Targeting Mission-Critical Workflows With Scale-Out File- Based Storage An Examination Of The Challenges That Affect File-Based Data Storage

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Targeting Mission-Critical

Workflows With Scale-Out

File-Based Storage

An Examination Of The Challenges That Affect

File-Based Data Storage

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on

behalf of Isilon Systems

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© 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Forrester clients may make one attributed copy or slide of each figure contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited. For additional reproduction rights and usage information, go to www.forrester.com. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change.

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Executive Summary

Organizations increasingly rely on file-based data storage to support a wide variety of mission-critical business operations, many of which are necessary to execute core business objectives. Today’s organizations generate vast quantities of general-purpose office files, such as PDFs, presentations, and emails, necessitating both primary file-based storage as well as file-based backup or archive targets. More importantly, application-specific file-based data, including CAD/CAM designs, DNA sequences, streaming audio and video, and many other complex data sets, are driving rapid based data growth within the enterprise and overwhelming traditional file-based data storage systems. In the spring of 2009, Isilon Systems commisioned Forrester

Consulting to examine storage environments; specifically, Forrester sought to understand the current state and usage of file-based data in the enterprise, the needs of storage users, and, most importantly, the concerns and challenges that file-based storage users are experiencing with their current solutions.

Based on this study of 103 IT decision-makers, Forrester’s study yielded these key findings:

File-based storage is integral to a company’s success. Due to the increase in the

amount, type, and value of file-based data, organizations recognize the need for flexible, cost-efficient, high-performance file-based storage solutions that can effectively manage the critical business information that employees are generating and sharing. However, the vast quantities and the wide variety of use cases for this file-based storage make

anticipating growth quite difficult.

Organizations cite significant challenges when addressing their file-based storage needs. Looking across all types of file-based storage, data protection ranks as the highest

challenge for organizations, which underscores the value that file-based data holds for today’s enterprise organizations. Companies also worry about availability, scalability, performance, and cost, highlighting significant issues with their current file-based storage solutions. Due to the need for advanced data protection capabilities, our study indicates that full feature sets for file-based storage are critical — and no less so than for block storage systems. Firms that have specialty file-based storage use cases focus significantly on business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities, as well as on data availability and performance; these point to a need for a new approach to file-based storage that can address these critical issues.

Companies struggle to handle the balance between performance and capacity. Our

study found that performance is critical, yet many respondents report a decline in

performance as file-based storage capacity grows. Organizations also report that they run out of storage with reasonable frequency, resulting in the need to purchase emergency capacity or delay business activities. These challenges point to significant limitations in traditional file-based storage solutions that force organizations to choose between capacity and performance while also penalizing the rapid and unexpected data growth common with file-based data. These limitations can have negative implications for the business’ bottom line, especially for users of specialized file-based storage applications.

The study’s findings make it clear that, due to the increase in both the amount and importance of file-based data, organizations must find a more effective approach to addressing storage

challenges, as current file-based storage solutions are limiting efficiency, productivity, and flexibility within the enterprise data center. Traditional methods of file-based storage — characterized by isolated storage arrays with fixed capacity limits and minimal ability for data mobility or centralized management among physical arrays — make it difficult for organizations to maximize the value of

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mission-critical file-based data, resulting in unnecessary capital and operational expenses that negatively affect revenue growth and business innovation.

Forrester views a new generation of scale-out file-based storage systems as offering an improved approach that addresses the concerns highlighted in this study. Scale-out architectures aggregate multiple physically independent nodes of storage capacity into a centrally managed system that allows data to move nondisruptively among nodes; it also allows the system to be expanded simply and flexibly based on evolving requirements over time. Because scale-out storage often uses different types of nodes, users can customize the system over time by selecting the nodes that best fit their requirements for performance, data throughput, and cost efficiency, without the need to predict these needs during the initial deployment. Finally, scale-out offers high levels of automation and ease of use, which simplifies and speeds up the provisioning and management of storage. In short, with scale-out file-based storage, organizations do not need to choose between performance and capacity or between data protection and availability. They can instead tune their file-based storage to meet their current business needs, while maintaining the flexibility to adjust the solution as those business needs evolve.

