Dark cloud storage: EMC and NetApp replace each other

Investment bank Merrill Lynch expects the global cloud computing market to reach $160 billion trillion by 2011. Gartner also has a similar forecast that the cloud computing market is expected to reach $150 billion trillion by 2013. Whatever the exact numbers, it is clear that the tide of cloud computing is unstoppable.

The contention of concepts: a unified definition of non-essential

Today, the concept of cloud storage remains controversial. Some people think that only the concept of cloud computing, there is no concept of cloud storage. The cloud storage defined by the global Network Storage Industry Association (SNIA) is a service that provides configurable virtualized storage and related data over the network. The implication of cloud storage is storage virtualization and storage automation.

Many manufacturers describe the concept of cloud storage from the perspective of their own products. So some people think that cloud storage contains a lot of content, can not form a unified definition, as the existing storage products, divided into many types, cloud storage should include a variety of types.

"One of the most important attributes of cloud storage is the Pay-as-you-go business model," says George Crump, founder of Storage Switzerland. In addition, flexible scalability, ease of use, and lower overall cost of ownership are also important attributes of cloud storage. Providing users with a more adaptable and manageable storage system is the real value of cloud storage. From this point of view, as long as the cloud storage can solve a particular user's application problems, you do not have to make a unified definition. ”

The dispute of standard: Cdmi to be perfected

April 2010, SNIa officially released the first cloud storage technology standard-Cloud data Management Interface (CDMI). A stone stirred thousands of layers of waves, whether the cloud storage should have a unified technical standards, once again became a hot topic of discussion.

The idea that cloud storage should have a unified standard is that the technical standards of cloud storage help define roles and responsibilities related to data ownership, archiving, discovery, and search, while service level agreements (SLAs) related to the assessment, assurance, and auditing of data storage are regulated. Wang Cong, general manager of ESG China, compared cloud storage to Sans, and said: "Cloud storage should have the same standards as Sans." Although there are many vendors that already own cloud storage, it is a hollow word to build a complete cloud industry chain before a unified standard is formed. ”

However, the CDMI standard has just been published, the content is not perfect. In addition, the key to whether CDMI can work is how much support the storage vendors have. The slogan for storage standardization has been shouting for many years, but different brands of storage systems still have many barriers to interoperability.

Cloud storage standardization is a long way off.

Market contention: Speculation is more than practical

In the cloud storage market, each vendor has its own calculations. There is no doubt that cloud storage is an opportunity, but it is not easy to turn this opportunity into a business opportunity. Yangtze, those first to enter the cloud storage market are like waves that have washed up on the coast, fearing they will be drowned by the attendant waves. For those manufacturers who have not yet moved, they worry even more because they may never be able to get on the coast if they cannot see the timing.

In the "surf" that has washed up on the coast, we see the presence of EMC, IBM, NETAPP, Dell, HP and others. Some have teamed up with VMware and Cisco in alliances, such as EMC and NetApp, and quickly occupied a niche in the cloud storage market. And IBM, HP, Dell and other through the ongoing mergers and acquisitions in some cloud applications in the hot areas of the opportunity to grab. HDS, who had been on the sidelines for a long time, finally sat down and launched its own unified computing platform in April 2010, including servers, storage, networking and coordination software. In addition, HDS has signed a global OEM agreement with Microsoft to sell Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center suite and SQL Server 2008 products at the same time as the unified computing platform. HDS and Microsoft's combined warships have challenged the VCE Alliance.

CommVault's role in cloud storage applications is a bit like setter on a volleyball court. In a new product to be released this October, CommVault will provide an interface to support cloud storage, which will provide a ladder for users to transition from existing storage architectures to cloud storage.

Behind the lively cloud storage market, we see some hidden worries. While users are keen to talk about cloud storage and are eager to learn about the technical details of cloud storage, in China there are few cloud storage cases that have been successfully deployed and applied. Cloud storage is now at the stage of hype and has not been used in a large scale.

On behalf of the manufacturer:

EMC Cisco NETAPP VMware

It's hard to hide the infighting and the bad in the enclosure

Cloud storage is in the midst of one of the most stressful and hilarious races. Storage vendors, regardless of size, are proud of hanging on to the signs of cloud storage. Cloud storage has become a fashion in the storage world. Fully rely on independent research and development, to provide a comprehensive cloud storage solution, not only difficult, but also long cycle; acquisitions can speed up the time-to-market of cloud storage solutions, but it is difficult to avoid the internal consumption generated during consolidation. In comparison, such as VCE (Virtual Computing Environnement) Alliance such a collection of different areas of the elite, with highly complementary products to form a cloud storage solution, not only the rapid integration of the scheme, but also into the attack and retreat, is to achieve the simplest cloud storage is the most practical way.