March 16, 2017 at 13:05Software Defined Storage: Compare 7 Solutions
In this article, I will briefly talk about Software Defined Storage (SDS) and the possibilities of their application that they provide when building an IT infrastructure. At the end of the article, you will find a comparison of seven SDS solutions. I tested them when my colleagues from Ontanta were working on options for developing the OnCloud.ru cloud infrastructure . I hope that the comparison table will save you a lot of time and effort when choosing a product. Source
I work as a systems engineer for the Ontanta Cloud Integration Team. One of my areas of activity is research work (R&D) on the study and comparison of new technologies that could help us improve the quality and lower the cost of OnCloud.ru cloud services
provided by Onlanta. You will find the results of such a comparison of SDS solutions in this article.
In large organizations, storage systems occupy a significant share of the cost of IT infrastructure (according to experts - up to 25%). This figure can grow significantly. The reasons are an increase in the volume of data and an increase in the need for capacities of data storage systems (SHD), including due to laws that oblige them to store data. At the same time, companies are actively trying to save IT budgets, which forces them to constantly search for the most profitable technological solutions that would reduce these costs without compromising the quality of service. The same applies to data storage and processing.
Customers' requirements for lowering the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure are forcing suppliers to invest in development and offer new technologies. One of them is software-defined storage (SDS). Companies begin to think about introducing SDS when the procedures for working with data become ineffective and their search is time-consuming.
Source
The SDS concept provides benefits such as:
Thanks to SDS technologies, you can significantly reduce the cost of storage and their administration. According to Gartner forecasts , by 2020, 70–80% of unstructured data will be stored on low-cost systems managed using SDS, and by 2019, 70% of existing storage arrays will be available in a fully software version.
Storage management software should provide flexible organization of data storage, as well as:
The
SDS source is defined in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA, Storage System Manufacturers and Consumers Association) as a virtualized storage medium with a service management interface , which should include:
I note that SDS needs a standardized management interface - such as the SNIA Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S). It is part of the concept of software-defined data centers (SDDC). This software logic of cloud storage infrastructure and cloud hardware platforms can be part of traditional data centers. Storage and data processing services can be performed on servers, specialized storage devices (storage appliance), or on both of these platforms, eliminating traditional boundaries.
Software-Defined Storage is offered by many vendors:
I’ll clarify that the RedHat Storage solution is presented by two products: RedHat Ceph Storage and RedHat Gluster Storage (RH Storage Server). They are both meant here, but they did not participate in the comparison below, since they are significantly different from the other solutions mentioned.
Ceph is not quite a boxed product. Its use without a staff of developers is rather difficult, which made it uninteresting for our company. Therefore, this solution is not in the comparison table.
Conventionally, all SDS solutions can be divided into three categories:
Some manufacturers offer both complete solutions and the software part (Huawei, Dell EMC). This allows a flexible approach to the selection of products and the use of inherited "computing" equipment to solve less demanding data storage tasks. Another merit of SDS was the possibility of using virtualization of disk arrays in some classic storage systems.
Solutions are architecturally built on two principles:
In the first case, fault tolerance is ensured by distributed copies of data, but due to the redundancy of communications between nodes (nodes), the write speed decreases. A critical place is the data network, so such solutions are usually implemented based on InfiniBand. Based on this principle, VMware vSAN, HPE StoreVirtual VSA, Dell EMC ScaleIO solutions are built.
In systems without common elements, data is written to one node, and then copied to others at specified intervals to ensure fault tolerance. At the same time, the records are not transactional. This approach is the cheapest. Most often, it uses Ethernet as an interconnect. This architecture is convenient in terms of scalability. Its bright representative is CEPH.
Now many companies are developing both software SDS (for example, Atlantis Computing, Maxta, StarWind, DataCore Software, Sanbolic, Nexenta, CloudByte), and the release of integrated solutions (Dell EMC, IBM) or specialized devices (Tintri, Nimble, Solidfire).
Source
Of the most well-known on the market, we selected seven solutions for comparison that are most interesting for Onlanta's tasks. It:
In this table, we compared their main characteristics. Click to enlarge the table.
SDS technology began to develop in the early 2000s, but so far has not been able to replace classic storage systems for a number of reasons - now we will not discuss them. But manufacturers are actively developing their products and interest in SDS technologies is growing. According to our estimates, in the near future they will become the tool that will reduce the cost of IT infrastructure with an increase in the need to increase storage capacity.
Source
In conclusion, I note that in this material I did not try to offer options for choosing the solution that is suitable for you. Such a solution must be chosen based on load, SLA, etc. The proposed table compares only the capabilities of solutions, and does not compare performance, replication speed, time of switching nodes, etc. it is a comparative analysis of opportunities, not a productive testing.
After a thorough acquaintance with the SDS products, we came to the conclusion that in their current implementation, they do not fit our tasks well. For ourselves, we still chose the classic solution, the implementation of which we are currently engaged in, and about which, perhaps, we will tell you in the near future.
But I hope that the presented comparison results will help you find your way, save time and facilitate the task of choosing which solution is suitable in your case.
If one of the readers considers it possible to share any additional information on the subject under discussion, and possibly to talk about his choice, it would be very interesting.
provided by Onlanta. You will find the results of such a comparison of SDS solutions in this article.
IT infrastructure cost reduction trend
In large organizations, storage systems occupy a significant share of the cost of IT infrastructure (according to experts - up to 25%). This figure can grow significantly. The reasons are an increase in the volume of data and an increase in the need for capacities of data storage systems (SHD), including due to laws that oblige them to store data. At the same time, companies are actively trying to save IT budgets, which forces them to constantly search for the most profitable technological solutions that would reduce these costs without compromising the quality of service. The same applies to data storage and processing.
