Greg Schulz

This follows the first of a two-part series on my latest experiences with Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDDs) and Solid State Devices (SSDs). In my ongoing last momentus moment post I discussed what I have done with HHDDs and setting the stage for expanded SSD use. I have the newer HHDDs, e.g. Seagate Momentus XT II 750GB (8GB SLC nand flash) installed and have since bought another from Amazon as well as having some of the older 500GB (4GB SLC nand flash) in various systems. Those are all functioning great, however still waiting and looking forward to the rumored firmware enhancements to boost write capabilities. This brings me up to the latest momentus moment which now includes SSDs. Well it's two years later and I now have a 256GB (usable capacity is lower) Samsung SSD that I bought from Amazon.com and installed in one of my laptops and just as when I made the first ... (more)

Why SSD-Based Arrays and Storage Appliances Can Be a Good Idea (Part 2)

This is the second of a two part post about why storage arrays and appliances with SSD drives can be a good idea, here is the link to the first post. So again, why would putting drive form factor SSDs be a bad idea for existing storage systems, arrays and appliances? Benefits of SSD drive in storage systems, arrays and appliances: Familiarity with customers who buy and use these devices Reduces time to market enabling customers to innovate via deployment Establish comfort and confidence with SSD technology for customers Investment protection of currently installed technology (hard... (more)

Why SSD-Based Arrays and Storage Appliances Can Be a Good Idea (Part I)

This is the first of a two part series, you can read part II here. Robin Harris (aka @storagemojo) recently in a blog post asks a question and thinks solid state devices (SSDs) using SAS or SATA interface in traditional hard disk drive (HDD) form factors are a bad idea in storage arrays (e.g. storage systems or appliances). My opinion is that as with many things about storing, processing or moving binary digital data (e.g. 1s and 0s) the answer is not always clear. That is there may not be a right or wrong answer instead it depends on the situation, use or perhaps abuse scenario. ... (more)

Storage and IO Metrics That Matter

It is great to see more conversations and coverage around storage metrics that matter beyond simply focusing on cost per GByte or TByte (e.g. space capacity). Likewise, it is also good to see conversations expanding beyond data footprint reduction (DFR) from a space capacity savings or reduction ratio to also address data movement and transfer rates. Also good to see is increase in discussion around input/output operations per section (IOPs) tying into conversations from virtualization, VDI, cloud to Sold State Devices (SSD). Other storage and IO metrics that matter include late... (more)

IT Optimization, efficiency, convergence and cloud conversations from SNW

IT Optimization, efficiency, convergence and cloud conversations from SNW By Greg Schulz Recently I did a presentation titled Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (hmm, I think I know of a book with the same title) at the spring 2012 SNW in Dallas. My presentation was on the first morning of the session as I needed to be in Boston to record a video the following Tuesday morning, thus I missed out on the storm clouds and tornadoes that rolled in the next day. While I was at SNW, had the honor of being a guest on Calvin Zito (aka @HPStorageguy) pod cast that can be found on h... (more)