NETAPP WHITE PAPER

Unified Storage Architecture

Enabling today’s dynamic data center

Paul Feresten and Ravi Parthasarathy, NetApp

October 2008 | WP-7054-1008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The traditional model for enterprise storage requires a different storage system for each storage function.
One storage architecture might be deployed for primary network-attached storage (NAS), another for
storage area networks (SANs), with additional platforms for secondary storage, archive, and compliance.
Because of the obvious complexity and cost of such an approach, many vendors in the storage industry
have begun to talk about “unified” storage, co-opting the term from NetApp, which pioneered a unified
storage architecture years ago. The solutions these vendors offer typically include the ability to
accommodate both NAS and SAN protocols, but do so by combining NAS and SAN components with
different architectures, management infrastructures, backup requirements, and so on, and rarely offer the
scalability and performance necessary in today’s enterprise environments.
This paper describes the elements of the NetApp® unified storage architecture in detail, including true
multiprotocol support, a single management interface, integrated data protection, support for multiple tiers of
storage (primary, secondary, and archive/compliance), quality of service, and the ability to act as a front end
for legacy storage systems. NetApp is able to combine these features and more into a single platform
capable of meeting your end-to-end storage needs, while demonstrating significant performance and cost-
of-ownership advantages, setting the standard by which any storage solution that claims to be unified should
be measured.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 3
DEFINITIONS ...............................................................................................................................................................3

ENTERPRISE CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................4

THE NEED TO UNIFY STORAGE ...............................................................................................................................5

OTHER “UNIFIED” SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................................5

2 A SIMPLER APPROACH TO UNIFIED STORAGE................................................................... 6

3 NETAPP UNIFIED STORAGE ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING BLOCKS .................................. 7
4 PERFORMANCE IMPACT ....................................................................................................... 10
SAN PERFORMANCE ...............................................................................................................................................10

NAS PERFORMANCE ...............................................................................................................................................11

OTHER PERFORMANCE MEASURES.....................................................................................................................11

5 COST ADVANTAGES OF UNIFIED STORAGE...................................................................... 11

6 THE FUTURE OF NETAPP UNIFIED STORAGE.................................................................... 12
SCALE OUT ...............................................................................................................................................................12

UNIFIED FABRIC .......................................................................................................................................................13

7 FIVE TESTS FOR DETERMINING IF YOU’RE BUYING UNIFIED STORAGE ...................... 13

8 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 14

2 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

1 INTRODUCTION
The enterprise data center is undergoing a radical transformation; server virtualization technology is
changing the way both servers and applications are provisioned, while altering the workload on storage
systems and increasing storage demand.
The trend toward server virtualization and consolidation is causing a transformation in the way that data
centers are being designed, built, and managed. Data storage and data management are key elements of
this transformation, because successful virtualization deployments depend upon a shared, networked
storage infrastructure capable of eliminating the “silos” of storage associated with various application tiers.
This data center transformation makes the idea of “unified storage” increasingly appealing. Unified storage is
an important tool that can help address many existing data center challenges, including helping you get
power, cooling, and space utilization under control. If you are in the midst of redesigning your data center or
establishing a new infrastructure model, unified storage should be a key element of that effort.
But what is unified storage, and what are the requirements for a unified storage solution? Although the
marketing literature for many solutions may claim a solution is unified, the reality is often something quite
different.
NetApp believes that a true unified storage solution should be much more than a loosely coupled collection
of components. In this paper, we’ll examine a fundamentally simpler approach to storage, discuss unified
storage building blocks, debunk some myths about unified storage performance, illustrate the solution's cost
advantages, and describe what we see as the next steps in the evolution of NetApp unified storage.

