Seagate

“Inside the Box” Storage Tiering

By Barbara Craig, posted January 6, 2012

It seems there is still some confusion out there on how, when, where and why to tier internal storage, so I’ll take a shot at explaining this as I know it today. The easiest and most sensible place to start is of course at the “Why” tier my storage. As with everything in the business world today, the why is focused on “efficiency”. Tiering storage in data centers is popular because storage tiering ensures you are maximizing your storage price/performance. For instance, the upper tiers or primary storage (Tier 0 & 1) demand the highest performance and thus command the highest price tag. It’s commonly used for the hottest and most frequently used data while the bottom tiers, secondary or bulk storage (Tier 2 & 3) is relegated to less frequently accessed data that is stored on less expensive (lowest $/GB) capacity-optimized storage.


Moving on to “where and how” to store your data, it’s a good idea to rate the application usage within your organization. Here are some general guidelines that may prove useful.
HOT DATA: Up until last year, hot data was typically stored on Tier 1 hard disk drives – namely 10K and 15K-RPM spinning media. Today, some of the hottest of that hot data (Tier 0) has been moved to an SSD (Solid State Disk) for instantaneous access.
WARM DATA: When its data that needs to be read and/or written to often and is critically important to the organization, this Tier 1 data is often stored on mainstream 10K and 15K-RPM hard drives. Much more affordable than SSDs, these drives offer the highest form of reliable, consistent performance for high demand applications.
COOL DATA: The biggest pool of data is stored in Tier 2 primarily because of its cost-efficiency. Offering high capacity storage at the most economical $/GB, this is where the data that must be readily available on-line yet is not critically vital to the organization today is stored.
COLD DATA: Data at rest or archived data has traditionally been stored on tape. As the cost of hard drives has declined and the blurring between on-line and off-line access requirements has occurred, some data centers are opting for using high capacity, low power hard drives for their cold storage requirements.

And now for the “when”. Obviously, data storage is a constant and essential component for successful businesses today and data growth is expanding exponentially year upon year. In fact, staying ahead of the storage demand can be an exhaustive and painful effort. But as we know, what’s hot today probably won’t be hot tomorrow, so storage tiering allows you to move data easily between these tiers making you as efficient as possible. Auto Storage Tiering (AST) will make your life easier. Storage magazine’s recent “Storage Purchasing Intentions Survey” found 27% of data storage managers currently use automated storage tiering (AST) and another 32% will evaluate the technology.

Read more about the tiered storage from Ashish Nadkarni of Taneja Group’s podcast or Randy Kerns of Search Storage blog or read IDC’s paper on tiering.

Are you tiering your storage today?  If so, how many tiers of storage do you have? And if not, what’s holding you back?

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The global cloud expansion trend is a welcome start to 2012!

By David Szabados, posted January 4, 2012

Over the past few years, cloud computing has grown to become the hottest trend to emerge in IT and storage. The cost of storage has continued to go down, so mass deployment of clouds has gone way up. Everyone wants to be part of the cloud opportunity and so it was natural that after an initial spark from a few US companies, the cloud has quickly expanded globally.

Perhaps the largest global cloud opportunities are going to come from China. According to this recent story at Technorati, there are plans to build a 7,800 square meter complex and dub it “Cloud Valley,” and it also happens to be a spot where more than 1,000 orders have already been made for cloud servers. In the same story, research firm IDC estimated that China can expect 30% growth in its cloud market this year alone.

Seagate's Wes Perdue speaks at the 2011 International Cloud Computing Seminar

Seagate recognized the opportunity in the region, and recently partnered with key organizations including the Chinese Institute of Communications (CIC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), to co-sponsor a forum on Cloud Computing in Beijing last month. The goal was to bring key think tanks, researchers, ministry officials and academic institutions  together to discuss and learn about cloud computing and storage needs moving ahead.

The forum, called the International Cloud Computing Seminar (ICCS), brought presenters from Seagate including Wes Perdue, product line manager for cloud computing strategy, as well as participants from Google, Microsoft, Dell, and many others. During his presentation, Wes discussed cloud use trends as well as offering insight into how cloud systems are best deployed.

