02/11 Incorporating Data Management News

02

/

11

Incorporating Data Management News

ACHIEVING CLOUD

COMPUTING

IN THE ENTERPRISE

CONNECTED

TO

THE CLOUD

INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT

+

BETTER STORAGE

PERFORMANCE FOR LESS

Saying goodbye to data loss

WWW.SNSEUROPE.COM

An Angel Business Communications publication

SNS Europe is the only publication to be endorsed by

The third way

15

WWW.SNSEUROPE.COM FEBRUARY | 2011

1-2-1

KEVIN BROWN

The Third

Way

Ethernet seems to be the way forward for storage. However, while most attention

is focused on iSCSI- and Fibre Channel-based solutions, Coraid offers a viable

third alternative, Ethernet SAN systems using ATA over Ethernet. SNS Europe

talks to Kevin Brown, Coraid CEO and Gurdip Kalley, Head of Business

Development at S3.

Q

Please provide some background on the company – when formed and with what objectives?

A

KB: Coraid is a leading developer of Ethernet SAN storage solutions with more than 1,300 customers

worldwide in sectors including manufacturing, life sciences, software, healthcare, education, financial services, government, and cloud hosting.

The company was founded by Brantley Coile, the inventor of the Cisco PIX Firewall and LocalDirector, and started selling its EtherDrive® storage arrays into the Linux market in 2004. EtherDrive provides the fundamental building blocks for scale-out storage projects supporting virtualization, video, cloud hosting, and high-performance computing. EtherDrive storage provides a fast and simple alternative to legacy iSCSI, Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technologies, which all evolved from mainframe-era designs.

Q

And what USPs does Coraid bring to the current storage networking landscape?

A

KB: Coraid EtherDrive delivers faster performance than Fibre Channel at one-fifth the cost, while radically simplifying the storage architecture for modern virtual data centers. Coraid arrays can be configured and deployed in less than sixty seconds, and run on standard Layer 2 Ethernet, eliminating the need for legacy protocols and equipment. EtherDrive high performance SAN arrays deliver up to 1800 MB/sec of throughput, with prices starting at less than $500/TB.

Q

End users are becoming familiar with FC and iSCSI-based Ethernet storage – do we need another Ethernet storage protocol right now?

A

KB: Data centers are going through massive changes at the compute layer. Remember when we ran big iron servers from DEC, SGI and Sun Microsystems to handle any serious enterprise application? Those monolithic machines have been replaced with scale-out x86 server architectures, and virtualization ties it all together. We’ve achieved amazing improvements in price-performance and agility at the compute layer, but storage networks and arrays are still stuck in the mainframe era.

Fibre Channel was originally used to carry mainframe storage protocols like FICON and ESCON, and legacy storage arrays were built up around this design. That was OK when you had a couple of database apps and an 8-port SAN, but now you’ve got dozens of VMs on each server and an 800-port SAN, and it takes days or weeks to reconfigure the storage environment. The economic impact of these legacy storage technologies is dramatic – in many environments, storage costs have soared to over 40% of the IT budget, and data growth is only accelerating.

Ethernet SAN, based on commodity Layer 2 Ethernet, is the first new storage technology that can address the explosion of virtualized computing. We’re walking into CIO offices, and showing them how they can double their capacity, improve performance, reduce OPEX, migrate to Ethernet, and at the same time save 20% of their IT

16

budget. With benefits like that, people are willing to look at new technology.

Q

The more so, as many end users are still to understand what benefits Ethernet storage offers?

A

KB: Ethernet SAN and the ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE) protocol grew up quietly in the Linux market, which is why mainstream data center buyers hadn’t heard of it. I was a vice president at one of the big storage companies, and I’d never heard of it. Now, with virtualization and cloud architectures becoming the dominant themes in computing, and 10 Gb Ethernet prices dropping below $500/port, the timing is right for a disruptive technology with proven benefits. We’ll be working hard in 2011 to accelerate the market education around Ethernet SAN.

Q

When do you anticipate that Ethernet storage will gain ‘critical mass’?

A

KB: We are working hard on that. Coraid has now raised $35 million in funding from top tier investors, we nearly tripled sales in 2010, and we’re aggressively partnering with top networking and virtualization players to drive adoption. We’ve now got over 1,300 customers, including Fortune 100 enterprises, cloud providers, and major government agencies worldwide. We deployed two petabytes of storage for the U.S. Department of Defense, at less than one-tenth the price of their previous vendor, and the technology was up and running within 9 hours. It’s always hard to say, but it feels like we’re hitting critical mass with Ethernet SAN in the next 12 months.

Q

And what will cause this?

A

KB: The storage market has traditionally been very conservative, but the pain points are pretty intense right now, and the combination of slow economic growth with rapid data growth is forcing people to consider alternatives. As far as technology trends, the move from Fibre Channel to Ethernet and the move to scale-out cloud architectures and virtualization are all inflection points that challenge the storage status quo. Customers naturally move to solutions that are simpler to use, cost less and provide higher performance, and Ethernet SAN is a natural.

Q

What are the benefits of storage networks based on ATA over Ethernet when compared to FC and iSCSI Ethernet storage solutions?

A

KB: FC, FCoE and iSCSI SAN solutions have earned a reputation as rigid, complex and expensive. Ethernet SAN solutions based on ATA over Ethernet (AoE) eliminate most of the complex layers of storage, like multi-pathing, zoning, and controller load management.

The main benefits and customer value proposition include:

 Faster performance than Fibre Channel, at one-fifth the price

 Massive scale-out performance, with 1800+ MB/sec per shelf performance

 Enterprise-class storage starting at less than $600/TB

 Ethernet SAN eliminates complexity and bottlenecks of legacy Fibre Channel and iSCSI, with arrays that can be configured in under 60 seconds

 Provides an ideal platform for scale-out and cloud architectures

Q

And are there any areas where AoE does not compete with the other two Ethernet ‘flavours’?

A

KB: With new support for SATA/SAS/SSD drives, 10 Gb Ethernet, and advanced data protection, Ethernet SAN delivers consistent price-performance and simplicity benefits over FCoE and iSCSI. In cases where we’re still building out specific feature sets for given environments, we’ll often rely on software features available at the file system or hypervisor layer.

Q

In more detail, what Ethernet storage products and solutions is Coraid offering right now?

A

KB: CORAID EtherDrive products include:

EtherDrive SR-Series Storage Arrays

 Up to 48 TB capacity, 2 x 1 Gb Ethernet, SATA drives, 200+ MB/sec

 Entry-level high performance Ethernet SAN, starting at <$500/TB

EtherDrive SRX-Series Storage Arrays

 Up to 72 TB capacity, 6 x 1 Gb Ethernet or 2 x 10 Gb

Ethernet, SATA/SAS/SSD drives, 1800+ MB/sec

High performance Ethernet SAN, starting at <$600/TB

 Ideal for primary storage, high performance virtual computing, video

EtherDrive VSX-Series Appliances

 NSPOF mirroring, storage virtualization, snapshots, clones, replication

18

EtherDrive HBAs

 1 GbE and 10 GbE dual port PCIe Ethernet host bus adapters

 Provide end-to-end server to storage networking solution

Q

And how do these address the current key issues such as virtualisation and The Cloud?

A

KB: Virtualization has brought undeniable benefits to enterprise IT—reduced costs, server consolidation, increased flexibility, automated management and more. Unfortunately, all of the cost and agility benefits of enterprise virtualization come to a screeching halt when data reaches the storage network. In fact, legacy storage networking technologies such as Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and iSCSI all evolved from mainframe-era designs. Mainframe protocols like FICON and ESCON ran on Fibre Channel, and the array designs grew out of this tradition. They require expensive custom networks, and manual configuration of every connection between servers and storage. Providing new storage to a VM takes hours of work, and days or weeks clock time, instead of a few clicks.

Coraid’s new class of Ethernet SAN storage mirrors the agility and economics of the cloud. The product protocol grew out of the Linux market, where it has been open and native in the Linux kernel since 2005. By 2009, Ethernet SAN technology was integrated with VMware, and had been adopted by more than 1,300 customers worldwide. This new generation of SAN storage, built on Layer 2 Ethernet and off-the-shelf storage servers, delivers faster performance than Fibre Channel at less than 20% of the cost, while eliminating multiple layers of complex storage management. Storage arrays can be deployed in as little as 60 seconds.

Q

What is Coraid’s presence in Europe right now? And how will this be developed?

A

KB: Coraid has over 350 customers in Europe today. Marcos Burnett has recently joined as Director of EMEA and Paul Haddow as our EMEA SE Manager. Over the coming months we plan to enable and train our partners to evangelize the benefits in Ethernet Storage across Europe. Our channel program is designed for channel partners who deliver full solution stack value to their customers, and our team is dedicated to ensuring their success. In order to do this effectively we focus on quality rather than quantity.

Q

And how is Coraid working with The Channel in Europe?

A

KB: Coraid has a completely channel-centric business and transacts 100% of our business through our partners. Coraid partners can currently achieve either Silver or Gold

partner status, based on a number of factors including sales levels and marketing support. We work very closely with key channel partners such as S3 to ensure that our products address high-priority requirements with maximum value and ease-of-use.

Q

In terms of industry coverage – what are Coraid’s current sweet spots – and where is there room for expansion?

A

KB: Coraid’s EtherDrive storage is a trusted brand used by customers in sectors including manufacturing, life sciences, software services, healthcare, education, financial services, government and military agencies, and cloud hosting companies. Our key market segments include, virtualization, video and network surveillance, cloud storage, and high-performance computing/research. Starting in 2010, the company has focused on adding enterprise-class storage management features to support Tier-1 data center requirements, and I think you’ll see us gain increased traction with those customers.

Q

What is the relationship between S3 and Coraid?

A

GK: S3 have recently signed up as a UK partner with Coraid. S3 have identified Coraid as a key technology to sit alongside its existing storage portfolio. S3 has had previous success working with start ups such as DataDomain and Isilon and hopes to repeat this with Coraid.

Q

And how did this come about, and how do you see it developing?

A

GK: As Head of Business Development at S3 it is my responsibility to ensure we remain ahead of our competition and serve our customer base by remaining relevant and innovative. Our existing and long standing vendor relationships are core to our business but we are always on the look out for disruptive and “game changing” technologies. We expect to achieve Gold partner status within no time at all and go on to emulate our success with Isilon in quickly becoming Coraid’s most successful partner outside of the US.

www.s3.co.uk www.coraid.com

Gurdip Kalley, Head of Business Development at S3