DEFINITIONS
Let’s begin with a few definitions so there is no confusion about what we mean by important terms.
• Unified storage architecture. A unified storage architecture creates a single, end-to-end foundation for
dynamic data management. It goes beyond simple multiprotocol storage to provide integrated data
management and data protection, support for all tiers of storage, quality of service, and other elements,
all in a single platform. A unified storage architecture enables the creation of a common storage pool
that can be networked and shared across a diverse set of applications with a common set of
management processes. The ability to scale from small to very large storage capacity without
compromising application performance or service levels is a key attribute.
• Multiprotocol storage. A multiprotocol storage system supports both block-based and file-based
access in a single storage platform, incorporating Fibre Channel (FCP) and iSCSI access for blocks and
NFS and CIFS access for files. Applications can utilize two or more of these protocols simultaneously.
The ability to run Fibre Channel protocol over Ethernet (FCoE) is emerging as a key ingredient of
modern multiprotocol infrastructures.
• Dynamic data center. The dynamic data center is one that leverages a utility computing model,
centralized resource management, and rapid and flexible resource allocation to support a wide range of
data center applications. This includes the ability to rapidly commission and decommission applications,
provision (and reprovision) required resources, and nondisruptively migrate applications and data
between resources to meet time-varying application service level requirements. It also includes the
ability to seamlessly expand the underlying infrastructure and/or retire older components while
maintaining continuous application operations through nondisruptive migration.
• Unified fabric. A unified fabric provides a high-bandwidth, single-wire approach in which all of a data
center’s I/O activity can be consolidated, regardless of underlying network protocols and data formats.
From a server and storage perspective, this will reduce the required number of host bus adapters, NICs,
switches, and cables. A unified fabric will allow increased data center scalability with improved
performance and fault tolerance. The first step toward achieving a unified fabric is having the ability to
run Fibre Channel over Ethernet.

3 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

ENTERPRISE CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES
When we look at typical enterprise challenges and objectives, the need for a unified storage architecture
starts to come into focus. Many data centers have grown organically over time. New storage systems have
been dedicated to each new application, often without enough consideration for what existed before. In
many cases, this situation has been complicated by mergers and acquisitions that bring together disparate
infrastructures.
Enterprise data centers often provide tiers of storage targeted to meet the needs of different applications.
(Note that this type of storage tiering doesn’t necessarily map directly to the technology tiers that storage
vendors talk about—tier 1: high-speed FC disk, tier 2: SATA disk, tier 3: online archive, tier 4: tape). The
highest storage tier in an enterprise data center offers the most robust features to meet the requirements of
mission-critical applications. Lower tiers typically have decreasing levels of performance and availability (and
cost) suited to different application categories. These enterprise tiers may be created using equipment from
different vendors with different storage architectures.
The resulting silos of storage have increased overall cost because of complex management, low storage
utilization, and direct data center costs for power, space, and cooling. Backup and recovery processes are
complicated, and the time needed to accomplish them has increased to an unacceptable level.
Implementing a consistent DR strategy is difficult or impossible, and the need to tailor each DR solution for
each storage silo makes the cost and complexity prohibitive.

Table 1) Enterprise challenges that a unified storage architecture can help address.

Enterprise Challenge How a Unified Storage Architecture Helps

Emergence of server virtualization makes backup, Data protection is fully integrated at the storage level.
recovery, and DR more challenging. Backup and recovery are designed into the underlying
data structure and consistent across multiple classes of
data.
Increased downtime and costs result from ad hoc Consistent processes enable faster response and fewer
processes across heterogeneous infrastructure. errors while enabling policy-based automation.

Increase the productivity of people, systems, and Provides a single framework for data management with
infrastructure across multiple applications. a common set of processes and training requirements.

Existing technology is difficult to repurpose and scale. One storage platform adapts to the full range of data
types, access methods, and capacities required across
a diverse spectrum of enterprise applications.

Storage utilization is low resulting in poor data center Storage is pooled, allowing sharing of infrastructure and
efficiency. capacity with on-demand provisioning. Space saving
technologies such as deduplication and thin provisioning
reduce space, power, and cooling costs.
Infrastructure inherited through M&A and other means is Common software architecture can accommodate and
difficult to integrate in a rational manner. add value to storage devices/arrays from all major
vendors.

