Storage News June 2006

dealer firms), HIPAA Security (healthcare providers), Sarbanes- Oxley (public companies over $75M capital value), other regula- tions and a requirement for most business applications. Accord- ing to Cohasset Associates 1 , more than 97% of all crecords d are now electronic. Some are never printed during their entire life cycle.<br><br> " Storage is expensive 3 as much as 40% of your outlay for peo- ple, hardware and software. " Despite several vendors 9 attempts to simplify the management of storage, configuration and software, it 9s still pretty complicated and the financial penalties for major mistakes are huge. " There is a stunning number of options from a large (but shrink- ing) number of vendors, large and small.<br><br> (A Storage Strategy is Not Optional Continued on Page 2) 1 Cohasset Associates Inc., www.cohasset.com , a Chicago-based thought-leader in the man- agement of electronic records . Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 2 A Storage Strategy is Not Optional (continued from page 1) " There is a thriving identity theft black market and therefore a premium on privacy.<br><br> Twenty plus states led by California have codified penalties for the risk of losing sensitive personal informa- tion. Big PR hits are so common that the Federal Government may soon produce a ruling to combine and supersede the State 9s regulations. " A particularly egregious recent example is the huge data theft at the U.S Department of Veter- ans Affairs on May 3 rd wherein a laptop containing sensitive records for 275,000 veterans and some active duty personnel was stolen from an employee 9s home.<br><br> The employee in question had been taking home unencrypted sensitive records for three years! It is not clear to me how much of the blame lies in the antiquated Federal Privacy Act of 1974 vs. how much lies in a disdainful failure to enforce the law as it stands, but clearly both need review.<br><br> " The Internet war of intrusion vs. security is nearly out of control. According to a recent CSI-FBI survey, intrusion cost the United States $17.5B in 2004.<br><br> " As always it 9s strictly verboten to lose data for any reason at any time in our 24X7X365 world. " Litigation and the threat of litigation place a premium on being able to locate and display a sin- gle document out of millions (billions?) in minutes. The inability to prove a positive may be prima facie evidence of liability.<br><br> " E-mail has passed the 800-pound gorilla mark and is ubiquitous and accelerating. Moreover data is moving from structured to semi-structured to un-structured making it harder to index and search. Fred Moore 2 estimates that if all spam and cookies, virus and worm code were stopped there would be 75% more available band-width.<br><br> Simply stated, your company and you individually must have a storage strategy or risk fines, adverse PR, customer dissatisfaction, possible incarceration not to mention wasting money, professional negligence, disdain from your peers and termination. Sound like an evil stew? Having a storage strategy is no longer an option (if it ever was).<br><br> You might be surprised at how many people come through our classes, and in- dicate to us, that their company does not have a storage strategy or if the company does have one, they are unaware of it. Where do you start? Not many Storage Administrators get to start with a completely blank sheet.<br><br> Reality dictates that you probably must unscramble the mess you inherited which assumes you were not the per- petrator in the first place. Much has been written about developing storage strategies and one of my for- mer partners is at work on a book on the subject. I will not attempt to reproduce all that knowledge here for brevity sake and because much of what has been written is theoretical.<br><br> I 9ll hit only the high points. (A Storage Strategy is Not Optional Continued on Page 3) 2 Fred Moore is President of Horison, Inc ( www.Horison.com ). This statistic was included in his article on Information Security in the March-April 2006 edition of Computer Technology Review.<br><br> Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 3 A Storage Strategy is Not Optional (continued from page 2) Storage strategies need to deal with enhancing your competitiveness in business, risk management and mitigation, simplifying complexity and your decision process. Incidentally, I don 9t think you can or should attempt to outsource creation of the high-level strategy.<br><br> Regardless of who does the work, your CIO is still responsible for the outcome. Of course, pieces can be outsourced if it is economically advantageous. Since you are probably not starting with a clean slate, work with your IT staff.<br><br> For Storage Professionals, this is a highly specialized career with a long learning curve. Resist the temptation to use outside cexperts d unless you are seeking technical knowledge in a niche area, and then vet them very well. Ven- dors may try to circumvent this process 3 don 9t let them.<br><br> All strategies must start with the business units that generate requirements. These groups assisted by IT people define the applications that presumably provide value to your institution. A top priority for CIO 9s everywhere is getting more value out of their data.<br><br> Increasingly, Records Managers or their Legal coun- terparts need to be involved. Obviously all applications are not of equal importance so it is necessary to classify them according to their criticality to your business. This, in turn, defines service levels for the data files, (privacy requirements, performance, security and recovery time objectives) and becomes the basis for a storage plan.<br><br> Examine the risks with data and address the challenges of availability, security, integrity (no single points of failure, topology designed to always provide access to data, clustering technology for systems availability) and privacy (encryption) 3 see my CIO Corner article for August 2005 on encryption. This is the part that can be outsourced but someone back at the ranch has to know and be responsible for how your outsourcer is handling the myriad of issues. Successful outsourcing requires phenomenal communications and strong service level agreements by dedicated individuals on your own payroll.<br><br> Make allowance for growth and changes up and down the criticality hierarchy. Consider implementing a charge back system 3 it is the only way I know of to create checks and balances that mitigate the cexcessively expensive IT d syndrome without being extremely arbitrary. Beware, charge- back systems are politically volatile 3 but they should provide an effective monitor of the value of your continuing value contribution.<br><br> Requirements generation is a continuing thing. Chargeback systems bring some stability to the process of requirements generation. Reaching out to the business units is a good way to get buy in and to mitigate applications development risk.<br><br> Eventually this becomes an internal sales process with two-way benefits. Some of the more enlightened large shops appoint emissaries to the busi- ness units. Encourage these individuals to learn about their areas of the business.<br><br> Send them out to school. Good IT people have an insatiable appetite for learning. Consider specific trade shows and be sure the attendees write a trip summary that is circulated to all interested parties.<br><br> A Storage Strategy is a subset of an IT strategy. Its success must be measured. Be sure to define up front what economic measures you will use so everyone is using the same yardstick.<br><br> TCO and ROI are common ones (but don 9t overdo it). One year out from the implementation of an application, I recommend you go back to review whether it is meeting your expectations. I am aware of two companies (Creekpath and EMC-Smarts) with software products that facilitate charge backs to the application level.<br><br> (A Storage Strategy is Not Optional Continued on Page 4) Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 4 A Storage Strategy is Not Optional (continued from page 3) Also, it is a very good idea to establish in advance how you will deal with vendors. Establish set policies for dealing with vendors and suppliers, a set of rules that everyone follows.<br><br> Inform your vendors and sup- pliers of the rules. This empowers staff and establishes integrity. It also should preempt vendors from going over someone 9s head up the chain of command prematurely.<br><br> Systems tend to get more complex over time. Complex systems end up costing more than cefficient d sys- tems in administration, propensity for error and may limit your ability to take advantage of new technolo- gies. Design systems that are straight forward and efficient.<br><br> Prototype extensively to get buy in and to prevent design blunders. Design of network systems takes more time and connotes longer-term payback. Storage is critical to your business.<br><br> Having a storage strategy can mean real economic savings and com- petitive advantage for your business. Not having one increases the potential for adverse economic im- pact. Technology changes quickly and you need to plan for the change.<br><br> (We process over 800 changes a year to our Knowledgebase for just the part of the industry we cover.) A well-crafted storage strategy can be a huge competitive weapon. A poor strategy can be fatal. Contact us if you would like some help.<br><br> ~Jack Scott Week of June 26, 2006 Week of October 16, 2006 Storage Networking & Infrastructure June 26-27, 2006 Storage Management June 28, 2006 Enterprise Storage June 29-30, 2006 Storage Networking & Infrastructure October 16-17, 2006 Storage Management October 18, 2006 Enterprise Storage October 19-20, 2006 Early-Bird Discount Deadline June 2, 2006 Early-Bird Discount Deadline September 22, 2006 Discounts apply for attending multiple classes. Please call us at 1-303-221-7867 for additional information or visit our website: www.evaluatorgroup.com/education . Evaluator Group 9s Advanced Education for Storage Professionals 2006 Class Schedule Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc.<br><br> All rights reserved Storage News Page 5 Storage Management IBM Announces TPC for Replication 3.1 IBM announced two new management software products in the TotalStorage Productivity Center (TPC) product family: TPC for Replication 3.1 and TPC for Replication Two Site BC 3.1. TPC for Replication 3.1 manages the replication functions of IBM TotalStorage hardware, including ESS 800, SAN Volume Controller (SVC), DS6000, and DS8000 product families. It uses a wizard to define the session and copy sets.<br><br> The replication functions include FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, and Global Mirror (ESS 800, DS6000, and DS8000). Consistency groups are also supported. TPC for Replication Two Site BC 3.1 adds high-availability and disaster recovery functions by providing failover/failback features for the replication functions, also known as Site Switch.<br><br> It can perform an incre- mental copy-back or site switch function from the secondary back to the primary site. The availability of these products is planned for June 2006 for the ESS 800 and SVC. Support for the DS6000 and DS8000 are planned for later in 2006.<br><br> Pricing is set in six tiers, by storage capacity managed, calculated cumulatively. Evaluator Group Comments Providing a common interface for replication functions across multiple types of storage hardware is a good way to reduce the complexity of managing different storage architectures, especially from the same vendor. This is a good step forward for IBM.<br><br> We look forward to the complete integration of this software into the larger IBM TPC storage man- agement product family, and for the replication management of all the storage hardware sold by IBM. IBM seems slow to fully support its own DS series of disk storage arrays. The pricing model for this software is rather complicated.<br><br> If a customer has a storage capacity that falls into anything beyond the first tier (1 3 12 TB), several calculations have to be performed in order to arrive at a price. ~Dennis Martin Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 6 Storage Systems HDS Announces Enhancements to TagmaStore USP and NSC55 Highlights " 25% performance improvement on USP " New Universal Replicator Delta Resync function to provide 3 site recovery " Enhancements to ShadowImage performance and increase of number of volume pairs to 4,096 " 8-port iSCSI blade pair " Maximum number of logical devices in USP increased to 65,536 in mainframe environments " New security enhancements with multi-system audit log facility Evaluator Group Comments With these enhancements HDS continues to demonstrate its commitment to these products by providing enhancements even in areas where some consider it to have been the leader prior to the enhancements (i.e.<br><br> performance). As with any announcement, the significance of these enhance- ments will vary by customer environment. Evaluator Group is not aware of any situations where the USP was not able to satisfy overall per- formance requirements.<br><br> Therefore, the immediate benefits of the 25% improvement in perform- ance will probably not be significant to the majority of customers. However, those with higher than normal point-to-point copy requirements may benefit from the ShadowImage enhancements. The Universal Replicator enhancements will be of interest to those environments that are inter- ested in a three site recovery scenario.<br><br> Prior to this announcement EMC was the only vendor that offered the ability to support synchronous and asynchronous remote copy operations from the same logical volume. The enhanced consistency group support will also be of value to larger in- stallations. While iSCSI support is not an issue in many large enterprises, those with this requirement will now have another competitive option.<br><br> ~Chuck Standerfer Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 7 How are you dealing with meeting your company 9s infrastructure demands? Are you finding adequately interoperable solutions?<br><br> Shape and define the future Interoperable Solutions by taking the Storage Networking Industry Associa- tion 9s End User Council Survey (SNIA EUC Survey)! The 2006 survey focuses specifically on Interoperability. Results of this survey will assist the SNIA in re- fining the definition of interoperability, delineate the levels of complexity implied by interoperability, and identify where interoperability issues arise today.<br><br> Take the survey for your chance to win a 60GB, video-ready iPod or a Seagate External 2.5GB Pocket Hard Drive ! The survey will be available through June 30, 2006. Only completed surveys will qualify for the iPod and Seagate Pocket Hard Drive drawings.<br><br> Take the survey today at: www.snia.org/euc-survey . The SNIA End User Council (EUC) was created BY end users FOR end users to share ideas, address management challenges, and advance development of storage solutions that deliver business value. Membership is open exclusively and free to storage end users so sign up now!<br><br> For more informa- tion and to sign up online, go to http://advisorygroups.snia.org ! The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a vendor-neutral trade organization that works in conjunction with its members around the globe to make storage networking technologies understand- able, simpler to implement, easier to manage, and recognized as valued asset to business. The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is dedicated to: " Driving future storage industry standards " Providing thought leadership and best practices " Developing comprehensive educational offerings throughout the world If you have any questions about the SNIA or EUC contact marketing@snia.org .<br><br> Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 8 Storage Networking IBM Announcement of System Storage SAN Volume Controller Storage Engine and SVC Software V4.1 IBM announced a new SAN Volume Controller Storage Engine Model 2145 8F4 along with SAN Volume Control- ler Software Version 4.1. Additionally, new host and third party storage array support for the SVC was included in the announcement.<br><br> Highlights " SVC Storage Engine Model 2145 8F4 ¿ June 23, 2006 product availability for 8F4 and all of its features ¿ July 28, 2006 availability for 4Gb/sec HBA for model 2145 8F2 ¿ 8GB Cache ¿ 4Gb/sec fibre channel host bus adaptor support ¿ Model 2145 8F4 can be added in pairs to existing 4F2 and 8F2 clusters ¿ Non-disruptive upgrade from 4F2 to 8F4 " SVC Software Version 4.1 ¿ June 23, 2006: New orders and Web eGA for entitled AAS customers ¿ June 23, 2006: Web availability from Passport Advantage ¿ June 30, 2006: Physical media availability from Passport Advantage ¿ September 8, 2006: Global Mirror availability ¿ Global Mirror support for distance replication ¿ New host support added for SUN, HP, Window, and LINUX ¿ Additional third party storage support for HDS, HP, IBM and Network Appliance ¿ Non-disruptive storage engine upgrade with same I/O group ¿ New reporting facilities ¿ New auditing logging capabilities ¿ Access control for hosts to SVC Evaluator Group Comments With these announcements of the new storage engine, new version of SVC software, additional host and third party storage support, accompanied by additional new asynchronous mirroring, non-disruptive upgrade capabilities and reporting, auditing, and host control capabilities IBM con- tinues to demonstrate its dedication to the SAN Volume Controller product. We believe IBM is sin- cere in its efforts to build the SVC install base, past its publicly stated number of 2,000 systems installed, with a more feature rich product set. Additionally, we believe IBM has increased its knowledge base and field implementation skill set to more effectively plan and deploy SVC in mid- range to high-end commercial IT environments.<br><br> ~Tom Trainer Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved Storage News Page 9 Have You ES/OL 9d Today? We frequently refer to ES/OL (Evaluator Series Online) in our newsletter and some of you may not know what it is.<br><br> ES/OL is a web accessible, subscription knowledgebase. It provides unbiased analysis for open and mainframe storage hardware and related software. Comparing vendor specifications is simple.<br><br> Using matrix charts, the information is presented in an organized and logical manner. These matrices list the product functions by vendor making it easy to understand. The product reviews contain not only the strengths of a particular product, but more importantly also highlight potential concerns.<br><br> For more information on ES/OL, surf to: www.evaluatorgroup.com/esol - to browse ES/OL. www.evaluatorgroup.com/roi - to determine your ROI. www.evaluatorgroup.com/esolcontent - for a comprehensive list of products and vendors.<br><br> Airline Humor Who 9s getting off first? 7720 East Belleview Ave Suite 210 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Evaluator Group, Inc. Phone: 303-221-7867 Fax: 303-221-1615 Email: info@evaluatorgroup.com Page 10 Storage News Advanced Education for Storage Professionals 2006 Storage Networking & Infrastructure June 26-27, 2006 October 16-17, 2006 Storage Management June 28, 2006 October 18, 2006 Enterprise Storage June 29-30, 2006 October 19-20, 2006 Please visit: for additional information .<br><br> www.evaluatorgroup.com/articles A listing of free whitepapers from Evalua- tor Group available for download. info@evaluatorgroup.com Request information about our company and available products and services. www.evaluatorgroup.com/charts A complete listing of sample matrices available for download.<br><br> The completed and up-to-date versions are available to ES/OL subscribers. www.evaluatorgroup.com/newsletter You can become a regular subscriber of our free newsletter and download past editions. www.evaluatorgroup.com/education Learn more about how attending Evaluator Group Advanced Education will enable you to optimize your storage decisions.<br><br> www.evaluatorgroup.com/roi Calculate your benefit from using ES/OL - Evaluator Series Online www.evaluatorgroup.com/esolcontent An index of the content provided in the Evaluator Series On-Line (ES/OL) Know- ledgebase. www.evaluatorgroup.com/workbooks Designed to assist in defining require- ments and evaluating alternatives. Evaluator Group Storage Resources The following links provide access to a variety of Evaluator Group Resources for Storage Professionals.<br><br> Meet the Evaluator Group Sales Team Evaluator Group Account Managers Territory Contact Information Elizabeth Scott Mountain Standard Pacific (U.S.A.) Canada (303) 221-7867 ext. 13 Elizabeth@evaluatorgroup.com Jane Troller Wood Central (U.S.A.) Eastern (U.S.A.) International (303) 221-7867 ext. 16 Jane@evaluatorgroup.com Gert Brouwer BENELUX & Germany Gert@brouwerconsultancy.com Wherever you are headquartered, we have an account manager you can contact directly to answer your questions and provide you with all the information about any of the Evaluator Series" products and services.<br><br> Copyright 2006 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved www.evaluatorgr o up.com/education

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