Recent storage trends make for an ever-expanding universe of choices and better value at the frontiers of digital real estate.
Is this the best time to consider your storage options? Manufacturers think so, with claims for new lower price points on RAID systems turning up in magazine ads. Beyond that, even once-exotic and pricey networked storage systems — SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network Attached Storage) — have dropped in price and complexity.
There are now more ways to inexpensively store and manage your data than ever before. We are reaping the R&D benefits that pushed the growth of disk drive capacity by 60% per year in the '90s, with prices plummeting in lockstep. R&D also transformed the once-expensive, and frustratingly complex, Fibre Channel SAN technology into plug-in PCI cards, a simple hub, and just a little added software.
“The vendors try to keep [Fibre Channel technology] as some sort of voodoo,” says Lew Goldstein, an editor and network guru at C5, a New York-based audio post house for features and commercials. “It's now really simple technology; it governs itself. You just wire it together and it works.”
The VideoRaid FCR line from Medéa relies on Fibre Channel technology and offers RAID level 3, hot-swappable drives, and quick-swap replacement of fans and power supplies.
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RAID systems still function as the first step of attached external storage. A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) stores the same data in different places on multiple hard disks, allowing overlapping I/O operations, which improves performance. These striped-drive sets also work as integral parts of SAN and some NAS units.
The initial RAID systems weren''t cheap, and that's partly because of the speedy SCSI drives employed. Today's cheaper, faster drives open up great cost savings. The once-slow EIDE-style PC drives have gained enough speed and reliability to create both reasonably priced systems from companies like Medéa and some even less expensive, build-it-yourself RAID kits. (See “Roll your own RAID,” this page.)
Huge Systems’ RaIDE cart ($1,405), a key component for a do-it-yourself RAID kit, uses four removable cartridges for its single U160 SCSI channel.
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If you're still willing to wield a few tools but don't want to tackle a full homebrew job, check out one of the new semi-assembled RAID kits from manufacturers like Huge Systems.
“We have a lot of people say, ‘I could do that myself,’ so we're facilitating that by saying ‘Here's a cart to build a system,’” says Richard Balabuck, marketing director for the Marina del Rey, Calif.-based company. “It uses a controller to do the striping, and you can buy the enclosure, the cards, and the sleds for a reasonable price.”
The RaIDE Cart ($1,405), with its single U160 SCSI channel, uses four removable cartridges. These cartridges actually consist of whatever IDE drive you care to use (up to 100GB), integrated into a sled mechanism ($60) that allows drives to be easily added, pulled, stored, or transported to another location. Both capacity and system performance scales up based on the number of drives installed.
Used with a single cartridge, the RaIDE Cart can be used to edit compressed DV material. Dual cartridges enable you to handle multistream DV or a single uncompressed stream. Four cartridges will handle multiple uncompressed streams.
SAN: Simple Answer to Networking?
Unlike the familiar LAN (Local Area Network), which offers shared throughput, SAN's dedicated throughput enables its blistering performance. (LANs link computers and other devices, allowing them to share a common communications line and usually also share the resources of a single processor or server.)
But until the last 18 months or so, SANs proved expensive to buy and tricky to operate, enough so that only well-off post houses could consider them. Now, users can even take the do-it-yourself route, buying PCI-type SAN cards from companies like Adaptec and Atto, along with a simple Fibre Channel hub or switch from companies like Qlogic and Vixel, and a bit of software from Atto or Transoft Networks.
Pioneering low-cost leader Medéa now incorporates technology from Storage Concepts, a storage manufacturer that it acquired in August. At Siggraph 2001, Medéa launched its RTR (SCSI-based) and FCR (Fibre Channel) redundant arrays, a “Ciprico-class product” at a fraction of the cost of a similar system from that leading storage manufacturer, according to Roger Mabon, vice president of channel marketing for Medéa. “It's the first time a system with realtime, very high bandwidth capabilities can come in for such a very low price.” (Storage Concepts lays claim to producing the first realtime RAID product in 1986.)
Acquiring Storage Concepts' technology raises Medéa's profile in the highly competitive, increasingly thin-margined storage arena. “We didn't offer [RAID redundancy] before,” says Mabon. “This is Storage Concepts' RAID technology. It has another nice feature: It can support up to three streams of uncompressed playback in realtime using technology we call MST, Multi Stream Technology.”
MST offers a unique advantage: Even if a drive fails, you don't lose that capability of streaming three channels of video. The extra “parity” drive quickly rebuilds any drive that's hot-swapped in.
Both the SCSI and Fibre Channel versions offer RAID level 3: four drives plus one parity drive. The standalone VideoRaid RTR in an Ultra 160 SCSI version delivers 160GB for $3,299 (street price), with a whopping 600GB going for $8,999. The VideoRaid FCR prices (street level) at $3,899 for 160GB, and $9,999 for 600GB. The 600GB versions are rackmountable. The entry-level system pricing is for the standalone version, with rack-mount style adding a few hundred dollars for the added hardware. All systems include hot-swappable drives, with quick-swap capability in replacing fans, power supplies, etc.
One added touch makes for a better plug-and-play experience in the FCR series: A built-in, three-channel FC hub enables up to three workstations to share stored data immediately.
Also announced at IBC were the lower-cost VideoRaid RTRxpress (Ultra160 SCSI interface) and VideoRaid FCRxpress (FC interface). While the units feature Medéa's proprietary MST, they support two uncompressed video streams, not the three streams of the RTR and FCR. Medéa keeps the price (not set at press time) down on these by using 5400rpm drives, not the 7200rpm ones used in the higher-end units. Storage capacity, however, will range up to 800GB. The arrays are designed specifically for work with “DV, M-JPEG, and dual-stream, realtime uncompressed nonlinear editing systems,” says Mabon.