File-Based Storage Is Critical To An Organization’s

Success

Organizations in all industries are increasingly relying on file-based storage to support a wide variety of business operations. In the past, file-based storage received only moderate attention, as it was seen as a collection of standalone file servers holding relatively unimportant data in

comparison with applications and databases. However, with the dramatic increase in both the amount and value of file-based data, today’s enterprise organizations recognize the need for flexible, cost-efficient, high-performance file-based storage solutions that can effectively manage the critical business information that employees are generating and sharing across a variety of mission-critical applications. Specifically, this leads to the following usage trends and adoption patterns:

Forecasting growth is a major challenge. Given the wide variety of use cases and

frequent communication issues in larger organizations, accurately anticipating growth can be quite difficult, even for sophisticated organizations. Traditional file-based storage

systems are heavily forecast-dependent, with model numbers delineating hard capacity and performance limits. If an organization forecasts lower growth than is actually required, the recourse is a forklift upgrade to a larger system, with the associated disruptive migration. If an organization over-forecasts, it ends up spending too much on a system with greater capacity capability than it actually needs. Less than 15% of respondents estimate that they can forecast their file-based storage capacity growth to within 10% of actual growth (see Figure 1).

Centralization of file-based storage management is limited. The past few years have

seen companies centralize their IT organizations, helping them realize economies of scale in infrastructure and staffing. However, the downside is that customization for specific business needs is reduced, often leading to decreased responsiveness to specific needs. File-based storage seems to remain decentralized, especially when evaluating the cost-allocation methods of respondents in this survey. Overall, 44% of organizations point to direct departmental purchasing, while another 29% use generic cost allocation by headcount or some other metric that is not usage-based (see Figure 2). Only a relatively small number of respondents — 28% — point to usage-based chargeback, with fewer special-purpose users doing this.

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File-based storage is critical to a variety of different applications . . . File-based

storage is used across many different mission-critical applications — including CAD/CAM in manufacturing, video streaming in broadcasting, and DNA sequencing in life sciences — as well as for general-purpose files and backup/archive (see Figure 3). Therefore, there is little consensus on where to place files within the data-criticality and physical-tiering hierarchy.

. . . and the majority of organizations use specialty file-based storage. To better

understand the results of this study, many of the results have been separated between respondents who use only general-purpose file-based storage and those who use special-purpose file-based storage. Forrester defined general-special-purpose users as those users of departmental file-based storage, backup, and archive only, while special-purpose users are those who have more specialized workloads, like video, audio, and CAD/CAM. We found that 40% use only general-purpose file-based storage, 6% of organizations use only special-purpose file-based storage, while the remaining 54% use a combination of both general- and special-purpose file-based storage (see Figure 3).

Figure 1: Less Than 15% Of Organizations Can Accurately Forecast Data Growth

Base: 103 IT decision-makers

Source: Online survey of IT data storage decision-makers. A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Isilon Systems, May 2009.

1% 8% 23% 54% 14% Completely inaccurate (>100% +/-) Fairly inaccurate (50%-100% +/-) Marginally accurate (25%-50% +/-) Somewhat accurate (within 25% +/-) Very accurate (within 10% +/-)

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Figure 2: Cost-Allocation Methods Point To Decentralized File-Based Storage

Figure 3: Organizations Use File-Based Storage For A Variety Of Purposes

0% 32% 29% 37% 3% 26% 29% 48% Memo-back Chargeback Cost allocation by generic metric such

as headcount or department size Direct departmental purchasing

Specialty use General purpose, backup, or archiving only

“How does your organization account for costs associated with file-based storage? Select all that apply.”