4 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

THE NEED TO UNIFY STORAGE
In order to address these challenges and reduce storage acquisition and operational costs, enterprises are
looking for ways they can simplify and unify storage infrastructure across both storage protocols and storage
tiers. The goals of those seeking to unify storage include:
• Improve service levels.
• Reduce costs of redundancy and minimize the number of point solutions.
• Move toward an end-to-end data protection plan (backup/recovery, D/R, archiving) with a single
management interface.
• Implement a recovery-centric approach to storage that minimizes downtime after an outage.
• Provide multisite infrastructure that protects as many applications as possible (cheaper network
bandwidth contributes to making this practical).
• Add the ability to delegate more functions to application and system admins (this requires a common
pool of storage coupled with policy-based tools).
When you begin to examine other vendors’ “unified” storage offerings in light of these goals, you quickly
realize that not all unified storage is created equal.

OTHER “UNIFIED” SOLUTIONS

For some storage vendors, unified storage just means the ability to support both NAS and SAN with a
storage solution bundled under a single product family name. Vendors may make claims of multiprotocol
support regardless of how integrated a solution is. Some solutions consist of a bundle of separate SAN and
NAS components—such as a NAS gateway configured in front of SAN storage—each with its own user
interface and data protection mechanism. At best, the commonality is the physical disks, and even those are
dedicated for SAN or NAS without the flexibility you need to quickly reallocate storage for use with different
protocols. This may be thought of as a “bolt–together” unified storage solution.
You may also find that these so-called unified storage products are bounded and nonscalable. Such
solutions are often targeted at small and medium-sized businesses; they are composed of multiple
components wired together in a way that won’t scale beyond narrow limits.
If you evaluate such solutions against the enterprise goals for unified storage described in the previous
section, you’ll find that they do little to satisfy any of the goals. Section 7 of this paper provides five tests you
can use to determine whether a particular solution has a truly unified storage architecture.

Figure 1) Bolt-together approximation of a unified storage solution.

5 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

2 A SIMPLER APPROACH TO UNIFIED STORAGE
In this section we examine the things that make NetApp storage—or any truly unified storage solution—
simpler. In addition to having the ability to run multiple storage protocols on the same system, it comes down
to how quickly and easily you can accomplish all the tasks associated with storage, from provisioning to data
protection, and how broadly those management capabilities can be leveraged.
• Single provisioning interface. A single interface is needed to effectively pool storage, creating one
model for defining data containers that can be allocated and dynamically managed (sized and resized)
for use by a wide range of applications, whether they need block (SAN) or file (NAS) access.
• Common management framework. Having a single data model and toolset enables a consistent
management framework across many applications and workloads. A set of common management
services creates a hierarchy of value, from management of physical storage to application-level
integration.
• Policy-based automation. Having a single provisioning interface and a common management
framework in turn makes possible policy-based automation that allows storage administrators to
delegate some or all of the responsibility for provisioning and management tasks. This extends a single
toolset across the organization, allowing system administrators, application administrators, DBAs, and
others to quickly accomplish storage tasks without storage administrator involvement.
• Shared data protection at the storage level. A single data protection architecture encompasses
everything from a single file to full disaster recovery—all based on the same basic foundation. Starting
with our Snapshot™ copy technology, NetApp has built a consistent set of tools that leverage that
underlying capability, extending its use for a wide range of applications both in the data center and at
remote offices. The result is near-instant data recovery and the ability to extend a consistent set of data
protection tools to files, LUNs, databases, and applications.
• Ability to incorporate legacy storage. The reality in almost every data center is that you have
substantial investments in storage from a variety of vendors. NetApp can extend many of the unified
storage advantages described in preceding bullets to your existing storage. NetApp V-Series systems
are able to virtualize storage from EMC, HP, HDS, IBM, and others.

As shown in Figure 2, this approach depends upon the ability to unify multiple technologies, protocols, and
classes of data on top of a single software foundation, enabling much greater consolidation of storage
infrastructure, including storage for primary, secondary, and archive data.

Figure 2) Integration of multiple technologies and classes of data.

6 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

3 NETAPP UNIFIED STORAGE ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING BLOCKS
This section describes the key technologies that make NetApp unified storage systems uniquely suited for
enterprise storage needs. The combination of these building blocks, incorporating key technologies for thin
provisioning, space-efficient scalable Snapshot copies, and deduplication, makes NetApp unified storage a
fundamentally efficient architecture.