The feedback from the ICCS participants and attendees after the event was that it was a success, and it was the collaborative nature of the event and the ideas generated that made it so.

As the cloud infrastructure continues to develop and grow in other nations across the globe, having similar forums for engaging discussion and debate could prove to be valuable. Ultimately it’s all about answering the question of how the deployment of these global cloud data centers can be made as useful and efficient as possible for the world’s data.

 

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Solid State Hybrid Drives will fuel the enterprise

By David Szabados, posted November 29, 2011

Seagate just announced its latest generation Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD) – the 750GB Momentus XT – which made me pause and think about the potential implications throughout the enterprise. To be clear, the new Momentus XT is a client drive specifically designed for laptops. But with a 70% performance increase over its first generation model, and while also making a significant bump in capacity, there’s a lot of storage power that the Momentus XT can deliver.

Having a client-device that offers SSD-like performance along with higher capacity means that when we think about enterprise storage on a macro level, the demands on servers and storage systems and the cloud will increase as well. Ultimately more efficient and speedy client systems will mean more transaction requests can potentially be made to servers and systems on the backend.

So what does the future hold for the enterprise to handle these storage demands? Maybe it’s more SSDs to handle the performance task demands, or more HDDs to take on the capacity?

How about using enterprise-class SSHDs that again can blend the best of both areas just like they do in client applications? They can be situated at Tier 1 in between the hottest transactional data run on SSDs, and the lower tiers of bulk or infrequently accessed data stored on HDDs.

The nice thing about this mix is that the majority of storage work today is handled in Tier 1 which is the workhorse of a storage system according to IDC. It’s also an area where performance is always looking to be increased, often by short-stroking and over-provisioning. Seems bumping up this tier with enterprise-class SSHDs makes sense.

So just when can we look forward to other areas such as the enterprise turning to SSHDs? Earlier this year our CEO Steve Luczo offered a clue. “My perspective is that in 5 years – if the Silicon guys can stay on the cost curvature – 80% of our drives will be hybrid drives,” he said.

And if the adoption of hybrid drives on the client side continues to grow, we could certainly use those SSHD enterprise drives as well. Brooke Crothers of CNET recently reported that if Ultrabook vendors (which included current vendors Acer and Asus, as well as Hewlett-Packard and Dell identified as future players), “…want to hit sub-$1,000 price points next year, hybrid drives may be an imperative.”

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MLC enables enterprises without breaking the bank

By David Szabados, posted October 26, 2011

Back in May, I presented the blog and question, “Is MLC the future of enterprise SSD storage?” and covered the ground with a discussion of the current standards, trends, and thoughts from analysts. It became clear that Multi-Level Cell (MLC) technology used within Solid State Drives was going to remain an important part of enterprise storage deployment.

And now CTOEdge has recently published, “Six Steps for Making MLC Work in the Enterprise”, an extensive piece that updates and expands on these areas. Written by Seagate’s Teresa Worth, the story presents a unique inside-perspective on the obstacles surrounding SSD adoption, provides an update on standards body works, and shares ways to simplify SSD adoption and deployment.

IT pros are always looking for ways to improve the performance of their storage infrastructure as their data-intensive applications needs grow. SSDs show promise to fulfill these needs, but still also have their range of challenges for deployment. And certainly MLC technology, as Worth adds in her story, can help successfully incorporate SSDs into data centers without breaking the bank.

Check out the CTOEdge piece about the methods and best practices for deployment and do let us know your thoughts.

Have you deployed SSDs at your business or are you still waiting? What issues have you experienced or what concerns do you have?

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Seagate on security and interface trends at SNW Fall 2011

By David Szabados, posted October 7, 2011

The fall 2011 Storage Networking World (SNW) show is just around the corner and will be held next week at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida. SNW is the world’s largest storage, data center, and IT infrastructure conference and brings together top information from information technology executives, leading product and service providers, and key industry influencers.

Seagate will be there participating in a number of speaking sessions on the topics of security/encryption and interfaces. Check out the topics below and be sure to also check out the full conference agenda here.

Wednesday, October 12, 10:15 a.m.

