Storagezilla

You've already lost

To the people who think FLASH as disk is a bad thing, you've already lost.

FLASH is already being treated as disk in everything from high end enterprise storage arrays and large servers to desktops, laptops, netbooks and consumer digital music players.

This battle of ideas is over.

Like the choice between a new way of thinking about 64 Bit processing or simply extending the existing 32 Bit paradigm with extensions the market moved to the extensions for the existing 32 Bit paradigm.

Instead of moving from the Disk paradigm to a new one the dominant Disk paradigm and all the processes which come with that have just been extended to embrace FLASH technology.

In the same way the paradigm of RAM and it's use on the motherboard will also be extended to embrace cheap and plentiful FLASH.

Flash based Tier 0 is fast disk in storage arrays because there's an entire paradigm which expects a disk to appear to be the storage device.

Paradigms are powerful things. So powerful that an idea formulated in the 70s, that of putting files in folders or directories when using an operating system is still with us today. Even though I'd be hard pushed to find anyone in the teens who hasn't worked in an office that has ever used a filing cabinet, they're still organising their music collections, movies and digital photos in folders.

Did you ever stop to wonder why?

Look at early automobiles. Brass Era cars were called horseless carriages because they looked like carriages, but without horses. The only technology in them which was the same might have been seats, axles and wheels, but but the fact they were delivered as an extension of the dominant personal transportation paradigm of the time is why they succeed.

It doesn't matter how ludicrous you think something is, if it's an extension of an existing paradigm it'll stand a far greater chance of succeeding than if it isn't.

Extending another paradigm, FLASH based cache will be treated as slow RAM on computer motherboards. I was going to say all motherboards but I think it'll be a while yet before we see it on every motherboard. Anyone thinking of putting FLASH on a card and calling it gravy better have a word with the motherboard manufactures as you're not designing anything they can't and you're not currently shipping anything they won't in greater volumes and for a fraction of the price.

FLASH succeeds in the market because it extends existing paradigms which have already been accepted.

It doesn't attempt to supplant them.

NetWorker FastStart 7.5.1

Fast Start 7.5.1 brings NetWorker to smaller customers in an interesting way.

You can grab a 30 day time limited version of Fast Start here under the Eval tab.

This new release of FastStart brings FastStart to parity with the functionality of the currently shipping enterprise level NetWorker product but does so without the hassle of configuration, which still remains the largest source of failed backups outside of the system the client is on being powered off, and painful licensing.

So how does it work?  

A customer ordering FastStart receives their choice of a Linux or Windows NetWorker server, 20 client licenses, five application modules (They can pick and choose from SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint and Oracle modules) a 10TB capacity license for backup to disk or backup to an EMC Disk Library (Useable capacity not compressed or deduplicated capacity) a license for a 40 slot autochanger and 40 Hours of Video Instructor led training.

It also comes with a dinner tray sized Start Here poster, just like EMC ships with the AX/NX range to get people up and running.

Sounds good, but it's still NetWorker and I still configure it as such. Well, no. FastStart to my mind appears to be the first place where new ease of use user experience changes are debuted.

For example, out of the box FastStart will automate the remote installation of backup client software and then guide you through the configuration process. If you point it at a box running an application with a supported module Fast Start will detect it, install the required module and then lead you through the configuration of the backup policy for that application.

It'll also autodetect and configure autochangers and label and mount Advanced Filetype Devices (Backup to Disk) if you specify a location.

All of that and since the application modules have the de-duplication frameworks in place you can add client and application deduplication via a deduplication node if you wish. You can also add whatever other options you so choose through the addition of enabler codes without having to perform any upgrades to Fast Start.

I beta tested the initial version of Fast Start and thought it was pretty neat. So much so I wanted all of it's ease of use functionality integrated into NetWorker.

That was good, this is better. But why take my word for it when you can see it instead.

EMC World: ParAccel

Barry Zane, the founder and CTO of ParAccel speaks to me about the company's massively parallel processing columnar database and it's use in data warehousing and business intelligence.

EMC World: Storage Configuration Advisor

Storage Configuration Advisor (SCA) was designed by EMC to help address probably the most frequent case of storage service outages. Improper SAN configuration.

I spoke with SCA product manager Gautham Panth earlier this week at EMC World.

@edsai gets tested in the effort to help save Nick.

Ed Saipetch, blogger extraordinaire gets tested by The Icla Da Silva Foundation in our ongoing effort to help save Nick. It really takes that little time.

NTAP buys DDUP. The "cockroach" Queen

Cockroaches. That's what NetApp employees referred to Data Domain boxes in private and sometimes in public. One gets into a NetApp environment and the next thing you know they're everywhere. On the other hand Data Domain employees referred to ASIS as A-PISS (Excuse the language, it's an accurate quote) anytime I spoke to them.

You may now kiss the bride.

I always thought Data Domain believed that they could be the next storage company to make it, hell I thought they could have but it turns out that this was all bravado in the face of staring down the double barrels of the Avamar/EDL shotgun and while they they got a premium they sold out at the bottom.

So much for Data Domain going into the archiving market, it appears that the Emperor was buck assed naked all along.

EMC World: Iomega's eGo

Iomega has gone from eight place in the consumer storage market to third since the EMC acquisition. I spoke with Iomega's Jay Krone about the georgous looking new eGo USB drives (Super shiny in person) and the LifeLine powered ix4-200r.

The new eGos are supposed to be available for sale in the EMC World store tomorrow...and I'm thinking of buying one. (Exchange rate, no shipping cost. Nice deal)

  

Testing for Nick at EMC World

Be aware that we're all incredibly grateful for the level of industry support we've received in our race to help save Nick. Calvin Zito at HP was first off the bat and I personally appreciate that.

An update to my initial post, the percentages no longer matter, an asian caucasian mix does so we'd encourage anyone with such a heritage to get tested. It's quick, and while initially I was told they'd have to draw blood it now appears that a cheek swab is also an acceptable testing method.

EMC World attendees, tomorrow in room 206B from 7:30 to 2:00pm we'll be providing testing facilities for the National Marrow Donor Program. I think you can appreciate how quickly this has had to come together but I'd encourage everyone reading to spend five minutes being tested.

Thanks folks.  

EMC World: Zettapoint DBclassify

It's chaos at EMC World as per usual but one of the nicer products I've seen is Zettapoint's DBclassify. I spoke with Zettapoint's Vice President of Development Adi Hirschtein about their EMC announcement.

EMC World: Capacity Optimised Deduplication

Steve Kenniston, member of the Storage Software Group sat down to speak with me about Capacity Optimsed Deduplication and the contents of his EMC World session. Steve can usually be found traveling the Road to Recovery.