Archive
Address Your Company’s Data Explosion with Storage That Scales
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This is a duplicate of a blog I authored for SUSE, originally published at the SUSE Blog Site.
Experts predict that our world will generate 44 ZETTABYTES of digital data by 2020.
How about some context?
Now, you may think that these are all teenage selfies and funny cat videos – in actuality, much of it is legitimate data your company will need to stay competitive and to serve your customers.
The Data Explosion Happening in YOUR Industry
Some interesting factoids:
- An automated manufacturing facility can generate many terabytes of data in a single hour.
- In the airline industry, a commercial airplane can generate upwards of 40 TB of data per hour.
- Mining and drilling companies can gather multiple terabytes of data per minute in their day-to-day operations.
- In the retail world, a single store can collect many TB of customer data, financial data, and inventory data.
- Hospitals quickly generate terabytes of data on patient health, medical equipment data, and patient x-rays.
The list goes on and on. Service providers, telecommunications, digital media, law enforcement, energy companies, HPC research groups, governments, the financial world, and many other industries (including yours) are experiencing this data deluge now.
And with terabytes of data being generated by single products by the hour or by the minute, the next stop is coming up quick: PETABYTES OF DATA.
Status Quo Doesn’t Cut It
I know what you’re thinking: “What’s the problem? I‘ve had a storage solution in place for years. It should be fine.”
Not quite.
- You are going to need to deal with a LOT more data than you are storing today in order to maintain your competitive edge.
- The storage solutions you’ve been using for years have likely not been designed to handle this unfathomable amount of data.
- The costs of merely “adding more” of your current storage solutions to deal with this amount of data can be extremely expensive.
The good news is that there is a way to store data at this scale with better performance at a much better price point.
Open Source Scale Out Storage
Why is this route better?
- It was designed from the ground up for scale.
Much like how mobile devices changed the way we communicate / interact / take pictures / trade stock, scale out storage is different design for storage. Instead of all-in-one storage boxes, it uses a “distributed model” – farming out the storage to as many servers / hard drives as it has access to, making it very scalable and very performant. (Cloud environments leverage a very similar model for computing.) - It’s cost is primarily commodity servers with hard drives and software.
Traditional storage solutions are expensive to scale in capacity or performance. Instead of expensive engineered black boxes, we are looking at commodity servers and a bit of software that sits on each server – you then just add a “software + server” combo as you need to scale. - When you go open source, the software benefits get even better.
Much like other open source technologies, like Linux operating systems, open source scale out storage allows users to take advantage of rapid innovation from the developer communities, as well as cost benefits which are primarily support or services, as opposed to software license fees.
Ready. Set. Go.
At SUSE, we’ve put this together in an offering called SUSE Enterprise Storage, an intelligent software-defined storage management solution, powered by the open source Ceph project.
It delivers what we’ve talked about: open source scale out storage. It scales, it performs, and it’s open source – a great solution to manage all that data that’s coming your way, that will scale as your data needs grow.
And with SUSE behind you, you’ll get full services and support to any level you need.
OK, enough talk – it’s time for you to get started.
And here’s a great way to kick this off: Go get your FREE TRIAL of SUSE Enterprise Storage. Just click this link, and you’ll be directed to the site (note you’ll be prompted to do a quick registration.) It will give you quick access to the scale out storage tech we’ve talked about, and you can begin your transition over to the new evolution of storage technology.
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
Tech in Real Life: Content Delivery Networks, Big Data Servers and Object Storage
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This is a duplicate of a blog I authored for HP, originally published at hp.nu/Lg3KF.
In a joint blog authored with theCube’s John Furrier and Scality’s Leo Leung, we pointed out some of the unique characteristics of data that make it act and look like a vector.
At that time, I promised we’d delve into specific customer uses for data and emerging data technologies – so let’s begin with our friends in the telecommunications and media industries, specifically around the topic of content distribution.
