What VARs Need To Know About File Systems

By Stefan Bernbo, founder and CEO, Compuverde

Cloud adoption, mobility, and Big Data analytics — just three of the trends currently overwhelming traditional data storage architectures. Professional services firm JLL reports cloud adoption alone will double the size of data centers within the next five years.

However, it’s financially infeasible to scale linearly with legacy storage appliances, and it would take too long. Even adding multiple servers could not accommodate storage demands. What’s more, vertical storage architecture contains bottlenecks that slow performance to an unacceptable level. This is the environment VARs must steer customers through today.

What’s needed is a system that decouples the programming that controls storage-related tasks from the physical storage hardware. Software-defined storage (SDS) does this, dramatically reducing hardware costs in the process. Fewer, less-expensive servers can be used to improve both capacity and performance. Administration is simplified and made more flexible and efficient. SDS enables users to allocate and share storage assets across all workloads.

These features have made SDS popular throughout the industry. In fact, Gartner recently reported that by 2020 anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of unstructured data will be stored and managed on lower-cost hardware supported by software-defined storage. However, not all that glitters is gold — make sure you know the details related to this technology so your customers get the storage solution they need.

File Systems And Features

About 80 percent of storage solutions offer file systems; that’s because 80 percent of data is unstructured. While it is widely understood unstructured data is best managed with a file system, for some reason many SDS offerings focus solely on block or object store. Without a file system overlaying this data, it becomes very difficult to manage.

Each of the three types of storage has its particular purpose:

• Block stores virtual machines or databases; it is considered the basic foundation of storage. However, you need files as well to deal with all the unstructured data.
• Object storage, used for machine-to-machine/IoT transactions and other applications that require extreme scalability, is all the rage. However, it isn’t much better than block when it comes to managing data.
• File systems, while not as sexy as object, are best at handling unstructured data. This is the bread and butter of storage.

Some SDS providers claim to provide file system with their offerings because they know file systems are important. However, these file systems are usually based on Samba, the freeware module that enables support for SMB and allows end users to access and use files on the company’s intranet or network. The problem is providing file services through Samba, which is open source, often means going without needed features.

Essentially, this is the equivalent of not having a file system; features are that important.

It’s not just the file system that organizations need in order to deal with unstructured data; file-related features are also necessary. These include:

• Retention: Automatically creates a single folder or a hierarchy of folders on file servers, to be deleted according to assigned policies.
• Snapshot: As the name suggests, this is a read-only copy of the contents of a file system or independent file set taken at a single point in time. When a snapshot of an independent file set is taken, all files and nested dependent file sets will be included in the snapshot.

• Tiering: A policy that allows the user to designate where a specific file is to be placed as well as if and when the file will be migrated between file system pools. Users can define both file placement and migration policies. By using a policy, users create a filter that designates a specific file type to a particular tier. Tiered storage is more efficient and boosts performance.
• Quota: Helps monitor the amount of storage being used. Users can set a soft limit quota that will warn them when part of a file system is close to reaching its storage limit but still allow data to be saved. If users set up a hard limit quota, after the quota is reached, no new data can be saved.

Due Diligence Required

Your customers need to manage their unstructured data, representing 80 percent of their storage needs, but most SDS providers offer a file system in name only. And open source solutions are not the answer, as they only offer limited features, which are critical for the file system. The solution that will best serve your customers is one that can handle all storage types and has a robust feature set. Your careful research will result in happy customers who have the storage solution they need.

Stefan Bernbo is the founder and CEO of Compuverde. For 20 years, Stefan has designed and built numerous enterprise-scale data storage solutions designed to be cost effective for storing huge data sets. From 2004 to 2010 Stefan worked within this field for Storegate, the wide-reaching Internet based storage solution for consumer and business markets, with the highest possible availability and scalability requirements. Previously, Stefan has worked with system and software architecture on several projects with Swedish giant Ericsson, the world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services to mobile and fixed network operators.