DCIG Updating the Private Cloud Storage Array Buyer’s Guide

DCIG is in the process of researching the Private Cloud Storage Array marketplace with the intention of publishing the DCIG 2015-16 Private Cloud Storage Array Buyers Guide in March/April 2015. This will be an update to the DCIG 2013 Private Cloud Storage Array Buyers Guide. Since the publication of 2013 edition, nearly every vendor has come out with new models and new vendors have arrived on the scene warranting a fresh snapshot of this dynamic marketplace.
The purpose of this courtesy notice is five-fold

1. To inform prospective storage purchasers and storage vendors that DCIG intends to publish the DCIG 2015-16 Private Cloud Storage Array Buyers Guide in March/April 2015.
2. To describe the appeal of private cloud storage while clarifying DCIG’s definition of private cloud storage.
3. To disclose DCIG’s inclusion criteria and enumerate the products identified in our preliminary research.
4. To give individuals an opportunity to inform DCIG of additional products that may qualify for inclusion in the guide. (While there is no charge to have qualifying products included in any DCIG Buyer’s Guide, the DCIG analyst team working on the guide ultimately determines which products will and will not be included.)
5. To give notice of key dates for participants.

The Appeal of Private Cloud Storage
Private cloud storage brings the benefits of public cloud storage to the enterprise— scalability, rapid provisioning/de-provisioning on storage resources through self-service tools and REST API support—while still meeting corporate data protection, security and compliance requirements.
One of the first things that comes to mind when considering private cloud storage is scalability. Organizations can start small with as much capacity and performance as currently required and then scale as business needs dictate. Additional nodes can be added to the existing storage environment in real-time, providing expanded processing and storage capacities as well as adding a level of redundancy.
Private cloud storage arrays typically provide an orchestration and/or automated provisioning interface. Routine administration tasks such as the provisioning and decommissioning of resources can be automated. This frees the storage administrator to focus their time and energy on critical business related issues rather than the daily maintenance of the array.
Private cloud storage arrays also offer a level of resource management granularity that traditional storage arrays do not. Multi-tenancy allows a single infrastructure to be used by multiple “customers” reducing costs by sharing resources. Utilization reporting and billing functionality ensures that customers are only paying for what they use. Combining these two features, multi-tenancy and reporting and billing, provides a powerful one-two punch for organizations that charge back (or show back) for storage resources.
DCIG Definition of Private Cloud Storage Array
Private Cloud Storage Array is a physical storage appliance located inside an organization’s firewall that enables the delivery of storage as a service to end users within an enterprise. Private cloud storage brings the benefits of public cloud storage to the enterprise— scalability, rapid provisioning/de-provisioning on storage resources through self-service tools and REST API support—while still meeting corporate data protection, security and compliance requirements.
Inclusion Criteria

• Must be a scale-out architecture
  • Must function as a true cluster or storage grid. Usually a minimum of three nodes is required to function as a highly available configuration
  • Must support the insertion and removal of individual nodes without service interruption in order to dynamically grow/shrink allocated storage capacity, CPU resources and cache as business needs dictate
• Must support one or more of the following storage networking protocols:
  • CIFS and NFS
  • iSCSI
  • Fibre Channel and/or FCoE
• Must integrate with orchestration and/or automated provisioning tools, generally accomplished through support for REST API.
• Must provide reporting and billing functionality, or integration with 3^rd party billing tools.
• Must primarily function using storage local to the device and/or its direct peers (more than a cloud storage gateway)
• Must be available as an appliance that is available as a single SKU and includes its own hardware and software.
• Must be generally available on March 1, 2015

Products That Appear to Meet the Inclusion Criteria

• Cleversafe dsNet Appliances
• Coraid EtherDrive
• Dell Compellent SC8000
• DataDirect Networks Web Object Scaler (WOS)
• EMC Isilon NL-Series
• EMC Isilon S-Series
• EMC Isilon X-Series
• Fujitsu Storage ETERNUS CD10000
• Gridstore GS-1000-2
• Gridstore GS-1100-4
• Gridstore GS-3000
• HDS NAS 4100
• HP StoreAll 9320
• HP StoreAll 9730
• HP StoreAll 8800
• HP StoreVirtual 4330 Storage
• HP StoreVirtual 4530 Storage
• HP StoreVirtual 4630 Storage
• HP StoreVirtual 4730 Storage
• Huawei OceanStor N8500
• IBM SONAS
• Kaminario K2
• NEC HYDRAstor
• NetApp FAS2552
• NetApp FAS2554
• NetApp FAS8000 Series
• Nimble Storage CS700
• Nimbus Data E-Class Flash Memory
• Nutanix
• Overland Storage SnapScale X4
• Pivot3 vSTAC Data
• Pivot3 vSTAC Watch
• Scale Computing SCr Storage Node
• Scale Computing HC3 Platform (HC4000)
• SolidFire SF9010

Key Dates for Participants (DCIG reserves the right to revise this schedule)

• 1/28/15 – 2/6/15 Products may be proposed for inclusion in the Buyer’s Guide
• 2/9/15 – 2/16/15 Vendor survey review period
• 2/16/15 Last date for vendor updates prior to competitive scoring
• 3/9/15 – 3/13/15 Vendor data sheet review period
• 3/13/15 Last date for vendor updates to be reflected on data sheets
• 3/28/15 – 4/4/15 Anticipated publication date