SNIA Tutorial: SAS and SATA Combine to Change the Storage Market
Marty Czekalski, Senior Interface and Programs Manager, Seagate Technology LLC
Harry Mason, Director of Industry Marketing, Storage Components Group, LSI

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) has become the backbone of enterprise storage deployments. Functioning as both a device level interface and a tiered storage interconnect, SAS has preserved the usability and cost-effectiveness of the SCSI architecture while rapidly evolving by adding new features, capabilities and performance enhancements. The combined legacy and evolution of SAS makes it possible to realize extremely high throughput with standard high-volume components while extending to new technologies of the customer’s choice and allows systems to be built that accommodate large numbers of either SAS and/or SATA hard disk drives. Intended for OEM, System Builders and End-Users, this tutorial describes the capabilities of the SAS interface, how it’s designed to interoperate with SATA drives, and when combined, how these technologies can be combined to deliver some very compelling storage solutions.

The presenters will take a look at the evolution of SAS, how it has expanded beyond traditional DAS usage, discuss the significance of 6Gb/s SAS to SSDs, examine the effect of SAS on bandwidth aggregation and show a detailed comparison of connector types. To keep attendees current on the most recent technology developments, the tutorial will also provide an up-to-the-minute recap of the latest additions to the SAS standard and roadmaps. It will detail applications and storage deployments requiring Non-volatile memory, faster RAID performance, and enhanced connectivity. The discussion will include an update on the status of 12Gb/s SAS development/standardization efforts, demonstrating how SAS continues to innovate and ultimately protect Enterprise storage investments.

Wednesday, October 12, 2:15 p.m.

Industry Perspective: Panel Discussion: Deciphering NVM Interface Alternatives – What You Need to Know Before Selecting

Jeff Janukowicz, Research Manager, Solid State Drives & HDD Components, IDC
Marty Czekalski, Senior Interface and Programs Manager, Seagate Technology LLC
Jimmy Daley, Director, Smart Storage, HP
Gary Kotzur, Director/Distinguished Engineer, NGCS Storage Advanced Engineering, Dell
Harry Mason, Director of Industry Marketing, Storage Components Group, LSI
James E. Myers, Applications Engineering Manager , Intel

The industry is wrestling with critical questions about the best way to reap the full performance and reduced TCO benefits presented by solid-state storage. This panel discussion will explore the topic of how best to connect and implement solid-state storage in enterprise environments in the coming years. Options including SAS and PCI will be considered. Decision factors related to performance such as latency, bandwidth, and scalability AND decision factors related to total cost of ownership such as power, solution robustness, serviceability, and sourcing options will be discussed by the expert panel.

Thursday, October 13, 9:25 a.m.

Industry Perspective: Making Data at Rest Encryption Easy For Enterprise Storage Users
David R. Kaiser PMP, Engineering Director, Enterprise Storage Products, Seagate Technology

The importance in protecting data using encryption continues to grow, but so do the challenges. Seagate is setting the standard in data protection using Self-Encrypting Drives (SED), come hear how TCG Enterprise is being implemented to make “encryption everywhere” a reality.

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Need more storage bandwidth? 12Gb/s SAS is coming

By David Szabados, posted September 20, 2011

At last week’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, LSI showcased an impressive demo of an 8-port 12Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solution that reached over 1.2 million I/O operations per second when connected to just eight Seagate Savvio 2.5-inch drives.

Yes, you read it correctly: 12Gb/s SAS is coming. According to Marty Czekalski, vice president, SCSI Trade Association and Emerging Architecture program manager, Seagate Technology, the first industry 12Gb/s SAS plug-fests to publicly test compatibility and interoperability between vendors will begin by the middle of 2012.

And that’s great news not only for the industry manufacturers, but also for IT pros that are in need of increasing their storage bandwidth. With numerous research data showing growing storage consumption in virtually every area of storage, 12Gb/s SAS is very much needed. Not only will it help meet the storage demands of I/O-intensive applications, but it will benefit those growing cloud datacenters and virtualized server environments as well.

Stay tuned to this blog as we’ll continue to report on 12Gb/s SAS progress as the technology continues to develop.

