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TERPRISE EN
LE GUIDE R -OU T ST O
2011
ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

The Insiders Guide to Evaluating Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Solutions
By Ben Maas and Jerome M Wendt
www.dcig.com
2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.
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BUYERS
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DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

The Insiders Guide to Evaluating Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Systems
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
13 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Array Models

14 BlueArc Mercury 55 15 BlueArc Mercury 110 16 BlueArc Titan 3200 Series 17 Cleversafe dsNet 2000 Series 18 Dell EqualLogic PS Series 19 EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series 20 EMC Isilon IQ S-Series 21 EMC Isilon IQ X-Series 22 HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System 23 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) 24 NetApp FAS2000 Series 25 NetApp FAS3200 Series 26 NetApp FAS6200 Series 27 Panasas PAS 8 28 Panasas PAS 9 29 Panasas PAS 12 30 Scale Computing M Series 31 Scale Computing N Series 32 Scale Computing S Series 33 Symantec FileStore N8300
3 Executive Summary
4 How to Use this Small Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide 5 Disclosures 5 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria 6 The 7-Step Process Used to Score and Rank Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Solutions 7 Comments and Thoughts on
7 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Management Category 7 Feature Areas Where DCIG Expects to See Improvement
8 Observations and Recommendations Regarding Each Enterprise Scale-out Storage Array Ranking
8 Best-in-Class 8 Recommended 9 Excellent 9 Good 9 Basic
34 Product Rankings Dashboard
10 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Scores and Rankings

11 Overall 12 Hardware
Appendix
A-1 Definition of Terms Used in Buyers Guide B-1 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Provider Contact Information C-1 Author Contact Information

Introduction
The era of Big Data is here. But its arrival creates a new problem: What type of storage solution is best equipped to manage and store all of this data? This is where the DCIG 2011 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide comes into play. It offers organizations valuable insight and guidance into this new, rapidly maturing class of storage systems. Enterprise scale-out storage systems are particularly unique as they provide the architecture that is viewed by many as a prerequisite for building out tomorrows public and private storage clouds that need to handle this influx of Big Data. But as with any emerging market a variety of scale-out storage architectures are being developed and released. This made evaluating and scoring this set of solutions more challenging than normal as the intent of each DCIG Buyers Guide is to provide apples-toapples comparisons so organizations have the information they need to make an informed buying decision. One of the specific obstacles DCIG encountered in the preparation of this Buyers Guide was properly comparing product architectures. Some vendors have adapted their existing storage system or systems to bring them into the scale-out storage space. Others went for a pure cluster approach. Still others opted for software solutions. So to accurately compare each of these enterprise scale-out storage systems DCIG took a rigorous process of gathering as much information about each one as possible. The evaluation process started with a lengthy effort to identify vendors and models that claimed to offer enterprise scale-out storage systems. That research enabled DCIG to arrive at a working definition of enterprise scale-out storage. Once defined, storage systems were then re-evaluated to ensure they met this definition. This evaluation entailed looking at the features on each system and then creating a 175-point questionnaire that covered over 70 capabilities and features that are found across them. Once completed, this survey was sent to each vendor to validate what features their scaleout storage system model or models supported. After the questionnaires were completed and returned each vendors responses were checked against publicly available data as well as double-checked with the vendors themselves. Features were then weighted, scored and ranked. The features were then distilled into the individual product data sheets found in this Buyers Guide that reflect how each product supports these features. The level of detail in this Buyers Guide combined with a consistent scoring system helps organizations in two key ways. First, it provides a powerful yet concise method to evaluate each enterprise scale-out storage system so organizations can understand the overall strengths and weaknesses of each solution. Using that information they can then understand how well designed each solution is positioned to meet specific needs in their environment. Second, this Buyers Guide provides a set of scores and rankings across the multiple features on each product as well as a data sheet for each enterprise scale-out storage system.

Introduction
continued
These data sheets drill down into the specifics of each product to provide information on how each scale-out storage systems administration, backup, hardware, OS support, replication and technical support features are supported. If specific features are supported and how well they are implemented contribute to specific category scores as well as an overall score for each scale-out storage system. In doing the scoring DCIG endeavored to use metrics that resulted in product comparisons that were as fair as possible. To accomplish this some new evaluation criteria were introduced into this Buyers Guide as enterprise scale-out storage systems alter the paradigm as to how storage systems are built and evaluated. Enterprise scale-out storage systems are particularly attractive to organizations as they can start with a small implementation (as little as a few nodes and a few terabytes) and then seamlessly add more performance and/or storage capacity as required. One particular enterprise scale-out storage system, the HP X9000 IBRIX, could even grow its managed storage capacity to over 80 petabytes. This makes it imperative that organizations minimize the time they spend managing and supporting these systems. It is for that reason this Buyers Guide put added emphasis on scalability and management functions versus the systems raw maximum capacity. This Buyers Guide also evaluates each systems power consumption and thermal ratings. As margins tighten and storage consumes a larger percentage of a data centers operational budget, the efficient use of cooling and power have become a major cost factor and decision point in both large data centers and small data closets. What remains the same as in other DCIG Buyers Guides is the decision not to overtly evaluate performance. Performance is determined by so many controllable and uncontrollable environmental factors that it is almost impossibly for a third party to objectively evaluate any products performance. DCIG therefore continues to encourage users to use this Buyers Guide to create a short list of enterprise scale-out systems that will potentially meet your needs and then test their performance in your environment. Please note that this Buyers Guide is NOT intended to be a substitute for internal testing. DCIG encourages any organization that is considering the purchase of an enterprise scale-out storage solution to do in-house testing if at all possible as each solution may react differently to your particular workloads. We hope this Buyers Guide meets its intended purposes in your environments and serves as a helpful aid in supplementing your organizations normal decision making and evaluation process.
Ben and Jerome

Executive Summary
As the total amount of information generated in 2010 zoomed over 1 zettabyte for the first time in the history of mankind organizations small and large must deal with the practical ramifications of managing and storing all of that data. It is this need that enterprise scale-out storage systems are particularly well suited to meet. Organizations that are strongly positioned to benefit from these solutions include: Small and midsize businesses looking for a solution to store their daily backups Cloud providers looking to scale their storage for their clients Cities that have implemented video surveillance and need to store it Financial, medical, oil and gas and telecommunication companies that capture volumes of information on items such as patients, transactions and geo-spatial data The list of applications that can benefit from enterprise scale-out storage systems is long and diverse. This can make sorting through the list of available models, understanding what features are important and selecting the right solution a daunting and complex task. Assisting organizations in making this decision is what the DCIG 2011Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide is intended to do. This Buyers Guide covers enterprise scale-out storage systems that can scale from a few hundred gigabytes to tens of petabytes. This DCIG 2011 Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Buyers Guide achieves the following objectives: Provides an objective, third-party evaluation of currently available enterprise scale-out storage solutions Evaluates, scores and ranks enterprise scale-out storage solutions from the end-users perspective Includes recommendations on how to best utilize this Buyers Guide Provides data sheets on 20 enterprise scale-out storage solutions from ten different providers so organizations can do a quick comparison of features while having sufficient detail at their fingertips to make an informed decision Provides insight into the management, application layer, host support, hardware and product support features which organizations may look for in an enterprise scale-out storage solution Provides a summary of common configurations of enterprise scale-out storage solutions This Buyers Guide cannot tell you the right vendor and solution to select for your particular requirements. Rather this Buyers Guide should be viewed as a handbook to jump start your research and decision. It will help organizations identify and prioritize features and capabilities in solutions that are shipping today so they may more quickly move to the next stage of evaluating the right solution for their environment.

