How to reduce data storage costs



    / Photo by Cory Doctorow CC

    Everyone who has encountered the growing popularity of virtualization technologies is probably aware of the various cost-saving opportunities that have already been confirmed by the earliest VMware polls: the total cost of ownership (TCO) in this case is reduced by an average of 74%. At the same time, many people lose sight of the part of the infrastructure that relates to data storage.

    Infrastructure developers often do not pay due attention to the organization of data storage systems, which leads to inefficient use of equipment and inefficient distribution of the load on services. This leads to an increase in prices for the relevant tools, while from 30% to 70% of the cost goes to specialist consultations.

    In our blogon Habré we repeatedly raised questions related to this topic: we talked about storage devices, considered new technologies of the future and discussed the applicability of Moore’s law to predict the situation. Today we would like to discuss the approaches to cost reduction that underlie the idea that in the era of “lean manufacturing” the data storage infrastructure is one of the obvious solutions that allows a good saving.

    Everyone knows that data needs to be stored somewhere, and its volume increases over time. However, in order to see the difference between data storage tools and consider their advantages - which will last not three years as before, but five or even seven in most organizations - you need to have some technical knowledge.

    The main difficulty of infrastructure developers is to be able to discern more general trends in the field of data storage and choose a strategy that would guarantee a reliable and efficient solution at an affordable price for the company. To do this, you need to soberly evaluate the cost of storage components, as well as alternative options with high functionality that would optimize capital and operating costs.

    According toindustry leading analysts like Gartner, hardware acquisition costs account for only a fifth of the annual storage costs. Capital costs are extremely small compared to operating costs.

    Companies often spend money irrationally and acquire the best solutions on the market, but at the same time store application data on them that do not require high performance. Failure to take advantage of hierarchical media management - the main technology for distributing data across the infrastructure in accordance with the frequency of requests, updates, and other criteria - in practice leads to a sharp decrease in resource efficiency.



    / photo Perspecsys Photos CC

    WeAs a virtual infrastructure service provider, we are well aware that virtualization is a tool that fully reveals its potential only if used correctly. There are many types of virtualization ( here we talked about their pros and cons), and just as server virtualization, after its introduction, reduced cost and increased the efficiency of server equipment placement and use, storage virtualization can unlock the potential of the infrastructure, while reducing its cost possession.

    In a virtualized storage environment, a resource pool is used that removes the need to frequently change infrastructure. Storage pools can have their own set of features and services, for example, with a focus on optimizing performance. You can pool low-performance disks into a pool, which will store the bulk of the data, and technologies such as thin provisioning, compression and deduplication can be applied depending on the needs of the site or infrastructure.

    There are many approaches to virtualizing storage systems: from installing a hardware controller to which all storage systems are “attached” to virtualizing connections or mount points, in which storage is connected to the server and its operating system. This type of system uses DRAM, creating a shared cache on all servers that can be used to buffer and speed up applications. In addition, it is possible to work with input / output channels between storage media and the server - and load balancing on these connections to constantly ensure the highest performance of connections between the server and storage.

    Thus, all physical storage systems, memory and connections work within the framework of an integrated resource infrastructure that can be distributed and released, scaled and controlled without much difficulty: moving data between levels, including specific data in a clearly defined storage system, and migrating data between volumes or pools . All these processes, which could take too much time and money, are greatly simplified in a virtualized data storage environment. With the appropriate SDS solution, the process of introducing the necessary services into the infrastructure is greatly simplified.

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