The Clustered Storage Revolution

The purpose of this whitepaper is to introduce you to a new paradigm shift that is currently taking place in the data storage industry: the movement toward Clustered Storage architectures. Distributed storage clustering for the data storage industry is in much the same position today that IBM was in 1981, poised to change the rules of the computer industry. Clustered Storage architectures are changing the rules of how data is stored and accessed. In this paper we will discuss the trends that clearly define clustered storage architectures as the future of data storage, detail the requirements of this new category of storage, and introduce the Isilon® IQ clustered storage solution which is the first to deliver on the promises of this paradigm shift.

     ISILON SYSTEMS            The Clustered Storage Revolution  Defining the Paradigm Shift to Clustered Storage An Isilon Systems Technical Whitepaper         September 2006 Untitled Document ISILON SYSTEMS    2   Table of Contents   1    Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 3  2     Three Macro Trends Driving the Clustered Storage Revolution................................................. 4  3     A New Category of Storage: Clustered Storage ............................................................................ 7  4     Clustered Storage Defined................................................................................................................. 9  5     Isilon Systems: The Leader in Clustered Storage .......................................................................11  6     Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................16    Figures  Price history of hard disk products versus year of product history 6 Categories of Storage 7 2-way simple failover clustering 7 Namespace Aggregation 7 Differences between the types of Clustered Storage in how data is controlled 8 Scalable Distributed File System 9 Differences in types of Clustered Storage 10 Isilon IQ: OneFS 11 Isilon IQ: Network Architecture 12 Average Disk Rebuild Time 13 Isilon IQ: Linear Scalability Throughput 14 Isilon IQ: Infiniband Backend 15   Untitled Document ISILON SYSTEMS    3   1    Introduction   Clustered Storage is becoming pervasive and is a major paradigm shift from previous generations of storage products, much like when CDs made records obsolete. ~ Tony Asaro, Enterprise Strategy Group, Oct 2005   In 1962, Thomas Kuhn published a groundbreaking book entitled The  Structure  of  Scientific Revolutions.  He argued that progress of science is not gradual but a kind of punctuated equilibrium with moments of epochal change, much like our understanding of biological evolution. The computer industry experienced such a revolution when IBM introduced the standardized architecture of the IBM personal computer in 1981. In a huge departure from previous industry practice, IBM chose to build its computer from off-the-shelf components. As a result, the IBM personal computer architecture became the standard. This architecture came to displace more than just other personal computer designs, though over the next few decades, the design for minicomputers and mainframes also changed to fit the IBM standard and began to be built from off-the-shelf components.(1)  The purpose of this whitepaper is to introduce you to a new paradigm shift that is currently taking place in the data storage industry: the movement toward Clustered  Storage  architectures. Distributed storage clustering for the data storage industry is in much the same position today that IBM was in 1981, poised to change the rules of the computer industry. Clustered  Storage  architectures  are changing the rules of how data is stored and accessed.  In this paper we will discuss the trends that clearly define clustered storage architectures as the future of data storage, detail the requirements of this new category of storage, and introduce the Isilon IQ clustered storage solution which is the first to deliver on the promises of this paradigm shift.