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To auto-tier or not when managing storage data

By David Szabados, posted September 14, 2011

With today’s complexity of IT data management, and the need for ever-increasing efficiency and cost reduction, tiering your data based on its use is essential. What that means is that the most frequently accessed information stays on the higher-performance Solid State Drives (SSDs) and 15K-rpm Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and less frequently used data can move to lower-cost nearline 7,200-rpm HDDs.

This movement also tends to reflect different levels of capacity. As the data becomes less-frequently accessed, the nearline drives handle and store this bulk data naturally through their larger capacities. For a typical business that sells a product or service to a customer, order processing could be handled on the highest-performing tier. But then after a given period of time, say three to six months, those now older order records can be moved to the nearline drives. For some businesses, using a tiered system that uses three levels of storage makes more sense than two tiers. A tiered system built around Seagate drives could mean use of Pulsar SSDs at the top tier, then 15K Cheetah or Savvio SAS drives in the second tier, and finally 7,200-rpm Constellation drives.

Tiered systems that automatically move information based on their use have emerged, and these software systems are available from EMC, HP, Dell, IBM and others to use with their own servers. Auto-tiering looks at the data and then moves it based on use patterns, enabling the IT manager to focus on other areas in the data center.

But even with auto-tiering’s convenience, some IT professionals may not yet be ready to relinquish control to a software application in an area that can impact performance and data center efficiency. Manually moving data from tiers over time does give the IT manager direct control over exactly what is moved and when. And an automatic tiered solution may not match the needs of all businesses, especially if it is a cyclical or unpredictable one where hot data that becomes cold may then become hot again.

Automatic tiering of data is a great option — but can it be made to fit the needs of all businesses over time? Or even if it could, will their always be a group of IT professionals who will want to more closely evaluate their data, and tier manually? What do you think – would you be willing to let the system automate your data tiering?

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“My hard drives get no respect!” – Tales of SeaTools and Seagate support

By David Szabados, posted August 29, 2011

To paraphrase the late Rodney Dangerfield, “Hard drives get no respect. No respect I tell ya!” And this may actually be a fact, as drives tend to be the first to be blamed when a PC starts acting erratically.

Interesting fact, though, is after testing more than 20 percent of the drives returned to Seagate for warranty replacement are perfectly good drives with “No Problem Found” (NPF). Returning a drive for warranty service means system downtime and inconvenience for you in packing and returning your drive product.

So before you send in a drive, it is in your best interest to determine if a replacement drive is really necessary. Enter SeaTools. SeaTools is a comprehensive, easy-to-use diagnostic tool that helps you quickly determine the condition of the disk drive in your external hard drive, desktop or laptop computer. It includes several tests that will examine the physical media on your Seagate or Maxtor disk drive and any other non-Seagate disk drive. Bottom line is that SeaTools will help you make that determination and possibly save you time and money and preserve your data. And it’s free to download.

Some typical reasons for No Problem Found are:

* File System Corruption

* Driver Corruption

* Broken Master Boot Record

* Virus and Trojan Attack

* Spyware, Adware and Keystroke loggers

* Hardware Conflicts

But if it turns out you still do need help, or to return a drive, Seagate has many ways for you to get in touch. Not only are the regular support channels available by visiting Seagate’s support page (for the knowledge base, to download drivers, manuals, software, or get access to information to contact us), but Seagate support is also available on social media sites including Facebook and Twitter.

Check out the Facebook support page and the experts there can answer your questions between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST.

Seagate Support (AskSeagate) is also on Twitter. Sign up on Twitter and follow Seagate Support (AskSeagate) to get the very latest updates.

Lastly, Seagate also hosts a support forum. No matter how you choose to connect with us, we’re here for you.

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Security, standards and performance are key trends at Flash Memory Summit 2011

By David Szabados, posted August 22, 2011

At this year’s annual Flash Memory Summit held in Santa Clara, CA, Seagate participated in a number of panel sessions, tutorials, and delivered a keynote address. Well over 2,000 people registered to attend, and the event certainly earned its spot as “the place to be” for flash designers, system engineers, and OEMs to discuss and learn about the latest in solid state technology.

