Wednesday Oct 03, 2007
IBM bloggers seem to talk about any marketing comparison where they
look good even if it they compare things they shouldn't.
Recently Sun released SPC-1 results, and because the Sun StorageTek® 9990 System can be hosted by so many systems Sun even used
the IBM p595 as the host. How cool is that! Let me shout it out, "Sun used IBM servers on with Sun Storage in a benchmark!" Not that the IBM server provided an particular advantage in performance, in fact it was an older 24-core 1.65GHz power5. Clearly Sun wants everyone to notice you can put our fast and cost-effective storage on your IBM box or whatever.
Did the IBM blogger compare Sun's high-end storage to IBM's high-end storage, of course not, IBM would have lost in that case. Here is Sun's high-end compared to IBM's high-end storage...
The StorageTek 9990V competes with the IBM DS8300 (both Monolithic technologies). The StorageTek 9990V (200,245.73 @ $17.31 $/SPC-1 IOPS) truly beat IBM DS8300 (123,033.40 SPC-1 IOPS @ $18.99 $/SPC-1 IOPS) by over 60% in performance with SPC-1 and still had better price/performance about 10%.
...but the IBM blogger compared different points on the scale. The mid-range SAN Volume Controller is a different technology (clustering of IBM DS4800s and switches) does not compete with the StorageTek 9990V. Anybody can put together a bunch of mid-range storage, switch them up, and put a common interface on it for a management nightmare.
Disclosure Statement:
SPC Benchmark-1 and SPC Benchmark-2 are trademarks of the Storage Performance Council.
High-end comparison:
Sun StoreTek 9900 system SPC-1 storage benchmark result of 200,245.73 IOPS over 26,000 GB ASU Capacity (mirrored) on the Sun StorageTek® 9990 System ($17.31 $/IOPS). IBM DS8300 (123,033.40 SPC-1 IOPS @ $18.99 $/SPC-1 IOPS, mirrored, ASU (9,103GB) Source: http://www.storageperformance.org/results; Results as of 10/02/07.
Mid-range comparison:
IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller SPC-1 result of 272,505 IOPS (22,433 GB, $12.05/IOP, Mirroring).
...makes me think that this Thursday I should post how IBM says two things at one all of the time. Google, get warmed up 
Thursday Sep 06, 2007
Sun beats IBM by Over 2X in Price/Performance in SPC-1 benchmark.
The power of the Sun StorageTek 6540, coupled with Sun's 4Gb HBAs
demonstrates industry best-in-class SPC-1 benchmark performance
and price/performance.
Sun, using its StorageTek 6540, achieved a price/performance of $6.62
$/SPC-1 IOPS. In so doing, Sun also lowered the total cost of
ownership, among higher midrange systems to $307,710.
Over 2x better price/performance than IBM at $16.03 $/SPC-1 IOPS.
Sun achieved this result using a MIRRORED storage configuration to
protect all data against disk failures. Outside of Sun's prior
submissions all other competitors used the same data protection showing
an apples-to-apples comparison. Sun's StorageTek 6540 submissions can
suffer a disk failure without incurring a lengthy service outage,
during which time a full roll-forward recovery from a backup must be
performed just like the competitors.
Competitive Landscape
SPC-1 Performance Chart (in increasing price-performance order)
| System |
SPC-1 IOPS |
$/SPC-1 IOPS |
ASU Capacity (GB) |
TSC Price |
Data Protect Level |
Date |
Result Id |
| Sun ST6540 |
46,491.72 |
$6.62 |
6890.000 |
$307,710 |
Mirroring |
6/15/07 |
A00051 |
| IBM DS4800 |
45,014.81 |
$16.03 |
6871.277 |
$721,618 |
Mirroring |
4/12/07 |
A00050 |
Benchmark Description
SPC Benchmark-1 (SPC-1): is the first industry standard storage
benchmark and is the most comprehensive performance analysis
environment ever constructed for storage subsystems. The I/O
workload in SPC-1 is characterized by predominately random I/O
operations as typified by multi-user OLTP, database, and email servers
environments. SPC-1 uses a highly efficient multi-threaded
workload generator to thoroughly analyze direct attach or network
storage subsystems. The SPC-1 benchmark enables companies to rapidly
produce valid performance and price/performance
results using a variety of host platforms and storage network topologies.
SPC1 is built to:
-
Provide a level playing field for test sponsors.
-
Produce results that are powerful and yet simple to use.
-
Provide value for engineers as well as IT consumers and solution integrators.
-
Is easy to run, easy to audit/verify, and easy to use to
report official results.
SPC-1 IOPS = the Performance Metric
$/SPC-1 IOPS = the Price/Performance Metric
ASU Capacity = the Capacity Metric
Data Protection = Data Protection Metric
TSC Price = Total Cost of Ownership Metric
Results Identifier = A unique identification of the result Metric
See Also
Disclosure Statement:
SPC-1, SPC-1 IOPS, $/SPC-1 IOPS reg tm of Storage Performance Council (SPC).
More info www.storageperformance.org
Sun StorageTek 6540 46,491.72 SPC-1 IOPS, ASU Capacity 6,890.000GB, $/SPC-1
IOPS $6.62, Protection Mirroring, Cost $307,710, Ident. A00051.
