Chuck's Blog

Going All-Flash

A memo from Captain Obvious: flash continues to change how we think about storage. 

For me, the party started way back in 2008 when EMC introduced an enterprise-grade flash drive for Symmetrix.  Fast forward to 2014, and the party is still rocking strong …

Up to now, most of my customer discussions have been how to best use flash with precision: surgical strikes on key areas where IO response times are a problem.  The approach makes a certain sense: flash drives are more expensive than the magnetic spinning variety.

But in the last six months, it’s not unusual to meet a customer that sees themselves going “all flash” either now, or before too long. 

The mindset has clearly begun to shift from "use flash to manage performance problems" to "use flash as the default".  We're not talking exotic use cases, it's showing up in bread-and-butter enterprise IT settings.

And the motivations are quite interesting.

How Software-Based Storage Is Changing Servers

If you’re a server manufacturer, you’re playing a very demanding game.  

There’s a never-ending parade of new technologies you’ve got to rapidly adopt.  Customers expect both flawless execution as well as steadily declining prices.  And you’ve got some pretty aggressive competitors as well :)

You’re also paying attention to shifting workload demands from your customers.

As I track the various server vendor announcements, I couldn’t help but notice a pronounced shift towards designs that are obviously intended to be used as part of a storage or database farm.

Looks like the pendulum is swinging — again.

Software-Defined Storage -- Reading

For those of you interested in software-defined storage, I wanted to point you to two pieces (written by me) that you might find useful.

The first is more of a conversational treatment: if you're interested in SDS, what should you be looking for?  

It's a quick read, and doesn't require that you be an enterprise architect to follow along.

The second is a more exhaustive treatise on SDS from a VMware perspective.  It is lengthy, detailed and is aimed at enterprise architects who need to take a multi-year view.  

It will also give you a sense of some of the areas VMware will be focusing on (both alone and with partners) without getting into roadmap details.

At some point, these will be posted on the VMware website -- just wanted to give you all a preview!

"Understanding The DNA Of Software-Defined Storage"

"The VMware Perspective On Software-Defined Storage"

As always: feedback, commentary, criticisms, complaints, etc. -- all welcome!

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Greetings From VMworld 2014

No surprise, I’m out in gorgeous SF for the annual gathering of the vFaithful — VMworld 2014. 

As before, it’s quite an experience, even for a jaded event veteran like me.  Like a desert blooming after a rainstorm, Moscone Center is transformed into a fascinating technology experience, and  — then — we wait until next year for it to happen all over again.

I’m not capable of giving you a detailed report on everything that happened at VMworld — there’s way too much to cover. 

Instead, I thought I’d share with you what stood out for me personally.

Making The Case For Software-Defined Storage

My corner of the IT industry is foisting a new concept on enterprise IT shops: software-defined storage.  Supposedly, it’s TNT — the next thing!

But we as vendors need to be held accountable for making our case.  

The existing storage kit seems to be doing the job; why would we need anything radically different?  

Where’s the big advantage, and — more importantly — is the expected gain worth the trouble?

Unless we — as an industry — can make our case for the new technology, it will join the scrap heap of glittery ideas once considered and eventually discarded.

But that won’t happen here — at least, that’s what I think.

Losing My Religion

As a younger version of my present self, I was supremely confident in what I knew to be true — especially when it came to all things enterprise IT tech.  

There was generally accepted wisdom about many things; to disagree with certain tenets made people question your expertise.

But with age and experience, I realized that many of the “obvious truths” on which I had built my belief system were quickly becoming fallacies.  

Time for a new religion?

No, not really — more of a never-ending appreciation of how the world really works.  That means modifying old frameworks, and creating new ones.

I often meet younger versions of myself, also supremely confident in their current beliefs.   I don’t try and challenge them directly, but I do make the point that “obvious truths” in this business have a very short shelf-life indeed.

It’s All About The Operational Model …

No, I didn’t append the word “stupid” to the title of this blog post.  

I do admit I had a moment of temptation, but then realized that I don’t like demeaning titles, and assume the same for most of you as well.

But I will ‘fess up to a certain level of frustration results when discussing advanced IT concepts with my colleagues and customers.  

The natural temptation is to put whatever’s being discussed on the operating table, and surgically dismembering a big concept into constituent technologies, which are then individually criticized.   Frequently, the forest is lost in a critique about individual components of the trees.

Can I attempt a big picture?

IT consumption continues to balloon exponentially with no end in sight.  Between commodity hardware and open source, the traditional ingredients are predictably getting cheaper and cheaper — but not outracing demand, it seems. 

Which leaves us with a renewed and intense focus on operational efficiency: primarily the effort required to get something done.   While new shiny technologies are always interesting, the new lens should be “how does this new thing enable a new operational model?” 

Because how we do things is becoming much more important than what we use to do them.

Why A Hybrid Cloud Is So Darn Appealing To Enterprises

Many of my VMware colleagues and I are seeing the same thing, time and time again.  

We’re doing a general update on things VMware — a smorgasbord of different topics.  We get to the segment on vCHS — VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service.  Frequently, they either haven’t heard about it, or don’t know much about it.

That's an opportunity waiting to happen. 

Because within 5 minutes, they’ll quickly grasp how a hybrid cloud is different, and how they might use it.  Heads nod, light bulbs go off, the discussion gets animated — all that.

Given the inherent skepticism of many enterprise IT groups towards All Things Cloud, you might not expect that sort of positive reaction.  But true hybrid clouds aren’t like other public cloud services — and that’s what makes them so darn appealing to so many enterprise IT groups.

Policy-Based IT: The Next Frontier?

Several years ago, it became clear to me that the next aspirational model for enterprise IT was “IT as a Service”, or ITaaS.    

At its core was a simple yet powerful idea: that the core IT operational model should be refashioned around the convenient consumption of IT services.  

Under the ITaaS model, most everything IT does is now presented as a variable service, marketed to users, with supply driven by the resulting demand. 

IT becomes the internal service provider of choice.

Now, several years later, that once-controversial idea has clearly grown deep roots, with many examples of progressive IT organizations embracing this perspective.   Some have made the transition, some are mid-journey, others have yet to begin.  The IT world has moved forward.

So, it’s fair to ask — what might come next?  I have a strong suspicion as to what the next operational model will be.

VSAN: The First 100+ Days

I have the distinct privilege of working closely with VMware’s VSAN team. 

As a career storage guy, I find VSAN fascinating on many levels:

- It’s a bona-fide storage product from a company not known for storage

- It’s a 100% software product, uniquely interwoven with the vSphere hypervisor

- It doesn’t look or act like a familiar storage array

To say there were a few personal worry-bubbles when we took it to market would be an understatement.  What would our customers think?  How would storage people react to it?

Now that the first full quarter is behind us (and largely public information), I can safely declare: VSAN shows every sign of being a winner.