The Cloud's Role in Enterprise Data Storage Architecture -- Redmondmag.com

The Cloud's Role in Enterprise Data Storage Architecture

Here's some of the options IT has in tying their on-premise data storage with the cloud.

By Scott Lowe
04/09/2014

The life of a storage architect has become a heck of a lot more exciting in recent years. Unlike years before, there are now all kinds of new opportunities for storage administrators to leverage to meet the various needs of their organizations. Among the new opportunities that are out there are various cloud-based services.

Before we get into a discussion of the cloud options, let's talk about some of the needs that are associated with various kinds of tasks and how different kinds of storage options can be leveraged to meet those needs. The table below lists common workloads and how various kind of storage supports those needs.

	Virtual Machines	General File Storage	Big Data	VDI/Desktops
Local Storage	Works fine, but creates limitations; some features require shared storage	Risks creating storage resource islands, but does not usually pose performance issues	Depends on type of disk and capacity needs	Not suitable due to scale issues
Hyperconverged	Requires new ways of thinking; IT staff not always prepared for the adjustment	Won't always work unless a virtual machine in the environment acts as a front end file server	The storage architecture often lends itself well to big data needs and its proximity to the compute layer reduces latency	One of the early "wins" for hyperconverged space, VDI is a perfect fit here thanks to low latency, high IO, high capacity and scalability
HDD-Only SAN	Works fine, but will eventually hit a performance wall	Requires a front end file server; provides ample expansion opportunities	Will often be insufficient due to HDD limitations	Not suitable due to massive I/O issues ineherent with VDI deployments
Hybrid SAN	This is the next step beyond an HDD only SAN for those thave have hit the performance wall	May be overkill for just file storage, but with powerful deduplication, could be more cost effective than other solutions	Often a very god solution for big data workloads, especially when those needs are small to mid-size	Very suitable for VDI deployments thanks to solid state based caching mechanisms
All Flash SAN	Only needed for the most I/O intensive virtual machines; a waste of money in other cases	In general, major overkill for simple file storage needs unless working with very large files or latency sensitive ones	A perfect solution for even large bif data workloads	Excellent choice for VDI thanks to raw I/O performance, but may be too expensive

Table 1. Task goals for different storage options.

With that understanding under your belt, how would each of these workloads translate to work in a cloud-based environment?

Virtual Machines
With the rise of the hybrid cloud -- that is, a cloud service that integrates into an organization's private cloud and allows seamless migration of workloads between services -- the cloud has become a viable target for virtual machines. The common cloud players provide full compatibility for their products between on-premises and off-premises services, simplifying the process by which customers can shit workloads between environments.

General File Storage
In my opinion, general file storage is a perfect fit for the cloud and there are a number of ways that files can be stored there. First, you can use one of the companies that specialize in file storage in the cloud. Or, you can take an appliance-based approach. In this approach, you install an appliance in your data center, which acts as a file server. However, when you save files to it, they are saved to the appliance vendor's cloud service. The appliance just acts as just another file server. It caches files locally and syncs them with the cloud service s needed.

Big Data
Big data and the cloud go hand in hand. Most organizations can't afford the cost of building a complete big data analytics environment. So, many of them push the heavy lifting to cloud providers and just download the results. In this way, the organization gets the best of both worlds -- local and fast to work with data, but massive capacity to crunch the data.

VDI/Desktops
There was a day when VDI didn't belong anywhere except internal and on only the fastest possible storage. Today, though, we're seeing a rise of desktop-as-a-service vendors providing this resource-intensive service as a cloud-based product offering and it's a trend I'm happy to see. If a vendor can build a robust back end VDI environment coupled with a low-latency client and provide users with a low-latency connection, it can vastly streamline the VDI deployment procress

About the Author

Scott Lowe is a virtualization architect for ePlus Technology in Herndon, Va., and author of "Mastering VMware vSphere 4" (Sybex, 2009).

Featured

Cisco Warns of Brute Force Attacks Targeting VPNs and Firewalls

Cisco has revealed that a global increase in brute force attacks targeting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other devices is currently taking place.
What's Inside Microsoft 365's Security Toolbox?

Microsoft provides plenty of native tools to secure Microsoft 365. IT pros just have to know where to look.
Microsoft Kills 30-Day Data Retention Policy for Copilot in Fabric

Microsoft this week announced several usability improvements coming to Copilot in Fabric in preparation of its general availability release later this year.
Using Microsoft Office to Build a Network Diagram 2

Now that we've set up our process, let's dig in with the actual execution.
Microsoft Graph 'Activity Logs' Feature Goes Live

Microsoft announced the general availability of the "activity logs" capability in Microsoft Graph, giving administrators more options to track user activity and identify patterns of potential misuse.