General-purpose only, 40%

Special-purpose only, 6% Both general- and

special-purpose, 54% 3% 2% 4% 6% 8% 9% 10% 11% 15% 18% 18% 18% 46% 67% 86% Other Oil and gas exploration files Video surveillance applications Simulation General audio storage Video rendering and animation Audio editing and/or streaming Healthcare files (X-Ray, MRI, EMR, etc.) Life sciences research applications Video streaming/delivery Still images Design, CAD/CAM Archive target Backup target General-purpose departmental file storage

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Data Protection Is The Top File-Based Storage

Challenge

Among both general-purpose and specialized users, data protection ranks as the most significant concern related to file-based storage. Seventy-four percent of respondents cited this as a concern (see Figure 4). Availability, long-term scalability, performance, and cost rank as the next most pressing concerns. The concern surrounding data protection further highlights the business-critical nature of file-based data in today’s enterprise organizations, extending from actual data protection applications, such as snapshots, to backup rates and restores. Among application architects and IT generalists, making sure that the data protection schemes are actually working is also a significant concern, and experience shows that these efforts are not trivial. This is consistent across general-purpose and special-general-purpose users: 71% of general-general-purpose users and 74% of specialty users cite restore success rates as a major concern, and 66% of general-purpose users and 65% of specialty users cite backup success rates (see Figure 5).

Specialty users have a specific set of challenges that must be addressed. Specialty users:

Are more concerned about business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR). What

is not consistent among the groups of users is BC/DR and multisite concerns: 42% of specialty users cite this as a concern, compared with only 27% of general-purpose users (see Figure 5). This is consistent with the higher level of business value attributed to specialized data types. Self-service restore capabilities are another important area of concern for special-purpose users, reflecting both the high value of data and the likely greater sophistication of users of high-value data.

Prioritize data availability and performance as well. Data availability concerns (63% of

specialty users versus only 41% of general-purpose users) and performance concerns (50% of specialty users versus only 39% of general-purpose users) also rank higher among special-purpose users (see Figure 6). Cost control ranks higher among general-purpose users, with 54% of general-purpose users citing this compared with only 40% of specialty users. It appears that those who depend on files for key parts of their business care more about delivery and less about cost, which points to the value of the data taking precedence over the cost of storing it. Those who focus more on departmental file sharing are likely to see storage as a commodity rather than as a differentiator, and they therefore focus more energy on cost control.

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Figure 4: Respondents Are Most Concerned About Data Protection

Figure 5: Restore And Backup Success Rates Are The Main Concerns In Regards To Data Protection

1% 18% 22% 30% 34% 46% 46% 52% 54% 74% Other Concurrent access issues Receiving timely responses to requests

for capacity or other changes Meeting short-term scalability needs

Access control of data Controlling costs Ability to deliver adequate application

performance

Meeting long-term scalability needs Data availability Data protection

“What are your most significant concerns related to file-based storage as it impacts your business and key applications? Select all that apply.”

2% 2% 20% 29% 34% 27% 32% 27% 46% 51% 66% 71% 0% 10% 34% 26% 27% 39% 34% 42% 55% 50% 65% 74% Other Introduction of disk-based backup technology Self-service backup and restore capabilities for …

Meeting backup windows Frequency of restore points Site failure/failover concerns Costs of backup and associated data copies Business continuity/disaster recovery testing process Reduced exposure to data loss Time it takes to restore data from backup copy Backup success rate Restore success rate

Specialty use General purpose, backup, or archiving only

“What are your most significant concerns related to protecting and backing up file data? Select all that apply.”