Many great discussions emerged out of this year’s summit, including those on standards and performance measurement. Seagate’s Craig Parris gave a tutorial that explained the Storage Performance Council (SPC) tools and methods used for delivering consistent SSD performance measurement.   According to Parris, these tools help eliminate confusion and provide consistency to aid in SSD selection.

Improving SSD endurance was another critical trend and topic area for designers. There was plenty of interest in JEDEC’s standards (which we originally wrote about last year here) for endurance. Marty Czekalski, senior staff program manager within Seagate’s Enterprise Market Development Group, spent time explaining the need and benefits of the standards to a packed room.

IDC's Jeff Janukowicz lead a panel featuring Dell, EMC, HP, Intel, and Seagate

Interface choices were a hot topic last year and this trend remained strong, with many sessions dedicated to this debate, including a session which was called out by many as being the best of the show. In a panel titled, “Which Interface will be Boss for Solid State Storage” hosted by IDC’s Jeff Janukowicz, and featuring panelists from Dell, HP, EMC, Intel and LSI, the participants debated interface connectivity.  While some stated their preference for onboard or PCIE-based storage, Seagate’s Marty Czekalski called out the inflexibility of those methods, especially for today’s larger enterprises.  SAS, Czekalksi said, with its ability to scale in capacity, operate over longer distances, as well as easily integrate into existing architectures, makes it the best storage interface choice.

Security was a hot area, and many well-attended security sessions featured Seagate director of development engineering, Monty Forehand. In his session titled, “Speed is great, but what about security?” Forehand called out the importance of having sanctioning bodies manage the implementation of encryption and added that the goal was that eventually every solid state device will be encrypted. His conclusion raised the question and point, “Where better to put security then where the actual data resides?”

Seagate Pulsar XT.2 drew interested crowds to the Seagate booth at Flash Memory Summit

Beyond the panel sessions and presentations, Seagate also showcased its latest SSD and SSHD products on the show floor. Among them was Seagate’s Pulsar family of enterprise SSDs including the Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 models. These two drives are the Seagate flagships for performance and endurance in enterprise environments and generated a lot of interest and questions from show attendees.

Also shown at the booth was Seagate’s Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive. The Momentus XT was put through the paces in various live comparison demos which senior product marketing manager Joni Clark showed us in a previous video. Again, the Momentus XT proved itself as a hit at the show and generated a lot of discussion with its unique design and capabilities.

Seagate's John Moon presented a keynote at this year's Flash Memory Summit

On the final day of the summit event, John Moon, senior director of Emerging System Integration, gave an entertaining and somewhat-surprising keynote address titled: “SSD vs. HDD vs. SSHD: It’s not who will win, it’s who should win.” The inquisitive title then revealed Moon’s main message that it was the consumer who should ultimately “win”. Moon added that the industry needs to work together more harmoniously as ultimately better solutions would then result.

Moon lastly reminded the audience about just how influential and important they were. “We are in the midst of truly changing an industry. Let’s do it right!” he said.
To that end — if you were in the FMS audience, or wish you were — what do you want to get from flash memory technology in the next year?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm4WW98bcFE

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Intel, Xyratex and Seagate: Simplifying Storage Solutions

By Barbara Craig, posted August 15, 2011

There’s nothing more simple, than the building blocks that young children play with.  Open system-based storage building blocks provide the same simplicity for businesses.

In Xyratex’s Storage Insights blog, Michael Connolly’s blog entitled Trends Affecting Storage Market Growth expounds on the virtues of meeting the growing need for open-system-based storage solutions that facilitate easy integration in new applications with the features and functionality needed for these new applications.

Seagate joins IDC, Intel and Xyratex in adapting storage technology to address these trends. We’re deploying some of this functionality today with enterprise-class features like PowerChoice™ for energy and cost conservation, Self-Encrypted Drives (SED) for data protection and secure drive disposal and with the new RAID Rebuild feature that ensures quicker rebuilds while improving ongoing accessibility during these RAID rebuilds.
Driven by the needs of our mutual customers, we’ll continue to work together with partners like Xyratex and Intel to bring simple, easy-to-use, scaleable storage solutions that are sustainable for businesses of all sizes and for new deployments in the cloud.

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