Storage Immortality is the ability to have storage capacity that self-heals, grows/shrinks and continues to evolve to the latest technologies without the need for physical replacements by the user. Storage Immortality is redefining Enterprise storage TCO by eliminating the vicious cycle of data migration and putting an end to forklift upgrades, long planning and CapEx overspend.
Traditional Storage: From Capex to Refresh Cycles
Traditional enterprise storage management works somewhat like a hamster-wheel of migration cycles. Administration typically looks like this:
1. Evaluate possible vendors, negotiate terms and buy a storage array
2. Migrate data onto the array (re-platforming of data, disruptive downtime, testing of data integrity and risk of incompatibilities)
3. Wait 3-4 years until hardware is either:
a. Out of warranty, or
b. Too slow for application needs
4. Repeat!
In a large organization with multiple arrays and applications it’s possible to always be migrating data from an old array onto a new one.
A recent Wikibon research report reveals that the total cost of storage migration is estimated at 54% of the original array cost! Considering that a typical array costs $300,000 and is replaced every 4 years, these numbers quickly turn unimaginable for any organization. Worse yet, the associated headaches and risks are plenty.
Immortal Storage
The term ‘Storage Immortality’ originated by John Webster of the Evaluator Group to describe how the Zadara Storage Cloud technology eliminates the vicious and costly cycle of enterprise data migration across storage arrays and its impact on storage TCO (Source: The Zadara Storage Cloud — A Validation of its Use Cases and Economic Benefits).
Zadara Storage Cloud is an immortal system. Not only is it self-healing (our software-defined storage technology ensures redundancy with automatic failover and re-growth should any components fail), but we also continually and perpetually replace and upgrade all hardware and software components – with neither application downtime nor performance degradation.
From the Cloud to On-Premises
A non-disruptive data model seems obvious for customers using storage off premises in the cloud. But now we are bringing this very same experience to data centers with On Premise as a Service (OPaaS).
Zadara’s true as-a-service model frees storage administrators and IT teams of ongoing maintenance and enables seamless, non-disruptive scaling in any direction (up, down, in or out). On-premises customers are charged on a per-use basis, just like in the cloud – and likewise can configure and change their array specifications according to performance, capacity, and/or cost needs.
Node replacements, upgrades and maintenance are an integral part of our service, which means customers enjoy these benefits without incurring any additional cost beyond their monthly usage fee. The only thing required of the customer is racking of the new equipment and un-racking of the old.
3 Ways Storage Immortality Saves Costs
1. No more ongoing maintenance and management
Every time a component fails or becomes obsolete, we exchange the hardware at no additional cost. IT organizations deploying Zadara no longer waste precious strategic work time on low-value tasks, nor are they paying to purchase expensive new drives.
2. No more data migration and ensuing costs
The significant time, personnel and costs associated with migrating data from an obsolete system to a new system are completely eliminated for Zadara customers. Months of work is saved for IT teams, and our SLAs keep us accountable to 100% uptime. Systems are upgraded in-place, automatically, without any interruption to application environments.
3. No more refresh cycles
Technology and capacity refreshes and expensive CapEx investment involving the replacement of an entire storage system are no longer required when performance and capacity are added non-disruptively. The ability to non-disruptively add/replace/remove nodes as needed and as new technology enters mainstream usage (e.g., SSDs, large capacity HDDs, higher performance I/O ports) helps to future-proof the service and ensure quality of service over the long-term
Cutting Costs By Half
A recent Evaluator Group report looks at customer use cases and economic benefits of the Zadara Storage Cloud model. They found that by taking advantage of Zadara Storage as a Service, customers obviously save money on Day One. But the surprising result is that the savings increase over time: a roughly 2x cost differential is maintained. The longer customers use Zadara Storage, the more they save. After 10 years, customers still see a 50% cost savings!
Figure 1 above shows an initial capacity of 182 TB, with an annual capacity growth rate of 35% over a 10-year period. The TCO calculation includes cost for storage capacity and controllers, software maintenance, and administrative staff time. Traditional arrays include migration costs at three-year intervals.
Get Started Today
How can Immortal Storage be part of your IT strategy?
Download the Evaluator Group analyst paper to learn more!