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Figure 6: Concerns Differ Based On File-Based Storage Use

Performance And Capacity Management Are Inextricably Linked

Across all the respondents, our study found that performance is critical, yet respondents report that as capacity grows, performance declines — which presents significant challenges to their file-based storage system and makes it less effective. With file-based data growing at an ever-faster pace, the need for additional capacity is constant. However, with traditional systems, additional capacity eventually degrades performance, presenting users with an impossible choice between capacity and performance, with either option limiting business growth. Specifically, Forrester found the following:

Performance matters in file-based storage . . . Most respondents state that performance

is at least marginally sensitive across two axes of measurement: aggregate concurrent throughput and transactional performance (inputs/outputs per second [IOPS]). Looking at aggregate concurrent throughput, 90% of specialty users and 91% of general-purpose users state that it is at least marginally sensitive (see Figure 7). Eighty-five percent of specialty users and 86% of general-purpose users see transactional performance as at least marginally sensitive.

. . . but many respondents point to declining performance as capacity grows.

Seventy-eight percent of all respondents state that the performance of their file-based storage systems declines at least sometimes as capacity grows (see Figure 8). This significantly affects the business, as the increase in capacity will result in declining

0% 12% 22% 17% 29% 39% 54% 51% 41% 66% Other Concurrent access issues Receiving timely responses to

request for capacity Meeting short-term scalability

needs

Access control of data Ability to deliver adequate

application performance Controlling costs Meeting long-term scalability needs Data availability Data protection

“What are your most significant concerns related to file storage as it impacts your business and key applications? Select all that apply.”

2% 21% 23% 37% 39% 40% 50% 52% 63% 79% Other Concurrent access issues Receiving timely responses

to requests for capacity Access control of data Meeting short-term scalability

needs

Controlling costs Ability to deliver adequate

application performance Meeting long-term scalability

needs

Data availability Data protection

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performance, which in turn slows productivity and limits the ability to extract maximum value from file-based data.

Running out of storage is a common issue . . . A sizeable number of respondents make

emergency capacity purchases or delay business activities due to a lack of capacity on hand (see Figure 9). Thirty-one percent of respondents report needing to purchase storage on an emergency basis to accommodate capacity growth once per year or more. One-quarter of respondents report the need to delay business activities due to a lack of storage. Both of these activities can be seen as failures of storage management, due to the negative outcomes produced, either in terms of lost revenues or the higher costs paid for storage.

. . . and getting more storage can take time, especially for special-purpose users.

From the perspective of consumers of storage resources, provisioning times appear to be reasonable, especially compared with those in the block storage arena, which can be very lengthy. This likely reflects the ease of provisioning seen in most NAS systems compared with block storage devices, which require more manual configuration and zoning activities to complete allocations. However, special-purpose users tend to report longer provisioning times, with 46% finding it takes a week or more (see Figure 10).

Figure 7: Performance Matters In File-Based Storage

“How sensitive are your key applications in terms of the following measures of file storage system performance?”

10% 32% 49% 7% 2% 13% 37% 40% 8% 2% Very sensitive Somewhat sensitive Marginally sensitive Fairly insensitive Completely insensitive

Aggregate concurrent throughput (GB/sec)

Specialty use General purpose, backup, or archiving only 15% 39% 32% 10% 5% 19% 27% 39% 15% 0% Very sensitive Somewhat sensitive Marginally sensitive Fairly insensitive Completely insensitive Transactional performance/ inputs-outputs per second (IOPS)

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Figure 8: Respondents See Declining Performance As Capacity Grows

Figure 9: Respondents Must Take Measures To Fight Lack Of Capacity On Hand

0% 22% 72% 6% Never Rarely Sometimes Regularly

“Do you find that current file storage solutions decline in performance as capacity grows?” 26% 37% 43% 37% 22% 18% 9% 8%

Purchase file storage capacity on an emergency basis to accommodate unexpected growth

Delay business activities due to lack of file storage on hand

Never Less than once per year Once per year More than once per year

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Figure 10: Special-Purpose Users Have Longer Provisioning Times