SINGLE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

The NetApp Data ONTAP® operating environment is the software foundation that underlies every NetApp
storage system and is therefore the core of the NetApp unified storage architecture. Data ONTAP runs on
storage systems ranging from a few disk drives to over a petabyte of storage.
The result of years of continuous development, Data ONTAP is both stable and mature, and it contains a
rich set of integrated features that other storage vendors usually charge for if they offer them at all:
• Space-efficient, scalable Snapshot technology, with negligible performance impact, which yields
dramatic reductions in backup and recovery time and is the foundation of application-centric data
protection
• Onboard deduplication of both primary and secondary data
• Dual-parity RAID that protects against double disk failures without significant performance impact; other
vendors suggest using mirroring (doubling storage costs) for write-intensive workloads
• Thin provisioning, which allows multiple applications to share a single pool of on-demand storage so
you don’t have to provision more storage for one application while another application still has plenty of
allocated but unused storage
• Quality of service (QoS) so that high- and low-priority workloads can share the same storage without
impacting critical jobs
With a single software foundation, it is possible to meet the storage needs of the entire data center with one
basic approach, which translates to less training, more staff productivity, and dramatically improved
business agility.

Figure 3) Unified storage foundation—Data ONTAP.

7 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

INTEGRATED, MULTIPROTOCOL ACCESS
While other multiprotocol storage solutions lack the level of integration necessary to make them truly unified,
NetApp solutions integrate all the common file- and block-based storage protocols within Data ONTAP.
Provisioning and management interfaces are the same, and data protection, management, and application-
integration software work as expected, regardless of protocol.
You can easily run both file- and block-based storage protocols on a single storage system and apply core
Data ONTAP features such as Snapshot, deduplication, and thin provisioning to all your data, regardless of
the protocol you use. Of course, you can also dedicate individual storage systems for use by particular
protocols if you prefer. You'll have a common management interface across all systems and the ability to
repurpose a particular system and use it with a different storage protocol (or add a storage protocol) should
your needs change. The NetApp unified storage architecture gives you flexibility to design the right solution
for your needs today, without locking you into a limited solution that won’t adapt to future needs.

SINGLE, SCALABLE ARCHITECTURE

Many of the “unified” solutions from other vendors lack the ability to scale. NetApp offers a single storage
architecture across storage systems that range from workgroup or departmental solutions to full enterprise
systems. That lets you choose the storage systems that are right for your requirements in various locations
and to know that all will provide the multiprotocol access you need. A storage administrator who is trained on
Data ONTAP will be able to leverage those skills to manage any NetApp storage system you have, whether
it’s a small departmental system in a remote office or an enterprise-class storage system with hundreds of
terabytes of storage in your corporate data center.
NetApp storage systems also are able to scale both capacity and performance. You can start small with a
single disk shelf and a few disks, and grow to many terabytes. Your investment in disk storage is protected
in the event that you decide to upgrade your storage controller, so you don’t have to go through a painful
migration process. Other storage vendors often have different—and incompatible—operating environments
for their low-end versus mid-range versus enterprise storage, so making the transition from one class of
system to the next can require a painful data migration.

MULTIVENDOR ARRAY SUPPORT

Another significant dimension of NetApp unified storage is the ability to consolidate storage arrays from
other vendors—in effect making your existing heterogeneous storage arrays part of a unified solution. With
NetApp V-Series storage systems, you configure your existing storage arrays up front for use with the V-
Series controller. After making that initial configuration, you can handle most of the ongoing management
through NetApp management interfaces, effectively masking the heterogeneity of the underlying systems for
more efficient management that leverages all the benefits of Data ONTAP, including thin provisioning,
deduplication, and Snapshot. Your back-end systems may be Fibre Channel only, but using the NetApp V-
Series you can repurpose that storage and use it for Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NAS, or any combination.
Some customers find that they can deploy NetApp in front of their existing storage, use deduplication to
recover storage capacity, and actually delay making additional storage purchases.

