Taylor's Take on Sun Storage

Open Storage Support

I've received a lot of questions about the support for Open Storage from customers and competitors.  And for good reason - if something isn't working the way you want it to, you need to know there is someone to count on for support.  This is true for traditional products; and is even more critical when it comes to products that incorporate open source software.     

I'll briefly explain Sun's support model around open source and Open Storage.  This model is also evolving over time and will only get better...

Professional Services: Sun offers architecture, development, implementation and management services for Open Storage.  Instead of writing about them here, I'll send you to this link.  

Appliance & Hardware Support:   Sun offers commercial versions of its Open Storage products, like the Sun Fire X4500, which comes with traditional support AND better storage economics.  You can also purchase Sun hardware for Open Storage.  These obviously come with the expected Sun support and service offerings.  (Remember that in Open Storage, users can essentially build a storage controller out of a standard server to save cost and improve flexibility.)   

Solaris Support: Sun's commercially available enterprise server O/S can be used as a storage platform in an Open Storage implementation.  It is also critical to point out that Solaris and ZFS offer advanced storage services like point-in-time-copy, volume management, storage administration and data integrity features like copy-on-write, end-to-end checksumming and RAID.  These are storage software features that typically reside in a storage controller or as an independent software application that has to be purchased separately.   So it is important to note that when we are talking about Solaris (and OpenSolaris) - we are also talking about all the storage software features and services that come with it. 

According to the Whitepaper, "OS Subscription Support Services: A Comparison of Sun and Red Hat" by the Crimson Consulting Group, Solaris support is comparable but better than Red Hat Enterprise Linux support.  Read the paper for the detail; below are the high-level findings when comparing Solaris vs. Red Hat Linux support:     

• Sun has a lower average price for annual support subscriptions - 16% lower per year, list.
• Sun has longer product lifecycle support - 7 years of support vs. 3 years for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (see diagram below)
  
• Sun has a larger support organization - 18x the support staff compared to Red Hat.
• Sun had a 27% lower total cost compared to Red Hat Enterprise Linux over a three-year period.
• Sun offers a commercial OS (Solaris) and an open source OS (OpenSolaris)

Customers who buy a Sun Server also get a free commercial Solaris RTU (right to use).  So customers get integrated support for Sun hardware and software comparable to support from other enterprise server vendors like HP or IBM.

OpenSolaris Support:  Sun is leading the way in offering support for the open source version of its storage platform - OpenSolaris.  OpenSolaris support also covers the storage applications embedded in the OS or file system.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is similar to commercial software in that the community does not update the distribution directly (but instead provides input via feedback, bug fixes or contributions).  Fedora is Red Hat's community-lead distribution of Linux.  So it is important to note that while Red Hat offers RHEL support, it currently does not offer traditional support for Fedora (beyond community support).   By contrast, Sun offers Solaris AND OpenSolaris support.  This is truly unique. 

Currently there are two OpenSolaris support subscriptions available - buy them here.  These subscriptions support OpenSolaris running on Sun Servers AND multiple 3rd-party x64/x86 systems.  OpenSolaris Subscription services include the:

1. OpenSolaris Essentials Subscription: 24x7 telephone support, online technical support and bug escalation services
   
2. OpenSolaris Production Subscription: 8x5 business hour and online technical support

If you are already a SunSpectrum System Plan customer, then OpenSolaris support is included with your System Service Plan.  Also, if you have a Solaris Subscription you are automatically entitled to the OpenSolaris Essentials service - pretty good deal if you ask me...

OpenSolaris Community Support:  So what about storage applications on OpenSolaris that are not part of the current OpenSolaris distribution/code base?  What if I am a developer and create a NEW storage application from the open storage offerings available to me?  This is where the Sun Developer Network (SDN) offers great support. Sign up to the Sun Developer Expert Assistance program for online support, technical assistance, code support, programming questions and diagnostic advice.  (You can even learn fun stuff like how to build an OpenSolaris NAS box in 5 easy steps!)

So, Sun has more than 7,000 employees dedicated to service and support - not all dedicated to Open Storage of course (I wish), but dedicated to storage, servers, software (commercial and open source!) and everything in between.  Sun's enterprise support offerings now cover open source software; and Sun has a strong and growing open source community that supports its open source initiatives worldwide.  Sun offers direct services in 55 countries and services in 160 countries either directly or through partners.    