How to Use this Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide

This DCIG 2011 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide will function as an important tool for any organization that is starting or already in the process of purchasing an enterprise scale-out storage solution. The result of months of intense research, this Buyers Guide will do much of the heavy lifting for organizations in terms of helping them to vet what enterprise scale-out storage solutions are currently available and what features they possess. Solutions in the enterprise scale-out storage market are very diverse and serve the needs of multiple application types. Therefore in preparing this Buyers Guide it was DCIGs goal to evaluate, score and rank each solution based upon a comprehensive list of features that reflects the needs of the widest range of organizations. How an organization leverages this Buyers Guide will somewhat depend on the organizations size. Large enterprises looking for a solution to meet their Big Data application needs will find that those solutions that have the highest scores and rankings will meet the widest range of their application requirements. Conversely small and midsize organizations as well as departments that have Big Data needs for a smaller number of applications should consider those solutions that are ranked as Good or Basic. These enterprise scale-out solutions may have the features they need for the challenge or challenges that they are trying to address at a more competitive price. DCIGs rankings of Best-In-Class, Recommended, Excellent, Good, and Basic are a measure of how well the functionality and capability of each solution compares to the overall scale-out storage market. As these measurements score and rank the overall capabilities of each solution, organizations need to verify that the features and capabilities that they require are included in the specific solutions they are considering. However the higher the score, the greater the likelihood that the product contains the features they are considering. DCIG encourages good stewardship in all purchasing decisions and has attempted to pack as much detail as possible about each solution into each data sheet.
Organizations should therefore use this Buyers Guide as a handbook to understand who the enterprise scaleout storage players are, what products they offer, what features and functions are available on each, how these solutions scale, what networking and storage protocols they offer and how organizations might manage any solution they purchase. DCIG recommends that you use this Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide in the following six ways: Jumpstart the painstaking research associated with identifying desired features in the enterprise scaleout storage space. The Buyers Guide contains an exhaustive list of over 70 individual features that organizations looking for an enterprise scale-out storage solution may consider for evaluation. This list provides an excellent place to start when creating a list of features that your organization may need or want. Provide perspective on the overall state of the enterprise scale-out storage market. DCIG has identified vendors beyond recognizable names such as Dell, EMC, HP, IBM and NetApp to better portray the overall state of the market. The inclusion of these lesser known vendors is done to encourage familiarity and to help highlight where innovation may be occurring. Create a standardized data sheet to compare diverse solution lines. There are currently a number of divergent approaches to enterprise scale-out storage. The standardized data sheet attempts to normalize these different approaches out for the purposes of evaluation while still exposing the differences. This will allow organizations to make both apples-to-apples and apples-to-oranges comparisons. Use the standardized data sheet to aid your own investigation. Our standardized data sheet should be used as a starting point for your own investigation. The list of features can be used as a starting point in discussions with vendors and as an audit trail during your investigation. A DCIG 2011 Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Buyers Guide Data Sheet can also serve as an attractive cover sheet that supplements your own discussions and research. Help justify technical buying recommendations to business folks. Nothing is easier for those on the business side to understand than a number. To help in
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this area, at the top of every enterprise scale-out storage data sheet, product scores and rankings are listed so those on the business side of the house can quickly see how a particular model scores and compares with others. The Buyers Guide also includes aggregate score sheets that provide the high-level scores and rankings for all of the enterprise scale-out storage solutions. Normalize complex storage terminology. Every computing industry has a proclivity to adopt acronyms and jargon that is specific to it but the data storage industry seems to go out of its way to not only use unfamiliar terms but to refer to the same technology in different ways. This complicates any evaluation of a technology. This Buyers Guide explains and normalizes the jargon specific to these technologies, enhancing the quality and productivity of the discussions around the technology.
No storage vendor paid DCIG any fee to develop this Buyers Guide. DCIG did not guarantee any storage provider that its enterprise scale-out storage solution would be included in this Buyers Guide. Previous relationships did not influence the research, scoring or ranking of this Buyers Guide. All research was based upon publicly available information as well as information provided by the storage vendors themselves. Because of the number of features analyzed, how these features were weighted and how each enterprise scale-out storage solution was scored and ranked, there was no way for DCIG to predict at the outset how the enterprise scale-out storage solution would end up scoring or ranking at the end. DCIG would like to emphasize that no storage provider was privy to how DCIG did the scoring and ranking of the scale-out storage features. In every case, the storage providers only found out the scores and rankings of their respective scale-out storage solution after the analysis and research was complete.
Disclosures
Over the last few years the general trend in the US has been for both large analyst firms and boutique analyst firms to receive some or all of their revenue from storage vendors. DCIG is no different in that respect as it also receives payment for the different services it performs for storage vendors. The services that DCIG provides include blogging, case studies, executive white papers, full-length white papers, product reviews and special reports. For more information on DCIG, visit www.dcig.com. In the interest of transparency, a number of the storage providers included in this Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Buyers Guide are or have been DCIG clients. No vendors, however, whether clients or not, have been afforded any preferential treatment in this Buyers Guide. Where a client relationship does exist DCIG may have had more complete knowledge of specific vendors products and features. However DCIG sought to include all relevant products in this Buyers Guide, and existing relationships played no part in inclusion or ranking. In that vein there are a number of important facts to keep in mind when considering the information contained in this Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Buyers Guide and its merit.
Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

