Keynote Presentation: Overcoming Storage Challenges Associated With Server Virtualization...

©2011 The Enterprise Strategy Group

Enterprise Strategy Group | Getting to the bigger truth.T M

Overcoming the Storage Challenges Associated With Server Virtualization

Terri McClure October 6, 2011

What You Will Learn Today

• The current state of server virtualization deployments

• The storage challenges associated with each stage of server virtualization maturity

• The impact server virtualization will have on storage management and tools

• How scale out storage solutions address the key challenges associated with supporting virtual server environments

© 2011 Enterprise Strategy Group



How Far Along is Server Virtualization?

4

The Four Dimensions of ESG’s Server Virtualization Maturity Model


Source: ESG Research Report: The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

Dimension: Scope of deployment

Metric: Percent of servers that have been virtualized

Dimension: Virtual production ratio

Metric: Percent of VMs in production

Dimension: EfficiencyMetric: Consolidation

ratio

Dimension: Workload

penetrationMetric: Deployment

across multiple workloads

5

ESG Server Virtualization Maturity Model Segmentation



Gro

up 1 Basic

Low percent of physical servers virtualized (typically less than 20%)Low percent of VMs deployed in production (12% average)Low virtual-to-physical consolidation ratio (typically less than 5)Deployment across limited and/or basic workloads (13% have deployed mission-critical production workloads)

Gro

up 2 Progressing

Medium percent of physical servers virtualized (typically 10% - 30%)Medium percent of VMs deployed in production (35% average)Medium virtual-to-physical consolidation ratio (typically 5 - 10)Deployment across more workloads, but mostly tier-2 (37% have deployed mission-critical production workloads)

Gro

up 3 Advanced

High percent of physical servers virtualized (typically 40% +)High percent of VMs deployed in production (67% average)High virtual-to-physical consolidation ratio (typically more than 10)Deployment across many/tier-1 workloads (75% have deployed mission-critical production workloads)

Length of Server Virtualization Deployment

© 2011 Enterprise Strategy Group 6

Less than 12 months; 9%

1 to 3 years; 57%

4 to 5 years; 18%

More than 5 years; 16%

For how long has your organization had server virtualization technology deployed? (Percent of respondents, N=463)

Percentage of Servers That Have Been Virtualized


Less than 10% of servers

10% to 20% of servers




More than 50% of servers

Don’t know0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

12%

21%

25%

15%

11%14%

1%2%

9%11%

17%20%

38%

3%

Of all the potential x86 servers in your organization that can be virtualized, approx-imately what percentage of these systems have actually been virtualized to date? How do you expect this to change over the next 24 months? (Percent of respon-

dents, N=463)

Today 24 months from now

Percentage of VMs Deployed in Production


Today (N=440) 24 months from now (N=434)0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

39%

58%

Approximately what percentage of your total virtual machines are currently running in a production environment? How do you expect this to change in the

next 24 months? (Mean response)

9

Storage Infrastructure Challenges Related to Server Virtualization Usage



We have not encountered any challenges

Need different tools to manage storage environment and virtual server environment

Difficulty backing up and/or recovering virtual machines

Sizing capacity required to support virtual server environment

Sizing performance requirements (i.e., IOPS) required to support virtual server environment

General lack of information or best practices

Lack of integration between storage system and virtual machine replication capabilities

Need to conduct additional interoperability testing and qualification

Impact on overall volume of storage capacity

Performance problems

Security concerns

Operational cost of new storage infrastructure

Scalability problems

Capital cost of new storage infrastructure

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

6%

12%

15%

17%

17%

17%

17%

19%

21%

21%

24%

24%

25%

36%

From a storage infrastructure perspective, which of the following would you consider to be significant challenges related to your organization’s server virtualization usage? (Percent of respondents, N=190, multiple responses

accepted)


We have not encountered any challenges

Lack of integration between storage system and virtual machine replication capabil-ities

Security concerns

Scalability problems

Sizing performance requirements (i.e., IOPS) required to support virtual server en-vironment

General lack of information or best practices

Need different tools to manage storage environment and virtual server envi-ronment

Performance problems

Sizing capacity required to support virtual server environment

Need to conduct additional interoperability testing and qualification

Operational cost of new storage infrastructure

Difficulty backing up and/or recovering virtual machines

Impact on overall volume of storage capacity

Capital cost of new storage infrastructure

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

3%

21%

28%

34%

31%

24%

14%

17%

17%

17%

21%

7%

21%

38%

5%

21%

30%

30%

16%

17%

10%

24%

17%

21%

27%

14%

19%

38%

13%

9%

11%

11%

15%

15%

17%

17%

20%

22%

22%

26%

28%

37%

From a storage infrastructure perspective, which of the following would you consider to be significant challenges related to your organization’s server virtualization usage?

