What IT Pros Need to Know About Cloud Storage, Part 2

One of the biggest challenges in enterprise storage management is under utilization of assets. Even the most advanced storage architecture can be undermined by a capacity planning or purchasing mishap. Certain technologies, like thin provisioning, object storage, and cloud storage can help, but nothing takes the place of good old-fashioned storage management.

 Capacity utilization of enterprise storage systems has remained at low levels for decades. IT departments often over by storage capacity when money is available as a hedge against future unfunded demands, and some storage architectures just can't handle high levels of utilization. Then there are the challenges of communication and forecasting of future storage needs. It's no wonder, really, that typical storage environments only have data on about a third of their usable SAN or NAS capacity.

Historic approaches to improving capacity utilization just haven't helped. First came a nonsensical push toward tiered storage, though no one could quite articulate how this improves capacity utilization. Distressingly, many organizations resort to blaming storage administrators for poor utilization, even though they have very little say in how their systems are used.

 One cause of low capacity utilization is the block access method itself. Protocols like SCSI and ATA “expect” access to an entire virtual disk drive. Servers connected in this way manage their own pool of capacity outside the traditional sphere of influence of storage and data professionals. Thin provisioning ought to help, but many storage administrators, concerned about running out of capacity, still won't run their systems at high levels of utilization. Even where it is used, thin provisioning is little more than a temporary measure to avoid new storage purchases until usage catches up to the comfort level of IT pros.

 But what if a different protocol was used to communicate with storage systems, one that “understood” when files were created, updated, and deleted? Such protocols exist today, in the form of object and cloud storage systems. Although it may require application changes or a gateway to switch storage protocols, organizations are increasingly turning to these alternatives.

 In a way, public cloud storage is the ultimate form of thin provisioning. Users can pay only for what they use, with file or object level granularity, and deleted objects can be immediately “given back” to the public pool. Private clouds and object storage systems are conceptually similar, but they still require capacity planning and must be purchased in large chunks. But bigger organizations can get the same kind of on-demand provisioning as public cloud provided they are able to attract a broad base of users.

 Utilization has always been a tough nut to crack, so perhaps it's time for IT departments to follow the lead of cloud service providers and begin to transition to object and cloud storage. Applications like archiving and document management can immediately use object and cloud storage systems at high levels of utilization. As these and other applications make the transition, perhaps storage utilization will finally rise from its decade-long slumber.

 Read the first article in this series, What IT Pros Need to Know About Cloud Storage, Part 1

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