Storage, Aaron Dumbrow Random Thoughts, Page 3

Another question from someone I work with. “Can you explain the meaning of ‘Multi-Tenant’? Aren’t all virtualized servers and storage ‘Multi-Tenant’?”

The term Multi-Tenant is a little misleading. Technically, yes virtualized servers are multi-tenant in that there are multiple servers running on a single server. The term Multi-Tenant in the technology world however typically refers to a system where more than one company is using the same systems.

By way of example, we can look at a cloud hosting provider such as HP’s Cloud System Matrix (CSM). As a disclaimer, this not an official HP Blog, and I am not an expert on CSM, but I do have a solid understanding of it. So on CSM, you have multiple options. The most common and cost effective method is to simply purchase a virtual instance of a server. Essentially you get a virtual machine. Your virtual machine is on the same physical machine as several other peoples. In fact, it might get moved to other servers using vMotion without your knowledge. The concept is that you are simply renting or leasing a virtual machine, but you don’t care what the physical hardware is.

In the HP StoreServ, formerly 3Par, storage, arena, we have a similar concept of multi-tenancy. Consider the design of the 3Par array. Everything within the system is built first for redundancy, then for performance. It is the only truly tier 1 array that extends from the SMB through the global enterprise using the same architecture. The system was originally designed for hosting providers, thus everything had to remain functional no matter what. With this in mind, the system was created to be multi-tenant. It is literally possible to present the system as multiple virtual SAN’s without the users realizing it. This is perfect again if you want a granular control of your SAN, but you want to rent or lease it. A service provider might purchase a large system, and partition it off to many different companies. Since they all share the SAN, the system in multi-tenant. The HP StoreServ array is able to give a secure virtual san to each user.

So to wrap up, something which is virtualized but not multi-tenant would be most traditional virtualized systems. A company virtualizes their infrastructure within their own datacenter, or even at a colo. Since they are the only company on the system, that would be a single tenant system, or not-multi-tenant.

So in a previous post, VMware Fundamentals Part 3 I talked about VMware and storage, and made a case for a mixed protocol storage environment. While I stand behind what I said, I always think it is interesting to take a deeper look at the industry. Calvin Zito, the HP storage guy, made some very good points in his post, Block of File Based Storage for VMware which got me thinking a bit more. That coupled with the recent product releases from HP have inspired me to talk a little more about this topic.

Calvin points out some compelling points about how block gets the most attention on the development cycle from VMware, and at this point, with the software initiators, and the ease of use, it often makes more sense to simply use a block based protocol.

That being said, in many virtual environments, we often find that the traditional storage array doesn’t fit the bill. We are running a number of host servers, with internal storage that is going to waste. So how do we take advantage of this lost capacity, and how can we lower our costs while adding additional value?

A tough concept for many of us who came up through the ranks of storage administration to swallow is that storage is not king any more. It is certainly important, but gone are the days when I can walk into a company as a storage admin and name my price. Now certainly as a Storage Architect I can demand more, but even so, I am required to know more than just storage. The really tough part though is storage is no longer defined as a monolithic array. We have to start embracing the concept that storage, like everything else must be defined as software. This becomes more and more important when we look at the move toward ITaaS. Nicholas Carr drives this point home in his book, The Big Switch.

So the short answer to the question, what is the future of storage, much like compute, networking, and the rest of what we do, the future of storage is software. Whether it is open source or supported by a company such as HP, this is where we are headed.

Aaron Dumbrow Random Thoughts

Making your home smarter

Storage

The future of storage