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Published Since 1993
Report #TCG2009008LI
February 25, 2009
anReversing the Requirement for Storage Growth - IBM Consolidates and Simplifies Tier-2 Storage
THE CLIPPER GROUP
Navigator
TM
Navigating Information Technology Horizons
SM
SM
Reversing the Requirement for Storage Growth —
IBM Consolidates and Simplifies Tier-2 Storage
Analyst: David Reine
Management Summary
We live in an era where we have been told repeatedly that bigger is better. A
big
car is a symbol of
success –
a limo is even better!
Our home entertainment systems have to have the biggest possible
screen – with high-definition and surround sound with the largest speakers that can blast out music with
100 watts per channel. Even our fast food has to fit this image. It is not enough to have a
Big Mac
; we
have to have the burger with the king-size fries and largest soft drink. Fortunately, sanity usually does
prevail in restoring some semblance of order, and size, to our lives. With the cost of gas rising again,
fuel economy and hybrid engines have conquered our macho ego and replaced the gas-guzzlers with a
more environmentally sound means of transportation. With our waistlines expanding in response to too
many requests to “supersize that”, our vanity, and doctor’s orders, lead us to the salad bar and a more
sensible diet. Technology has even enabled all of the audiophiles amongst us to reduce the size of the
speakers in our sound systems with something a little smaller and less damaging to our ears. In fact,
technology has enabled us to replace that
portable
Boom Box with an
iPod
which can fit in a pocket.
Technology and innovation have also come to the rescue of the enterprise data center where vir-
tually uncontrolled growth in storage requirements have forced the IT staff to supersize every storage
array throughout the enterprise, centralized or distributed, in order to be able to handle the needs of the
information generation. And make no mistake about it:
the data center does need to be rescued!
With increased costs for energy, and a limited amount available, the IT budget is being stretched to the
limit in order to power and cool a data center containing storage arrays in every available nook and
cranny. Floor space is another factor, as the IT staff tries to meet capacity requirements within the
confines of an already bulging data center, staving off the impending doom, and millions of dollars in
capital investment, for a new data center. The IT staff is always looking for ways to minimize space
and power, while at the same time, striving to satisfy performance and capacity requirements.
IBM is one of the companies that have recognized the need to not only consolidate data center stor-
age, but to reduce the amount of array capacity required to store multiple copies of business-critical
information, both unstructured and transactional. One way to accomplish this is through the innovative
technology of
data deduplication
, a subject of increasing popularity throughout the high-tech industry.
Rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel and develop another set of data deduping algorithms, IBM
acquired one of the leading lights in data dedupli-
cation artistry, Diligent Technologies Corporation.
IBM has integrated their architecture into a frame-
work of IBM infrastructure components to enable
the deployment of the
TS7650 ProtecTIER De
-
duplication Appliance
as part of a dynamic infra-
structure to simplify storage management and
reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of data
center storage. To learn more about the TS7650,
please read on.
IN THIS ISSUE
¾
Coping with Data Center Storage Pain.... 2
¾
The Advantages of Data Deduplication... 3
¾
The IBM TS7650 ProtecTIER
Deduplication Appliance .......................... 3
¾
Conclusion................................................. 4