BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here
Edit Story

Google Wants To Put A New Spin On Old Storage Technology

NetApp

At a recent technical conference, Google’s VP of Infrastructure presented a wish list for a disk drive that doesn’t exist, at least not yet. This is newsworthy because the storage industry is currently in the midst of an epic transition away from disk drives in favor of faster solid-state devices that use flash technology.

In essence, Google is trying to influence disk drive vendors to create a new type of device—one with a new form factor and stripped of most of its intelligence. If the request had been made as a personal ad rather than as part of a keynote presentation, it might have read something like this:

Cloud giant seeking something different:  prefers tall and thin with a low IQ.

So why is Google bucking the industry trend and why the quirky preferences? Blame it on YouTube.

So Many Videos, So Little Time

According to Google, YouTube users upload videos at an amazing rate. Today, over 1 petabyte of new video data is uploaded each day, which requires about the same storage capacity as that needed to run an average midsized company. Within five years, however, YouTube will need to store approximately 10 times that amount of new video data each and every day. Deploying enough storage capacity is one problem, but enabling its users to instantly view any video on demand is another, and this is where tall and thin come in.

Over time, disk drives have increased in capacity much faster than they have increased in performance, but their physical size has remained unchanged because of the limited space available in laptops and servers. Now, Google is suggesting that disk drive vendors create new devices specifically for hyperscale data center operators. By building disk devices taller and thinner, the vendors could use more platters per drive and reduce the time it takes to find and retrieve data. In other words, YouTube users could store and play back more cat videos, faster.

Google is also very particular about how much intelligence would be needed in a disk drive built to its requirements. It suggests that drive vendors should shift their R&D focus to address hyperscale performance and capacity needs and even to consider removing much of the software embedded onto the drives themselves. In this scenario, Google engineers would develop the software needed to compensate for the “dumber” drives.

New Flash Storage Systems Accelerate All Applications

Disk drives are already pretty cost effective for storing videos, which are uploaded and retrieved as a stream of sequentially ordered data. With a few improvements, disk devices will probably continue to meet the demands of YouTube and similar cloud services for years to come. However, the vast majority of business applications require fast access to data that is randomly ordered, and this is driving a transition to flash storage.

New high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs), such as the new Samsung 15TB SSD, will only accelerate this trend. Most companies already run a mix of applications on a shared infrastructure to keep costs down, and IT teams have quickly discovered that they can accelerate all of their applications using flash technology.

For example, Randstad UK, an operating unit of the global HR services firm, recently replaced its traditional storage infrastructure with a combination of all-flash systems and cloud storage services. David Leybourne, IT director of infrastructure for the firm’s UK operations, summarized why flash storage—not disk—is part of his IT transformation plan: “It is actually five to six times faster than we need, but this gives us a lot of headroom when planning for the future.”

All-flash arrays are more cost effective than traditional disk-based systems when it comes to operating costs, such as space, power, cooling, and maintenance. When combined with advanced data protection software, these arrays can store up to 20 times more user data than equivalent disk systems. All-flash systems that can seamlessly copy data to one or more off-site cloud data services, such as NetApp all-flash arrays, can also significantly reduce the cost of backup and disaster recovery operations.

The Takeaway

Disk drives will continue to play a role in certain capacity-hungry applications—such as storing the world’s largest collection of cat videos. However, within most enterprise data centers, all-flash storage systems are poised to replace traditional disk systems within a relatively short time.

To learn how Randstad uses its all-flash storage systems and connects them to the cloud with a data fabric, click here.