Make Utility Storage As Simple As Throwing a Switch -- Storage over the Internet may be
an idea whose time has come-or has it?
Sep. 24, 1999 (VARBusiness - CMP via COMTEX) -- The idea of storage as a utility should have a seductive
appeal to potential customers, especially if they're fast-growing and undercapitalized. Instead of buying,
configuring and installing their own storage systems in air-conditioned rooms with redundant power supplies
and high-priced technicians, businesses simply perform the digital equivalent of throwing a switch. Instead
of electricity, water or sewage flowing through the meter and into or out of the premises, data flows to and
from disk arrays and tapes, with customers billed by the gigabyte for what they actually use.
"It's a burgeoning business," says Jeff Nollette, director of U.S. channels for Network Appliance Inc.,
Sunnyvale, Calif.
"Storage consolidation, in general, is a key trend," agrees Mark Lewis, director of engineering for the
multivendor storage business unit at Compaq Computer Corp. "Customers can gain a lot more efficiency
and competitive advantage, and a real cost reduction. So we believe storage can and will exist as a utility."
The distance and performance issues that complicate pooled storage solutions at remote sites are still very
real, says Lewis, but they're being resolved. "There's obviously a cost and performance trade-off for
distance. Once you get beyond certain distances, putting local storage at a remote site may not be
realistic, especially today. But the technology in delivering bandwidth is growing astronomically, and
technology could instantly redraw those [distance and cost] lines."
A Dose of Skepticism
Despite the vendor enthusiasm, some analysts are skeptical about whether major corporations will move mission-critical storage
operations off-site to third-party control.
"Based upon some data we got in our latest set of interviews with Global 2500 companies, I'm fairly negative on the storage utility
concept," says Carl Howe, research director at Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass. "Out of 50 interviewees, not one said they
would consider outsourcing storage as a separate activity. So while companies like StorageNetworks have great funding from venture
capital firms, we don't see great acceptance from Global 2500s. If we were advising VARs, we'd tell them to lean toward hosting of
entire business functions like e-mail or personal portals instead of basic storage."
"Where's the beef?" asks Ed Turetzky, midrange practice director at IBM business partner Champion Computer of Boca Raton, Fla.
"Because of speed and throughput, the distance limitations make this kind of approach questionable, and it's not like the cost of
storage is that high these days. Any time I have to go through a communications line, it's slower than my SCSI channels or fibre
channels locally, and if I go outside my campus, I'm talking about hefty charges from my phone company."
In addition to distance issues, one reason utility storage has been slower to evolve than its advocates would like it to is that it requires
end-user customers to place critical data in the hands of a third party, says Jim Porter, president of market research firm Disk/Trend
Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
Customer Suspicions
"If you look at it from the point of view of the poor son of a gun you want to sell it to, he's going to wonder where his data is or what
the hell is going to happen to it if one of these new companies goes belly-up," says Porter. "I, for one, would be very skeptical about
putting my data out there in the hands of someone I don't know. The method of transmission is not really the problem. You can lease
T-1 lines or use the Internet. The main concern would be just what kind of assurance the service provider can give that they're really
going to be there if they need to get the data back."
In other words, VARs who want to become utility storage firms must address credibility issues, not just the technological issues, if they
want to sell their services.
"If someone develops a real style of operation and a name which enables him to offer these off-site services in a way that's
completely reliable, then [utility storage] could take off," says Porter.
But he says he has seen roughly a dozen companies during the past two years announce utility storage, and "I've had the impression
it hasn't turned out to be that big a deal."
Several vendors distinguish between two types of off-site storage-real-time disk array production storage and tape backup storage.
They argue that although speed and distance issues still prevent large-scale deployment, tape backup on a utility basis is a viable
end-user solution.
"Because of the cost of moving data across big pipes, we're not there yet for real-time storage," says Steve Coates, program manager
of StorageTek's Storage Utility Services. "And if you're running a business, you want to keep all your transactions behind your
firewall. We won't see people using primary storage across large pipelines for some time now, until the economics and comfort level
come in line."
But off-site tape array storage is very much a reality, says StorageTek VAR Frontier GlobalCenter, the data and Internet arm of
Frontier Communications, which offers backup and disaster recovery services at its media distribution centers.
"One of our customers came to us and said they're in a position whereby their demands are scaling faster than they can architect
their site," says Jason Schaffer, Frontier's director of product management. "They needed our help in understanding how to set up a
back-end system, a short-term tape solution to warehouse data. We walked them through a buy-vs.-rent comparison. We told them,
'You can buy an STK tape library if you want, and we'll resell it to you and install it, or you can just rent it and have an enterprise
solution available to you on a rental basis.' They bought the rental solution hook, line and sinker."
Frontier locates its utility storage backup hardware in separate lead-lined rooms-to prevent electromagnetic radiation-in its media
distribution centers. Its StorageTek tape arrays can handle well in excess of 36 TB of data, says Schaffer, and are fully scalable.
Although Frontier's utility storage customers share hardware infrastructure, the tapes are separate, says Schaffer: "The only thing they
share is the physical chassis, which is heavily guarded. Each customer even has his own drive heads."
Quick Scan
Compaq Computer Corp. Houston, Texas (800) 345-1518,
www.compaq.com/storageworks
Storage Technology Corp. Louisville, Colo. (800) 785-2217,
www.storagetek.com
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