As DCIG prepared this Buyers Guide, it had to take an important first step: develop a working definition of Enterprise Scale-Out Storage. The definition needed to be sufficiently broad so as to encompass what comes to mind when organizations hear the term enterprise scale-out storage while still making the definition sufficiently narrow to keep it down to a manageable set of vendors and solutions. To that end the following definition of enterprise scaleout storage was arrived at and was used as a means to determine whether or not a solution should be included in this Buyers Guide. Each enterprise scale-out storage solution must: Be available as an appliance that is available as a single SKU and includes its own hardware and software Contain nodes that are independently configurable for processing, storage or both. Each node may include its
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own processor, power, network interface, and optional disk controllers Support horizontal scaling of drive capacity and throughput through the addition of nodes Support the vertical scaling of drive capacity and throughput by way of the independent upgrading of components within individual nodes Support Ethernet connectivity Support one or more of the following storage networking protocols: CIFS and NFS REST/Object storage iSCSI Fibre Channel and/or FCoE Support storage of data across multiple nodes Support the hot insertion and removal of individual nodes Provide sufficient information for DCIG to draw meaningful conclusion Model must ship by July 1, 2011 Enterprise scale-out storage solutions meeting these criteria were then separated into two categories: Clustered Storage Appliance Functions as a true cluster with no controller nodes Usually a minimum of three nodes to function in a highly available configuration Each node contains its own processor(s), cache, power, networking and redundant disk controllers Scale-Out Storage Appliance A minimum of two controller nodes Does scale-out through the addition of independent storage nodes that contain additional storage capacity
Buyers Guide a larger, longer list of features was compiled. The terms on this list were then normalized such that a common name for each feature included in the Buyers Guide could be established. In cases where a feature could not be objectively defined or understood, it was excluded from consideration. 2. A list of features to be included in the Buyers Guide was established. 3. Each feature had a weighting associated with it. The weightings were used to reflect if a feature was supported and potentially how useful and/or important the feature was. For example, based on experience from previous Buyers Guides, allocate-on-write snapshot capabilities were given a higher weighting than other snapshot types based on space-efficiency and performance expectations. As such, scale-out storage appliances that included an allocate-on-write snapshot capability scored higher than those that supported other snapshot types. 4. The features were broken into five (5) general categories. The features included in this Buyers Guide were broken down into five general categories: Management, Application Layer, Host Support, Hardware, and Product Support. These categories reflect the general features that DCIG believes organizations are evaluating when seeking out enterprise scale-out storage solutions. 5. A survey for each solution was sent to each vendor to complete. DCIG contacted representatives of the vendors included in this Buyers Guide to enlist their support in completing it. In those instances where vendors did not complete the survey, DCIG completed the survey on their behalf, sent it to them and gave them the opportunity to respond with any corrections or edits to the DCIG-completed survey. 6. All the features were scored based on the information gathered from surveys. 7. Each enterprise scale-out storage solution was ranked and scored according to five (5) different designations. One of the goals of this Buyers Guide was to make clear, objective distinctions between different enterprise scale-out storage solutions. To accomplish this goal, the mean (or average) score for
The Seven-Step Process Used to Score and Rank Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Solutions
1. A long list of features that met the DCIG definition for Enterprise Scale-Out Storage was created. Prior to selecting the features ultimately included in this

each category was determined as well as the standard deviation. The mean and standard deviation were calculated from the scores of all the scale-out storage solutions. DCIG then developed a ranking for each scale-out storage solution using these calculations as a guide. Those enterprise scale-out storage solution scores that were 1.0 or greater standard deviations below the mean were given the rank of Basic. Those enterprise scale-out storage solution scores that were 1.0 standard deviations below the mean to .4 standard deviations above the mean were assigned the rank of Good. Those enterprise scale-out storage solution scores that were 0.4 1.0 standard deviations above the mean were ranked as Excellent. Those enterprise scale-out storage solution scores that were greater than 1.0 standard deviations above the mean were ranked as Recommended. The enterprise scale-out storage solution that had the top score in each category was given the designation Best-in-Class. It is for this reason that in each classification the number of enterprise scale-out storage solutions that achieved a certain ranking varied. In every instance all enterprise scale-out storage solution scores came within two (2) standard deviations of the mean
In general DCIG followed the precedents it established in its recent DCIG 2011 Midrange Array Snapshot Software Buyers Guide. The snapshot methodology determined to be the Best was based on the following criteria: Used the least amount of storage capacity when a snapshot was taken Incurred the least amount of performance overhead to complete the snapshot Was the least likely to impact performance after the snapshot was complete It was when these three factors were taken into consideration that it became clear allocate-on-write is generally the best snapshot type. It should be noted there is at least one implementation of copy-on-write that DCIG considers to be as good if not better than allocate-on-write. However this implementation of copy-on-write was not available on any of the enterprise scale-out storage solutions covered in this Buyers Guide. As a result the enterprise scale-out storage solutions that supported the allocate-onwrite snapshot feature received higher scores than those that supported some other snapshot methodology.
Feature Areas Where DCIG Expects to See Improvement

DCIG expects that a common use case for enterprise scale-out storage solutions will be as archival and backup solutions. This led DCIG to expect more vendors would include support for deduplication to their solutions. In practice, only NetApp and Symantec responded that they supported deduplication in some form on their respective solutions at the time this Buyers Guide was published. Another area where DCIG expects to see improvement, or at least clarification, is in each vendors support for the HTTP protocol. In DCIGs discussions with vendors who listed HTTP as a supported protocol, it was often difficult to determine if they were supporting a web based file system (such as WebDAV) or a pure object storage architecture, such as REST. DCIG expects some Big Data analytics systems will prefer to store data using these protocols either now or in the near future. So it will be interesting to see how support for HTTP continues to evolve and if it will become a feature that organizations view as a necessity or a nicety.
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Comments and Thoughts on

Enterprise Scale-out Storage Management Category
The features included in the Management category were among the more difficult to weight, score and rank. DCIG sought to only include features that organizations will find the most useful and practical when managing data stored on an enterprise scale-out storage solution. But as is sometimes the case, some features such as certain snapshot types and storage optimization are more subject to interpretation than others. For instance, one scoring decision that had to be made was to make a determination as to which snapshot type was the Best. This determination was needed in order to properly weight and score each snapshot type on each respective enterprise scale-out storage solution.

Observations and Recommendations Regarding Each Scale-Out Storage Solution Ranking

Best-in-Class Ranking
The HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System achieved the Best-In-Class ranking among the enterprise scale-out storage systems that DCIG evaluated. In comparing this solution to its counterparts, notable ways in which it stood out included: Achieved in excess of 80 petabytes of storage capacity which is attributable to its mixed cluster approach and unmatched high node count Automated storage recovery High amounts of system RAM and individual node capacity Longer hardware warranty than other solutions with option to extend hardware warranty with supplemental support contract Support for both Fibre Channel and Infiniband storage networking protocols
the number of configuration options it offers. Organizations interested in acquiring an HP X9000 IBRIX solution will definitely want to discuss these options with HP to ensure they are getting the most appropriate configuration for their environment. However DCIG sees the HP X9000 IBRIX as primarily a large enterprise play so these conversations should be occurring anyway.
Recommended Ranking
Observations
Enterprise scale-out storage solutions ranked as Recommended in general shared the following characteristics: Achieved a Recommended ranking in the Management, Application Layer and Hardware categories High scores on system RAM Offered support for Infiniband
Recommendation
Both the EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series and X-Series scored very high in the Management, Application Layer and Host Support categories. The two models are very close together from a hardware standpoint though EMC Isilon differentiates the two products based on their intended use case. The IQ NL-Series is primarily targeted for use with backup and archival solutions while the IQ X-Series is primarily being positioned as a data accelerator of sorts. EMC Isilons broad support for hardware, network and management features is one of the reasons both of these products find themselves near the top end of DCIGs overall rankings. EMC Isilon tied the HP X9000 IBRIX and NetApp for top marks in the management category with its support for continuous and periodic asynchronous replication, snapshots and thin provisioning contributing to its high score. EMC Isilons main area of concern was its standard hardware warranty of one year with no option to extend it. It should be noted however that this score is purely based on the standard length of warranty and in no way reflects the effectiveness of EMC Isilons support staff.
Recommendation
The HP X9000 IBRIX is clearly targeted at the enterprise Big Data market. Its ability to scale to over 80 PBs of storage capacity completely separated itself from the rest of the pack in this specific area. The HP X9000 IBRIX did have similar scores as its competitors in the Management, Application and Host Support categories. Areas where it edged them out were as a result of its support for both Fibre Channel, Infiniband and system RAM. Its high score was further bolstered by a node count that dwarfed the other solutions that DCIG researched. It should be added that part of the difference was attributable to its hardware support. HP provides one of the lengthier standard hardware warranties that DCIG encountered plus it has an option to extend its hardware warranty under a support contract. The main caution that DCIG issues to organizations considering the HP X9000 IBRIX is to carefully evaluate

