Users Face Choice Between NAS Software and Appliances

Transcription

1 Competitive Analysis Users Face Choice Between NAS Software and Appliances Abstract: Veritas and Mountain View Data offer their NAS software as more flexible approaches than NAS appliances. Some opportunities are still in this market, but the key is their go-to-market strategies. By Pushan Rinnen Strategic Planning Assumptions NAS software-only solutions will likely succeed in the data center environment (0.7 probability). Such solutions may garner 5 percent of total NAS revenue in 2004 (0.7 probability). Publication Date: September 16, 2002

2 2 Users Face Choice Between NAS Software and Appliances Introduction The network-attached storage (NAS) market has attracted the attention of many vendors as a growth area in which to invest. Besides the few surviving NAS pioneers, NAS products are now offered by tape vendors (Quantum), server vendors (all top-tier server vendors except Sun Microsystems), disk array vendors and software vendors. Microsoft was the first software vendor that took interest in NAS and introduced its Windows-powered NAS based on Windows However, Microsoft's NAS software is not available as a software-only solution to end users. Rather, it is sold through hardware original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that integrate the software with their server and storage hardware and sell them as an appliance solution. Microsoft has successfully enlisted many large server vendors as its hardware OEMs, including Hewlett- Packard (StorageWorks NAS), Dell Computer and IBM. Three more NAS software vendors emerged in Veritas launched its ServPoint NAS based on Solaris (also on Linux in July 2002), Novell introduced its NetDevice NAS, based on NetWare, and Mountain View Data (MVD), a startup company, debuted its NAS based on Linux. Novell offered its NetDevice NAS free of charge for its customers under maintenance contracts or buying upgrades in a defensive mode to protect its installed base. Currently, the company is transitioning the product into a branch office appliance that will offer other functions beside NAS. For this reason, this Perspective only focuses on Veritas and MVD, which are pursuing the appliance approach through hardware OEMs and integrators, as well as a software-only strategy targeted at end users. For the first time, customers have the option of purchasing NAS software separately from hardware. In this increasingly crowded marketplace, are the software-only products viable solutions to survive competition? Gartner Dataquest discusses some compelling stories of NAS software-only solutions, as well as the daunting challenges they face. Software Overview Veritas ServPoint NAS Veritas is a well-known storage management software company. Its ServPoint NAS product leverages its widely deployed foundation products including Veritas Volume Manager and Veritas File System. Veritas File System is a journaled file system with embedded Quicklog for fast performance and checkpoint technology for unlimited file system snapshots. Volume Manager enables ServPoint NAS to offer disk usage analysis, various redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) levels (0, 1, 5 and 10) and dynamic volume expansion. Volume Manager's FlashSnap option creates snapshots and re-synchronization at the volume level, similar to EMC's TimeFinder. ServPoint NAS supports Unix and Windows clients.

3 ServPoint NAS also boasts strong system high-availability features, such as Veritas Cluster Server, which currently supports up to 32 clustered nodes on Solaris or up to eight nodes on Linux with same or different classes of systems. (In today's clustering deployment, however, most customers choose two to three active nodes.) Disaster recovery and business continuance are achieved through Veritas Volume Replicator (an option), which offers synchronous and asynchronous mirroring at the logicalvolumelevel.backupandrecoveryaredonethroughveritas NetBackup or the network data management protocol (NDMP). As ServPoint NAS is hardware independent, it can scale performance and capacity independently by adding CPU modules, memory or disks separately. It can also be configured as a NAS gateway to tap into a backend storage area network (SAN) for unlimited storage. Its Solaris version supports Sun servers with SPARC II and III; its Linux version supports Intel servers running Pentium III and IV. Both versions support heterogeneous storage systems from various vendors, including Sun, IBM, HPQ and EMC, as well as just a bunch of disks (JBODs). MVD-Powered NAS MVD was founded in 2000 by the founder of Turbo Linux. It employs 50 people and has offices in the United States, Japan and China. MVDpowered NAS started shipping in 2001 in Japan, where Turbo Linux is popular. In an effort to offer an alternative to Microsoft-powered NAS, it is now pursuing hardware OEMs in the United States, as well as offering free evaluation units to end users. MVD-powered NAS offers a journaled file system based on the Linux operating system. The MVD Snap can capture up to 256 copies of the file system and recover at an individual file level or the whole file system level. MVD Sync offers one-way asynchronous remote replication at the file level. Other features include online partition re-sizing, Windows domain authentication and Web-based graphical user interface. However, it is lacking high-availability features, such as failover and clustering. Its current version also does not support NDMP protocol for tape backup. MVD-powered NAS supports Unix, Windows and Apple clients. It runs on Intel servers with any storage arrays. 3 Comparative Analysis NAS software solutions from Veritas and MVD offer an alternative to NAS appliances (hardware/software combined solution). Their flexibility presents a compelling value proposition for customers that want to leverage their established hardware or mix and match different hardware from various vendors. This should be especially appealing in today's economic conditions. On the flip side, the separation of software and hardware may well result in more complexity in integration for the channels and end users as they are not as tightly integrated as an appliance. The burden is on integrators to ensure the interoperability of various hardware components. Therefore, the software-only solutions should only target IT users that are technology-savvy, most of whom work

