SPC and IDC
March was an interesting month in terms of news on the storage market. First, IDC issued a press release on the results of storage systems sales in the fourth calendar quarter of 2015. General trends are sad for most industry players. The corporate market of storage systems for money declined by 2.2% compared with the same period last year. At the same time, the total capacity sold in the fourth quarter increased by 10.7%. Sales of internal drives grew by 6.1%, which may indicate an increase in the segment of software-defined storage systems and cloud solutions, and not only an increase in the capacity inside servers. External disk arrays sold 2.3% worse.
Who is most affected by this trend? Specialized manufacturers who may have a dozen storage platforms in the solution portfolio, but there is nothing else that could be offered to the customer:
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Total Storage Systems, Fourth Quarter of 2015 (Revenues are in Millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, March 11, 2016
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Losses of EMC and NetApp are quite significant. Five percent of EMC turnover for the quarter is $ 110 million. They dissolved in the air. Do you think that the growth of Hewlett Packard Enterprise is provided only by internal drives in ProLiant servers? No, not only:
Top 5 Vendors, Revenues are in Millions, Worldwide External Storage Systems Market, Fourth Quarter of 2015
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, March 11, 2016
It is clear that there are no changes in this table in comparison with the previous one for EMC and NetApp - they do not produce the servers and the drop percentages are the same. Hitachi maintains a general trend for sales decline, and there is only one exception - Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Growth against the market of external storage systems by almost 5% (2.6% + 2.3%) is an interesting trend. What allowed Hewlett Packard Enterprise to demonstrate this result? In 2015, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ line was completely updated, which gradually became equal, and then surpassed the sales results of its competitors, first in the EMEA region, and a little later around the world. These arrays have many advantages and interesting technical features compared to competitors - low-level virtualization of disk space, use of specialized ASIC “coprocessors” to calculate the most complex tasks (like deduplication or T10 parity), the ability to install up to 4 or 8 controllers depending on the model . This is the only platform in Gartner's quaddards, which occupies a leading position both among ordinary arrays and in the all-flash segment that is gaining popularity. This is a single functional and control interface from the youngest systems to high end.
In our blog, HPE Storage Senior Vice President and General Manager Manish Goel also commented on the interesting situation with specialized storage manufacturers and their future in an era when the alternative to external disk arrays is becoming increasingly important in the market. He believes that the days of such manufacturers are numbered. Let's discuss ?
In March, Hewlett Packard Enterprise immediately published 2 test results from HPE 3PAR StoreServ. First, the November result on the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 all-flash enterprise-class system in the SPC-2 test, which assesses the bandwidth of an array (tasks such as video hosting or analytics that require scanning DBMS tables), is now also presented for hybrid HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20840 array. The result is the same - the first place in the world with the index of 62.844 MBPS, 13% faster than the EMC VMAX3 400K and 2 times cheaper.
The eighth of March 2016 was a holiday not only for girls. Let's take a look at the SPC-1 HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 test published on this day. The SPC-1 test focuses on the performance of storage systems in transactional OLTP tasks and measures the number of I / O operations per second. HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 is a midrange, and in terms of the number of IOPs you should not expect world records. This system is for customers who do not need millions of I / O operations per second, and, incidentally, there are no millions of dollars to spend on a high-end class array. Four-controller array (and who else on the market has four-controller arrays in this segment, remind?), All-flash, relatively inexpensive. And here is the result:
Remember about the virtualization of disk space? It allows the most efficient use of the capacity of the array. So, the test presents a “record configuration”, but its “Unused Storage Ratio” is 3.07%! The system is 97% full. The next time someone tells you that you need a large number of spindles to parallelize operations and get more performance for transactional tasks, consider how much money you can save by switching to 3PAR. If you discuss with other vendors configurations on solid-state drives, ask if they can use the flash as effectively.
Now about performance. Recently there was a heated discussion about what to consider as a hi-end in disk arrays, and there I was quite sharply expressed:
So, our midrange is a quarter slower than the NetApp highland. But almost 16 times cheaper . About the cost of a single I / O operation is worth talking separately:
With a score of $ 0.23 per transaction, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 is the most inexpensive array of all external storage systems tested in SPC-1, including not only all-flash configurations, but also HDD.
