Hybrid Storage Hype

As I write this, we are in the closing weeks of what has been a busy and dynamic year on many fronts in and around the storage industry ecosystem.

Decembers are always busy with month-end, quarter-end, year-end deadlines as well as holiday shopping. And for those of you in sales or marketing, there's the all-too-frequent battle cry about it being the most important month in the most important quarter of your company's history!

Not to be outdone during this busy time of year, the storage industry is taking some cues from consumer electronics and other mass-market segments by embracing the hybrid craze.

Let's dwell for a moment on the concept. Like multi-function or all-in-one printer/copier/fax/scanner devices, multi-function multi-protocol or combo storage systems (aka unified, federated, etc.) can be generically described as storage solutions or management software packages that do more than one thing, hopefully with "ease of use at an affordable price."

Now, storage means different things to different folks. Consider what I found when I spent a few minutes searching "hybrid storage" earlier today. Indeed, I found many items for my new wish list:

OK, let's get serious. Real examples of hybrid storage include integrated SAN and NAS (without a gateway or creative physical packaging). Hybrid storage has also been used to describe easy-to-use easy-to-install systems with simplified licensing or some type of management function not normally associated with a particular class of storage.

For instance, there are the storage systems that can handle multiple protocols and interfaces, including iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NAS in one unit. Examples of these kinds of multifunction systems include Dell PowerVault NX1950, HP StorageWorks All-in-One, and NetApp StoreVault – as well as NAS systems that support iSCSI, like those from BlueArc, EMC, NetApp, and others.

There also are plenty of hybrid SME and enterprise scenarios centered on NAS or NAS gateways. Multi-vendor hybrid SAN/NAS storage solutions include those from HP+PolyServe, HDS+BlueArc, BlueArc+Engenio, ONStor+DotHill, NetApp+IBM, NetApp+HDS (and others), ONStor+3PAR, and many others.

Next Page: Driving Hybrid

Then there's one of my favorites: the all-too-descriptive hybrid disk drives. In this category are the infamous and elusive iSCSI disk drive, the hybrid solid state disk (SSD), and disk drives packaged in removable media that look like tape cartridges – to name just a few.Let's take that iSCSI disk drive. Every time a vendor tries to convince me they are actually shipping a real iSCSI disk drive, I chuckle, depending how much the salesperson believes what they are saying – or has been programmed to say.

Just to make sure, I recently checked the websites of the main disk drive manufactures (Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu, HGST, and Samsung) and found no sign of the infamous iSCSI disk drive.

But rest assured there are plenty of good iSCSI storage solutions in the marketplace.

That said, I’m not convinced that a gigabit Ethernet port with a processor that runs an iSCSI target attached to a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA drive qualifies as a hybrid drive – anymore than a USB port and bridge card attached to an ATA or SATA disk drive so qualifies.

Given that it is the holiday season, let's let the hybrid iSCSI disk drive slide for now – same with USB disk drives. However, ask yourself, Are the multi-purpose "thumb drive" devices that function as FM/XFM receiver, flashlight, MP3 player, and encryptor really hybrids?Let's look at other kinds of hybrid disks. Another example is the emerging 32-Gbyte drives that combine FLASH memory (the same that is used in your USB thumb drive) with solid state disk (SSD) to replace 2.5-inch ATA disk drives used in laptops. These new hybrids boost performance and reduce power consumption.

Another example is the kind of disk drive that implements tiered storage on disks themselves, by incorporating a 160-Gbyte disk drive front-ended with 256 Mbytes of FLASH memory – with a smaller RAM-based cache in front of that. The idea behind these drives is to reduce power consumption by levering FLASH, potentially boosting performance. Sounds almost like a mini-MAID in a drive or enclosure.

To stand up to the growing concern around security and encryption, disk drive manufactures are starting to ship encryption-enabled disk drives, as are USB thumb drive vendors.

Then there are the 1-Tbyte disk drives, which aren't yet shipping. On the surface, these may not even seem like hybrid drives. Under the surface, the multiple 500-Gbyte disk drives with a RAID and NAS controller or USB port act like miniature NAS filers. Are these really hybrids? Well, if they could be reduced to the size of a thumb drive or iPod, I might consider granting a holiday dispensation. Otherwise, they're just snazzy little storage devices.

One kind of hybrid storage device you may start hearing more about is the aggregated collection of many small disk drives in a canister or sealed enclosure featuring embedded RAID, power management, and other features. Kind of a throwback to the dual-HDA and short-stroked disk drives, these items are meant to improve performance, capacity, and availability, though the focus is also on power consumption.There are several different variations on this theme being explored by companies of different size and focus. A key marketing question is whether these devices should be called RAID, MAID, SPAID – or how about BOID (Brick of Independent Disks)?

Let's also not forget the hybrid disk drive that – via packaging – appears as tape, or that supports removability that is traditionally associated with tape. Products like those from Quantum (GoVault), Iomega (Rev), Imation (RDX, Odyssey, Ulysses), Prostor (RDX), and others come to mind.

Given enough holiday cheer, I suppose we could consider VTLs, along with optical DVDs front-ended by NAS or a tape emulator as hybrid storage. Aw heck, in the spirit of the season, let’s call any storage virtualization solution in general a hybrid, and let the creative marketeers come up with new tiers or classifications of hybrid storage.

Next Page: Parting Thoughts

Let's wrap up with a few things to consider regarding hybrid storage:

So there you have it. For now, have a safe and happy hybrid holiday season as well as a prosperous hybrid new year.

Go with the flow on the hybrid storage hype, but look to see where hybrid storage reality can be of benefit to you at work, on the road, or at home in the not so distant future.

— Greg Schulz, Founder and Senior Analyst, The StorageIO Group