 So hopefully some support questions were answered above - if not, pls comment and we'll see if we can find an answer...

Posted at 12:36PM May 28, 2008 by Taylor Allis in Storage Intelligence  |  Comments[0]

What is Open Storage? White Paper

Our Open Storage announcement drummed up interest in the industry - and for good reason...

• Tony Pearson at IBM related Open Storage to "Simply Dinners" - which is not a bad analogy.  I was thinking of the analogy of going to Home Depot or Lowe's vs. hiring a contractor for your house project - but Simply Dinners will do.  
  
• Marc Farley at Dell asked if Sun was giving up or changing the game?  I can assure you that we aren't giving up (storage is a pretty big market after all), but he nails it with his changing the game remarks - that's exactly what we are trying to do. 
  
• Lastly, EMC blogger Chuck Hollis aired his thoughts on Do-It-Yourself Storage, and we had a good discussion in the comments I thought.  (Until Chuck said I had turned from simply disagreeing to becoming disagreeable when I answered his questions on Open Storage - that ended that discussion!  Oh well, I guess he was trying to be rhetorical...) 

With that said - there is still a lot more to discuss about Open Storage.   We will have announcements upcoming, and we will also be publishing some White Papers on the subject. 

This first one is appropriately titled, What is Open Storage?  And it can be downloaded here:

• What is Open Storage? White Paper

I'll post the CliffsNotes below.  I would also like to thank Bruce Norikane, our Sr. Analyst, for his help in writing these papers - his intellect on storage infrastructures, past and present, is astounding.  I'd like to also thank or intelligence manager, Chris Ilg, for his forecasting work; as well as Graham Lovell, Jason Schaffer and our army of developers/engineers for their direction and edits (and leading the way to Open Storage...)

What is Open Storage?   (The short version)
Open Storage refers to open systems storage products based on industry-standard hardware and open source software.  Also, in an open storage architecture, customers can select the best hardware and software components for their individual needs.  By contrast, almost all modern disk arrays and NAS storage offerings are closed systems.

To see the evolution of disk architectures and benefits to Open Storage, see the blog post, "Sun is on to something"

Open Storage Versus Traditional Storage
The following chart compares vendor products, first ship dates, and storage system components. Red items are system components that are closed, proprietary, and available through a single vendor. Yellow items are built from industry-standard components yet sold as part of a closed, proprietary system. Green items are truly open components. They are industry-standard or open-source software, giving customers choice over how their systems are built.

Of significance, since 1992, storage systems have started to utilize open-source, commodity, or industry-standard technologies.  FreeBSD and Linux are used in several systems from vendors such as IBM, EMC, NetApp, and HP.  However, these open technologies are deployed in a closed-system approach.

Storage software is the last major storage infrastructure software to become open source, and Sun’s OpenSolaris Storage community has been leading the change.

Sun Open Storage Value Proposition 
The market shift to open storage systems and Sun’s open storage approach offer four distinct advantages:

1. A global development community working to make storage more innovative, functional and affordable
   
2. Breakthrough economics that can save storage users up to 90% over closed, proprietary storage
3. Enterprise-class quality storage systems that are reliable and offer some of the highest data integrity in the industry
4. The ability to easily and dynamically scale IT infrastructures to meet changing business needs
   

Sun Open Storage Offerings.

• Sun Open Storage Servers: The Sun Fire X4500 server leverages industry-standard hardware and software. It is a Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor-based server with 48 hot-swappable SATA drives in a single 4 U chassis that can achieve 48 TB of raw capacity with 1 TB SATA drives.
• Sun Open Storage Archive: The Sun StorageTek 5800 system also leverages industry standard components. It is the first integrated, fixed content archiving system built using open-source software.  In a recent InfoWorld product review, it scored perfect 10s in reliability and scalability.
• Sun Open Storage HPC: The Sun Constellation System builds on cost-effective, off-the-shelf components
  and state-of-the-art technologies to deliver an open, petascale architecture capable of up to 1.7 petaFLOPS of
  computing power.
• Lustre file system: Lustre is Sun’s open-source shared disk file system that is generally used for largescale
  cluster computing. The Lustre file system is currently used in 15% of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, and six of the top 10 supercomputers.
  
