IP Storage Networking: Straight to the Core

In the early days of large-scale, enterprise computing, the data storage infrastructure simply came as part of the overall system. If you had an IBM mainframe, you were certain to find IBM storage attached as part of the deal. Few questioned this model, and in centralized data centers having a single point of contact for both mainframes and storage made sense. At that time, computing equipment purchases focused on the application platform first and the rest followed. This model continued through the migration to more open systems, including mid-range to high-end servers from a variety of vendors . Over time, storage capacity for applications grew as separate dedicated pools, with each application's capacity requirements managed independently within the organization.

As we moved to networked business environments, with more transactions, interactions, and information to capture, storage pools dramatically increased in size. Our push through the digital age caused thousandfold and millionfold increases in required storage capacity. Many companies were locked in to buying additional storage from their original mainframe or server vendor, often at inflated prices. Without options for any other kind of storage or the ability to share storage pools, you can imagine the margins that existed, and the vendors' enthusiasm to exploit them.

In the early 1990s, one storage vendor took note of this phenomenon and dove headfirst into the fray. EMC Corporation set out to attack IBM's market for captive storage, specifically in the mainframe market. Within several years , EMC was selling more storage for IBM mainframes than IBM was. The dam had broken, the vendor lock for homogenous configuration of mainframes and storage disappeared, and the storage market emerged.

Today, a cabal of companies controls the high-end enterprise market and fights daily for treasured data center territory. The bunch includes EMC, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Hitachi Data Systems. The wars within this group for the crown of best "Terabyte Tower" perhaps are best expressed by the vigor of the product names . IBM called its latest salvo into the enterprise storage market Shark. Hitachi Data Systems calls its product line Freedom Data Storage, as if in some way to indicate that it offers choice to the downtrodden.

Now, more than ever, customers face a myriad of choices for their storage infrastructure. That may not be such a bad thing, especially considering that the storage component of IT deployments comprises as much as 70 percent of the total equipment cost. Management attention will always focus on the critical piece of the system and likely find areas that are bottlenecks, costly, complex, or competitive differentiators. Critical IT expenditures in storage indicate the central role it plays in corporate technology direction.

In the wired world, best-practice storage deployments require three focal points. The first is utilization and efficiency. Often the largest share of new IT expenditures, storage must be utilized to full capacity. A poor utilization rate is nothing short of leaving money on the table. To maintain an optimal storage infrastructure, executives and IT managers alike must maximize storage utilization rates. With storage networked together, the ability to exchange data and available space across the entire infrastructure becomes another routine corporate function.

In a wired world, with access to local, metropolitan, wide, and wireless networks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, data must be everywhere, all the time. The second piece of best-practice deployment is availability. Even the most temporary outage of access to data, such as an unavailable Web page, can have a meaningful impact on customer goodwill. While all companies agree that business continuity must be maintained , few have spent the time and effort to see a thorough plan through completion.

In a wired world, power and intelligence reside in the network. There is no better example of this than what we have witnessed with the Internet. Its reach, impact, capabilities, and ongoing transformation speak volumes about what can happen when a bunch of computers are linked together, as if engaged in a never-ending dialogue. Storage on a network is no different. Though the development of storage networks is relatively new (5 years, perhaps) compared to the Internet (25 years), the potential can be equal or greater. Harnessing this power in the form of optimized, agile data storage infrastructure will set a class of companies above the rest and provide a platform for competitive differentiation. This third pillar of effective deployment is the overall agility and competence of the system.