(Percent of respondents, N=190, multiple responses accepted)

Advanced (N=46)

Progressing (N=111)

Basic (N=33)

Storage-Specific Challenges Related to Server Virtualization Environment, by Maturity Phase

11

Basi

c Le

vel CA PEX of new

storage

Scalab ility

Sizing perform ance requirem ents

Security

Lack of inform ation and/or best practices

CAPEX of new storageScalabilitySizing performance requirementsSecurity Lack of information and/or best practices

Prog

ress

ing

Leve

l CA PEX of new storage

Scalab ility

Security

O PEX of new storage

Interoperability testing & qualification

Integration of storage and VM replication

CAPEX of new storage Scalability Security OPEX of new storageInteroperability testing & qualification Integration of storage and VM replication

Adva

nced

Lev

el

CA PEX of new storage

O verall storage volum e

Backup and/or recovery of VM s

Interoperability testing & qualification

O PEX of new storage

CAPEX of new storage Overall storage volumeBackup and/or recovery of VMsInteroperability testing & qualificationOPEX of new storage

Top Five Storage Challenges, by Maturity Phase

Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

Impact to Storage Management Process & Tools

Basi

c Le

vel

Prog

ress

ing

Leve

l

Adva

nced

Lev

el

54%Significant

Some

Little or none

39%

7%

35%

59%

2%

24%

52%

15%

(Migrate most or all storage management functions to a virtualization software

platform)

(Migrate some storage management functions to a virtualization software

platform, but continue to use existing tools)

(Use storage management functions in the virtualization software platform to a

minor extent, will not fundamentally change existing tools)


Storage-specific Factors That Would Enable More Widespread Usage of Server Virtualization

13

QoS tools to allocate storage resources appropriately

Improved multi-tenancy capabilities (i.e., ability for multiple users and/or applications to securely share storage resources)

Need better integration with array-based replication technology

New consumption-based pricing model (i.e., only pay for storage resources being used)

Improved storage management capabilities optimized for virtual envi-ronments

More integration between storage and virtualization orchestration, man-agement, operations, etc.

Need backup technology designed for server virtualization

More scalable storage infrastructure to support rapid virtual machine growth

Better storage migration tools

Increased use of storage virtualization

Faster storage provisioning

Additional training for IT staff

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

13%

16%

16%

18%

18%

20%

24%

25%

25%

25%

28%

33%

From a storage infrastructure perspective, which of the following developments need to take place in order to enable more widespread server virtualization usage? (Percent of respon-

dents, N=190, multiple responses accepted)


Netting it Out

• Server virtualization stresses the surrounding infrastructure

• Creates new demands on the storage infrastructure• Changes the storage management paradigm• Requires a more scalable and cost effective storage

infrastructure




Scale-out StorageMeeting the needs of virtual server environments with a virtual storage environment

ESG Research Findings


• More than 1 in 4 users surveyed report that supporting server virtualization initiatives is the IT initiative that will have the greatest impact on storage spending (#1 response)

• Improved scalability, performance, faster provisioning and lower infrastructure and management costs drive scale-out adoption in enterprise IT

• Scale-out usage is much more common among organizations in which storage is viewed as strategic to IT and the business

• Scale-out users more likely to have a sufficient number of administrators to manage their storage and are more satisfied with utilization rates


Current Challenges Scaling Storage Environments

Difficulty maintaining up-to-date information on current in-frastructure inventory and configurations

Running out of physical space

Capacity balancing

Management, optimization and automation of data placement

Need to support growing virtual server environments

Data migration

Hardware costs

Data protection

Rapid growth and management of unstructured data

Operational costs

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

11%

15%

17%

17%

20%

21%

28%

32%

20%

31%

4%

4%

5%

6%

8%

8%

9%

9%

11%

11%

Organizations’ biggest challenges (all and primary) in terms of scaling storage en-vironment to support its applications? (Percent of respondents, N=306, top ten re-

sponses shown)

Primary stor-age challenge

All storage challenges


Most Common Reason For Adding New Storage Systems

Need additional capacity and we can’t expand existing system(s);

25%

Need improved I/O performance; 7%

Need improved throughput per-formance; 10%

Need improved reliability; 9%Need improved availability; 8%

Technology refresh; 20%

Need additional feature/functional-ity; 9%

Consolidation of existing storage devices; 10%

Other; 1% Don’t know; 1%

When your organization purchases and deploys new storage systems to accom-modate application data growth, what would you say is the most common reason

why you have added those new systems? (Percent of respondents, N=306)


Length of Implementation Cycle for New Storage Systems

Less than 3 months; 17%

3 to 6 months; 29%

7 to 9 months; 22%

10 to 12 months; 21%

13 to 18 months; 8%

19 to 24 months; 2%

More than 24 months; 1% Don’t know; 1%

On average, approximately how long is the implementation cycle – from planning to production – to add new storage systems? (Percent of respon-

dents, N=306)

Scale-Up vs. Scale-Out StorageIn

tern

al n

etw

ork

(bus

or

hig

h-sp

eed

mem

ory)

Storage system

“Scale-Up” Storage: Scales by adding resources within a single system, connected by an

internal network

“Scale-Out” Storage: Scales by adding nodes -

connected by an external network – that work together as a single

system

Multiple nodes acting as one storage system

External network

System resources (e.g., processors,

memory, host interfaces, disks)





Additional system resources

Disk resources

Disk resources

Disk resources

Disk resources

Disk resources

Disk resources

Additional disk

resources


memory, host interfaces)

21

Why Scale-Out Storage?