Excellent Ranking
Enterprise scale-out storage solutions ranked as Excellent in general shared the following characteristics: Support for snapshots Achieved Recommended or Excellent rankings in the Management and Application Layer categories Above average scores for hardware and hardware support Petabyte or greater storage capacity
Good Ranking
Enterprise scale-out storage solutions ranked as Good in general shared the following characteristics: Limited support for different storage tiers Limited support for network storage protocols Scaled to support less than 1 PB of storage capacity
Recommendation
Panasas turned in an Excellent ranking in the Management category on all of its PAS offerings. However their lack of iSCSI support, reduced system RAM and reliance on SATA hard drives lowered their overall hardware scores and contributed to the PAS systems ultimately receiving only Good rankings. Organizations looking for a strong set of management features but not in need of solutions that extend into the petabyte range of storage capacity should take a strong look at the NetApp FAS2000. The FAS2000 has all the same management and support features of its larger siblings plus it also includes deduplication which could give a higher net storage capacity. The other deduplication offering in this ranking is the Symantec FileStore N8300. Symantec scored well in the Application Layer and Host Support categories. The addition of features that are on its roadmap should contribute to this system scoring and ranking higher in the future. The Dell EqualLogic PS Series rounds out the group of those enterprise scale-out storage solutions ranked as Good. The lack of support for NAS protocols, continuous replication and subvolume tiering hurt its ranking in a NAS heavy market space. Dell did however top our ranking of hardware support with its availability of a five (5) year extended warranty.
Recommendation
High scores in the Management and Application Layer categories played an important role in the overall ranking of these solutions. The scores are tightly packed together with differentiation showing up on a point by point basis in host and hardware support scores. IBMs SONAS offering is a good example which ranked fourth in the Hardware category. IBM had a warranty plan similar to the HP X9000 IBRIX and an Excellent ranking in the Management category. Part of the reason it only achieved a rating of Excellent was its lack of support for global hot spares, iSCSI and Fibre Channel. BlueArcs Titan 3200 Series on the other hand moved up to the top edge of the Excellent ranking with its inclusion of these three features. This also contributed to the BlueArc Mercury 110 and Mercury 55 offerings achieving an Excellent Hardware ranking. The EMC Isilon S-Series only achieves an Excellent ranking primarily because of its lower capacity. A deeper look into this solution shows this is due to its focus on throughput (IOPS), a metric this Buyers Guide had difficulty quantifying in a reliable fashion so organizations seeking raw IOPS performance may want to take a second look at this offering. The NetApp FAS6200 and FAS3200 achieved an Excellent ranking based mostly on their high scores in the Management category. Their support for continuous, periodic and synchronous replication and their distinction as one of only two vendors to report support for deduplication helped solidify those scores. The only category NetApp did not achieve a rank of Recommended or Excellent was in the Host Support categories. This was primarily attributable to its lack of certifications.
Basic Ranking
Enterprise scale-out storage solutions ranked as Basic in general shared the following characteristics: Ethernet only connectivity (CIFS, iSCSI and NAS protocols) Limited system RAM Fewer storage management features

Recommendation
Solutions ranked as Basic are generally aimed at small and midsize enterprises. This is reflected in the Basic management rankings that each of these solutions garnered as they did not offer the more advanced management features such as storage tiering and deduplication. On the hardware side these solutions lack support for enterprise storage networking features such as Fibre Channel and Infiniband. They also have more limited system RAM when compared with the rest of the systems that were evaluated.
Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Scores and Rankings

The scores and rankings for the small enterprise storage arrays contain the following information: A chart that includes the scores and rankings for all of the products The mean and the standard deviation that were used to establish how each enterprise scale-out storage solution model was ranked A summary of the primary findings
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OVERALL SCORES AND RANKINGS
Scale-Out Storage System 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series EMC Isilon IQ X-Series BlueArc Titan 3200 Series NetApp FAS6200 Series EMC Isilon IQ S-Series IBM SONAS NetApp FAS3200 Series BlueArc Mercury 110 BlueArc Mercury 55 Panasas PAS 12 Panasas PAS 8 NetApp FAS2000 Series Panasas PAS 9 Symantec FileStore N8300 Dell EqualLogic PS Series CleverSafe dsNet 2000 Series Scale Computing M Series Scale Computing S Series Scale Computing N Series
SCORE 79.00 73.75 72.75 72.00 71.75 70.75 70.00 69.75 69.25 68.25 64.75 64.00 63.75 63.00 61.00 58.50 56.75 55.50 54.50 53.25 Best-in-Class Recommended Recommended Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Good Good Good Good Good Good Basic Basic Basic Basic
Total Number of Products
20 Rankings Recommended 72.55 79.00 Excellent 68.09 72.54 Good 57.68 68.08 Basic 53.25 57.67
Highest Score Lowest Score Average (Mean) Standard Deviation
79.00 53.25 64.65 7.44
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Hardware Scores And Rankings
Scale-Out Storage System 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series EMC Isilon IQ X-Series IBM SONAS EMC Isilon IQ S-Series BlueArc Titan 3200 Series NetApp FAS6200 Series NetApp FAS3200 Series BlueArc Mercury 110 Panasas PAS 12 BlueArc Mercury 55 Panasas PAS 8 CleverSafe dsNet 2000 Series Panasas PAS 9 Scale Computing M Series Dell EqualLogic PS Series Scale Computing S Series Symantec FileStore N8300 Scale Computing N Series NetApp FAS2000 Series
SCORE 30.00 28.25 27.75 27.00 25.75 24.00 23.75 21.75 21.25 20.75 20.25 20.00 19.75 19.00 18.50 17.50 17.50 17.00 16.25 15.75 Best-in-Class Recommended Recommended Recommended Recommended Excellent Excellent Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Basic Basic Basic
Total Number of Products
20 Rankings Recommended 25.68 30.00 Excellent 23.09 25.67 Good 17.06 23.08 Basic 15.75 17.05
Highest Score Lowest Score Average (Mean) Standard Deviation
30.00 15.75 20.63 4.31
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ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE MODELS
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BlueArc Mercury 55
SC
TERPRISE EN
DCIG Scores and Rankings

OVERALL SCORE Management Application Layer Host Support Hardware Product Support
68.25
EXCELLENT
22.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
RECOMMENDED
8.00
GOOD
20.25
GOOD
11.00
RECOMMENDED
Management
Inclusive License Asynchronous Replication Synchronous Replication Snapshots Thin Provisioning Automated Storage Recovery Quotas Metadata Deduplication Storage Tiering Subvolume Tiering Management NDMP Data Migration
Automatic, Scheduled Directory, File Application, CLI, SNMP, Web AoW, Replica Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
Max Cluster/Controller Nodes Max SAN/Storage Nodes Max Drives per Storage Node Max Raw Capacity per Node Max Raw Storage Capacity Max System Memory Per Node
2 N/A 12 2 PB 4 PB 14 GB
Drive Technology
SAS SATA SSD Mixed HDDs
Miscellaneous
Hot Swap Power Supplies Hot Swap Disk Drives
Networking
iSCSI Max Ethernet Ports Interface Bonding Max Fibre Channel Ports Max Infiniband Ports
4x4Gb 6x1Gb, 2x10Gb
Global Hot Spares Support Non-Disruptive Updates RoHS Compliant
Power and Cooling Application Layer

Storage Protocols CIFS Thermal Rating NFS Object Storage (REST) WebDAV FTP Authentication Active Directory LDAP NIS/NIS+ Host/IP Hypervisors VMWare Citrix Xenserver
Certified
Cluster Node
2.8A : 1.5A 348Wh 1057 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
Standard Warranty Extended Warranty Available Phone Support
3 Yrs
24x7x365*
Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux Unix

Certified
Email Support (Business Hours) Email Support (24x7x365)

* With Support Contract. *
Supported
Unsupported
2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. Product information was compiled from both publicly-available and vendor-provided resources. While we have attempted to verify that it is correct and complete, DCIG cannot be held responsible for any errors that may appear.
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GE
BUYERS
BlueArc Mercury 110

SC
TERPRISE EN

69.25
EXCELLENT
22.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
RECOMMENDED
8.00
GOOD
21.25
GOOD
11.00
RECOMMENDED
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
4 N/A 12 2 PB 8 PB 14 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4x4Gb 6x1Gb, 2x10Gb

Certified
Cluster Node
2.8A : 1.5A 348Wh 1057 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
3 Yrs
24x7x365*

Certified
Email Support (Business Hours) Email Support (24x7x365)

Supported
Unsupported
15
GE
BUYERS
BlueArc Titan 3200 Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

72.00
EXCELLENT
22.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
RECOMMENDED
8.00
GOOD
24.00
EXCELLENT
11.00
RECOMMENDED
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
8 N/A 12 2 PB 16 PB 38.5 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
8x4Gb 6x1Gb, 2x10Gb

Certified
Cluster Node
4.1A : 2.0A 486Wh 1689 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
3 Yrs

Certified
Business Hours 24x7x365* *
Email Support
* With Support Contract.
Supported
Unsupported
16
GE
BUYERS
Cleversafe dsNet 2000 Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

56.75
BASIC
16.00
GOOD
7.00
RECOMMENDED
5.00
BASIC
19.75
GOOD
9.00
GOOD
Management
Application, CLI, SNMP, Web Replica
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
* 36 TB available Q3 2011 100 100 12 24 TB* 2.3 PB 16 GB per Accesser
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2x1Gb, 2x10Gb

Storage Protocols CIFS Thermal Rating NFS Object Storage (REST) WebDAV FTP Authentication Active Directory LDAP NIS/NIS+ Host/IP
Cleversafe Cluster/Controller Node Models Supported in a Cleversafe dsNET 2000 Series Scale-Out Storage Configuration: Accessor 2100 Cleversafe SAN/Storage Node Models Supported in a Cleversafe dsNET 2000 Series Scale-Out Storage Configuration: Slicestor 2100 Slicestor 2200 Slicestor 2210
Cluster Node
3.75A : 1.875A 205Wh 700 BTU/hr
Storage Node
3.75A : 1.875A 530Wh 1810 BTU/hr
Host Support
Inclusive License Hypervisors VMWare Citrix Xenserver
Product Support
24x7x365 3 Yrs
Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux Unix Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
17
GE
BUYERS
Dell EqualLogic PS Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

58.50
GOOD
16.00
GOOD
3.00
BASIC
10.00
RECOMMENDED
17.50
GOOD
12.00
BEST-IN-CLASS
Management
Automatic, Scheduled Block Application, CLI, SNMP, Web AoW, Replica Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
N/A 16 48 96 TB 1.53 PB 4 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
8x1Gb, 4x10Gb

EqualLogic PS SAN/Storage Node Models Supported in a Dell EqualLogic PS Scale-Out Storage Configuration PS4000E PS6000XV PS4000X PS6000XVS PS4000XV PS6010E PS6000E PS6010S PS6000S PS6010X PS6000X PS6010XV
Cluster Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Storage Node
11.7A : 5.8A 1398Wh 3400 BTU/hr
Host Support
Product Support
1 Yr
5 Yrs* Business Days 24x7x365* *
Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux

PS6010XVS PS650OE PS6500X PS6510E PS6510X
Email Support
Unix
Supported
Unsupported
18
GE
BUYERS
EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

73.75
RECOMMENDED
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
28.25
RECOMMENDED
7.00
BASIC
Management
Automatic, Scheduled Directory, File Application, CLI, SNMP, Web AoW, CoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
144 N/A 36 108 TB 15 PB 96 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2 ports 4x1GbE, 2x10GbE

EMC Isilon Cluster/Controller Node Models Supported in an EMC Isilon NL-Series Scale-Out Storage Configuration: Isilon IQ 36NL Isilon IQ 72NL Isilon IQ 108NL
Cluster Node
3.75A : 1.9A 453Wh 1550 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Product Support
1 Yr
N/A
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
19
GE
BUYERS
EMC Isilon IQ S-Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

70.75
EXCELLENT
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
25.75
RECOMMENDED
7.00
BASIC
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
144 N/A 24 14.4 TB 2 PB 96 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2 ports 4x1Gb, 2x10Gb

EMC Isilon Cluster/Controller Node Models Supported in an EMC Isilon S-Series Scale-Out Storage Configuration: Isilon S200
Cluster Node
3.75A : 1.9A 453Wh 1550 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Product Support
1 Yr
N/A
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
20
GE
BUYERS
EMC Isilon IQ X-Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

72.75
RECOMMENDED
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
27.75
RECOMMENDED
7.00
BASIC
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
144 N/A 36 72 TB 10.4 PB 48 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2 ports 4x1GbE, 2x10GbE

Storage Protocols CIFS Thermal Rating NFS Object Storage (REST) WebDAV FTP Authentication Active Directory LDAP NIS/NIS+ Host/IP Hypervisors VMWare Citrix Xenserver Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption
Cluster Node
3.75A : 1.9A 453Wh 1550 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
1 Yr
N/A
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
21
GE
BUYERS
HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System

SC
TERPRISE EN

79.00
BEST-IN-CLASS
25.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
GOOD
30.00
BEST-IN-CLASS
11.00
RECOMMENDED
Management
Automatic, Scheduled Directory, File Application, CLI, SNMP, Web RoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Storage Nodes
* X9720 model **16 PB per namespace 1024 512* 82 164 TB 84 PB** 72 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4 2 8x10GbE or 4x1GbE, 2x10GbE

HP X9000 Cluster/Controller Node Models Supported in a Scale-Out Storage Configuration: X9300 1 GbE Network Storage Gateway X9300 10 GbE/IB Network Storage Gateway HP X9000 SAN/Storage Node Models Supported in a Scale-Out Storage Configuration: X9320 Performance Block 1 GbE, 10 GbE and IB options X9320 Network Storage Systems 1 GbE, 10 GbE and IB options 21.6, 43.2, 48, 96 and 192 TB options X9720 Network Storage System
Cluster Node
3.4A : N/A 408Wh 1405 BTU/hr
Storage Node
15.8A : 7.9A 1896Wh 6479 BTU/hr
Host Support
Certified
Product Support
3 Yrs*
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. Product information was compiled from both publicly-available and vendor-provided resources. While we have attempted to verify that it is correct and complete, DCIG cannot be held responsible for any errors that may appear. Some features were updated on the HP X9000 IBRIX data sheet just prior to the general availability of this Buyers Guide. These changes did not affect the score or ranking of this product.
22
GE
BUYERS
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)

