Each of the four it users surveyed has a unified storage implementation

Although it seems that we have listened to unified storage for a long time, it is relatively new-meaning we are still accepting the early stages of the cycle.

One thing is clear, however, that unified or multi-protocol storage has a very attractive value advantage. In a unified storage environment, data storage becomes a shared pool of resources to store block or file data and configure it according to application requirements. So it's not surprising that users are very interested in implementing a unified storage platform. In a recent survey of 306 IT professionals with storage planning or decision-making responsibilities, ESG (Enterprise strategy Group) found that 70% of respondents were or are planning to implement unified storage. 23% have implemented this technology and 47% are still in the planning stage.

Why use Unified Storage

A staggering number of each of the four it users surveyed implemented unified storage, because data storage users are often notoriously conservative and justified in accepting new technologies. "If it's not bad, don't fix it," the phrase is popular with the storage architecture team.

If a storage array fails to result in data loss or inaccessible, this can cost the company millions of dollars and the storage administrator may lose their job. Users have always had separate systems to file and block data, has become a habit. They will continue their current chimney-style approach until they think that unified storage technology is mature enough to use it without any risk, or that their company's budget needs a cheaper, more flexible and more efficient solution. Our research suggests that both factors may exist.

Unified storage can improve operational efficiencies by providing a single shared storage pool that can be used where needed, without the need to implement, power, cool, and manage individual blocks and filesystems. The reduction in the number of this simple implementation system may have far-reaching implications for reducing operating costs, and it is self-evident that a system that can be implemented to any capacity required (and not necessarily paid for the wrong guesses made at capacity planning) gives the company flexibility.

Virtualized environments pose a greater challenge. With standards-based commercial physical servers, new virtual servers and applications can be deployed with only a fraction of the past spent in the physical world, and virtual machines may require file or block storage to support applications. A mobile Virtual server environment requires a mobile, responsive storage environment. Although storage will still be differentiated and dedicated. Unified storage is a big step in addressing these issues.

Application trends

ESG Research found a clear link between the number of managed systems and the level of acceptance of unified storage. 80% have 26 to 100 separate storage systems, and 83% of the respondents with more than 100 systems have either implemented or are planning to implement unified storage-those with 100 or more systems are leading early adopters, and 32% have implemented unified storage. This is consistent with ESG's survey of overhead, and users continue their efforts to reduce the overall cost of the business, especially in terms of operational costs.

Next we may see a relationship between unified storage usage and satisfaction with utilization, because unified storage removes specialized blocks or file chimneys, as we have seen in our research. 89% of early users were largely or completely satisfied with their utilization, compared to 77% of the non-uniform storage users. We saw the biggest gap in the users who answered their total satisfaction, and nearly one-third of early adopters fell in this category, and were 2.5 times times as fully satisfied as non-early users. It is worth mentioning that none of the unified storage users answered them "completely dissatisfied." ”

Options for unified Storage implementation

Today, users have a variety of ways to implement unified storage: they can implement a unified storage system, an integrated system that supports both block and file data, or they can implement a file gateway that is connected to a block store that is common to other applications via a storage local area network SAN. Our survey showed no obvious bias in either way, with 30% of respondents using or planning to use one unified storage, 32% gateways, and 35% planning to use both ways.

There are, of course, valid reasons for both ways. Gateways enable users to support file data by adding a "file personality" in the preceding paragraph to redeploy their investments on block storage. The disadvantage is that block storage and gateways that are connected to the San are actually two separate devices that need to be managed. Unified storage does not give users the tempting benefit of taking advantage of existing SAN devices, but they can reduce the number of systems that need to be managed. ESG expects us to see users continue to use both ways to unify their data storage environment, as users must reasonably lay out existing investments to coexist with newly joined systems.

Summary

Although the specific implementation strategy may still be uncertain, ESG's survey clearly reveals that unified storage becomes more common. It is attractive both in it and in finance-no matter how judged is a winning combination. ESG's findings show the IT department's desire to improve system efficiency by optimizing their existing storage architecture inputs to meet the continued growth of data and the current difficult macroeconomic environment.

In addition to masking past it sins, such as insufficient capacity, unified storage can also help IT departments accelerate infrastructure consolidation and resource optimization, a key component of future dynamic, highly virtualized, or private cloud computing environments. In fact, when the cloud becomes a more common form of using IT resources, unified storage provides the special value of standardization.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)