4 4 Users Face Choice Between NAS Software and Appliances in the enterprise and data center environments. For users that don't want to do reconfiguration and have the budget to buy new hardware, the concept of simplicity and tight integration introduced by NAS appliances should be more appealing. Veritas From a technology perspective, Veritas ServPoint NAS has strong feature sets that put it in the same rank with Network Appliance and EMC and enable it to compete in the enterprise and data center environment. However, file serving/sharing in the Solaris platform is a limited market compared with the Linux on Intel server market. The Linux version of ServPoint NAS will enable Veritas to compete in a much broader market, also against Microsoft-powered NAS. From a marketing perspective, Veritas' NAS strategy differs from Microsoft's distinctively. Veritas is appealing to the flexibility of generalpurpose servers with separate software, while Microsoft is pursuing the appliance approach with its software only available through its hardware OEMs, which offer a complete NAS solution for customers. Veritas' Strengths Strong brand equity Well-positioned in the global 2000 companies Proven technologies that are among the best of breed Flexibility Customers can mix and match heterogeneous hardware (server and storage) or leverage established hardware, resulting in lower cost. The Linux version supports any Intel server and storage with no hardware vendor lock-in. Veritas' Weaknesses Coming to market late, with leading Intel server vendors choosing Microsoft or having their own NAS products. Separation of software and hardware may result in loose and problematic integration at the channel or user site. Services could be more difficult, as users have to contact different vendors for hardware and software problems. MVD As a brand new entrant to the market, MVD is facing more daunting challenges than Veritas, as the company and its technology are new and not tested and proven. Although its feature set is more robust than established low-end products from Quantum and vendors that have adopted Microsoft, technology itself cannot guarantee a company's success. MVD's Strengths Stronger function set compared with other low-end NAS products Hardware-independent, resulting in flexibility for integrators and end users

5 MVD's Weaknesses No brand equity Coming to market late No significant hardware OEMs yet Separation of software and hardware may result in loose and problematic integration at the channel or user site. Go-to-Market Strategy Veritas and Mountain View Data face enormous challenges in the distribution channels. Veritas started out by enlisting GE Access and MOCA, which have experience selling Sun and Veritas software, to integrate the ServPoint NAS Solaris version on Sun systems as a complete solution for customers. However, it discovered that many customers want to purchase the NAS software only and integrate it on their hardware themselves. This is especially true in Unix shops where the IT administrators like to participate in the integration process. Now, ServPoint NAS is available to end users directly from Veritas and Veritas' value-added resellers (VARs), which will sell the ServPoint NAS software package or deliver an integrated ServPoint NAS solutions with off-theshelf servers and storage systems. MVD is focusing more on the OEM strategy than selling software-only solutions. It makes sense for a company with limited brand equity and resources, as it is potentially the faster way to achieve a large volume of sales. 5 Gartner Dataquest Perspective Although there are almost 30 vendors shipping NAS devices today, the market was dominated by three or four vendors in 2001 from revenue and unit shipment points of view. Many vendors are in a "me, too" position and trail significantly behind the market leaders. However, this is not a result of market consolidation. The NAS market is not in the consolidation stage. Rather, its high growth momentum was halted by the high-tech recession and overshadowed by the focus on SANs, which promise more revenue for vendors. From the perspective of target applications, despite the new disk-to-disk backup/archiving application for Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA)-based NAS devices, the vast majority of NAS products are used for file sharing to replace file servers (more low-end and midrange NAS) or consolidate direct-attached storage (DAS) for application servers (more midrange and high-end NAS). Gartner Dataquest estimates that about 848,000 units of general-purpose file/print servers were shipped in 2001, accounting for $7.2 billion in revenue. For DAS, 2.86 million units shipped in 2001, accounting for $16.3 billion in revenue. As a comparison, about 80,000 NAS devices were shipped during the same time frame, generating $1.6 billion in revenue.

6 6 Users Face Choice Between NAS Software and Appliances Those figures indicate that NAS penetration in the file serving/file sharing and storage consolidation market is still low, with many customers still using general-purpose servers with DAS for this application. Therefore, Gartner Dataquest believes that there are great market potentials for NAS appliances and NAS software, which provide different choices for end users. Gartner Dataquest Recommendations Gartner Dataquest makes the following recommendations for NAS vendors and users: NAS software-only vendors must promote the flexibility and cost benefits of a software-only solution to the fullest, catering to the traditional mentality of many users that are accustomed to the separation of software and hardware. NAS appliance vendors, on the other hand, must focus on advocating the benefits of an appliance, such as simple setup, tight integration and service calls to one vendor. For NAS users that are comfortable with integrating software by themselves and want to redeploy established server or storage hardware or want to mix and match different branded hardware, they must consider NAS software-only solutions to reduce costs. For users that don't want to bother with integration or don't have strong technical expertise, they must consider the traditional NAS appliance. Key Issue What emerging storage technologies and products will enable new business opportunities, and how will they affect the already-established storage market? This document has been published to the following Marketplace codes: HARD-WW-DP-0332 For More Information... In North America and Latin America: In Europe, the Middle East and Africa: In Asia/Pacific: In Japan: Worldwide via gartner.com: Entire contents 2002 Gartner, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice