The Holy Grail of Network Storage Management

by Toigo, Jon William

• ISBN13: 9780130284167
• ISBN10: 0130284165
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-27
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

The Holy Grail of Network Storage Management, by noted IT veteran and author Jon William Toigo, is a comprehensive, vendor-neutral guide to networked storage management. The book gives consumers straight information on the business value of current products and technologies, and describes how to make informed purchases that will help realize current and strategic goals. This book is intended for storage administrators, IT decision-makers and architects, financial investors examining the storage industry, and vendors who are seeking to meet customer requirements with solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Author Biography

Jon William Toigo is CEO and managing partner of Toigo Partners International, LLC

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xix
CHAPTER ONE Introduction	1	(15)
Conspiracy Theory	1	(3)
The Storage Industry: Fear of Standards and Commoditization	4	(5)
Another Industry Concern: The Rise of a Dominant Player	7	(2)
The Road to Unification?	9	(2)
Yesterday's Resellers, Tomorrow's Competitors	11	(2)
About This Book	13	(1)
Endnotes	14	(2)
CHAPTER TWO The Data Explosion and Matters of the Disk	16	(14)
The Data Explosion Myth	17	(3)
Deconstructing the Data Explosion Myth	20	(3)
Fact and Fiction in Networked Storage	23	(3)
From Evolution to Revolution: The Myth of the Fibre Channel SAN	26	(2)
Endnotes	28	(2)
CHAPTER THREE 21st Century Oxymorons: Jumbo Shrimp and Fibre Channel SAN	30	(16)
SANS and Capacity Allocation Efficiency	32	(3)
The "V" Word	35	(2)
Capacity Utilization Efficiency: Another Grail	37	(1)
What About Management?	38	(6)
Conclusion	44	(1)
Endnotes	45	(1)
CHAPTER FOUR Sanity Check on IP SANS	46	(11)
IP SANS and Metcalfe's Law	48	(3)
What, When, and Where ISCSI	51	(3)
Why IP SANS?	54	(2)
Conclusion	56	(1)
CHAPTER FIVE The Quest for Networked Storage: Many Roads to Rome	57	(14)
The Zen Riddle of Storage Networking	57	(4)
Block and File	61	(4)
NAS/SAN Hybrids	65	(5)
Conclusion	70	(1)
Endnotes	70	(1)
CHAPTER SIX Making Storage Platforms Smarter	71	(31)
The Sources of Storage Infrastructure Value	73	(1)
Barriers to Growth in Disk and Consequences for Platform Decision Making	74	(5)
Media Materials Are Key	79	(2)
Capacity Versus Performance and Other Economic Realities	81	(1)
Economic Realities	82	(1)
Back to Architecture	83	(11)
Disk and Array Selection Criteria	94	(5)
Storage Intelligence Begins With Informed and Pragmatic Device Decisions	99	(1)
Endnotes	99	(3)
CHAPTER SEVEN Virtualization: Still a Dirty Word?	102	(21)
A Brief Overview of Virtualization in IT	103	(1)
SANS and Virtualization	104	(2)
Host Software-Based Virtualization	106	(3)
"In-Band" Virtualization	109	(5)
Out-of-Band Virtualization	114	(1)
Array Controller-Based Virtualization	115	(1)
Are Switches the New Virtualization Platform?	116	(2)
Back to Reality	118	(4)
Endnotes	122	(1)
CHAPTER EIGHT Squeezing Real Value from Storage	123	(22)
What is Capacity Utilization Efficiency?	124	(2)
Hierarchical Storage Management	126	(3)
A Brief Overview of Storage Resource Management Architecture	129	(1)
Product-Centric Management	130	(1)
Infrastructure-Centric or Storage Resource Management (SRM)	131	(1)
Application-Centric Management	132	(4)
Data-Centric Storage Management	136	(3)
Not Speculation	139	(2)
In the Absence of a Data-Centric Storage Management Solution	141	(3)
Endnotes	144	(1)
CHAPTER NINE Final Word: Tape is Dead ... Maybe	145	(33)
Data Protection	149	(1)
The Backup Versus Mirror Debate	149	(5)
Tape is Not a Panacea	154	(4)
Mirroring is Not a Silver Bullet	158	(5)
Enhanced Backup Options Exist	163	(1)
Attacking Backup Time	164	(1)
DDT: Not the Pesticide, The Other DDT	165	(5)
Saving Restore Time	170	(5)
The Bottom Line About Bolt-Ons	175	(1)
Endnotes	176	(2)
CHAPTER TEN The Cone of Silence	178	(26)
A Security Capability for Storage	180	(3)
The Three A's of Security	183	(5)
Which is More Secure: IP or Fibre Channel?	188	(5)
Burgeoning Technologies	193	(2)
Storage Encryption	195	(4)
Adapting Other Security Concepts to Storage	199	(2)
Conclusion	201	(2)
Endnotes	203	(1)
CHAPTER 11 Conclusion: Joining the Quest for the Holy Grail	204	(16)
The Solution is Out There	208	(6)
Professionalism, Pragmatism, and Consumerism	214	(3)
What is to be Done?	217	(1)
Endnotes	218	(2)
GLOSSARY	220	(49)
INDEX	269

Excerpts

PrefaceNearly three years have transpired since the publication ofThe Holy Grail of Data Storage Management, an extraordinarily well-received primer covering the technology and trends in data storage. I would like to thank everyone who read the first Holy Grail book, and I am delighted to report that, since its publication, knowledgeable authors have published at least six additional titles around the same subject matter.Most of the new titles contribute valuable information about the latest storage innovations and help contribute to the growing knowledgebase of contemporary storage technology. The net effect is that a long-ignored area of IT seems now to be getting the attention and historical record that it merits.Our collective authors' egos aside, the success of all of these books is owed, in the final analysis, not so much to their content or presentation, but to the compelling nature of the subject itself. We should take no pride that our books have been successful, given the dire need that exists today for improved management of the burgeoning data being amassed in most organizations.Over the past three years, many storage managers have reported to me that they are, quite simply, at wit's end--desperate to build storage infrastructure for their organizations that delivers measurable business value and also conforms to the budgetary and resource constraints imposed on all businesses by the current economy. They scour the trade press and bookstores for everything written on the subject of storage. They scavenge the presentations made by vendors and so-called industry experts at conferences, workshops, and trade shows for a hint about best practices and emerging standards. Basically, they seek any source of information that might provide guidance that will help them to achieve their goals.Under the circumstances, I take no pride from ongoing royalties derived from the sales of theHoly Grail of Data Storage Management, though my publisher and my creditors are certainly delighted. As a veteran IT professional, and now as a CEO and founder of two companies charged with empowering storage consumers and developing data management as its own discipline within the IT field, I feel that I am simply doing my job.So it is with this book.The Holy Grail of Network Storage Management, which you now hold in your hands, is not a revised and expanded version of my earlier book. In fact, this Holy Grail is not intended to be a primer at all, though I hope it will have the value of providing actionable information about some of the latest developments in storage technology.This book is, pure and simple, an extended critique of contemporary storage technology and the industry that provides it. If I do my job correctly, this book will enable you to undertake successfully what is the most difficult and challenging task you face today: developing a critical view that will help you to filter out the vendor marketing hype that is so pervasive around network storage technology so that you can make better and more strategic design and acquisition decisions for the storage infrastructures you are tasked to build, support, and manage.The original Holy Grail book provided a foundation in basic storage nomenclature, technology, and topologies that you need to begin building a true storage infrastructure. It is useful in understanding the content of this book, as well.Above all, the earlier book emphasized the need to make the storage infrastructure that you design and build manageable. The book emphasized that, without management, you have nothing appropriately termed "storage infrastructure." Without effective management, you have only a morasse of equipment and cabling that will require the work of a growing (and increasingly unacceptable) staff to administer. The labor costs of unmanaged storage are the largest part of storage cost of ownership and will ba