FLEXIBLE STORAGE TIERS

The NetApp unified storage architecture has the ability to support different tiers of storage with the same
architecture and on the same storage system. (In this case, we’re talking about technology tiers rather than
enterprise-defined tiers.) These include a high-performance tier (Fibre Channel disk); a low-cost, high-
capacity tier (SATA disk); and online archive tiers using write once read-many (WORM) technology to
provide data permanence (FC or SATA).
In most vendor environments, these tiers are implemented using separate, discrete storage systems—and
at this point it should come as no surprise that the different tiers often have different, and incompatible,
storage architectures. This once again raises complexity and management overhead and limits flexibility.
Having the ability to have all these tiers in a single architecture with consistent management in which you
can provision different storage tiers in a single storage system, whenever it makes sense to do so, gives you
unprecedented flexibility and allows you to accomplish more with less overhead.

8 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

SINGLE, CONSISTENT DATA PROTECTION ARCHITECTURE
Unified storage from other vendors often consists of separate, discrete software stacks for NAS versus SAN.
This means you are stuck with a set of different, and largely incompatible, tools for protecting different types
of data. You may need two solutions for backup (one for NAS and one for SAN) and two more solutions for
disaster recovery.
The NetApp approach to data protection is different. As you’ve already seen, all NetApp software tools work
in essentially the same way regardless of the storage protocol you are using. NetApp data protection tools
are built on top of our space-efficient Snapshot technology, which captures a point-in-time image of a data
volume and consumes additional storage only as the volume changes. Snapshot copies serve as the
foundation for standard tape (and virtual tape) backups. You can also vault your Snapshot copies to
secondary storage for longer-term, online retention. Storage on standard Windows®, Linux®, and UNIX®
servers can also be included in this vaulting process.
For disaster recovery, NetApp provides efficient asynchronous or synchronous replication. Snapshot once
again serves as the foundation for efficient asynchronous data transfers that replicate only changed blocks
(rather than whole files) for efficient use of network bandwidth. All NetApp data protection software can be
configured, managed, and monitored across all storage systems and all storage protocols from a single
management console.
For application backup, NetApp provides the SnapManager® suite of products that integrate with popular
applications including Oracle®; SAP®; Microsoft® Exchange, SQL Server™, and SharePoint®; and
VMware® VI3. These tools integrate directly with the application, allowing administrators to put the
application in hot backup mode, capture a consistent Snapshot copy, and then resume normal operation in
seconds—forming a foundation for both backup and disaster recovery. These tools allow storage
administrators to delegate specific storage management capabilities directly to application administrators for
improved efficiency.

FLEXIBLE, DYNAMIC PROVISIONING

One of the features of Data ONTAP that NetApp users consistently comment on is the ability to
nondisruptively grow and shrink data volumes as needs change. For example, you can provision a data
volume for use with either NAS or SAN protocols and grow it over time to meet changing needs. This
contrasts sharply with the traditional approach to provisioning in which you guess how much storage you’re
going to need and provision it all upfront. If you guess high, the space is wasted (or painful to recover). If you
guess low, growing the LUN or volume may be equally painful.
You also have the option of using thin provisioning, another feature built into Data ONTAP, which allows an
underlying pool of free storage to be oversubscribed by multiple storage volumes. New storage capacity can
be provisioned on a just-in-time basis rather than leaving large amounts of storage sitting idle. Rather than
making capacity planning decisions and provisioning to meet the needs of each individual volume, you plan
and provision for the needs of the entire storage system. This is easier, less prone to mistakes, and results
in more efficient storage utilization so less storage is needed.
As a result of these flexible provisioning methods, typical NetApp storage systems have utilization rates of
60% or higher. The industry norm for storage utilization averages from 35% to 45%.

