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Tier Matching
Tiered storage can be difficult to manage and one of the challenges to its acceptance is the amount of effort it takes to move data between those tiers. We've written about several methods to move data between tiers in previous blogs, but in some cases the decision isn't that complicated. A great example is Tier 0. As I suggested in our last entry, Tier 0 or Solid State Disk (SSD) really have two options; DRAM-based SSDs or Flash-based SSDs. DRAM-based SSDs are primarily supplied by Solid Data, Texas Memory Systems, and Solid Access. Texas Memory is also shipping Flash-based systems along with traditional storage manufacturers EMC and Sun. Eventually, most storage manufacturers will be supplying some form of Flash-based SSDs. When deciding what data to place on Tier 0, the decision is straightforward. For all practical purposes, you're looking for applications that are disk I/O bound. Typically, these will be applications whose data you are either short stroking or are considering short stroking. While there are exceptions, for many enterprises these are going to be databases and they will be specific files within those databases. I have previously discussed the decision between DRAM and Flash, but what it comes down to is whether the cost differential of DRAM is justifiable by its significant advantage in write I/O performance. Don't rule DRAM-based SSD out until you look at the price; traditional storage manufacturers may charge a premium for their SSDs (which are Flash only). As a result you may be able to get a DRAM-based SSD from one of the SSD-focused suppliers for not much more money than a Flash-based SSD from one of the storage suppliers adding it to their offering. Track us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/storageswiss. Subscribe to our RSS feed. George Crump is founder of Storage Switzerland, an analyst firm focused on the virtualization and storage marketplaces. It provides strategic consulting and analysis to storage users, suppliers, and integrators. An industry veteran of more than 25 years, Crump has held engineering and sales positions at various IT industry manufacturers and integrators. Prior to Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest integrators. « NBC Online Olympics Video Player Shuts Out Linux, Some Macs | Main | How Is Google's Android Shaping Up? » |
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