META Group Evolving Towards a Storage Utility Dr Kevin McIsaac Server Infrastructure Strategies META Group

© 2002 META Group Australia 2 Business and Technology Scenario  Continued economic uncertainty  Constrained/declining IT budgets though 2003  2003 net storage capacity growth of 60%-65%  10x growth by 2005/6  Hardware cost 35% PA (55% in 2001)  People do not get cheaper  Storage represents upwards of 15% of the IT budget, and 60%+ of the hardware budget  Hardware budget impact 8%, 1.6% of total IT budget  Continued economic uncertainty  Constrained/declining IT budgets though 2003  2003 net storage capacity growth of 60%-65%  10x growth by 2005/6  Hardware cost 35% PA (55% in 2001)  People do not get cheaper  Storage represents upwards of 15% of the IT budget, and 60%+ of the hardware budget  Hardware budget impact 8%, 1.6% of total IT budget Uncontrolled storage growth will strain IT budgets. Leading ITOs will focus on “demand management”. IT Budget

© 2002 META Group Australia 3 Critical Issues  Creating a Shared Storage Service  Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management  People Processes, & Tools  Creating a Shared Storage Service  Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management  People Processes, & Tools

© 2002 META Group Australia 4 Creating a Storage Services Portfolio  Matching Storage to Business Needs  Categorizing Data  Assessing Capabilities  Matching Storage to Business Needs  Categorizing Data  Assessing Capabilities Package People, Process and Technology as Services To control demand make business units accountable for the storage they consume! Storage Technology Storage Processes Storage People Standard Storage Business Critical Storage Mission Critical Storage

© 2002 META Group Australia 5 Matching Storage to Business Needs  Understand the business’ storage requirements  What services are important  Create a “portfolio” of storage services  Defined by SLAs  Limit to 3-4 services  Offer a range of cost/risks  Package people, process and technology into a service  Sell packaged services not raw technology  Optimise operations around these services/SLAs  Understand the business’ storage requirements  What services are important  Create a “portfolio” of storage services  Defined by SLAs  Limit to 3-4 services  Offer a range of cost/risks  Package people, process and technology into a service  Sell packaged services not raw technology  Optimise operations around these services/SLAs Storage Service Level Agreements Business units select services from the storage portfolio based on the application’s cost/risk profile

© 2002 META Group Australia 6 Categorizing Data  Discover data “owned” by key applications  Automate using SRM tools  Classify data based on value of application to business  Business must make cost/risk trade off not IT  Business owns storage cost & can lower it by  reducing volume  reducing SL  Discover data “owned” by key applications  Automate using SRM tools  Classify data based on value of application to business  Business must make cost/risk trade off not IT  Business owns storage cost & can lower it by  reducing volume  reducing SL Cost Storage as a Portfolio Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the storage services they consume Storage Class Volume GB Unit Cost Cost per month Bronze20015$3,000 Silver15025$3,750 Platinum40060$24,000 Total$30,750

© 2002 META Group Australia 7 Assessing Capabilities  IT’s role is to deliver on promised SLAs  Match SLAs to appropriate technologies  Cost  Risk  Perform Gap analysis  Reassess regularly  Evaluate new technology against SLAs  IT’s role is to deliver on promised SLAs  Match SLAs to appropriate technologies  Cost  Risk  Perform Gap analysis  Reassess regularly  Evaluate new technology against SLAs Use technology appropriate for the SLA SLAs do not stipulate specific technology, they describe services delivered by products and technologies JBOD Platinum RAID

© 2002 META Group Australia 8 Business Impact: A storage service portfolio makes cost explicit, enabling business units to choose storage appropriate to their needs and understand the impact of this choice on their budget. Creating a Storage Services Portfolio  Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit in terms the business understands  Package people, process & technology into services  Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost  Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the service they consume  Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit in terms the business understands  Package people, process & technology into services  Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost  Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the service they consume  Bottom Line

© 2002 META Group Australia 9 Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management  Finding meaningful metrics  “Measuring” the storage infrastructure  Develop Process and Procedures  Finding meaningful metrics  “Measuring” the storage infrastructure  Develop Process and Procedures If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it Storage Infrastructure; Supporting the Business

© 2002 META Group Australia 10 Finding Meaningful Metrics  Question authority  The ROI/TCO mandate  ROI is earnings/invested capital  What’s the revenue of disk drive?  What senior management really wants is payback  TCO relies heavily on forecasts and assumptions  Quantify efficiency, Question vendor claims  Question authority  The ROI/TCO mandate  ROI is earnings/invested capital  What’s the revenue of disk drive?  What senior management really wants is payback  TCO relies heavily on forecasts and assumptions  Quantify efficiency, Question vendor claims What’s the Target? ROI and TCO require extensive assumptions, making them prone to self-fulfilling calculations

