I just watched the SUNW Storage web cast. Here are my notes:
Objectives of new storage family:
Scalability (incremental)
Safe (24x7)
One stop service and support
Easy to manage
Rapid deployment
Multivendor support
Price/Performance
Open
Complete offering from one vendor
Storage family supports:
NAS; Direct Attached storage (DAS); SAN
Built using a building block of a 9 drive RAID 5 array with FC connection to additional boxes. Two such arrays connected provide a "no single point of failure" configuration. May be rack mounted, 8 per rack up to 88TB using Sun Enterprise 10,000 Starfire server.
A demo showing the removal of an active drive, power supply and FC connection demonstrated the "no single point of failure" features and a console controller showing the points of failure to the sys admin. (Nothing new here, whatsoever.)
1TB = $155K from Sun; (versus $700K from EMC)
10TB = $2M from Sun; (versus $4.6M from EMC)
First and foremost is to provide DAS for Sun Solaris servers. Then NT; HP-UX; IBM AIX; LINUX, W2K.
Second to provide NAS. StorEdge N8200 = 30% better price than NetApp.
Third to provide SAN or "Managed Storage Network". Goal is to make the SAN open to any servers and storage devices.
"StorEdge Network Foundation Software" using Jiro technology and the Veritas V3 SAN Access Layer APIs.
Support Ancor FC switches today but putting together an interoperability testing program to certify all FC switches.
Building SAN independent integrators partnerships.
Will provide the ability to order a complete SAN with a single line item order.
Providing "capacity on demand leasing program" at $.01/MB.
Storage Management Software:
-Console
--Component Mgt
--Capacity Mgt
--Data Protection
-Fabric Manager
--Visual hyperbolic tree view
-Data Protection Services
--Point in time backup
---Called "Storage Instant Image"
---Runs at system level
--Remote Copies
---Network Data Replicator
---IP Level copies
Much discussion about services to be offered in connection with Sun Storage products, including dedicated engineers and a dedicated sales force.
My impressions:
Much of what we were seeing discussed were still in development. Only the DAS products for SUN servers is deliverable at this point, it seems.
The target is EMC. They ran an ad which was based on a Tuperware (Storageware) party where the hostess presented a huge tupperware that had its own refrigeration and a special key that only certified people could use to open and put stuff in. To add more storage, you have to buy a whole new giant tupperware bowl at $10,000. Clearly a slam on EMC.
Their "Storage Instant Image" capability is in answer to NTAP's SNAPSHOT. (Sun even called their product "snapshot".) I hope to learn the internals of this capability. It appears to be innovative, if it doesn't require "integration" with the app as they implied vaguely in their presentation.
All in all, this appears to be repackaging of SUN servers with RAID 5 arrays and FC with the promise of "StorEdge Network Foundation Software", which is in development. A set of APIs will be provided so that other vendors can co-exist in the Foundation Software environment.
Along with the packaged systems were simple configurations; specialized, dedicated services and sales; and aggressive pricing.
In closing remarks it was said "This is not just about protecting our own base." hmmmmm |