But let’s start at a familiar point for many of us…
If you’re like most people, when it comes to TV, movies, and video content, you’re an avid (sometimes binge-watching) fan of video streaming and video on-demand. More and more people are opting to view content via streaming technologies. In fact, a growing number of broadcast shows are viewed on mobile and streaming devices, as are a number of live events, such as this year’s NCAA basketball tournament via streaming devices.
These are fascinating data points to ponder, but think about what goes on behind them.
How does all this video content get stored, managed, and streamed?
Suffice it to say, telecom and media companies around the world are addressing this exact challenge with content delivery networks (CDN). There are a variety of interesting technologies out there to help develop CDNs, and one interesting new technology to enable this is object storage, especially when it comes to petabytes of data.
Here’s how object storage helps when it comes to streaming content.
- With streaming content comes a LOT of data. Managing and moving that data is a key area to address, and object storage handles it well. It allows telecom and media companies to effectively manage many petabytes of content with ease – many IT options lack that ability to scale. Features in object storage like replication and erasure coding allow users to break large volumes of data into bite size chunks, and disperse it over several different server nodes, and often times, several different geographic locations. As data is needed, it is rapidly re-compiled and distributed as needed.
- Raise your hand if you absolutely love to wait for your video content to load. (Silence.) The fact is, no one likes to see the status bar slowly creeping along, while you’re waiting for zombies, your futbol club, or the next big singing sensation to show up on the screen. Because object storage technologies are able to support super high bandwidth and millions of HTTP requests per minute, any customer looking to distribute media is able to allow their customers access to content with superior performance metrics. It has a lot to do with the network, but also with the software managing the data behind the network, and object storage fits the bill.
These are just two of the considerations, and there are many others, but object storage becomes an interesting technology to consider if you’re looking to get content or media online, especially if you are in the telecom or media space.
Want a real life example? Check out how our customer RTL II, a European based television station, addressed their video streaming challenge with object storage. It’s all detaile here in this case study – “RTL II shifts video archive into hyperscale with HP and Scality.” Using HP ProLiant SL4540 big data servers and object storage software from HP partner Scality, RTL II was able to boost their video transfer speeds by 10x!
Webinar this week! If this is a space you could use more education on, Scality and HP will be hosting a couple of webinars this week, specifically around object storage and content delivery networks. If you’re looking for more on this, be sure to join us – here are the details:
Session 1 (Time-friendly for European and APJ audiences)
- Who: HP’s big data strategist, Sanjeet Singh, and Scality VP, Leo Leung
- Date: Wed, Apr 8, 2015
- Time: 3pm Central Europe Summer / 8am Central US
- Registration Link
Session 2 (Time-friendly for North American audiences)
- Who: HP Director, Joseph George, and Scality VP, Leo Leung
- Date: Wed, Apr 8, 2015
- Time: 10am Pacific US / 12 noon Central US
- Registration Link
And as always, for any questions at all, you can always send us an email at BigDataEcosystem@hp.com or visit us at www.hp.com/go/ProLiant/BigDataServer.
And now off to relax and watch some TV – via streaming video of course!
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
Purpose-Built Solutions Make a Big Difference In Extracting Data Insights: HP ProLiant SL4500
This is a duplicate of the blog I’ve authored on the HP blog site at http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Hyperscale-Computing-Blog/Purpose-Built-Solutions-Make-a-Big-Difference-In-Extracting-Data/ba-p/173222#.VEUdYrEo70c
Indulge me as I flash back to the summer of 2012 at the Aquatics Center in London, England – it’s the Summer Olympics, where some of the world’s top swimmers, representing a host of nations, are about to kick off the Men’s 100m Freestyle swimming competition. The starter gun fires, and the athletes give it their all in a heated head to head match for the gold.
And the results of the race are astounding: USA’s Nathan Adrian took the gold medal with a time of 47.52 seconds, with Australia’s James Magnussen finishing a mere 0.01 seconds later to claim the silver medal! It was an incredible display of competition, and a real testament to power of the human spirit.
