio” of storage services

Defined by SLAs Limit to 3-4 services Offer a range of cost/risks

Package people, process and technology into a service

Sell packaged services not raw technology

Optimise operations around these services/SLAs

Understand the business’ storage requirements

What services are important

Create a “portfolio” of storage services

Defined by SLAs Limit to 3-4 services Offer a range of cost/risks

Package people, process and technology into a service

Sell packaged services not raw technology

Optimise operations around these services/SLAs

Storage Service Level AgreementsStorage Service Level Agreements

Business units select services from the storage portfolio based on the application’s cost/risk profile

Business units select services from the storage portfolio based on the application’s cost/risk profile

Class Description SLA Cost Bronze Basic

Storage 24 hour data restore 72 hour disaster recovery Offline backup only Extend file system in 7 days

$15

Silver Business Critical

8 hour data restore Online backup, but may

impact performance 24 hour disaster recovery Extend file system in 24

hours

$25

Platinum Mission Critical

1 hour data restore Online backup with no

performance impact 4 hour disaster recovery Capacity on demand Storage optimization

$60


Categorizing Data

Discover data “owned” by key applications

Automate using SRM tools

Classify data based on value of application to business

Business must make cost/risk trade off not IT

Business owns storage cost & can lower it by

reducing volume reducing SL

Discover data “owned” by key applications

Automate using SRM tools

Classify data based on value of application to business

Business must make cost/risk trade off not IT

Business owns storage cost & can lower it by

reducing volume reducing SL

Cost Storage as a PortfolioCost Storage as a Portfolio

Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the storage services they consume

Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the storage services they consume

Storage Class

Volume GB

Unit Cost

Cost per month

Bronze 200 15 $3,000

Silver 150 25 $3,750

Platinum 400 60 $24,000

Total $30,750


Assessing Capabilities

IT’s role is to deliver on promised SLAs

Match SLAs to appropriate technologies

Cost Risk

Perform Gap analysis Reassess regularly Evaluate new technology

against SLAs

IT’s role is to deliver on promised SLAs

Match SLAs to appropriate technologies

Cost Risk

Perform Gap analysis Reassess regularly Evaluate new technology

against SLAs

Use technology appropriate for the SLAUse technology appropriate for the SLA

SLAs do not stipulate specific technology, they describe services delivered by products and technologies

SLAs do not stipulate specific technology, they describe services delivered by products and technologies

JBOD

Platinum

RAID


Business Impact: A storage service portfolio makes cost explicit, enabling business units to choose

storage appropriate to their needs and understand the impact of this choice on their budget.

Creating a Storage Services Portfolio

Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit in terms the business understands

Package people, process & technology into services

Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost Bill business units based on volume and unit cost

of the service they consume

Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit in terms the business understands

Package people, process & technology into services

Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost Bill business units based on volume and unit cost

of the service they consume

Bottom Line



Finding meaningful metrics

“Measuring” the storage infrastructure

Develop Process and Procedures

Finding meaningful metrics

“Measuring” the storage infrastructure

Develop Process and Procedures

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

Storage Infrastructure; Supporting the Business


Finding Meaningful Metrics

Question authority The ROI/TCO mandate

ROI is earnings/invested capital

What’s the revenue of disk drive?

What senior management really wants is payback

TCO relies heavily on forecasts and assumptions

Quantify efficiency, Question vendor claims

Question authority The ROI/TCO mandate

ROI is earnings/invested capital

What’s the revenue of disk drive?

What senior management really wants is payback

TCO relies heavily on forecasts and assumptions

Quantify efficiency, Question vendor claims

What’s the Target?

ROI and TCO require extensive assumptions, making them prone to self-fulfilling calculations


“Measuring” the Storage Infrastructure

If you are not keeping score you are just practicing

1. Storage per administrator 3.8TB benchmark Include B/R with disk

2. Data availability # of hours of annual

downtime (all causes)3. Mean time to recovery

Compare to application service levels

4. Latency to capacity agility Measured from

acquisition to application use

1. Storage per administrator 3.8TB benchmark Include B/R with disk

2. Data availability # of hours of annual

downtime (all causes)3. Mean time to recovery

Compare to application service levels

4. Latency to capacity agility Measured from

acquisition to application use

5. Data life-cycle multiplier Number of times

specific data is copied6. % storage utilization

Used storage divided by total storage

Target 60%-85% Prioritize focus

7. Days storage in inventory How many days before

high-water threshold? Target 90-180 days

5. Data life-cycle multiplier Number of times

specific data is copied6. % storage utilization

Used storage divided by total storage

Target 60%-85% Prioritize focus

7. Days storage in inventory How many days before

high-water threshold? Target 90-180 days


Develop Storage Procedures

List major areas of storage process

Provisioning and B/R are usually the largest

Analyse how these impact cost What are the cost drivers? How is efficiency affected?