• Sun Open Storage Software: OpenSolaris is the cornerstone of Sun Open Storage offerings and provides a solid foundation as an open storage platform.  It includes:
• Solaris ZFS: ZFS can address 256 quadrillion zettabytes of storage and handle a maximum
  file size of 16 exabytes.
• Solaris DTrace: DTrace enables users to ask arbitrary diagnostic questions of the storage subsystem
• Solaris Fault Management Architecture: Solaris Fault Management Architecture provides automatic monitoring and diagnosis of I/O subsystems and hardware faults
• Sun StorageTek Availability Suite: Sun AVS delivers open-source remote-mirror-copy and point-in-time-copy applications as well as a collection of supporting software and utilities.

Posted at 01:00PM May 15, 2008 by Taylor Allis in Storage Intelligence  |  Comments[4]

Big news - HP and EDS to merge

So I have been heads down on finalizing a Sun Open Storage white paper we just wrote which I'll post here - but the HP-EDS announcement is big news so I'll pop my head up for a bit to offer some thoughts on the subject... 

This will be a big job for HP
First of all, a $13.9B merger is a monumental task with considerable risk - especially when 140,000 employees are involved.  HP and EDS will have a lot of challenges integrating - this move will more than double the size of HP's services business.  The HP-Compaq merger was another large acquisition, and gave HP significant challenges in the storage market. 

This will bump HP to #2 - above EMC, still below IBM
In storage market share, this merger will move HP from #3 in total storage (disk, tape, software, services) to #2 behind IBM.  EMC has been in second place, and this move would put HP ahead of EMC and just behind IBM.   Sun will remain #4 in overall storage (which is why we are aiming to change the game btw - to answer Marc's question) and Dell will remain at #5.   (This is based on IDC data btw)

HP is buying managed and enterprise services
This deal shows that HP is investing more in outsourced IT infrastructure and professional services (and perhaps less in consumer printers/scanners/computers?) - moving closer to IBM's core focus.  While HP has been historically strong in the SMB space, it has not had as strong a portfolio of services and offerings in enterprise disk and tape storage segments - especially when compared to Sun and IBM.  HP has also been trying to move into the managed services space to compete more effectively against IBM.  IBM and EMC have been investing heavily in managed storage, data protection and disaster-recovery services through acquisitions and internal investment - EDS will put HP in their backyard and help HP fill in some of these gaps (assuming the integration goes well.) 

A new HP storage channel? 
From a storage products perspective, an HP-EDS merger could have a similar impact on HP's products as IBM Global Services (IGS) has on IBM Storage products (or so HP desperately hopes).   IGS is essentially IBM's largest channel to move its storage products through.  IBM focuses on attaching services to all of its products, but when it leads with services it pulls through as many products in its portfolio as it can.  HP is no doubt betting that EDS's account control in larger environments can open the way for HP storage in the enterprise. 

Any HP/EDS changes will be gradual
A large part of EDS's business is dependent upon the innovation and features that come from Sun products and other vendors.  EDS is a profitable company, posting revenues above $22B prior to this acquisition.   To suddenly start recommending HP products in lieu of recently recommending Sun or other storage products could alienate EDS customers - protecting EDS's revenue stream and partnerships is in EDS' and HP's best interest.  So any preference for HP products in EDS' services offerings will be slow and gradual - and existing business and business partners will continue as planned no doubt - I'll go so far as to say that HP will ensure it. 

Sun and EDS are strong business partners
And we will continue to be.   I can't count how many EDS projects we have been involved with.  We are an EDS Agility Alliance partner and value EDS very highly.  As a result, Sun is baked into a lot of what EDS does - from Solaris, our servers, our Sparc and CMT processors to our storage.  

If anything, Sun (and other storage players) will just have to be all the more diligent in communicating how our products can better meet the needs of EDS and EDS customer's storage services goals - which isn't a bad proposition for customers btw.  Sun is definitely an innovator at the infrastructure level - and a more robust, reliable, cost-effective and eco-friendly infrastructure is an excellent backbone for any managed service offering...      