For an event demanding such precise timing, we can only assume that very sensitive and highly calibrated measuring devices were used to capture accurate results. And it’s a good thing they did – fractions of a second separated first and second place.
Now, you and I have both measured time before – we’ve checked our watches to see how long it has been since the workday started, we’ve used our cell phones to see how long we’ve been on the phone, and so on. It got the job done. Surely the Olympic judges at the 2012 Men’s 100m Freestyle had some of these less precise options available – why didn’t they just simply huddle around one of their wrist watches to determine the winner of the gold, silver and bronze?
OK, I am clearly taking this analogy to a silly extent to make a point.
When you get serious about something, you have to step up your game and secure the tools you need to ensure the job gets done properly.
There is a real science behind using purpose-built tools to solve complex challenges, and the same is true with IT challenges, such as those addressed with big data / scale out storage. There are a variety of infrastructure options to deal with the staggering amounts of data, but there are very few purpose built server solutions like HP’s ProLiant SL4500 product – a server solution built SPECIFCIALLY for big data and scale out storage.
The HP ProLiant SL4500 was built to handle your data. Period.
- It provides an unprecedented drive capacity with over THREE PB in a single rack
- It delivers scalable performance across multiple drive technologies like SSD, SAS or SATA
- It provides significant energy savings with shared cooling and power and reduced complexity with fewer cables
- It offers flexible configurations •A 1-node, 60 large form factor drive configuration, perfect for large scale object storage with software vendors like Cleversafe and Scality, or with open source projects like OpenStack Swift and Ceph
- A 2-node, 25 drive per node configuration, ideal for running Microsoft Exchange
- A 3-node, 15 drive per node configuration, optimal for running Hadoop and analytics applications
If you’re serious about big data and scale out storage, it’s time to considering stepping up your game with the SL4500. Purpose-built makes a difference, and the SL4500 was purpose-built to help you make sense of your data.
You can learn more about the SL4500 by talking to your HP rep or by visiting us online at HP ProLiant SL4500 Scalable Systems or at Object Storage Software for ProLiant.
And if you’re here at Hadoop World this week, come on by the HP booth – we’d love to chat about how we can help solve your data challenges with SL4500 based solutions.
Until next time,
Joseph George
The Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution: An Update!
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Hello fellow cloud fans!
The Cloud is Here (Note: I took this pic outside one day - no doctoring at all! Two jet trails created an arrow pointing at a cloud!)
There’s been a lot going on with the OpenStack team at Dell – and its been wreaking havoc with my blogging time!
It’s been about six weeks since we announced our Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, the market’s first OpenStack cloud solution featuring hardware, software and services.
And the movement has been fast and furious!
Here’s a quick update…
The Real Deal
This is the most exciting development from our team.
Real customers solving real problems with a real OpenStack solution from Dell… TODAY.
Many of you have reached out, learned about the power and agility of the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, and have stepped up to working with Dell to get OpenStack going in their environments. It’s awesome that we’re able to partner with a number of you out there on some of the coolest, new technology out there.
With our long history with OpenStack (since Day 1), our cloud optimized PowerEdge C server line, and the power of the Dell Crowbar software enabling customers to get a multi-node OpenStack cloud on bare metal in less than two hours, this solution is just making a lot of sense for many of our customers.
In fact, looking for some “rubber meets the road” info?
Look no further than Dell OpenStack customer, DreamHost – they’re a great example of how partnering with Dell can get you REAL progress on OpenStack.
DreamHost working with Dell on OpenStack!
Check out the FULL CASE STUDY here – http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/solutions/en/Documents/dreamhost-openstack-cloud-case-study.pdf
Crowbar
Crowbar has really taken off since we announced it with the release of the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution.
In case you don’t know what Crowbar is, it’s a Dell- developed software framework designed to enable customers to deploy OpenStack quickly, as well as be a continuous integration engine for your sustaining OpenStack cloud. It’s based on Opscode’s Chef tool, and is available as open source code for anyone to download (link to site at end of blog).
