IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Sponsored by: OSNexus

Hyperscale Unified Storage Drives Compelling Value Through Workload Consolidation June 2020

Written by: Eric Burgener, Research Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies

Introduction The information technology (IT) industry is in the midst of a massive migration to digital transformation (DX), which is the evolution of enterprises toward much more data-driven business models. According to IDC, 91.1% of enterprises have begun the DX journey with the ultimate goals of driving competitive advantage and improving the efficiency of business processes as well as IT infrastructure. In digitally transforming enterprises, data becomes a key strategic asset and IT organizations are capturing, storing, managing, and analyzing significantly more data than ever before. Given this explosive data growth, many enterprises now find themselves tasked with the challenge of managing usable data stores that require tens of petabytes (PB) of capacity.

Managing data stores of this size requires a rethinking of the storage infrastructure. Software-defined storage (SDS) based on scale-out architectures offers an agility not possible with older, hardware-defined designs, enabling IT managers to quickly and easily scale both performance and capacity by just adding new nodes. Because SDS offers the flexibility to run on commodity off-the-shelf server-based storage hardware, the deployment costs of SDS systems are much lower than those of legacy storage systems. In this era of tight budgets, SDS solutions are slowly cannibalizing more legacy designs as enterprises modernize IT infrastructure.

A typical enterprise can easily be supporting hundreds of different applications, each of which will use a specific data access method (block, file, or object). Historically, IT managers deployed dedicated block, file, and object storage silos — an approach that led to fragmented management and high administrative costs. Performance concerns and feature requirements could be very different for block-, file-, and object-based applications, and the product strategies of the storage vendors themselves kept the siloed storage approach alive. With the advent of SDS, it became easier to build systems that could be configured to support different application requirements on the same system. The idea of "unified storage" that could simultaneously support multiple access methods on a single system, combined with the flexibility to configure storage to meet individual application requirements, opens up significant possibilities to consolidate different workloads.

As digital transformation drives an increasing need for hyperscale storage, open source–based unified storage platforms offer opportunities for workload consolidation that can drive significant cost savings.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT Digital transformation is driving a need for hyperscale, object-based unified storage to create more efficient IT infrastructures.

KEY TAKEAWAYS » Flexibility is the key watchword for

hyperscale offerings that seek to maximize workload consolidation opportunities.

» Key areas of flexibility include data access methods, hardware support, and data services configurability.

»Open source solutions can further lower solution TCO if operationalization issues can be addressed.

AT A GLANCE

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The promise of workload consolidation includes simpler, centralized management; streamlined IT infrastructure; and lower costs (because fewer separate storage platforms are needed). But IT managers can't consolidate workloads without the ability to deliver on the service-level agreements (SLAs) for each individual application, making flexibility the key watchword for a good workload consolidation platform. IT managers need a platform that can support different data stores, with different access methods, on top of a common set of shared devices and allow a wide variety of enterprise-class data services (i.e., thin provisioning, RAID, erasure coding, snapshots, encryption, replication, data immutability, secure shredding, cloud tiering) to be applied at the individual application level.

The ability to support different types of hardware in the same system — NVMe for performance, SAS for capacity, solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs), performance-optimized and capacity-optimized server hardware — under a single global namespace completes the picture for an effective workload consolidation platform given the heightened performance, availability, scalability, efficiency, and cost requirements of today's digitally transforming enterprises.

There are many opportunities for workload consolidation across many industries that require hyperscale storage in the range of 10–100PB. The technologies and solutions exist for enterprises to be able to craft effective platforms for block-, file-, and object-based workload consolidation; significantly streamline IT infrastructure; and realize considerable cost savings, but not a lot of platforms offer all of these technologies together in a single solution.

The Open Source Advantage

Open source software is a market that is growing rapidly, driven by both enterprises and hyperscalers. While open source promises flexibility and, in many cases, better economics than commercial software products, open source–based solutions often do not offer the turnkey deployment methodology that many enterprises prefer. This has been true even with many commercial solutions developed around open source technologies. Enterprises frequently lack the open source expertise needed to quickly and easily deploy these solutions in production environments, and the management tools associated with many open source products are still relatively immature. Vendors that successfully operationalize open source software–based solutions — combining their flexibility and economics with the ease of deployment and management found in more expensive commercial offerings — will bring together the best of both worlds to help customers modernize their IT infrastructure.

Definitions The data organization method (the way data is stored on physical media) is different from the data access method (how data is accessed). For example, an object store can potentially support data that can be accessed as block storage over FC or iSCSI; as file storage over NFS, SMB, and/or CIFS; or as object storage over S3, Swift, or other REST API–based methods. When applications are developed, they are developed to use a particular access method. When different applications that use different access methods need to access the same data to perform various workflows such as predictive analytics, image recognition, or post-production work in media and entertainment, it is very efficient to store one copy of the data but make it available to different applications through different access methods. When it comes to storing large data sets for potentially long periods of time over which they may occasionally be accessed, the industry has by and large settled on the use of object storage as the data organization method (primarily because of its flexibility, efficiency, and scalability).