CONSOLIDATION OF MULTIPLE WORKLOADS AND QUALITY OF SERVICE

Another important feature of the NetApp unified storage architecture is the ability to consolidate multiple
application workloads on a single storage system. Most storage administrators are hesitant to do this with
critical applications because they don’t want to risk having less essential work impact performance.
Data ONTAP includes quality of service (QoS) capability as a standard feature. This capability works at the
volume level; by simply giving higher priority to the volumes used by more critical applications, you can
safely support multiple applications with a single, consolidated storage system. A higher priority gives a
volume a greater percentage of available resources when a system is fully loaded. If higher-priority
applications aren’t busy, lower-priority applications can use available resources without limitation.
For example, Leuven University Hospital (UZ Leuven) consolidated all its critical Sybase database storage
along with storage used by less critical SQL Server applications on a single set of NetApp storage systems.
UZ Leuven uses the built-in Data ONTAP QoS feature, FlexShare™ to prioritize Sybase volumes (and

9 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

hence Sybase workloads) over SQL Server volumes, successfully supporting over 120 database instances
and 1,500 concurrent Sybase users on the consolidated infrastructure.1

4 PERFORMANCE IMPACT
One of the myths that have been perpetuated about the NetApp unified storage architecture is that
performance naturally suffers when you combine all these capabilities in one system. Particularly for SAN
performance, some storage vendors say that imposing any type of data layout overhead on the data volume
reduces performance.
In fact, the reverse is true. The fundamental way that NetApp writes data to a volume, whether NAS or SAN,
is what makes possible all the data management features that distinguish NetApp from the competition.
NetApp unified storage performs as well or better than competing storage solutions, and benchmark results
show that performance, particularly under real-world conditions, is superior.

SAN PERFORMANCE
NetApp recently compared the performance of a NetApp FAS3040 storage system with an EMC CLARiiON
CX3-40 on the SPC-1 benchmark. (In the interest of full disclosure, the FAS3040 is a unified storage system
capable of running multiple protocols simultaneously, but it was only configured for Fibre Channel for this
benchmark. The EMC system is a SAN-only configuration not capable of serving file-based protocols as
configured.)
SPC-1 is a standard benchmark that generates a workload with characteristics of typical business
applications such as database and e-mail with random I/O, queries, and updates. In independently audited
results, the NetApp system delivered higher baseline performance (nearly 20% more I/O operations per
second), despite being substantially less expensive than the EMC configuration (see Table 2).
The NetApp performance advantage really becomes apparent, however, when the same test is repeated
with snapshots turned on. When a feature becomes a regular part of daily operation across a wide base of
users, it makes sense to test the performance impact of that feature. The performance of the NetApp
FAS3040 dropped only 3%; it still achieved 97% of its baseline performance (performance level without
snapshots). The EMC system didn’t fair nearly as well. Performance dropped by 64%; it only delivered 36%
of baseline performance with the equivalent snapshot capability enabled.

Table 2) SAN performance with and without snapshots enabled.

Performance/Pricing NetApp FAS3040 EMC CLARiiON CX3-40

Baseline SPC-1 IOPS 30,985.90 24,997.48

Baseline Price Performance $13.61/SPC-1 IOPS $20.72/SPC-1 IOPS

SPC-1 IOPS with Snapshot 29,958.60 8,997.17

Perf Impact of Snapshot 3% 64%

Snapshot Price Performance $14.89/SPC-1 IOPS $59.49/SPC-1 IOPS

In a subsequent study of SAN performance, the NetApp FAS3170 achieved a result of 60,515.34 SPC-1
IOPS. (The FAS3100 series is the next-generation follow-on to the FAS3000 series, of which the FAS3040

1
http://partners.netapp.com/go/techontap/matl/UZLeuven.pdf
10 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center
is a member.) This result—approximately 2x the performance seen for the NetApp FAS3040 or the EMC
CLARiiON CX3-40—corresponds to price/performance of $10.01 per SPC-1 IOPS versus $13.61 per SPC-1
IOPS for the earlier NetApp result and $20.72 per SPC-1 IOPS for the EMC configuration.

NAS PERFORMANCE
A comparison of benchmark results for the NetApp FAS3170 versus the EMC Celerra NS80G illustrates a
similar advantage for NetApp in the area of NAS performance. (Once again, the NetApp FAS3170 system,
while fully unified storage capable, was only configured for NFS for the purposes of the benchmark. The
EMC system is a NAS-only configuration.)
Using the SPEC SFS97_R1.v3 benchmark, the NetApp system posted throughput of 137,306 operations per
second (OPS) with an overall response time (ORT) of 0.94 milliseconds, while the EMC system achieved
throughput of 86,372 OPS at an ORT of 1.49. The NetApp configuration outperformed the EMC
configuration by 59% in throughput with an ORT that was 36% faster. A low response time (ORT) is just as
critical as throughput for many applications.