© 2002 META Group Australia 11 “Measuring” the Storage Infrastructure If you are not keeping score you are just practicing 1.Storage per administrator  3.8TB benchmark  Include B/R with disk 2.Data availability  # of hours of annual downtime (all causes) 3.Mean time to recovery  Compare to application service levels 4.Latency to capacity agility  Measured from acquisition to application use 1.Storage per administrator  3.8TB benchmark  Include B/R with disk 2.Data availability  # of hours of annual downtime (all causes) 3.Mean time to recovery  Compare to application service levels 4.Latency to capacity agility  Measured from acquisition to application use 5.Data life-cycle multiplier  Number of times specific data is copied 6.% storage utilization  Used storage divided by total storage  Target 60%-85%  Prioritize focus 7.Days storage in inventory  How many days before high-water threshold?  Target days 5.Data life-cycle multiplier  Number of times specific data is copied 6.% storage utilization  Used storage divided by total storage  Target 60%-85%  Prioritize focus 7.Days storage in inventory  How many days before high-water threshold?  Target days

© 2002 META Group Australia 12 Develop Storage Procedures  List major areas of storage process  Provisioning and B/R are usually the largest  Analyse how these impact cost  What are the cost drivers?  How is efficiency affected?  Work on process with largest impact  Automate, Delegate & Eliminate to reduce cost  List major areas of storage process  Provisioning and B/R are usually the largest  Analyse how these impact cost  What are the cost drivers?  How is efficiency affected?  Work on process with largest impact  Automate, Delegate & Eliminate to reduce cost Storage cost drivers IT organisations that do not benchmark storage or understand the drivers will fail to control costs

© 2002 META Group Australia 13 Business Impact: If the business is to be accountable for storage consumption, it has to know what it’s consuming. Measuring the Effectiveness of Storage Management  Find meaningful metrics  Quantify what you can. Identify what you can’t.  Qualify assumptions, while understanding ROI/TCO limitations.  Measure the storage infrastructure  Begin internal benchmarking to capture operational improvements  The goal is to measure internal operations as if it was a outsourcing deal  Find meaningful metrics  Quantify what you can. Identify what you can’t.  Qualify assumptions, while understanding ROI/TCO limitations.  Measure the storage infrastructure  Begin internal benchmarking to capture operational improvements  The goal is to measure internal operations as if it was a outsourcing deal  Bottom Line

© 2002 META Group Australia 14 Storage Administration Expertise Virtualising Storage  Planning for Storage Virtualisation  Understanding Storage Applications  Planning for Storage Virtualisation  Understanding Storage Applications Virtualization means many different things to many vendors — scrutinize what business case it solves

© 2002 META Group Australia 15 Planning for Storage Virtualisation  Virtualisation defined  Pooled, heterogeneous storage managed as an single entity  Logical access separate from physical location  Value is in storage apps, not the virtualisation engine  Engine moves to the fabric (Brocade, Cisco)  Who will write the apps for these engines?  Focus on delivering policy-based storage through 2004/05  Event driven vs. process driven  Increase storage administrator efficiency  Virtualisation defined  Pooled, heterogeneous storage managed as an single entity  Logical access separate from physical location  Value is in storage apps, not the virtualisation engine  Engine moves to the fabric (Brocade, Cisco)  Who will write the apps for these engines?  Focus on delivering policy-based storage through 2004/05  Event driven vs. process driven  Increase storage administrator efficiency As usual, the hype is ahead of reality Storage “Anywhere” Fabric

© 2002 META Group Australia 16 Understanding Storage Applications  Utilities vs. applications  Utilities are device- specific; apps are general purpose  Key applications  SRM  Replication by policy  Real-time data protection  Chargeback  Performance monitors  Utilities vs. applications  Utilities are device- specific; apps are general purpose  Key applications  SRM  Replication by policy  Real-time data protection  Chargeback  Performance monitors Virtualisation engines get the attention, but applications deliver the value Engine/App Integration Replication Charge-back PerformanceMonitorsDataProtection PolicyEngine SRM

© 2002 META Group Australia 17 Business Impact: Virtualization promises to transform storage management from static to dynamic Virtualising Storage  Understand the benefits (and costs)  Don’t let the hype draw you in too early  Match vendor selection with strategic objective and requirements’  Virtualisation engines enable the applications  Virtualisation's (empty?) promises  Although good in theory, it will be fraught with technical limitations, inhibiting large-scale deployments until 2004/05  Understand the benefits (and costs)  Don’t let the hype draw you in too early  Match vendor selection with strategic objective and requirements’  Virtualisation engines enable the applications  Virtualisation's (empty?) promises  Although good in theory, it will be fraught with technical limitations, inhibiting large-scale deployments until 2004/05  Bottom Line

© 2002 META Group Australia 18 Evolving Towards a Storage Utility  Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit.  Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost  Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the service they consume  Make the business accountable for the storage it consumes  Business must make risk/cost choice, not IT  Measure the effectiveness of storage management  Select storage management tools that dramatically increase staff efficiency & contain storage growth cost  Focus on storage applications, not virtualisation engines.  Choose apps that deliver new capabilities or reduce TCO  Create a storage services portfolio that makes costs explicit.  Create 3-5 services each with a SLA and unit cost  Bill business units based on volume and unit cost of the service they consume  Make the business accountable for the storage it consumes  Business must make risk/cost choice, not IT  Measure the effectiveness of storage management  Select storage management tools that dramatically increase staff efficiency & contain storage growth cost  Focus on storage applications, not virtualisation engines.  Choose apps that deliver new capabilities or reduce TCO  Transformation Steps