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Open source software is a type of computer software for which the source code is released under a free license that allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute it for any purpose. There is a large open source community that works collaboratively on various open source platforms, and open source software benefits from a more diverse scope of design perspective than any one company can develop and sustain in the long run. Popular open source platforms include Linux (an operating system), Ceph (an object storage system that supports multiple access methods), and ZFS (a file system) and are often targeted to run on commodity off-the-shelf x86-based server hardware. Independent software vendors can create commercial products based on open source technologies that include targeted enhancements, enterprise-class support services, and lists of hardware platforms certified for fully supported use. Open source SDS products are typically much less expensive than similar proprietary products, offer significant flexibility in terms of hardware support, and simplify technology refresh compared with proprietary, more hardware-defined storage platforms.

Benefits As enterprises pursue IT modernization efforts, they are looking to streamline infrastructure to lower costs. The ability to consolidate workloads from multiple separate systems onto a single system while still meeting application SLAs can be a strong driver of reduced energy and floor space costs, lower administrative costs, and more efficient utilization of data (with fewer copies and less data migration). At the same time, unified management can increase the administrative span of control, thereby increasing IT staff productivity. Open source SDS solutions that support workload consolidation can offer additional economic benefits over and above those offered by commercial software products.

Vendors that effectively address the challenges associated with operationalizing open source solutions make them that much more attractive. With some open source products, low acquisition costs can be partially offset by higher deployment and management costs. Prospective purchasers of open source solutions should look at these issues prior to buying to ensure that they will not be giving away some of the acquisition cost savings through post-purchase outlays.

Key Trends Workload consolidation is a notable trend in the enterprise, and that is a popular use case for object-based storage platforms. Object-based software and appliance revenues are growing at over four times the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of enterprise storage overall and will crest $21.6 billion by 2023. Object-based data stores underlie many cloud storage offerings and are often used as repositories for 10PB+ size data sets in healthcare, university research, and media and entertainment. Object storage is also used as a backup, archive, and/or disaster recovery platform across many different industries. It is also clear that object storage platforms that support multiple access methods and offer the broadest set of granularly configurable data services are the ones that are most often used for dense workload consolidation.

Considering OSNexus Founded in 2010, software vendor OSNexus leverages open source technologies to build enterprise-class hyperscale SDS platforms that modernize and streamline IT infrastructure. With QuantaStor, the vendor's unified storage offering, the company is bringing together a variety of new technologies: SDS, scale-out grid architecture, NVMe and SAS, and SSD and HDD devices, as well as key open source technologies such as Linux, Ceph, and ZFS. The data organization method for QuantaStor is object based, and it offers proven scalability up to the 100PB range (based on actual customer deployments). Within each QuantaStor cluster, which can span multiple geographic locations, IT managers can define separate data stores that are accessible by different access methods, including FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB, Swift, and S3.

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The ability to combine different types of hardware, along with granular data services that can be applied at the application level, allows IT managers to configure data stores to meet a variety of different requirements: block workloads running on NVMe SSDs and protected with RAID for high performance; file workloads servicing user-level file access that is geographically distributed for good data locality for a multinational corporation; and object workloads running on nearline SAS HDDs and protected by erasure coding for massive capacity at very low cost for active archive, backup, and disaster recovery data cost effectively stored in object storage but accessible through different access methods, depending on the preferred access method of the workload being restored. The QuantaStor platform provides the flexibility to consolidate all of these types of workloads onto a single platform that is centrally managed as a single namespace and yet still meet performance, availability, scalability, compliance, and cost requirements for individual applications.

OSNexus distinguishes itself from competitors through both product capabilities and a go-to-market ecosystem that makes it very easy to operationalize open source–based solutions. For customers that want the unified storage advantages of Ceph, OSNexus delivers a hyperscale solution with true enterprise-class capabilities. QuantaStor's flexibility allows the following customers to configure both scale-up and scale-out storage pools to service different needs within the same system, applying the specific combination of data services needed for individual applications:

» Western Digital, a $16+ billion data storage company that manufactures and provides storage devices, servers, and associated controller and software technologies, is a key technology partner for OSNexus. QuantaStor is verified with select server hardware, such as Western Digital's Ultrastar range of high-density storage servers, to provide joint solutions for on-premises private cloud infrastructure that is materially less than alternative public cloud–based solutions. Western Digital has brought innovation to the storage enclosure that gives real-world benefits. ArcticFlow thermal zone cooling technology improves cooling, reduces vibration, and lowers energy consumption, while IsoVibe vibration isolation technology maintains performance by reducing the impact of vibration. Together these technologies have been observed to reduce field drive returns by 62% compared with the previous-generation enclosures. The two vendors partner by sharing lab space at Western Digital and collaborate on new storage device certifications for the QuantaStor platform. Western Digital promotes OSNexus solutions based on Western Digital hardware in its worldwide sales channel. For customers that want to keep hyperscale data sets in their own datacenters for whatever reason, this approach can offer significant cost savings as well as a broader ability to meet varying individual application requirements.