OTHER PERFORMANCE MEASURES

While operations per second and response time are certainly important measures of performance, there are
other real-world measures that storage administrators may find at least as compelling. In a recent
comparison, VeriTest, an independent testing service now part of Lionbridge, compared provisioning and
2
volume cloning time for a NetApp FAS3070 versus an EMC CLARiiON CX3-80 . Following the published
best practices for each company, it took 2.5x longer to provision an equivalent volume on the EMC system
and 233x longer to clone a 400GB LUN.

5 COST ADVANTAGES OF UNIFIED STORAGE

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “There must be a catch.” If NetApp unified storage delivers this much
value, then it must cost more. The truth is just the opposite. Because of the efficiency of Data ONTAP with
built-in features such as Snapshot, instantaneous cloning, deduplication, dual-parity RAID, and thin
provisioning, unified storage actually saves you substantial storage costs up front; reduces your costs for
space, power, and cooling; and reduces management costs for substantial reductions in total cost of
ownership (TCO) for common data center applications.
In typical data center environments, NetApp storage achieves rates of utilization ranging from 65–75%
versus 35–45% for traditional storage. All these space savings add up to substantial reductions in the
amount of storage needed to achieve a given amount of usable space, as illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4) Data ONTAP enables significant cost reduction.

2
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80_Executive_Summary.pdf
11 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center
 The final measure of efficiency is total cost of ownership in the real world running real applications. Oliver
Wyman (formerly Mercer Management Consulting) undertook a series of TCO studies examining the cost
of NetApp storage versus competing solutions for popular applications. The results speak for themselves,
with TCO ranging from 30% to 55% lower.

Table 3) NetApp total cost of ownership vs. competing solutions (source: Oliver Wyman).

Application TCO
Oracle 39% lower

SAP 55% lower

Exchange 30% lower

File Services 44% lower

Archive 35% lower

VMware 38% lower

6 THE FUTURE OF NETAPP UNIFIED STORAGE

Right now, there are a number of important trends in the industry as a whole, including growing interest in
cloud computing and scale-out storage and the desire for a simplified network infrastructure. Ideally, your
storage architecture should evolve to accommodate these trends without requiring disruptive changes to
your entire operating environment.
The NetApp unified storage architecture has been proven to evolve to support new capabilities. In fact, since
the Data ONTAP operating environment was first introduced in 1993, most of the enhancements that
NetApp has added have been evolutionary—the company hasn’t required users to throw out what they have
and start again. NetApp has a deep commitment to that philosophy, and our unified storage architecture will
deliver on the promise of the latest industry trends in a similar fashion.

SCALE OUT
The next step in the evolution of the NetApp unified storage architecture will be the addition of the scale-out
storage technologies that NetApp pioneered. Your storage systems will become part of a global namespace,
with the ability to transparently spread data across storage systems for greater performance, load balancing,
and nondisruptive operation.
With all your storage under a common framework, the ability to scale out will become a logical extension.
You’ll be able to move to scale-out storage using existing storage; no forklift upgrade will be required. By
joining together your existing storage with any future storage system purchases, you’ll be able to achieve
even greater levels of consolidation while scaling capacity, performance, and data availability far beyond
today’s limits.
You can find out more about scale-out storage in a companion white paper entitled Scale-Out Storage and
the Dynamic Data Center of the Future.3