Work on process with largest impact

Automate, Delegate & Eliminate to reduce cost

List major areas of storage process

Provisioning and B/R are usually the largest

Analyse how these impact cost What are the cost drivers? How is efficiency affected?

Work on process with largest impact

Automate, Delegate & Eliminate to reduce cost

Storage cost drivers

IT organisations that do not benchmark storage or understand the drivers will fail to control costs

Provisioning B&RMonitor & Correct Capacity PlanningDRP


Business Impact: If the business is to be accountable for storage consumption, it has to know what it’s

consuming.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management Find meaningful metrics

Quantify what you can. Identify what you can’t. Qualify assumptions, while understanding ROI/TCO

limitations. Measure the storage infrastructure

Begin internal benchmarking to capture operational improvements

The goal is to measure internal operations as if it was a outsourcing deal

Find meaningful metrics Quantify what you can. Identify what you can’t. Qualify assumptions, while understanding ROI/TCO

limitations. Measure the storage infrastructure

Begin internal benchmarking to capture operational improvements

The goal is to measure internal operations as if it was a outsourcing deal

Bottom Line


Storage Administration Expertise

Storage Administration Expertise

Virtualising Storage

Planning for Storage Virtualisation

Understanding Storage Applications


Understanding Storage Applications

Virtualization means many different things to many vendors — scrutinize what business case it solves



Virtualisation defined Pooled, heterogeneous storage

managed as an single entity Logical access separate from

physical location Value is in storage apps, not the

virtualisation engine Engine moves to the fabric

(Brocade, Cisco) Who will write the apps for

these engines? Focus on delivering policy-based

storage through 2004/05 Event driven vs. process driven Increase storage administrator

efficiency

Virtualisation defined Pooled, heterogeneous storage

managed as an single entity Logical access separate from

physical location Value is in storage apps, not the

virtualisation engine Engine moves to the fabric

(Brocade, Cisco) Who will write the apps for

these engines? Focus on delivering policy-based

storage through 2004/05 Event driven vs. process driven Increase storage administrator

efficiency

As usual, the hype is ahead of reality

Storage “Anywhere”

FabricFabric


Understanding Storage Applications Utilities vs. applications

Utilities are device-specific; apps are general purpose

Key applications SRM Replication by policy Real-time data

protection Chargeback Performance monitors

Utilities vs. applications Utilities are device-

specific; apps are general purpose

Key applications SRM Replication by policy Real-time data

protection Chargeback Performance monitors

Virtualisation engines get the attention,but applications deliver the value

Engine/App Integration

ReplicationReplicationReplicationReplication

Charge-backCharge-backCharge-backCharge-back

PerformancePerformanceMonitorsMonitors

PerformancePerformanceMonitorsMonitors

DataDataProtectionProtection

DataDataProtectionProtection

PolicyPolicyEngineEnginePolicyPolicyEngineEngine

SRM


Business Impact: Virtualization promises to transform storage management from static to dynamic

Virtualising Storage

Understand the benefits (and costs) Don’t let the hype draw you in too early

Match vendor selection with strategic objective and requirements’

Virtualisation engines enable the applications Virtualisation's (empty?) promises

Although good in theory, it will be fraught with technical limitations, inhibiting large-scale deployments until 2004/05

Understand the benefits (and costs) Don’t let the hype draw you in too early

Match vendor selection with strategic objective and requirements’

Virtualisation engines enable the applications Virtualisation's (empty?) promises

Although good in theory, it will be fraught with technical limitations, inhibiting large-scale deployments until 2004/05

Bottom Line



Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit. Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the

service they consume

Make the business accountable for the storage it consumes Business must make risk/cost choice, not IT

Measure the effectiveness of storage management Select storage management tools that dramatically increase

staff efficiency & contain storage growth cost

Focus on storage applications, not virtualisation engines. Choose apps that deliver new capabilities or reduce TCO

Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit. Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the

service they consume

Make the business accountable for the storage it consumes Business must make risk/cost choice, not IT

Measure the effectiveness of storage management Select storage management tools that dramatically increase

staff efficiency & contain storage growth cost

Focus on storage applications, not virtualisation engines. Choose apps that deliver new capabilities or reduce TCO

Transformation Steps

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