» Pogo Linux is a Redmond, Washington–based value-added reseller (VAR) with considerable expertise in deploying open source technologies to meet hyperscale computing requirements. As a key channel partner for OSNexus, Pogo Linux sells, deploys, and supports QuantaStor-based solutions and has a number of production hyperscale deployments in the range of 20–30PB. The company's competence in operationalizing open source solutions across a variety of different vertical markets assures customers of rapid deployments and ongoing customer care to keep hyperscale solutions performing as required. "As the industry moves in the direction of digital transformation, more companies are using hyperscale, object-based storage as a workload consolidation platform," said Chris Stevenson, Vice President Operations, Pogo Linux. "QuantaStor delivers cost-effective hyperscale storage consolidation that can be flexibly configured to meet a variety of needs, and this eases management, improves IT productivity, and saves our customers time and money."

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Although QuantaStor can be configured for high performance with its support for NVMe and storage-class memory devices — and is being used for tier 1 workloads by various customers — the vendor's focus is on high-density, hyperscale deployments requiring open source–based unified storage. Recent enhancements, including the ability to support scale-out NAS on top of Ceph and tiering to the cloud, extend the vendor's workload consolidation and flexibility to create cost-effective, multisite hyperscale storage configurations in today's hybrid cloud environments. In addition to Western Digital, OSNexus' other technology partners include Docker, HPE, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Veeam, and VMware.

Challenges

As a 100% channel-driven vendor, OSNexus may not enjoy the brand awareness of competitors that may market and sell directly. However, OSNexus is becoming a known name in hyperscale unified storage and has the large deployments to back up that reputation. Technology partnerships with vendors such as Western Digital help remove lack of brand awareness as a sales impediment, and as OSNexus continues to penetrate higher education, healthcare, media and entertainment, and other markets, it should move more into the limelight.

Competitors can lack QuantaStor's hardware integration (a feature that drives easier supportability) and mature control planes. A huge differentiator that the vendor's customers often cite, though, is the ability to rapidly operationalize cost-effective, open source–based solutions that OSNexus offers through its software design and ecosystem of partners. This combination of features and solution delivery, if it becomes more widely known through marketing efforts, will help the vendor drive continued momentum as the industry continues to adopt DX.

Conclusion DX is driving significant change in how IT infrastructures are built and used. The move to more data-driven business models is increasing the need for hyperscale storage to store data that can be mined to drive better business decisions. The use of object storage for these data sets, which can be tens of petabytes in size, is growing. The real market need here is to cost effectively store these large data sets and at the same time make the data broadly available for use by a variety of different applications, all of which can have different access methods. Object storage systems that support a variety of different access methods allow for cost-effective consolidation of storage workloads, lowering IT infrastructure costs while driving higher IT productivity and requiring fewer copies of data.

OSNexus' QuantaStor platform delivers hyperscale unified storage that enables multitenant workload consolidation, all of which is based around a flexible, software-defined, scale-out, open source design. As the need for hyperscale consolidation grows, more customers — including both enterprises and service providers — will be looking to these types of platforms. Vendors such as OSNexus have already recognized this market need and offer a good combination of technologies that can meet this need today. As the market for hyperscale object storage continues to grow, OSNexus is well positioned to succeed with its QuantaStor product.

OSNexus distinguishes itself through both product capabilities and a go-to-market ecosystem that makes it very easy to operationalize enterprise-class, open source–based solutions.

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About the Analyst

Eric Burgener, Research Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies

Eric Burgener is Research Vice President within IDC's Enterprise Infrastructure practice. Mr. Burgener's core research coverage includes storage systems, software and solutions, quarterly trackers, and end-user research as well as advisory services and consulting programs. Based on his background covering enterprise storage, Mr. Burgener's research includes a particular emphasis on solid state technologies in enterprise storage systems as well as software-defined storage. He was awarded the Alexander Motsenigos Memorial Award for Outstanding Innovation in Market Research in 2017 by IDC, was recognized as one of the Architect Analyst Power 100 in 2019 by independent researcher ARInsights, and is an active participant in the IT Buyer's Research Program and IDC.

The content in this paper was adapted from existing IDC research published on www.idc.com.

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