You knew it was only a matter of time before it happened. Cloud storage is on everyone’s radar screen and yet Symantec had not, to date, announced any formal cloud storage initiative or strategy. That all changed yesterday with its FileStore announcement. Not only did Symantec roll out a cloud storage strategy and a new product – FileStore – but FileStore’s architecture puts Symantec in a position where it more directly competes head-to-head with storage hardware providers.
Symantec’s entrance into cloud storage with its FileStore offering should comes as no surprise to any one close to the storage space as Symantec has a long history of providing enterprise high availability, clustered file systems and volume management software. But maybe what is somewhat unexpected in how it is coming to market with its cloud storage offering.
In the past Symantec’s software offerings have primarily had a host operating system focus. FileStore largely abandons that premise. While FileStore is still “host software” in the strictest sense of the definition, FileStore essentially converts a physical server into a NAS controller head. The FileStore architecture then draws upon elements of Veritas Storage Foundation and Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File System to deliver a cloud storage solution that can scale up to 16 nodes, support multi-PBs of storage and serves a common set of data.
What is equally impressive about this new cloud storage offering is that it delivers the level of performance that enterprise organizations are looking for while using unbranded server and storage hardware. Symantec fully expects that when the SPEC SFS results are released for FileStore that they will exceed NetApp’s recent #1 August 2009 results. Achieved using the Huawai OceanStor N8000 storage hardware, Symantec alleges it can save enterprise customers 3 – 5x over competitive cloud storage offerings from branded storage hardware providers.
This last part concerned me a bit however. Using “no-name” or unknown server and storage hardware may make for good press in terms of cost savings, enterprise shops care as much about service, support and successful configurations as they do about cost. Further, since few if any enterprise organizations are going to have the expertise needed to manage and configure a cloud storage solution, few if any these organizations are going to want to be the first one to deploy FileStore.
To address these concerns, Symantec is taking a two-pronged approach. Those enterprises that want to do it themselves can certainly do so. They can procure the servers and storage themselves and then engage with Symantec’s professional services to assist them in the setup and support of FileStore though the intent is to make FileStore simple enough that customers can install it themselves. Once configured, all support calls would then be handled by Symantec.
Symantec also recognized that some enterprises will want a full turnkey solution where the provider delivers both the hardware and software. To satisfy these customers, Symantec announced an OEM partnership with Xiotech who can provide a full hardware and software solution.
Configuration and support issues aside, one of the clear upsides with FileStore is that Symantec can leverage the many features it has cultivated over the years. Unlike many other cloud storage providers, Symantec is not starting from scratch and day one it includes such features as dynamic storage tiering, native integration with Symantec Endpoint Protection, an integrated NetBackup media server for higher performing backups (i.e. – no NDMP) and simplified archiving though integration with Symantec Enterprise Vault.
The only other two questions I had in regards to FileStore were, “Where is it at terms of support for the REST API?” and “What are its plans for introducing an object-based file system?” In regards to REST API, Symantec already is working on a version 1.0 of its REST API and it plans to introduce an object-based file system in the not too distant future with its code-named “S4” release.
Symantec’s cloud storage announcement may have not been the first one but at this point in the cloud storage game, it does not matter. Cloud storage is still in its infancy and enterprise organizations are still investigating their options so a well articulated strategy from a known entity with a real product, a go-to market plan and named customers beats half-baked strategies and products in the eyes of enterprise customers almost every time.
Symantec’s FileStore delivers on all of these counts. Bringing together the best features of its stable of enterprise high availability, file system, and volume management software was great and made sense. But by adding in features from its information management and security groups give FileStore an aura of credibility in the cloud storage space that many competitive offerings currently lack and may never achieve.