Data Center

Apple’s new iDatacenter

June 5, 2009 – 1:59 pm

appleAmazing how all those 8 gigabyte iPods add up.  Apple is building a $1 billion shiny new data center in North Carolina.

If a (mostly) music download business is driving the need for a $1 billion (mostly) storage infrastructure, what will the data center landscape look like when HD video is fully integrated into our lives?

Granted, Apple’s music business is the “been there, done that” piece.  Staking a claim on consumer’s digital footprint is what the data center arms race between Microsoft, Google, and now Apple is all about.

Looks like we’re going to need a few more disk drives…

Who is your brand of choice for your digital life?  Who do you think will be the Nike of data?

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Consumer Storage, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

How much power does a terabyte consume?

May 4, 2009 – 12:01 pm

It depends.

In 1980, it was 4.5 megawatts from 200,000 drives. Today with a drive like the new Seagate Barracuda LP drive, it’s 3.0 watts from one drive.  Even less per terabyte with a 2 TB version of the Barracuda LP.

That’s a million-fold reduction in power consumption over 30 years. Imagine the auto industry making that kind of progress with gas mileage!

Despite this, storage power is a growing challenge for the planet.  That’s because data is growing as fast or faster than storage power consumption in decreasing.

Expect continued innovation from storage device makers and system manufacturers to continue to increase the efficiency of storage.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Technology, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

IT’s carbon footprint saves future carbon footsteps

May 4, 2009 – 11:52 am

mckinsey-footprint

McKinsey Quarterly estimates IT’s carbon footprint at 1% of all carbon produced in 2002, growing to 3% in 2020.  Bad news, right?

They also predict that in that same time period, IT enables a 15% reduction in carbon generation through increased telecommuting and improving energy productivity.  Storage plays a key role in creating an ever-more efficient home for business and personal content.

There’s more than one way to view technology’s effect on the environment.  It’s not a zero-sum game of simply counting tons of carbon used by IT and storage.  

Is it worth generating 1.5 metric gigatons of carbon to help abate five times as much over the next decade?  Yes, I think so. 

Can we do even more (less) with our IT carbon spend?

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Technology, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Is SSD ready? 3PAR says no

April 8, 2009 – 9:51 am

3parDave Raffo says 3PAR didn’t add SSD in their latest product refresh because they didn’t need it – at least not yet, not in its current form. 

In the same article, Evaluator Group’s Russ Fellows says SSD is still over-priced for mid-range systems anyway. 

I’ve heard from someone involved with another storage vendor that their recent SSD addition was launched primarily to satisfy their customers’ infatuation with SDD.  This vendor doesn’t yet see enough performance improvement to justify the added cost.

The SSD dynamic today reminds me a bit of those “ask your doctor” commercials on TV: customers know how to ask for SSD, but not necessarily whether or not it’s right for them.

I’ve also heard of a vendor struggling with an SSD supplier that doesn’t get what true “enterprise-class” storage devices are all about – especially what it takes to fully test and support them in real-world applications.

Seagate is treating SSD as an emerging class of enterprise-class storage devices, with the commensurate development, testing and systems compatibility work that goes with that mantle. 

When SSD is ready for prime time, count on Seagate to have an enterprise-ready product to offer.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in SSD, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Networks and storage: which is the chicken and which is the egg?

April 6, 2009 – 10:33 am
Source: guardian.co.uk

Source: guardian.co.uk

Networks drive storage growth.  The fatter the pipes, the bigger the content users can create and consume – from streamed HD movies to 240 TB of data moon imagery data.

No, storage drives network growth.  As Stacy at GigaOm points out, that 240 TB of data has incented Nirvanix to invest in gigabit per second network connections to its data centers.  Those HD movies were surely part of the business case for ‘last mile’ network investments by the major carriers.

Which is the chicken and which is the egg?  What do you think? 

What is clear is that the two technologies rely on each other to grow. Cisco/IBM/Sun/EMC and others are in the news these days largely due to how this inseparable tie will play out in the market.

The storage industry is fortunate to have ever faster and smarter networks around to push it forward. And network companies should be grateful for ever larger vats of storage that create a hunger that only they can satisfy.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Technology, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

NAS is growing – even this year

April 1, 2009 – 5:34 am

idcChris Mellor at The Register notes that IDC sees enterprise storage revenue coming down 6.7% in 2009, then rebounding 1.3% in 2010.   The culprit seems to be slowing server sales.