SC
TERPRISE EN

70.00
EXCELLENT
22.00
EXCELLENT
6.00
EXCELLENT
6.00
BASIC
27.00
RECOMMENDED
9.00
GOOD
Management
Automatic, Scheduled Directory, File Application, CLI, SNMP, Web CoW Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
30 60 240 480 TB 14 PB 144 GB * NL-SAS support
Drive Technology
*
Miscellaneous
Networking
6x1GbE, 4x10GbE

Certified
Cluster Node
7.8A : 3.8A 924 Wh 2700 BTU/hr
Storage Node
7.8A : 3.8A 924 Wh 2700 BTU/hr
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
1 Yr
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
23
GE
BUYERS
NetApp FAS2000 Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

63.75
GOOD
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
15.75
BASIC
10.00
EXCELLENT
Management
Block, File Automatic, Scheduled Block, Directory, File Application, SNMP, Web AoW, CoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
2 6 24 24 TB 136 TB 4 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2x4Gb 4x1Gb
Application Layer
Storage Protocols CIFS NFS Object Storage (REST) WebDAV FTP Authentication Active Directory
*
Power and Cooling

Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption Thermal Rating
Cluster Node
11A : 6A 1380Wh 2485 BTU/hr
Storage Node
3.95A : 1.9A 465Wh 1600 BTU/hr
Host Support
Inclusive License Hypervisors
Product Support
1 Yr*
LDAP NIS/NIS+ Host/IP

* Available with optional software upgrade NetApp FAS2000 SAN/Storage Node Models Supported in a NetApp FAS2000 Series Scale-Out Storage Configuration: FAS2020 FAS2040 FAS2050
VMWare Citrix Xenserver
24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
24
GE
BUYERS

SC
TERPRISE EN

69.75
EXCELLENT
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
21.75
GOOD
10.00
EXCELLENT
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
* With Support Contract. 2 40 24 48 TB 1.9 PB 32 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4x8Gb 4x10Gb
Application Layer
*
Power and Cooling

Cluster Node
11A : 6A 1380Wh 2485 BTU/hr
Storage Node
3.9A : 1.9A 465Wh 1600 BTU/hr
Host Support
Product Support
1 Yr*

24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
25
GE
BUYERS

SC
TERPRISE EN

71.75
EXCELLENT
25.00
RECOMMENDED
7.00
RECOMMENDED
6.00
BASIC
23.75
EXCELLENT
10.00
EXCELLENT
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
2 60 24 48 TB 2.9 PB 192 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
32x8Gb 8x10Gb
Application Layer
*
Power and Cooling

Cluster Node
11A : 6A 1380Wh 6486 BTU/hr
Storage Node
3.95A : 1.9A 465 Wh 1600 BTU/hr
Host Support
Product Support
1 Yr*

24x7x365*

Supported
Unsupported
26
GE
BUYERS
Panasas PAS 8
SC
TERPRISE EN

64.00
GOOD
22.00
EXCELLENT
6.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
GOOD
20.00
GOOD
9.00
GOOD
Management
Automatic, Scheduled Block, Directory, File CLI, SNMP, Web CoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
100 N/A 22 44 TB 4.4 PB 44 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4x1Gb, 1x10Gb

OSD
Cluster Node
12.1A : 6A 1456Wh 1500 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
1 Yr Hardware 90 Days Software *

Certified
Business Day 24x7x365* *
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
27
GE
BUYERS
Panasas PAS 9
SC
TERPRISE EN

63.00
GOOD
22.00
EXCELLENT
6.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
GOOD
19.00
GOOD
9.00
GOOD
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
100 N/A 10 10 TB 1 PB 40 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4x1Gb, 1x10Gb

OSD
Cluster Node
9A : 4.5A 1080Wh 1100 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support

Certified
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
28
GE
BUYERS
Panasas PAS 12
SC
TERPRISE EN

64.75
GOOD
22.00
EXCELLENT
6.00
EXCELLENT
7.00
GOOD
20.75
GOOD
9.00
GOOD
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
100 N/A 20 60 TB 6 PB 88 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
4x1Gb, 1x10Gb

OSD
Cluster Node
12.1A : 6A 1456Wh 1500 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support

Certified
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
29
GE
BUYERS
Scale Computing M Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

55.50
BASIC
17.00
GOOD
5.00
GOOD
8.00
GOOD
18.50
GOOD
7.00
BASIC
Management
Application, CLI, Web CoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
512 N/A 4 8 TB 4 PB 12 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2x1Gb

Storage Protocols CIFS Thermal Rating NFS Object Storage (REST) WebDAV FTP Authentication Active Directory LDAP NIS/NIS+ Host/IP Hypervisors VMWare Citrix Xenserver Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux Unix
Certified Certified
Cluster Node
2.3A : 1.2A 282Wh 1100 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
24x7x365* 1 Yr*
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
30
GE
BUYERS
Scale Computing N Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

54.50
BASIC
17.00
GOOD
5.00
GOOD
8.00
GOOD
16.25
BASIC
7.00
BASIC
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
512 N/A 4 1.5 TB 768 TB 12 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2x1Gb

Certified Certified
Cluster Node
2.3A : 1.2A 282Wh 1100 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
24x7x365* 1 Yr*
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
31
GE
BUYERS
Scale Computing S Series

SC
TERPRISE EN

53.25
BASIC
17.00
GOOD
5.00
GOOD
8.00
GOOD
17.50
GOOD
7.00
BASIC
Management
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
512 N/A 4 4 TB 2 PB 12 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
2x1Gb

Certified Certified
Cluster Node
2.3A : 1.2A 282Wh 1100 BTU/hr
Storage Node
N/A : N/A N/A N/A
Host Support
Inclusive License
Product Support
24x7x365* 1 Yr*
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
32
GE
BUYERS
Symantec FileStore N8300

SC
TERPRISE EN

61.00
GOOD
19.00
GOOD
7.00
RECOMMENDED
9.00
EXCELLENT
17.00
BASIC
9.00
GOOD
Management
Automatic, Scheduled File Application, CLI, SNMP, Web CoW Continuous, Periodic
Hardware
Scale-Out Storage
16 28 24 48 TB 1.4 PB 48 GB
Drive Technology
Miscellaneous
Networking
8x4Gb 4x1Gb, 4x10Gb

* Available through optional software upgrade *
Cluster Node
8A : 4A 1080Wh 2868 BTU/hr
Storage Node
7A : 3.5A 840Wh 2968 BTU/hr
Host Support
Certified
Product Support
1 Yr
24x7x365*

Certified Certified
Email Support
Supported
Unsupported
33
GE
BUYERS

Product Rankings Dashboard
LA YE
LA YE
OR
OR
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PP
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OR
AT IO
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BlueArc Mercury 55
Best-in-Class Recommended Excellent Good Basic
HP X9000 IBRIX Storage System
BlueArc Mercury 110

IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS)
BlueArc Titan 3200 Series

Cleversafe dsNet 2000 Series

Dell EqualLogic PS Series

EMC Isilon IQ NL-Series

Panasas PAS 8
EMC Isilon IQ S-Series

Panasas PAS 9
EMC Isilon IQ X-Series

Panasas PAS 12
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Scale Computing M Series

Scale Computing N Series

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Symantec FileStore N8300

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35

Appendix ADefinitions, Explanations and Terminology
This section contains brief definitions and/or explanations of the terms used on the data sheets found in this Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide.
MANAGEMENT
Asynchronous Replication
A class of replication strategies where the replication occurs at a point after data is updated. There are two types: periodic and continuous. Periodic replication happens on a scheduled basis. Continuous replication occurs as soon as the device can replicate the write without holding up production writes.
SNMP uses the Simple Network Management Protocol to monitor the performance and settings of the appliance. Web-based is usually the most flexible method of management as it eliminates the need for the installation of a software application while still providing ease of use.
Metadata
The ability to store additional data about the data being stored. Examples might include change management and data retention policies.
Automated Storage Recovery

An optimization strategy related to thin provisioning. Blocks that were allocated to a volume but are no longer used or needed are returned to an enterprise scale-out storage systems pool of unallocated storage capacity.
NDMP: (Network Data Management Protocol)

An industry standard protocol for network based backups and backup management.
Data Migration
The ability to dynamically migrate data between nodes to facilitate the introduction of new nodes into an enterprise scale-out storage system to balance workloads. This feature would also be used to move data off of a node that is targeted for maintenance or is at end-of-life.
Quotas
The ability to manage and enforce resource limits on users, groups, directories and individual files.
Synchronous Replication
A form of replication where both the primary and secondary replication locations must complete the write before processing can continue.
Deduplication
Data deduplication is a specialized data compression technique for eliminating coarse-grained redundant data, typically to improve storage utilization.
Snapshots
A snapshot creates a copy of the file system or volume as if it were frozen at a specific point in time. An effective way to back up live data is to temporarily quiesce (e.g., suspend all activity), take a snapshot, and then resume live operations. At this point the snapshot can be backed up through normal methods. The different types of snapshots are. Allocate-on-Write: (AoW) A copy of all of the pointers to blocks of data on a file system or volume is first made. As net new data is written or existing data on the file system or volume is changed, the data is written to blocks at a new location. Blocks of data that are part of the original file system or volume remain unchanged. This type of snapshot is also known as a differential snapshot since new storage space is only consumed when new data (net new or changed) is written. This snapshot may also be referred to as redirect-on-write. Copy-on-Write: (CoW) A copy of all of the pointers to blocks of data on a file system or volume is first made.
Inclusive License
Indicates whether or not the software license includes all the features that the vendor offers. This is in opposition to an ala-carte style license where the vendor charges a licensing fee depending on the features selected.
Management
How the enterprise scale-out solution is managed which included Application, CLI, SNMP and Web-Based management interfaces. Application based management requires the installation of a vendor provided software application on a PC, laptop or server to manage the appliance. Command line, or CLI, based management provides a method to log directly on to the appliance using telnet, SSH or serial terminal to directly manipulate the appliance.
A-1

As net new data is written, it is written to blocks at a new location. If existing data on the file system or volume is changed, the existing data is read and written to a new location and then the changed data is written to the location where the previous data resided. This type of snapshot is also known as a differential snapshot, since new storage space is only consumed when new data (net new or changed) is written. Replica: This is a special form of snapshot where an existing snapshot of any of the previous types (allocateon-write, copy-on-write, or split mirror) is copied from the array on which it resides to a second array for disaster recovery, business continuity or backup purposes. The second array is another array from the same vendor. Split-Mirror: Prior to a split mirror snapshot occurring, data is concurrently written or mirrored to file systems or volumes. Once a split mirror snapshot is taken, the two file systems or volumes are logically separated with all changes to existing data or net new data only going to the file system or volume that remains in production. The second file system or volume that is split off contains a full copy of the data.
the products in this Buyers Guide can support standard Kerberos authentication without ADS extensions. Host/IP: The ability to restrict access to a device based on IP address and/or hostname. LDAP: (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) LDAP provides a very simple indexed database that is often used to store contact and authentication information. Microsoft Active Directory Services is based on LDAP. NIS/NIS+: (Network Information Service) NIS is a common Unix authentication and service definition protocol. NIS has largely been replaced by LDAP.
Storage Protocols
CIFS: (Common Internet File System) CIFS is the underlying protocol of Windows File Sharing. Due to the large installed base of Windows workstations and servers it has become nearly ubiquitous and is supported by all major desktop and server operating systems. FTP: (File Transfer Protocol) FTP is a standard protocol for transferring individual files between servers using the TCP/IP network protocol. NFS: (Network File System) NFS is to the Unix world what CIFS is to the Windows world. It is a protocol that allows the mounting of devices/file systems on other systems over a network. Object Storage/REST: (REpresentational State Transfer) REST interfaces are a special use case of the client-server architecture. Stateless by nature, protocols based on REST are well suited for data transfer and messaging. It is common for these APIs to use HTTP as a transmission protocol due to the web protocols combination of simplicity and robustness. Examples of REST based APIs are JSON and several XML based protocols including the Jabber instant messaging protocol. WebDAV: (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) WebDAV is a HTTP (web) based file system implementation intended to support author and version tracking.
Storage Tiering
The ability to assign data to different storage media types (SSD, FC, SAS and SATA HDDs) depending on frequency of data access and usage patterns.
Subvolume Tiering
Allows administrators to specify specific directories, files or blocks of data within a file system or volume to use a particular storage device. This allows for better management of performance and disk usage.
Thin Provisioning
An optimization method where volume resources are allocated on the disk only when needed. Using this technology the operating system detects a volume or file system that has more storage capacity than what is allocated. This prevents large chunks of unallocated and unused block remaining within file systems or volumes.
APPLICATION LAYER
Authentication Protocols
Active Directory: (ADS) The standard Microsoft Windows domain authentication system. ADS is an extension of the Kerberos and LDAP protocols. Some of
HOST SUPPORT
Client Operating Systems
The operating systems being used by clients attaching to the appliance. This Buyers Guide tracks support and certification for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Unix.
A-2

