Sun may be getting their game on if the X4500 is any evidence. Packing 24 TB of storage and 2 dual-core 64bit Opterons into a 4U box, it is the first system anywhere to leverage the very cool ZFS.
ZFS: Google File System For The Rest Of Us
Google’s GFS isn’t a commercial product, nor is it suitable for the huge majority of IT work. But Sun’s ZFS is. The best data protection of any production storage plus the highest performance of any host-based (i.e. better than any PCI card and most any mid-range stroage) RAID, means the X4500 is ready for serious enterprise use. And at less than $2 per GB (after the normal discounts), it is a shot across the bow of in-denial Big Iron vendors whose bloated products cost 5-10x.
Can The X4500 Succeed In Spite Of Sun?
Of course, Sun has no idea how to market this beast, so I doubt it will get the traction it deserves. CEO Schwartz admits as much in his blog:
We’re still figuring out what to call the product, “open source storage” or “a data server,” but by running a general purpose OS on a general purpose server platform, packed to the gills with storage capacity, you can actually run databases, video pumps or business intelligence apps directly on the device itself, and get absolutely stunning performance.
This may be before your time, Jonathan, but before the idea of spreading everything across a network was popular, we called them “computer systems”. The X4500 is a new catagory: the general purpose appliance.
Thanks to ZFS it has the data integrity expected for the enterprise combined with the management advantages of an appliance. Yet the X4500 white paper spends 350 words on ZFS – USB pinouts get almost as much attention – while missing the key advantages of availability and performance.
Don’t Let Sun’s Storage Group Get Their Hands On It!
Or it will be doomed for sure. Keep it in the server group, where there is at least a chance that customers will be able to discover the virtues of this box on their own.
Update: iSCSI target mode
iSCSI target mode is in the latest version of OpenSolaris, so it is easy to turn the X4500 into a fast and cheap iSCSI array.
“And at less than $2 per TB” – $2 per GB, I think you mean.
Good catch, Chris. I’ve changed the text.
Any chance of them ever making it an iSCSI target?
A very good chance, Carl. Back in February Bill Moore of the ZFS team wrote:
On 2/24/06, Bill Moore wrote:
> Target mode support is
> coming; sooner rather than later.
Enquiring minds want to know: WHEN?? I’ve asked and will share what I learn – if anything – here at StorageMojo.com.
The iSCSI target is already in OpenSolaris.
What?!? WHAT!?!?!
“The iSCSI target is already in OpenSolaris.”
Apologies in advance for resorting to teen ‘doodism’ but OMFG!
As stated in the original post – do NOT let the storage idiots get their hands on this. How can you engineer a product like this and then not know what to do with it?
“How can you engineer a product like this and then not know what to do with it?”
Simple. If you are infected with the DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) virus. This virus later spread to Compaq and Sun.
Robert,
As a veteran of both DEC and Sun I know whereof you speak. IMHO, a catagory busting product like the X4500 requires articulating a vision that customers can relate to. Sadly, the X4500 doesn’t fit in any of Sun’s current organizational buckets: it is OpenSolaris + Server + Storage = a new deployment/architectural paradigm. ZFS has the same, cough, opportunity.
I know Anil Gadre and Andy Ingram and they are both smart marketing guys good at identifying savvy ideas when they see them. So I have to believe that they aren’t seeing any good ideas for a) re-inventing Sun, b) marketing the X4500, and c) marketing ZFS.
Plus there is the problem of spending several billion for StorageTek, a quintessential mainframe company. So laying out a compelling new vision – as the circa 1985 Sun would have delighted in – is complicated by this expensive albatross. I recognize that STK’s sales force has helped Sun’s storage results, yet it also defines the company’s approach to storage for some time to come. Which is another reason it is vital that the X4500 not be given to Sun’s Network Storage group – the Mos Eiseley of storage marketing.
I talked to Bill Moore of the ZFS group and he pointed out that iSCSI support is in OpenSolaris right here. Check it out.
The iSCSI support should be improving over time – including a backport to S10U3 – but there is no need to wait to start playing with it and seeing what it can do.