IBM DS4800 45,014.81 SPC-1 IOPs, ASU Capacity 6,871.227GB, $/SPC-1 IOPS $16.03,
Protection Mirroring, Cost $721,618, Ident. A00050.
Results Summary
| Certified Results |
|
System: |
|
Sun StorageTek 6540 - ST6540
2 Controllers
224 73GB 15K 4Gb RPM FC drives
4Gb front- and back-end |
|
Performance: |
|
46,491.72 SPC-1 IOPS |
|
Price/Performance: |
|
$6.62 $/SPC-1 IOPS |
|
ASU Capacity: |
|
6,890.00GB |
|
Data Protection Level: |
|
Mirroring |
|
TSC Price: |
|
$307,710.00 |
|
Results Identifier: |
|
A00051 |
|
Server: |
|
Sun Fire 6900
24x1.2GHz UltraSPARC IV
48GB memory
8 HBAs |
|
Operating System: |
|
Solaris 10 11/06 |
Friday Aug 24, 2007
New storage benchmark results sparked a story in Computer Business
Review. They say they show, "twice the bang per buck of rival HP hardware."
Sun's Sun's storage benchmark manager Leah Schoeb said, "The trays, the software, the packaging we do ourselves. That's why we're consistently half the price of the competition. That's what OEM'ing is about," she said.
You can see the full article "Sun brags of benchmarks", By Tim Stammers (Aug 23, 07) at...
http://www.computer-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=12D86EB7-96A8-4DD9-9446-989568BBFB81
Tuesday Jan 23, 2007
Sun StorageTek 6540 (Mirroring) has set World Record $/performance
on SPC-2 benchmark.
The power of this mid-range product coupled with our 4Gb HBAs has demonstrated
industry leading SPC-2 benchmarking capabilities.
-
Sun StorageTek 6540
has World Record $/performance of $95.42
-
Sun StorageTek 6540
has best-in-class performance of 1,317.55 SPC-2 MBPS
-
First product to break the $100
price/performance barrier.
-
Sun achieved this result using a Mirroring
storage configuration to protect all data against disk failures. Outside
of Sun's prior submissions all other competitors used the same data
protection showing an apples-to-apples comparison. Sun's
StorageTek 6540 submissions can suffer a disk failure
without incurring a lengthy service outage, during which time a full
rollforward recovery from a backup must be performed
just like the.
SPC-2 Performance
Chart (in increasing price-performance order)
SPC-2 MBPS = the Performance Metric
$/SPC-2 MBPS = the Price/Performance Metric
ASU Capacity = the Capacity Metric
TSC Price = Total Cost of Ownership Metric
Data Protection = Data Protection Metric (RAID 0, Mirroring, RAID 5, other)
Results Identifier = A unique identification of the result metric
Currently no other competitors have report results in this space.
| Sponsor |
System |
SPC-2 MBPS |
$/SPC-2 MBPS |
ASU Cap. (GB) |
TSC Price |
Data Protection Level |
Pub. Date |
Results Ident. |
| Sun |
StorageTek |
1317.55 |
$95.42 |
2,233.383 |
$125,719.00 |
Mirroring |
1/18/06 |
B00014 |
Complete SPC-2 benchmark results may
be found at http://www.storageperformance.org.
Benchmark Description
The
SPC Benchmark-2™ (SPC-2) is a series of related benchmark performance
tests that simulate the sequential component of demands placed upon on-line,
non-volatile storage in server class computer systems.
SPC-2 provides measurements in support of
real world environments characterized by:
-
Large numbers of concurrent sequential transfers.
-
Demanding data rate requirements, including requirements
for real time processing.
-
Diverse application techniques for sequential processing.
-
Substantial storage capacity requirements.
-
Data persistence requirements to ensure preservation of
data without corruption or loss.
Disclosure Statement:
Sun StorageTek 6540 1317.55 SPC-2 MBPS, $/SPC-2 MBPS
$95.42, ASU Capacity 2,233.383GB, Protect MIRRORING, Cost $125,719.00,
Ident. B00014. SPC-2, SPC-2 MBPS, $/SPC-2 MBPS are
regular trademarks of Storage Performance Council (SPC). More info
www.storageperformance.org
Sun StorageTek 6540 SPC-2 Executive Summary (6 pages):
Acrobat PDF
Complete Sun StorageTek 6540 SPC-2 Full Disclosure Report:
Acrobat
PDF
Results Summary
| Certified Results |
| |
System: |
|
Sun StorageTek 6540,
2 controllers (4GB cache total, 2GB each), 64 72GB 15K RPM FC drives, 8 4Gb front-end ports, 4 4Gb back-end ports |
| |
Performance: |
|
1317.55 SPC-2 MBPS |
| |
Price/performance: |
|
$95.42 $/SPC-2 MBPS |
| |
ASU Capacity: |
|
2,233.383 GB |
| |
Data Protection Level: |
|
Mirroring |
| |
TSC Price: |
|
$125,719.00 |
| |
Results Identifier: |
|
B00014 |
| |
Server: |
|
Sun Fire E6900, 24 1.2GHz processors, 48GB memory, 8 4Gb HBAs |
| |
Operating System: |
|
Solaris 10, update 2 |
|
|
|
|
Spot on - two items I see criticism on are that we...