• Management efficiencies reduce the headcount required to provision, tune and manage storage

• Faster provisioning increases ability to respond to a dynamic virtual server environment

• Granular, or just-in-time, scalability allows IT to ride the commodity curves associated with declining disk and processor pricing, reducing CAPEX

• Better utilization means fewer systems to manage and less wasted floor space, power and cooling

• Scaling performance with capacity allows for greater capacity, more throughput and broader application support

Use of Scale-out Storage Architectures, All Respondents

22

Already using scale-out storage; 18%

Plan to use within the next 12 months; 26%

Plan to use within the next 24 months; 14%

No plans at this time, but we are interested in this technology; 26%

No plans or interest at this time; 9%

Not familiar with scale-out storage technology; 4%

Don’t know; 3%

Based on the previous definition, please describe your organization’s usage of or interest in scale-out storage architectures. (Percent of respondents, N=306)



Length of Implementation Cycle for New Storage Systems, by Scale-Out Storage Usage

Less than 3 months

3 to 6 months 7 to 9 months 10 to 12 months

13 to 18 months

19 to 24 months

More than 24 months

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

38%41%

5%

13%

4%

0% 0%

13%

26% 25%23%

9%

2% 1%

Length of new storage system implementation cycle, by scale-out storage usage (Percent of respondents)

Already using scale-out storage (N=56) Not using scale-out storage (N=242)

Most Important Considerations in Deploying Scale-out Storage, Early Adopters

24

Need to support specific applications

Improved data management

Improved storage hardware utilization

Reduced operating expenditures

Improved data availability

Improved performance (I/Os)

Easier to manage

Lower cost of infrastructure

Faster storage provisioning times

Improved performance (throughput)

Improved scalability

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

16%

23%

25%

27%

27%

32%

36%

38%

38%

39%

50%

Which of the following considerations were most important in your organiza-tion’s decision to deploy scale-out storage? (Percent of respondents, N=56,

multiple responses accepted)


Benefits of Deploying Scale-out Storage, Early Adopters

25

Reduced training time/costs

Reduced capital expenditures

Ability to manage more storage capacity with fewer administrator resources

Improved data management

Ability to more effectively support specific applications

Reduced operational expenditures

Improved storage hardware utilization

Faster deployments/provisioning times

Improved data availability

Improved performance (throughput)

Improved performance (I/Os)

Improved scalability

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

14%

18%

25%

27%

27%

27%

29%

34%

36%

39%

45%

57%

Which of the following benefits has your organization realized as the result of deploying scale-out storage? (Percent of respondents, N=56, multiple responses accepted)


Types of Data Organizations Expect to Store on Scale-Out Storage Solution, Planned Adopters/Interested

26

Archive data (i.e., data that has been removed from production systems due to factors such as age of the data, infre-

quency of access, and/or regulatory compliance requirements)

Primary application data (i.e., active data)

Secondary data (i.e., backups/copies of primary data)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

33%

47%

63%

Please indicate which of the following types of data you expect to store on your organization’s scale-out storage system(s). (Percent of

respondents, N=202, multiple responses accepted)


Types of Data Stored on Scale-out Storage Solution, Early Adopters

27

Archive data (i.e., data that has been removed from production systems due to factors such as age of the data, infrequency of access, and/or regulatory com-

pliance requirements)

Secondary data (i.e., backups/copies of primary data)

Primary application data (i.e., active data)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

41%

61%

82%

Please indicate which of the following types of data is stored on your organiza-tion’s scale-out storage system(s). (Percent of respondents, N=56, multiple re-

sponses accepted)


Adoption Trends Summary

• Scale-out storage use is on the rise• The promise and benefits are real, not marketing spin • Because of these benefits we see “usage creep”• Storage is becoming more of an IT infrastructure

decision, less tied to single applications • ESG expects 80% of external networked storage

shipment revenue in 2015 to be from scale-out systems


The Bigger Truth

• Server virtualization impacts all adjacent technology areas The storage environment needs to be as virtual as the

server environment

• Scale-out storage is well aligned to supporting server virtualization It virtualizes the underlying storage hardware

infrastructure; scales quickly and efficiently; helps drive down operational costs

• Scale-out storage can help ease users journey along the path to broadening server virtualization initiatives


Getting to the bigger truth.Getting to the bigger truth.


TM

Thank YouFor more information, please contactTerri McClure, Senior Analyst508.381.5162 | [email protected]

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