3
http://media.netapp.com/documents/wp-7042.pdf
12 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center
UNIFIED FABRIC
Another trend that enterprise data centers will be able to leverage in the near future is the unification of
storage area networks and local area networks (LANs), by extensions to classic Ethernet. This “unified
fabric” is made possible by the Data Center Bridging (DCB) standard. DCB technology allows 10GbE the
flexibility to support transmission mechanisms beyond Internet protocol, including Fibre Channel over
Ethernet. This is the culmination of a consolidation trend that began with server virtualization and that
continues today with storage consolidation and unified storage. Most data centers today have a Fibre
Channel network for SAN storage in addition to an Ethernet infrastructure. Maintaining multiple types of
network equipment—along with the tools and expertise needed to effectively manage different network
technologies—adds significantly to data center cost and complexity.
NetApp has been selling Ethernet-based storage for the past 16 years, with demonstrated leadership in both
NAS and iSCSI protocols. Because NetApp has already unified the storage endpoint with support for both
Ethernet and Fibre Channel, the company is logically in the best position to drive the conversion to a totally
Ethernet-based fabric. Ultimately, server virtualization will unify the server, the intervening network fabric will
be unified with FCoE, and NetApp will provide unified storage that can accommodate all back-end storage
needs. NetApp has already forged close relationships with leading providers of server virtualization software
so that our storage offers maximum benefit with VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V™, Citrix, Oracle VM, and
others.

7 FIVE TESTS FOR DETERMINING IF YOU’RE BUYING UNIFIED

STORAGE
How do you know if a storage solution that is marketed as “unified storage” really delivers as advertised?
Here are five simple tests to help you decide.
1. Does one storage architecture address all your storage needs?/Does all the storage run under a
single operating system?
Many vendors offer different systems for different needs: primary NAS, primary SAN, secondary
storage, archiving, compliance, and so on. This forces you to train people for each system, resulting in
inefficiency. This approach also creates islands of storage that make it impossible to provision available
storage where it is needed. This increases cost and adds to data center inefficiencies. A true unified
storage architecture allows you to train your staff on a single operating environment with a single set of
tools.

2. Are all protocols supported natively in the same box?

The ability to serve multiple protocols from the same storage system has many advantages. It makes
consolidation more effective by combining block and file data on the same system. This helps you freely
mix and match workloads to greatly improve utilization. It also helps make your infrastructure more
flexible by giving you the right to change your mind. You can choose iSCSI today and change that to
Fibre Channel without migrating data or changing your data layout. Native multiprotocol, as opposed to
gateway approaches, results in noticeable performance improvements.

3. Are all your business needs managed by a single storage architecture?

Meeting your business requirements may result in multiple copies of data for production, backup, test
and development, disaster recovery, archival, and compliance. Having different architectures for each of
these business needs adds significant management cost and increases the number of full copies
required to support your business. Consolidating these classes of storage to a unified storage
architecture with a common set of tools can reduce management overhead and lower training costs.

4. Can you easily consolidate storage for space, power, and cooling efficiency?
Another key advantage of the superior consolidation made possible with a unified storage architecture
is reduced space, power, and cooling cost. Effective pooling of storage across all business
requirements with advanced features like deduplication, thin provisioning, and virtual copies helps you
make the most of your consolidated storage by avoiding redundant copies, thereby reducing your
space, power, and cooling requirements.

13 Unified Storage Architecture: Enabling Today’s Dynamic Data Center

 5. Are you forced to move to a different platform to meet objectives for performance, availability, or
scalability?
Life is full of choices, but you shouldn’t be forced to choose between performance, availability, and
scalability when choosing a storage platform. A unified storage architecture allows you to tailor your
solution to cost-effectively meet your performance and availability objectives and scales seamlessly as
you grow.

8 CONCLUSION
The traditional model in the storage industry is one with multiple, incompatible storage architectures with
incompatible processes requiring lots of experts. Because integration between architectures is expensive,
this model results in functional silos of storage in which available storage cannot be easily allocated to the
applications that need it.
Recognizing the limitations of this approach, some vendors have begun to offer what they describe as
“unified” storage, but these solutions typically fall short in functionality, performance, and scalability. Only
NetApp offers a truly unified storage architecture capable of meeting all your storage needs—NAS and SAN:
primary, secondary, and archive—from a single platform with a single architecture. With NetApp, you can
implement a single set of processes for all data management functions, including backup and disaster
recovery, and even delegate important storage tasks to other functions with policy-based management. The
result is complete compatibility that allows you to do more and manage more data with fewer resources.

Figure 5) Unified storage architecture: summary of the NetApp advantage.

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