No surprise on a down year for revenue. The good news is that capacity continues to grow at a 35% pace, with revenue growth returning (knock on wood) in 2010.

Chris found something else significant in IDC’s forecast:  NAS appears to be on pace to actually grow in revenue and capacity in 2009.  iSCSI SANs seem to be driving this growth.

Hang in there storage industry!  Data continues to grow in volume and importance to business.  There’s light at the end of this tunnel.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Technology, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Cisco’s vision goes beyond IT

March 26, 2009 – 5:52 am
Source: ComputerWorld

Source: ComputerWorld

I was struck by the similarity between MIT’s vision of the PC in 2019 and Cisco’s Unified Computing vision for data centers.  Both bring connectivity to the front, with processing as a means to an end.

Om Malik’s term “commputer” summarizes it nicely.

I don’t see any signs that Cisco has designs on the Personal Commputer market, but synchronicities like this always reassure me about the staying power of something new.  Cisco’s new idea is bold and may have legs.

The Consumerization of IT, and Vice Versa

The tie between personal and data center computing is not that surprising.  Consumer and IT technology have been on a converging path for a while now.

The role of storage changes in this commputing world, but relatively little compared to other technologies.  Where the storage is located is up for grabs, but remains central to any future scenario.  Seagate and other storage leaders need to keep their eyes and ears open as the ways that information is stored and delivered evolve.

What should we call the New PC?

So…back to the 2019 PC. The MIT video is a must-watch.  I can picture myself gesturing my way through my day, without once touching a “computer”. 

What should we call this thing?  It’s not much of a computer any more, nor is it narrowly a SmartPhone.  Digital Assistant? Yawn.

I vote for Personal Commputer or Personal Radiator (PR), as it’s all about spreading your presense. 

What do you think? Comments welcome.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Desktop PC, Notebook PC, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Are storage vendors middlemen?

March 20, 2009 – 6:06 am
Source: Cloud Computing Journal

Source: Cloud Computing Journal

“Where have all the agents gone?” asks Seth Godin.  Travel agents, real estate agents, etc. – all endangered species because people can more and more easily get what they want, or at least need, without them.

Are storage vendors middlemen? Some could be, and that’s not necessarily bad.  There remains a place for irreplaceable “agents” that deliver what no one else can.  

Those that see themelves in the middle need to look ahead and be sure that what they provide is something that IT can’t get further up or down the value chain.  

IT storage is at its core about the care and feeding of data.  Storing it, protecting it, dishing it out where and when it’s needed. RAID levels, deduplication rates and clustering strategies are secondary means to an end.

The Agent/Value question is worth asking  these days as Cisco stirs the IT pot with a disruptive vision for data centers.  It could be a shift as big as the one from Big Iron to the Client/Server model.

Personally, I think storage might be the one major technology category that sits next to Cisco’s commputer, but is not assimilated by it.  Data feeds their model, but its care and feeding are not at the core of it.   

What say you?  Comments appreciated, as always.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

IBM, Sun and Cisco in a word: comm-puting

March 19, 2009 – 5:34 am

ciscologo01

Thanks to Om Malik for netting out the dramatic changes in the IT industry this week.  He sees Sun ceding their “The Network is the Computer” vision to Cisco, who can actually make it happen.  He coined the term “comm-puter” for this disruptive change in high-end computing. 

Turns out making the network the computer is easier for network companies than computer companies.

IBM and Sun will take a run at it too, it seems.  What an amazing Dance of the Elephants we will see over the next few years!  Many companies must now decide between the dance floor and wall flower.

GigaOm’s view is that Dell and those lower on the mega-data center food chain won’t be as dramatically affected.  Does HP need another dance partner? 

While the Commputer Dance affects storage, it seems less direct.  Storage remains a core foundational element.  It’s kind of at the end of the network – the place all the stuff resides. 

Marc Farley’s collection of the latest news on the Cisco deal is handy as well.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Servers, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

The recession finally catches up with storage

March 10, 2009 – 6:08 pm

idc

IDC’s numbers show IT storage revenue is down for the first time in five years.  Seems the economy finally trumped data growth.  Data is still growing; revenue is down, not capacity. 

EMC is still on top by a large margin, followed by IBM, HP and Dell.

Byte and Switch summarized the IDC report succinctly here.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in IT Storage, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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