Conclusions

Scale-Out Architectures Address File-Based Storage Challenges

The shortcomings of traditional file-based storage systems have made it difficult for enterprise organizations to maximize the value of file-based data. Fixed capacity limitations, high levels of manual effort in provisioning, heavy reliance on forecasting, declining performance as capacity grows, and the limited capabilities for data protection among high-performance options have made it difficult for users to accomplish their business objectives using traditional methods. Forrester sees the new generation of scale-out file-based storage systems as an improved approach because they:

Offer advanced capabilities for data protection. As our data shows, file-based storage

users require advanced data protection capabilities, including backup and restores; buying a system with high scalability and performance but limited data management features is not viable. Many of the same features that have become par for the course in block storage systems are just as critical in file-based storage. Synchronous and asynchronous local and remote data replication, space-efficient snapshots and clones, as well as effective backup options for massive data sets are all critical parts of achieving successful business results with file-based storage systems. With scale-out architectures, these features are both more robust and more flexible than with traditional file-based storage systems, enabling

organizations to tailor their file-based storage system to their needs and ensure the appropriate levels of data protection.

Address the concerns of availability and performance. Our study outlines the myriad

ways that firms use file-based storage. These different workloads mean that it’s important

17% 27% 32% 12% 10% 2% 11% 26% 18% 23% 21% 2%

Less than 1 hour More than 1 hour but less

than one day One day One week More than one week but

less than one month One month or more

Specialty use

General purpose, backup, or archiving only

“How long does it typically take to request and receive file storage capacity to meet business and application needs?”

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to have the ability to tailor solutions to meet a broad range of performance and availability requirements. Unlike traditional file-based storage, scale-out file storage allows users to grow clusters with different types of nodes, giving many options for tailoring growth to optimize performance and cost at the same time. Tiers can be created with common performance levels within clusters, and the movement of data within the cluster is not disruptive. This gives users the ability to fine-tune their service delivery capabilities and evolve their systems over time as requirements change.

Tackle the critical issues of performance and capacity and eliminate the pain of forecasting growth. A scale-out architecture clusters nodes together to form a consistent

file-based storage system. Increasing capacity is accomplished by adding more nodes to the cluster, and this can be done at any time. Unlike traditional file-based storage with fixed CPU, I/O, and cache capabilities in a file-based storage array, scale-out file-based storage systems allow users to add CPU, I/O, and cache every time that capacity is added to a cluster of nodes, giving users a linear scalability model where performance grows consistently over time. By enabling linear scaling of performance and capacity, scale-out architectures avoid the performance degradation that many respondents reported. Old and new nodes can be mixed, allowing the cluster to evolve organically without disruptive data migrations or system refreshes. Forecasting capacity growth becomes less critical, as users can start with what they need and add more as they grow, without a capacity or compatibility penalty.

Speed the provisioning of additional storage needs. Being responsive to customer

requests for storage is critical to meeting business objectives and maintaining high levels of satisfaction. As our study shows, running out of storage can delay business activities or require emergency capacity purchases. Scale-out file-based storage systems offer high levels of automation and ease of use that allows for fewer administrators and better responsiveness to requests for additional storage in ways that traditional file-based storage lacks.

How To Put Scale-Out Architectures Into Action

Deploying the wrong type of storage within your organization can have a big impact on your

business’ bottom line. For example, using traditional storage in an environment with limited ability to forecast future growth and needs is likely to lead to over-spending on unused capacity or on migrating data to a new system if growth is greater than expected. Before building out any advanced file-based storage system, Forrester recommends that you take the following steps:

Take the time to understand your different file-based storage needs. As we have

seen, firms’ requirements for file-based storage are extremely varied. For this reason, a one-size-fits-all storage system is impractical. Don’t start with the technology; instead, start with what the business requires and work to satisfy those needs in the most operationally and economically effective manner possible.

Once you know your needs, choose the products that best fit those requirements.

Taking the time to understand your internal needs will ensure that you offer the correct mix of performance, availability, and protection to meet your firm’s specific requirements. For example, our study found that data protection was a top concern across respondents; to address this need, select products that have a comprehensive portfolio of snapshot, clone, replication, and restore options to effectively meet your need for protection.