- I mentioned DreamHost as a Dell OpenStack customer – they are actually using Crowbar as a means to deploy their Ceph storage technology. They have taken Crowbar and developed their own “barclamp” to deploy their technology. (A barclamp is a Crowbar module that performs a function like BIOS update, network discovery, etc.)
- The Cloud Foundry team at VMware has done the same – taken the Crowbar software framework and written barclamps that will deploy the open source PaaS.
- Check out Rob Hirschfeld’s Blog to learn more about some of the tech details on what’s happening with Crowbar. Link at the end of this blog.
And a whole lot more – Diablo, the Essex Summit, OpenStack training at Dell
Our team’s are also feverishly working on Diablo support for our OpenStack offering. (FYI – the Diablo release of OpenStack is slated to go public next week on Sep 22.) We’ll actually be cooperating with a number of partners over the next week on enabling Diablo – keep an eye out – you may see some tech blogging going on about this soon.
And then there’s the upcoming OpenStack Conference and Design Summit, to be held in Boston the week of Oct 3. Dell has been a major part of EVERY OpenStack design summit, and this one is no different, as Dell is a conference sponsor of the event. All the usual Dell OpenStack celebrities will be there – along with a few new ones – participating in a variety of capacities at the event, so buckle up for some real insight based on real world OpenStack feedback.
Finally, if you haven’t heard, the OpenStack community announced a number of trainings to get users up to speed on the cloud technology. There are a number of trainings planned, including sessions in Boston, London, and Dell headquarters in Austin. If you’re interested in learning more about the training happening at Dell in Austin, check it out here http://www.cvent.com/events/rackspace-training-for-openstack-austin/event-summary-77838e10ba284088b4628026f2cd9158.aspx
More info
Being the marketing director, I want to be sure you have access to a number of the wicked cool stuff out there on our OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solutiona, Crowbar, and more.
- WHIR Webinar – Rob Hirchfeld (@zehicle) and I were on a recent Web Hoster Industry Review (WHIR) webinar, where we spent an hour going over our OpenStack solution, a lot of the technical details around Crowbar, and even took some questions from the audience. (This is where I invented the word “dynormous”.) Replay here: http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-webinar/082211_Prying_Open_the_Cloud_with_Dell_Crowbar_and_OpenStack
- CloudCast Podcast – Rob, AD (@ADatDell), and I were also featured on a recent podcast with the CloudCast team – this was a fun one – check it out here: http://www.thecloudcast.net/2011/08/episode-16-dell-dude-youre-getting-big.html
- Crowbar VIDEOs – Rob posted two great videos on Crowbar in action!
- More info on the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution – www.Dell.com/OpenStack
- Get open source Crowbar – www.github.com/DellCloudEdge
- The FULL Case Study on web hoster DreamHost using Dell, Crowbar, and OpenStack – http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/solutions/en/Documents/dreamhost-openstack-cloud-case-study.pdf
- OpenStack Conference – Details on the upcoming OpenStack Design Summit and Conference where Dell is a conference level sponsor – http://www.openstack.org/community/events/openstack-conference-fall-2011/
- Details on the upcoming OpenStack training at Dell. http://www.cvent.com/events/rackspace-training-for-openstack-austin/event-summary-77838e10ba284088b4628026f2cd9158.aspx
- Blogs – http://www.robhirschfeld.com/, http://www.bartongeorge.net/
- Join the team! Like what you see here? Got some OpenStack technical, product management, or strategy chops? Come join our team! Check out a couple of the spots we’re hiring for – Product Management https://dell.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=792928 and Strategy http://jobs.dell.com/austin/marketing/senior-strategy-and-planning-manager-%E2%80%93-cloud-and-data-solutions-jobs.
Whew! Told ya it would be a lot…
OK, that should get you up to speed.
As always, feel free to contact us at OpenStack@Dell.com or leave a comment.
On my next blog, I’ll get you an update on where we are with our new Apache Hadoop solution!
Until next time,
JBG
@jbgeorge
The JBGeorge Tech Blog 