In general, it seems that the myth of the high cost of flash memory is supported by manufacturers who do not know how to force the controllers of their arrays to work effectively with the new type of drives. We are closely following the trends in reducing the cost of SSD, and recently conducted an interesting experiment. The customer wanted to get the fastest disk subsystem on the 300GB 15K HDD, and insisted that switching to flash would be more expensive. The configuration with the use of 216 disks came up in performance and price, but we proposed an alternative option. Do you remember that 3PAR works great with SSD capacity of 3.84TB? Information for fans of storage systems of another company who still believe that eMLC is the best carrier: on SSDs with a capacity of 3.84TB, Hewlett Packard Enterprise provides an unconditional guarantee that includes failure due to overwriting, and according to our service from an average user the need for such a replacement will arise in the 2064 area. So, replacing the hard drives with 18 SSDs, we proposed (with discount) the system on the flash is 10% cheaper than on hard drives. The customer also received free bonuses: the ability to enable deduplication, an increase in the number of IOPs and throughput by 8 times, a reduction in latency by 25 times, less rack space by 9 times, weight less than 7.5 times, a decrease in energy consumption by 6.5 times ...
By the way, the power consumption of the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 record configuration is less than the kettle in your kitchen. Very relevant for Earth Hour , which was celebrated last week, do not you think so?
Who is most affected by this trend? Specialized manufacturers who may have a dozen storage platforms in the solution portfolio, but there is nothing else that could be offered to the customer:
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Total Storage Systems, Fourth Quarter of 2015 (Revenues are in Millions)
| Vendor | 4Q15 Revenue | 4Q15 Market Share | 4Q14 Revenue | 4Q14 Market Share | 4Q15 / 4Q14 Revenue Growth |
| 1. EMC | $ 2,229.0 | 21.5% | $ 2,351.5 | 22.2% | -5.2% |
| 2. HPE | $ 1,572.0 | 15.1% | $ 1,456.2 | 13.7% | 7.9% |
| 3. Dell * | $ 920.7 | 8.9% | $ 951.9 | 9.0% | -3.3% |
| 4. IBM * | $ 892.9 | 8.6% | $ 939.6 | 8.9% | -5.0% |
| 5. NetApp | $ 650.9 | 6.3% | $ 763.6 | 7.2% | -14.8% |
| ODM Direct | $ 1,161.2 | 11.2% | $ 1,356.8 | 12.8% | -14.4% |
| Others | $ 2,951.5 | 28.4% | $ 2,796.7 | 26.3% | 5.5% |
| All vendors | $ 10,378.1 | 100.0% | $ 10,616.3 | 100.0% | -2.2% |
')
Losses of EMC and NetApp are quite significant. Five percent of EMC turnover for the quarter is $ 110 million. They dissolved in the air. Do you think that the growth of Hewlett Packard Enterprise is provided only by internal drives in ProLiant servers? No, not only:
Top 5 Vendors, Revenues are in Millions, Worldwide External Storage Systems Market, Fourth Quarter of 2015
| Vendor | 4Q15 Revenue | 4Q15Market Share | 4Q14 Revenue | 4Q14 Market Share | 4Q15 / 4Q14 Revenue Growth |
| 1. EMC | $ 2,229.0 | 31.7% | $ 2,351.5 | 32.7% | -5.2% |
| 2. IBM | $ 791.4 | 11.3% | $ 825.4 | 11.5% | -4.1% |
| 3. HPE * | $ 706.5 | 10.1% | $ 688.7 | 9.6% | 2.6% |
| 4. NetApp * | $ 650.9 | 9.3% | $ 763.6 | 10.6% | -14.8% |
| 5. Hitachi | $ 532.0 | 7.6% | $ 577.1 | 8.0% | -7.8% |
| Others | $ 2,116.1 | 30.1% | $ 1,987.7 | 27.6% | 6.5% |
| All vendors | $ 7,025.8 | 100.0% | $ 7,193.9 | 100.0% | -2.3% |
It is clear that there are no changes in this table in comparison with the previous one for EMC and NetApp - they do not produce the servers and the drop percentages are the same. Hitachi maintains a general trend for sales decline, and there is only one exception - Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Growth against the market of external storage systems by almost 5% (2.6% + 2.3%) is an interesting trend. What allowed Hewlett Packard Enterprise to demonstrate this result? In 2015, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ line was completely updated, which gradually became equal, and then surpassed the sales results of its competitors, first in the EMEA region, and a little later around the world. These arrays have many advantages and interesting technical features compared to competitors - low-level virtualization of disk space, use of specialized ASIC “coprocessors” to calculate the most complex tasks (like deduplication or T10 parity), the ability to install up to 4 or 8 controllers depending on the model . This is the only platform in Gartner's quaddards, which occupies a leading position both among ordinary arrays and in the all-flash segment that is gaining popularity. This is a single functional and control interface from the youngest systems to high end.