Start small and grow with the demand. After you decide what products will best meet

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purchase for near-term growth only and then easily grow over time. Expanding a scale-out system is generally easy and preserves the value of previous investments as needs change over time. Forrester recommends using scale-out storage to create a “just-in-time” storage deployment approach, allowing you to avoid spending too much upfront while still being responsive to future needs.

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Appendix A: Study Methodology And

Demographics

In the spring of 2009, Isilon Systems commissioned a study to examine the resource of storage through the lens of workflow. Forrester sought to understand the current state and usage of file-based data, the expected growth of file-file-based storage, the experience of storage users, and the concerns of file-based storage users.

Specifically, Isilon Systems commissioned this study to determine the following:

The current state and usage of file-based data. This included the size of the overall

networked storage environment and the most critical uses of file-based data.

Data growth figures. This involves the expectations for data growth that firms have over

the next few years and their ability to accurately forecast that growth.

The experience of storage users. How long does it take to request and receive file-based

storage capacity? How often is there not enough file-based storage for the task at hand? How sensitive are key applications in terms of aggregate concurrent throughput and IOPS? What is the use of tiering within file-based storage and what types of archiving are used?

The concerns of file-based storage users. This included how often performance issues

occur, the main reasons that companies are concerned about protecting and backing up file-based data, and the main business concerns around file-based storage.

Forrester Consulting conducted an online survey of 103 US IT decision-makers involved in data storage. In this survey:

All respondents were filtered on the size of their file-based storage environment, measured in raw terabytes. Those with less than 40 raw terabytes were eliminated from the study. Thirty-three percent of respondents had between 40 and 120 raw terabytes; 25% had between 120 and 500 raw terabytes; 19% had between 500 and 1,000 raw terabytes; and 22% had 1,000 or more terabytes (see Figure A1).

Sixteen percent of respondents were from Global 2000 companies with more than 20,000 employees; 23% were from very large organizations with 5,000 to 19,999 employees; 21% were from large organizations with 1,000 to 4,999 employees; 19% were from medium-large organizations with 500 to 999 employees; 17% were from medium-small

organizations with 100 to 499 employees; and 4% were from small organizations with six to 99 employees (see Figure A2).

All respondents were knowledgeable of their company’s data storage environments and held a variety of job titles, but few solely focused on storage. Most have IT generalist or application-side responsibilities, so the results of this survey often focus on perceptions of file-based storage from the outside and therefore differ from traditional data gathered from storage experts (see Figure A3).

Respondents came from a wide variety of industries, reflecting the broad need for file-based storage across business categories (see Figure A4).

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Figure A1: File-Based Storage Environment Size

Figure A2: Company Size By Number Of Employees

33% 25% 19% 22% 40 to 120 120 to 500 500 to 1,000 1,000+

“How big is your file storage environment (in raw terabytes)?”

4% 17% 19% 21% 23% 16% Small (6-99) Medium-small (100-499) Medium-large (500-999) Large (1,000-4,999) Very large (5,000-19,999) Global 2000 (20,000+)

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Figure A3: Respondent Role Breakdown

Figure A4: Industry Breakdown

14% 2% 10% 11% 29% 35% Other Storage administrator (with application

architecture knowledge) Server administrator (with application architecture

knowledge)

Application and/or solution architecture director/manager

Application and/or solution architect: designs business apps

Director of IT/CTO/CIO

“Which of the following most closely describes your job title?”

1% 1% 2% 2% 3% 5% 8% 10% 11% 12% 13% 17% 18% Energy sector Nonprofit Retail Life sciences/bioinformatics Utilities, waste management, and construction Business/consumer services Media, entertainment, and leisure Local/state/federal government Technology services Manufacturing Healthcare Finance and insurance Education

Targeting Mission-Critical Workflows With Scale-Out File- Based Storage An Examination Of The Challenges That Affect File-Based Data Storage