Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Are cheap mirrors better than RAID?"
This article is part of the Vol. 3 No. 10 December 2004 issue of How does your storage salary stack up?
Here's a question for you: If hard disk drives get cheap enough, will storage system vendors start to bypass complex, parity-based data protection schemes like RAID 5? It's an idea whose time may have come. Consider ExaGrid Systems, a network-attached storage (NAS) startup in Westborough, MA, which last month announced the general availability of Advanstor, a storage system that incorporates NAS, backup, automated data migration--aka hierarchical storage management (HSM)--as well as remote replication and disaster recovery, but forgoes RAID altogether. "It's not that there's anything wrong with RAID--there isn't," says Mark Kaufman, ExaGrid president and CEO. "But for us, it just added cost and complexity without adding much value." Instead of RAID within the array, Advanstor protects the data on its primary storage tier by mirroring it multiple times to separate, inexpensive storage nodes, "GRIDdisks" in ExaGrid-speak. GRIDdisks are 1U servers equipped with four 250GB SATA drives in a JBOD configuration, plus ExaGrid's proprietary software. By default, the ... Access >>>
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Features
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First Look: Brocade's SilkWorm Multiprotocol Router
Brocade Communications Systems' SilkWorm Multiprotocol Router links SAN islands with software-assignable ports that can communicate via three different ports.
- Survey says: Heterogeneous fabrics still rare
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Think you're compliant? Prove it
Documenting compliance.
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Are cheap mirrors better than RAID?
Cheap mirroring vs. RAID.
- Storage bolsters blade servers
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Match snaps to apps
Snapshots are key to most shops' backup and recovery plans. But implementing them requires application analysis to determine the best type of snapshots to use and how often to take them.
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Storage salaries edge up
Storage's second annual Salary Survey finds salaries and bonuses inching upward despite a still sluggish economy. Even with hiring remaining flat, 2005 looks promising for storage salaries.
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First Look: Brocade's SilkWorm Multiprotocol Router
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- Faster DB failover in view
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How to select an SRM suite
by Jerome M. Wendt
Today's SRM tools offer a full menu of features, but before you dig in you need to know which are must-haves and which look tasty but provide little sustenance.
- Four Gig: Hurry up and wait
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Hands-On Review: Kashya KBX5000
by Darryl Brooks
Kashya Inc.'s KBX5000 appliance offers cost-effective and efficient replication for heterogeneous storage.
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Tape price hikes looming
by Alex Barrett, Trends Editor
In the coming months, expect to pay more for tape cartridges.
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Stress-free firmware upgrades
Firmware upgrades can be daunting, but you can take some of the fear and frustration out of the process by preparing detailed documentation of your storage environment.
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Columns
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IBM takes a step forward
Storage Bin: IBM takes a step forward
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Data storage trends: Information lifecycle management
by Jon Oltsik
Looking forward to 2005
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Snapshot: Remote mirroring for data
Do you mirror your data remotely?
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A glimpse of the future
by Mark Schlack
A glimpse of the future
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The storage revolution
by Stephen Foskett
The storage revolution
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IBM takes a step forward
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