Posted at 12:22PM May 14, 2008 by Taylor Allis in Storage Intelligence  |  Comments[3]

An Easier Storage Platform - OpenSolaris

With data growth, higher energy costs and the emergence of Web 2.0 applications that demand scalable storage at low costs - vendors, end users and market analysts are focusing more on storage architectures.  Storage economics need to change - a fundamental change that can only happen at the infrastructure level.  

Key to any system is the operating system or platform.  OSes obviously hold tremendous importance when evaluating servers - what type of OS and applications are supported?  Historically, the underlying OS has not mattered as much in storage.  Or at least compatibility and interoperability has mattered more.  As long as my storage supports a Mainframe/Unix/Linux/Windows environment, what do I care about the OS?

Storage Platforms
In the open systems market today, the storage OS matters more than ever before.  Adding data services at the OS level can change storage economics and increase storage performance and efficiency.   Using a common storage platform can save on training and admin costs.  Using an open source OS can speed innovation, increase flexibility and save on software costs.

HP is using Windows Storage Server as a storage platform; EMC is leveraging the economics and flexibility of Linux inside its Centera archive product; and NetApp has built its own storage platform - Data ONTAP (originally leveraging FreeBSD open source code).

Sun offers Solaris and OpenSolaris (to see the difference b/w the two, click here). OpenSolaris is the platform for Sun's Open Storage offerings which provides open access to developers (something the storage platforms or implementations mentioned above do not...)

An Easier OpenSolaris
Today Sun announced an easy-to-use OpenSolaris at the 2008 CommunityOne Developer conference.   There are several benefits to using OpenSolaris and ZFS as a storage platform - built-in data integrity, snapshot software, volume management and software RAID being a few.  But one request the developer community had of OpenSolaris was ease of use - easier to get, install, use, maintain and support.  Especially compared to Linux in the open source realm. 

Today's announcement is just that - it comes from "Project Indiana" which has been underway for the past year after Ian Murdock joined Sun.  Ian is the former Linux Foundation CTO and Debian founder (one of the first Linux distributions.)

So what makes this OpenSolaris distribution easier?  An easier to use environment based on GNU-based utilities that's currently leveraged in the GNOME desktop and other applications (See Disk Usage Analyzer screen shot to right).  ZFS is also the default root file system now - and as mentioned above, ZFS has some pretty innovative features including a "rollback" option where you can essentially do a "Ctrl-Z" if a software installation or update goes bad.  OpenSolaris also includes a new Image Packaging System (IPS) software which enables easier access and downloads to a full suite of additional software.  Software updates have also been made easier.

OpenSolaris Support
Of course support is always a large question around anything open source.  Sun offers enterprise support for Solaris; support for its commercial storage products built from open storage components; and now Sun will offer two OpenSolaris subscription support offerings beginning May 13.  OpenSolaris Production Subscription Support will include 24x7 telephone support, online technical support and bug escalation services.   OpenSolaris Essential Subscription Support will include 8x5 business hour online technical support. 

OpenSolaris as a Storage Platform
It seems today there are three viable platforms to base a storage platform on that will stand the test of time - Linux, Windows and Solaris.   Sun and its community have invested heavily in Solaris as a storage platform - and even some die-hard Linux developers are noticing:

DigiTar is a Linux advocate, but when it came to storage they choose Solaris.  In his blog, DigiTar COO/CTO says, "it was storage that brought Solaris into our environment and continues to drive it deeper into our services stack.  Which begs the question: Why?  Isn't DTrace just as cool as ZFS?   Haven't Solaris Containers dramatically changed the way we provision and utilize systems?  Sure...but storage is what drives our business and it doesn't seem to me that we're alone." 

When the Linux developers at Nexenta decided to build "Enterprise Class Storage for Everyone" they choose OpenSolaris as their storage platform.   They could only accomplish their storage goals through Solaris.

The fact that OpenSolaris is getting easier to use is good for developers, the community and ultimately to customers.  Ease-of-use in addition to enterprise quality, data integrity and data services is a powerful combination....

---- Update ----

We announced that OpenSolaris can be run in a virtual computing environment (aka the cloud)!  See Jonathan's blog and the OpenSolaris service offered on Amazon EC2...

Posted at 03:44PM May 05, 2008 by Taylor Allis in Storage Intelligence  |  Comments[3]