Customers' requirements for lowering the cost of ownership of IT infrastructure are forcing suppliers to invest in development and offer new technologies. One of them is software-defined storage (SDS). Companies begin to think about introducing SDS when the procedures for working with data become ineffective and their search is time-consuming.
Source
The SDS concept provides benefits such as:
- abstraction from the lower level (hardware platform),
- scalability
- Simplified storage infrastructure
- low cost solutions.
Thanks to SDS technologies, you can significantly reduce the cost of storage and their administration. According to Gartner forecasts , by 2020, 70–80% of unstructured data will be stored on low-cost systems managed using SDS, and by 2019, 70% of existing storage arrays will be available in a fully software version.
When and why do you need SDS
Storage management software should provide flexible organization of data storage, as well as:
- deduplication
- data replication
- dynamic allocation of capacity,
- data snapshots
- compliance with retention policies.
The
SDS source is defined in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA, Storage System Manufacturers and Consumers Association) as a virtualized storage medium with a service management interface , which should include:
- automation - simplified management that reduces the cost of maintaining the storage infrastructure;
- standard interfaces - APIs for managing, allocating and releasing resources, servicing services and storage devices;
- virtualization of data access paths - block, object and file access in accordance with application interfaces;
- scalability - changing the storage infrastructure without reducing the required level of availability or performance;
- transparency - monitoring of consumed storage resources, their management and control of their value.
I note that SDS needs a standardized management interface - such as the SNIA Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S). It is part of the concept of software-defined data centers (SDDC). This software logic of cloud storage infrastructure and cloud hardware platforms can be part of traditional data centers. Storage and data processing services can be performed on servers, specialized storage devices (storage appliance), or on both of these platforms, eliminating traditional boundaries.
Compare SDS solutions
Software-Defined Storage is offered by many vendors:
- Dell EMC (Dell Nexenta Solutions, EMC ScaleIO),
- HPE (StoreVirtual VSA Solution),
- IBM (Spectrum Storage Solution),
- NetApp (ONTAP Select solution),
- VMware (vSAN solution),
- Red Hat (Red Hat Storage Solution),
- StoneFly (SCVM, SDUS solutions),
- DataCore (SANsymphony solution),
- SwiftStack
- Pivot3 et al.
I’ll clarify that the RedHat Storage solution is presented by two products: RedHat Ceph Storage and RedHat Gluster Storage (RH Storage Server). They are both meant here, but they did not participate in the comparison below, since they are significantly different from the other solutions mentioned.
Ceph is not quite a boxed product. Its use without a staff of developers is rather difficult, which made it uninteresting for our company. Therefore, this solution is not in the comparison table.
Conventionally, all SDS solutions can be divided into three categories:
- classic (CEPH, Red Hat Storage Server, EMC ScaleIO),
- based on traditional storage systems (NetApp ONTAP Select, HPE StoreVirtual VSA),
- as part of computing systems (VMware vSAN).
Some manufacturers offer both complete solutions and the software part (Huawei, Dell EMC). This allows a flexible approach to the selection of products and the use of inherited "computing" equipment to solve less demanding data storage tasks. Another merit of SDS was the possibility of using virtualization of disk arrays in some classic storage systems.
Solutions are architecturally built on two principles:
- loosely coupled
- distributed (without common elements).
In the first case, fault tolerance is ensured by distributed copies of data, but due to the redundancy of communications between nodes (nodes), the write speed decreases. A critical place is the data network, so such solutions are usually implemented based on InfiniBand. Based on this principle, VMware vSAN, HPE StoreVirtual VSA, Dell EMC ScaleIO solutions are built.
In systems without common elements, data is written to one node, and then copied to others at specified intervals to ensure fault tolerance. At the same time, the records are not transactional. This approach is the cheapest. Most often, it uses Ethernet as an interconnect. This architecture is convenient in terms of scalability. Its bright representative is CEPH.
Now many companies are developing both software SDS (for example, Atlantis Computing, Maxta, StarWind, DataCore Software, Sanbolic, Nexenta, CloudByte), and the release of integrated solutions (Dell EMC, IBM) or specialized devices (Tintri, Nimble, Solidfire).
Of the most well-known on the market, we selected seven solutions for comparison that are most interesting for Onlanta's tasks. It:
- VMware vSAN,
- HPE StoreVirtual VSA,
- NetApp ONTAP Select,
- EMC ScaleIO,
- Huawei Fusion Storage,
- StarWind Virtual SAN,
- Datacore SANsymphony.
In this table, we compared their main characteristics. Click to enlarge the table.
Instrument of the future
SDS technology began to develop in the early 2000s, but so far has not been able to replace classic storage systems for a number of reasons - now we will not discuss them. But manufacturers are actively developing their products and interest in SDS technologies is growing. According to our estimates, in the near future they will become the tool that will reduce the cost of IT infrastructure with an increase in the need to increase storage capacity.
In conclusion, I note that in this material I did not try to offer options for choosing the solution that is suitable for you. Such a solution must be chosen based on load, SLA, etc. The proposed table compares only the capabilities of solutions, and does not compare performance, replication speed, time of switching nodes, etc. it is a comparative analysis of opportunities, not a productive testing.
After a thorough acquaintance with the SDS products, we came to the conclusion that in their current implementation, they do not fit our tasks well. For ourselves, we still chose the classic solution, the implementation of which we are currently engaged in, and about which, perhaps, we will tell you in the near future.
But I hope that the presented comparison results will help you find your way, save time and facilitate the task of choosing which solution is suitable in your case.
If one of the readers considers it possible to share any additional information on the subject under discussion, and possibly to talk about his choice, it would be very interesting.