In our blog, HPE Storage Senior Vice President and General Manager Manish Goel also commented on the interesting situation with specialized storage manufacturers and their future in an era when the alternative to external disk arrays is becoming increasingly important in the market. He believes that the days of such manufacturers are numbered. Let's discuss ?
SPC
In March, Hewlett Packard Enterprise immediately published 2 test results from HPE 3PAR StoreServ. First, the November result on the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 all-flash enterprise-class system in the SPC-2 test, which assesses the bandwidth of an array (tasks such as video hosting or analytics that require scanning DBMS tables), is now also presented for hybrid HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20840 array. The result is the same - the first place in the world with the index of 62.844 MBPS, 13% faster than the EMC VMAX3 400K and 2 times cheaper.
The eighth of March 2016 was a holiday not only for girls. Let's take a look at the SPC-1 HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 test published on this day. The SPC-1 test focuses on the performance of storage systems in transactional OLTP tasks and measures the number of I / O operations per second. HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 is a midrange, and in terms of the number of IOPs you should not expect world records. This system is for customers who do not need millions of I / O operations per second, and, incidentally, there are no millions of dollars to spend on a high-end class array. Four-controller array (and who else on the market has four-controller arrays in this segment, remind?), All-flash, relatively inexpensive. And here is the result:
Remember about the virtualization of disk space? It allows the most efficient use of the capacity of the array. So, the test presents a “record configuration”, but its “Unused Storage Ratio” is 3.07%! The system is 97% full. The next time someone tells you that you need a large number of spindles to parallelize operations and get more performance for transactional tasks, consider how much money you can save by switching to 3PAR. If you discuss with other vendors configurations on solid-state drives, ask if they can use the flash as effectively.
Now about performance. Recently there was a heated discussion about what to consider as a hi-end in disk arrays, and there I was quite sharply expressed:
Shameful for 2015 685,281.71 IOPs Netappa can be overcome at times. 384 drive 200GB eMLC? Enchanting capacity for highland, right? For 1.9 million dollars?
So, our midrange is a quarter slower than the NetApp highland. But almost 16 times cheaper . About the cost of a single I / O operation is worth talking separately:
With a score of $ 0.23 per transaction, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 is the most inexpensive array of all external storage systems tested in SPC-1, including not only all-flash configurations, but also HDD.
In general, it seems that the myth of the high cost of flash memory is supported by manufacturers who do not know how to force the controllers of their arrays to work effectively with the new type of drives. We are closely following the trends in reducing the cost of SSD, and recently conducted an interesting experiment. The customer wanted to get the fastest disk subsystem on the 300GB 15K HDD, and insisted that switching to flash would be more expensive. The configuration with the use of 216 disks came up in performance and price, but we proposed an alternative option. Do you remember that 3PAR works great with SSD capacity of 3.84TB? Information for fans of storage systems of another company who still believe that eMLC is the best carrier: on SSDs with a capacity of 3.84TB, Hewlett Packard Enterprise provides an unconditional guarantee that includes failure due to overwriting, and according to our service from an average user the need for such a replacement will arise in the 2064 area. So, replacing the hard drives with 18 SSDs, we proposed (with discount) the system on the flash is 10% cheaper than on hard drives. The customer also received free bonuses: the ability to enable deduplication, an increase in the number of IOPs and throughput by 8 times, a reduction in latency by 25 times, less rack space by 9 times, weight less than 7.5 times, a decrease in energy consumption by 6.5 times ...
By the way, the power consumption of the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 record configuration is less than the kettle in your kitchen. Very relevant for Earth Hour , which was celebrated last week, do not you think so?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/280027/
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