October 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Servers tend to take center stage in green datacenter discussions, and for good reason. Those data-crunchin', app-runnin' machines are currently the most notorious power hogs in the datacenter joint. But storage hardware is rapidly catching up in terms of power consumption, according to The Green Data Project. By 2008, power consumption by disk is expected to exceed that of all other equipment.
[InfoClipz: Green tech | Video: Hitachi CTO talks green storage ]
There are a couple of reasons for that. First, data simply continues to pile up. Second, as that data piles up, datacenter operators have an unfortunate habit of throwing more storage at the problem, rather than making better use of what they've got. That approach ends up costing you in several significant ways. You're laying down cash for new or leased storage arrays. You're paying monthly bills to power and cool those arrays. And you're sacrificing precious datacenter space for potentially superfluous hardware.
Surprise, surprise, storage vendors out there are keenly aware of the problem and are devising storage technology and products that could play a critical role in your green datacenter blueprints. Among those vendors is Hitachi Data Systems (HDS). The company's CTO, Hu Yoshida, recently sat down with me to talk about the subject. (You can watch the video here.)
Data diet
One resource-saving storage technology being pushed by HDS and other vendors, including HP, is thin provisioning. The premise behind the technology is pretty straightforward: It lets IT admins view all of their storage hardware as a great big pool and divvy up slices as needed, rather than allocating separate arrays for different business units that might not be taking full advantage of the pricey hardware you've set aside for them.
The result, if all goes well: You can purchase just enough storage machinery to meet your organization's collective needs, which means you're paying less money for arrays that are sitting there running at 20 percent utilization while you pay for 100 percent of their drives to spin. That doesn't make a lot of sense economically or environmentally. (There's also the benefit of easier management, but my sites are set on green.)
For thin provisioning to be effective, careful planning is, of course, critical, a point that's certainly not lost on InfoWorld storage guru Mario Apicella. If various departments estimate they'll need 8TB of storage but, lo, it turns out they collectively needed 10TB (oops!), you're left in an unenviable situation of playing storage catch-up.
But then, that's the challenge of running a green datacenter in general: You have to be sure you forecast and budget intelligently such that you always have just enough servers, storage arrays, and other hardware up and running at one time. That's fodder for another blog post, perhaps. On to additional green storage approaches.
Put the brakes on drives
In my interview with Yoshida, he talked about the new power-management capabilities, called Power Savings Storage Service (or secretively, PSSS), which the company recently introduced in its mid-range Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) and Workgroup Modular Storage (WMS) systems. Once again, the premise is pretty straightforward: You have an array with various drives, but this feature gives you the ability to put drives to sleep when they're not being used. That means, of course, that you're not paying to power something pointlessly.
This technology might sound familiar to you if you've read about MAID (massive arrays of idle disk) technology. MAID storage systems also have drives which can be woken up individually and put to sleep. But there are key differences, which Yoshida has taken pains to clarify in his own blog. He goes so far as to say that PSSS is the opposite of MAID: PSSS works by putting active drives to sleep whereas MAID works by waking up sleeping drives.
The approach differs because the applications are different. The AMD and WMS arrays are RAID systems storing production data. "These HDS RAID arrays are production arrays that have no restrictions on writing or reading and can have high-performance [Fibre Channel] RAID groups and/or lower cost SATA RAID groups," Yoshida writes. "Instead of keeping all the disks idle until they are accessed, this feature enables a user or scripted application to power down a RAID group when it is not being accessed and power it back up when it needs to be accessed."
MAID, on the other hand, is geared for SATA drives storing write once, read occasionally data; that is, data stored on large-capacity drives that you access infrequently and can afford to wait for.
Yoshida concedes that MAID does technically consume less energy, which isn't surprising, considering that California utility PG&E has offered incentives for companies to enlist MAID. Byte and Switch reports that "users have already shaved around 75 percent off their energy bills through MAID, thanks to the fact that disks are typically idle. HDS, on the other hand, is touting potential savings of around 20 percent as a result of its reliance on active disks."
Of course, there's no reason you can't employ MAID and HDS's arrays at the same time. In our interview, Yoshida noted that they can certainly be complementary. Yes, MAID might use fewer kilowatts, but when you're building a green datacenter, you can't simply focus on the product that uses the least energy -- another point that Yoshida emphasized. Rather, the idea is to assemble the equipment that meets your present and future needs while wasting the fewest resources possible. Again, that takes plenty of planning, but the payoff can nonetheless be significant.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 4, 2007 03:00 AM
April 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Just as companies are turning to virtualization to wring more energy efficiency out of their servers, so too might they start employing MAID (massive array of idle disk) storage devices to control the power expenditures stemming from their ever-swelling data troves.
Recognizing the potential energy savings of MAID, PG&E has announced an incentive program for organizations to adopt the storage platform. "Data storage growth rates for many businesses exceed 100% per annum, so a technology that supports that rate in a more energy efficient manner will help our customers manage their costs," said Brad Whitcomb, vice president of customer products and services at PG&E. "By providing financial support, we hope to ramp up industry adoption of this technology."
MAID storage devices contain multiple (or, a "massive array of") drives, but unlike with traditional storage systems, those drives aren't all spinning continuously. Rather, a drive spins when you need to access the data on it. The end-result: lower energy bills, both saved on powering your storage devices as well as your cooling. (InfoWorld Test Center Senior Analyst and Storage Guru Mario Apicella has written about MAID at greater length.)
Copan Systems, maker of Cool Bytes MAID storage solutions, is the first company to boast certification for its product under the PG&E program. "We're pleased to be the first storage company to qualify our products for the PG&E energy efficiency incentive," said Roger Archibald, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Copan in a written statement. "We look forward to helping customers get a handle on data center growth, especially in terms of energy use."
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) (a current COPAN customer) collaborated with PG&E on tests to assess the energy effiency of MAID as well as Fibe Channel disk products and standard SATA. According to the results, MAID delivers impressive 91TB of capacity per kilowatt consumed, where as Fibre Channel delivers 4TB per kilowatt, on average, and SATA does 17TB per kilowatt.
"The energy savings, both for powering disks and cooling the unit, are
certainly attractive, and from a utility standpoint, we are assured hat the unit delivers energy-demand reduction," according to Mark Bramfitt, principal program manager for PG&E. "In combination, this is an exceptional set of environmental, capacity, and cost saving benefits for our customers."
The social networking company FaceBook is the first customer to take advtange of the PG&E incentive program. The company installed 448TB of Cool Bytes Enhanced MAID, and will receive $15,000 from PG&E as a result.
Currently, PG&E's incentive program is open to its own customers, as well as San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. It hopes to see the program expanded to other parts of the state and beyond.
For more information or an application, go to pge.com/hightech.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 13, 2007 04:04 PM