Hypervisors
A hardware virtualization manager. This Buyers Guide tracks support and certification for two hypervisors, VMWare and Citrix Xenserver.
Networking
Interface Bonding: The ability to combine several Ethernet interfaces together through software to create a virtual adaptor with greater performance. iSCSI: (Internet Small Computer System Interface) A block-based protocol for running SCSI commands over Internet Protocol (IP) on Ethernet to access storage resources on an enterprise scale-out storage solution. Max Ethernet Ports: The maximum number of Ethernet ports supported by node. For instance a listing of 4x10GbE would specify that each node supports four (4) 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters. Max Fibre Channel Ports: If supported, specifies the maximum number of Fibre Channel network interfaces supported by each node. Max Infiniband Ports: If supported, specifies the maximum number of Infiniband network interfaces supported by each node.
Inclusive License
Within the scope of host support DCIG considers an inclusive license to be one with no restrictions on client type or quantity.
HARDWARE
Drive Technology
The hard drive technology used to store data can have a significant impact on performance and cost. The three major drive technologies currently in use are SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), SATA (Serial ATA) and SSD (Solid State Drive). SAS and SATA are conventional hard drive types with mechanically spinning platters. SSD devices have no moving parts and are completely composed of Flash RAM or similar technologies. SATA drives are generally considered inexpensive while SSDs are usually the most expensive given their recent entrance into the market. Mixed HDDs: The ability to use non-heterogeneous disks in the same node. For instance a node with this feature may be able to support a configuration such as 1TB 7200 RPM SATA drive and a 300 GB 15K RPM SAS drive within the same enclosure.
Power and Cooling

Avg Power Consumption: The average amount of electrical power consumed in one hour by an individual node, measured in Watts per Hour (Wh). Current Consumption: The maximum amount of electrical current drawn by an individual node, measured in Amps (A). Current varies by voltage (V) so Amperage ratings are provided for two common voltages used for installations in the United States are provided, 120V and 240V. Thermal Rating: The estimated maximum amount of heat produced by an individual node in one hour, measured in British Thermal Units per hour (BTU/hr).
Miscellaneous
Global Hot Spares Support: Capability to have a pool of idle disks that will be activated automatically in the event of a failure of another drive. Hot Swap Disk Drives: The ability to replace faulty disk drives without disrupting service. Hot Swap Power Supplies: The ability to replace faulty power supply units without disrupting service. Non-disruptive Updates: The ability to update firmware and/or software of a node without disrupting the availability of the rest of the enterprise scale-out storage environment. RoHS Compliant: The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) restricts the use of hazardous materials in electronics. RoHS compliant devices do not contain materials such as lead and mercury.
Scale-Out Storage
Max Cluster/Controller Nodes: This number specifies the maximum number of nodes in each of the two types of enterprise scale-out storage architecture covered in this Buyers Guide. In a clustered architecture this represents the maximum number of cluster nodes that may be added to a high availability cluster. In a non-clustered or hybrid cluster architecture this number specifies the maximum number of controller nodes that the entire environment can support. A controller node contains the network interfaces (Ethernet, FC, Infiniband) necessary to communicate with client machines and may front end storage nodes.
A-3

Max Drives per Storage Node: This number specifies the maximum number of hard disk drives contained within a cluster or storage node. Max Raw Capacity per Node: The raw capacity of a cluster or storage node that is filled to capacity. Max Raw Storage Capacity: The raw capacity of the entire storage environment including all cluster or storage nodes. This number should be roughly the maximum number of cluster or storage nodes times the maximum raw capacity per node. Max SAN/Storage Nodes: For solutions using a non-clustered or hybrid cluster architecture this specifies the maximum number of storage nodes that the environment can support. For clustered architectures this field will be listed as N/A. Max System Memory per Node: This is the amount of system RAM available to a cluster or controller node that is filled to capacity.
PRODUCT SUPPORT
Email Support (24x7x365)
Specifies whether email support is available at all times, 24 hours a day seven days a week, 365 days a year, including holidays.
Email Support (Business Hours)

Specifies whether email support is available during normal US business hours (9am 5pm, weekdays).
Extended Warranty Available

The availability of an extension to the standard warranty listed above. Extended warranties are usually available only in conjunction with a support contract.
Phone Support
Specifies the hours when phone support is available. Some examples might include business hours (9am 5pm, weekdays), 24x7 (24 hours a day, seven days a week) and 24x7x365 (24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays). Phone support may be available only through a support contract.
Standard Warranty
The standard warranty on hardware, parts and labor provided by the vendor. Some vendors only provide a warranty in conjunction with a support contract.
A-4

Appendix BEnterprise Scale-Out Storage Provider Contact Information
BlueArc Corporation
50 Rio Robles Dr San Jose, CA 95134
info@bluearc.com
IBM Corporation
1 New Orchard Rd Armonk, NY 10504-1722
callserv@ca.ibm.com
+1.408.576.6600
http://www.bluearc.com
+1.800.426.4968
http://www.ibm.com/storage
Cleversafe, Inc.
222 South Riverside Plaza Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60606
sales@cleversafe.com
NetApp
495 East Java Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089 1.877.263.8277
http://www.netapp.com
+1.312.423.6640
http://www.cleversafe.com
Panasas
969 W Maude Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94085
info@panasas.com
Dell, Inc.
1 Dell Way Round Rock, TX 78682 +1.800.671.3355
http://www.dell.com
+1.888.PANASAS
http://www.panasas.com
Scale Computing EMC Corporation (EMC Isilon)

176 South Street Hopkinton, MA 01748
info@isilon.com
5225 Exploration Dr Indianapolis, IN 46241 +1.877.SCALE.59

http://www.scalecomputing.com
+1.877.2.ISILON +1.866.438.3622
http://www.emc.com http://www.isilon.com
Symantec
350 Ellis St Mountain View, CA 94043 +1.650.527.8000
http://www.symantec.com
Hewlett-Packard
3000 Hanover Street Palo Alto, CA 94304 +1.866.625.0242
http://www.hp.com
B-1

Appendix CAuthor Contact Information
DCIG, LLC
7511 Madison Street Omaha NE 68127
C O N TA C T
Jerome Wendt
jerome.wendt@dcig.com
Ben Maas
ben.maas@dcig.com
WEBSITE
www.dcig.com
PHONE
+1.402.884.9594
C-1

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TERPRISE EN

ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

13 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Array Models

34 Product Rankings Dashboard

10 Enterprise Scale-out Storage Scores and Rankings

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Ben and Jerome

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

How to Use this Enterprise Scale-out Storage Buyers Guide

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Feature Areas Where DCIG Expects to See Improvement

Comments and Thoughts on

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Observations and Recommendations Regarding Each Scale-Out Storage Solution Ranking

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Enterprise Scale-Out Storage Scores and Rankings

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

OVERALL SCORES AND RANKINGS

Total Number of Products

Highest Score Lowest Score Average (Mean) Standard Deviation

79.00 53.25 64.65 7.44

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

Hardware Scores And Rankings

Total Number of Products

Highest Score Lowest Score Average (Mean) Standard Deviation

30.00 15.75 20.63 4.31

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG 2011 ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE

ENTERPRISE SCALE-OUT STORAGE BUYERS GUIDE MODELS

2011 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved.

DCIG Scores and Rankings

Global Hot Spares Support Non-Disruptive Updates RoHS Compliant

Power and Cooling Application Layer

Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption

Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux Unix

Email Support (Business Hours) Email Support (24x7x365)

BlueArc Mercury 110

DCIG Scores and Rankings

Global Hot Spares Support Non-Disruptive Updates RoHS Compliant

Power and Cooling Application Layer

Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption

Client Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Linux Unix

Email Support (Business Hours) Email Support (24x7x365)

BlueArc Titan 3200 Series

DCIG Scores and Rankings

Global Hot Spares Support Non-Disruptive Updates RoHS Compliant

Power and Cooling Application Layer

Current Consumption 120V : 240V Avg Power Consumption