As drive and network technology improve, “value pricing” reputations such as Medéa's get challenged by contenders like Huge Systems.
“[Our] machines are fast enough that you can do high-def, 1080i on and off the array,” says Huge Systems' Richard Balabuck, marketing director. “Because they're IDE drives, we can keep the costs down to around $10 a gigabyte. On the network, they just look like a large SCSI disk, but it's protected at RAID 3 or 5 levels.”
(Huge Systems, in fact, did get too close for comfort: At press time, Medéa had filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Huge Systems and Michael Anderson, its president and sole shareholder. Anderson, a former chief engineer and chief technical officer at Medéa, is accused of breach of contract and unfair competition.)
While the entry-level HugeMedia Vault-200-Max at $2,795 for 200GB doesn't reach that $10-per-GB target, the HugeMediaVault-500-Max, at $4,866 for 500GB, does. The Huge MediaVault line of plug-and-play RAID systems includes built-in diagnostics, a dedicated serial diagnostic port, onboard data replication tools, and an optional hardware-based encryption system. The HugeMedia Vault-Max uses a single U160 channel, which can burst data at 160MBps, with a minimum data rate quoted as 100MBps sustained.
Huge Systems' second RAID line, the DualMax, uses dual U160 channels (burst data rate of 320MBps) with a quoted minimum sustained data rate of 200MBps, “more than enough for 1080i at 10bits.” Prices start at $5,388 for 400GB for the HugeMedia Vault-400-DualMax.
Buoyed by the success of Final Cut Pro, the Mac continues its resurgence in the production suite. While initial Firewire drive offerings spotted individual units, users now gain some full-bore hardware from companies such as MicroNet Technology. At July's Macworld, MicroNet announced new configurations of its SANcube, which the Torrance, Calif.-based company claims as the industry's first FireWire SAN. The new 600GB SANcube delivers up to 38MBps of data throughput. The good news here? Users can take home more than half a terabyte of online storage — masquerading as just another plug-and-play box — for $3,698.
Meanwhile, updates to MicroNet's dual-channel SANcube X-stream arrays, in 450GB and 600GB capacities, provide even faster throughput. By striping data across two FireWire busses, the X-streams reach up to 65MBps sustained throughput. The SANcube supports all Apple Power Mac G4, PowerBook, iBook, and iMac systems with built-in FireWire.
An optional upgrade path allows multiple users to share data on a single SANcube. With a customized version of the Atto AccelWare SAN volume management software, up to four users can share data at high speeds through the FireWire bus. According to the company, setup is simple and takes just minutes.
Time to get NAS-ty
While SANs garner good press for their capability to provide NLEs with realtime, multistream video, recent developments in external storage from the NAS side of things offer their own benefits. Inherently, NAS is simpler technology, easier to administer, and less expensive than a SAN. That's partly due to the different ways the two technologies store files. A SAN's
block-based storage structure — similar to how data is stored on your own PC — enables fast reads and writes to a disk array. A Fibre Channel network reads and writes to any attached storage (it could even be another server) as if everything connected was just one big disk drive.
A NAS system, however, works on data as complete files that are read or written in a continuous section of disk storage. An editor might search his NAS drive for a TIF or JPEG image, AVI or QuickTime movie, and wait until the complete segment loads from the NAS to the workstation.
NAS appliances use a streamlined architecture designed and optimized for performing one function: data delivery. This “closed box” approach allows more efficient performance, higher reliability, management, and lower total cost of ownership compared with, for example, a general-purpose server to do your storage.
Snap Appliances, one of the leading NAS providers, hopes to convince video producers to consider that proposition.
“Given the price point, most people in [small video production] will just go out and buy another NT server from Dell or Compaq,” says Sara Spivey, vice president of marketing at Snap Appliances, a division of Quantum. “Comparing the Snap servers to standard NT servers, [the Snap is] about 30% to 40% of what you'd pay.” Spivey points out that buying another server solely to share files buys you a lot of processing power and other hardware that you really don't need for just serving up a file.
The Snap Server 1000 network-attached storage (NAS) appliance offers the same storage (40GB) and hits a similar price point (just under $800) as rival FIA’s POPnetserver 2000 40GB system.
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The entry level Snap Server 1000/40GB ($799) and Snap Server 1000/20GB ($499) work with Microsoft, Novell, Mac, and Unix operating systems. The compact size of the Snap Server 1000/40GB and 20GB units make them great portable servers, according to the company. Since the 3.5lb. units are only 5"*9"*3", they're easy to use for transporting large amounts of data to trade shows, conferences, and off-site events.
The Snap Server 2000 starts at 80GB ($1,399) and offers RAID levels 1 and 0. Common features for all models include an RJ-45 10/100BaseT network port, support for TCP/IP, IPX, NetBEUI, and AppleTalk protocols, emulation of MS Windows, NT 4.0, NetWare 3.12, AppleShare 6.0, and NFS 2.0.
One particular advantage that Snap claims is its embedded operating system. A general-purpose server from a computer manufacturer, for example, might use an OS taking up 50MB or more (in the case of Windows NT, 150MB). Beyond the storage taken up, these full-sized operating systems use processor cycles and other system resources that erode performance, while the stripped-down Snap OS just reads, writes, and transmits files.
Fully accessible via a web browser, the current Snap OS, version 3.1, includes the ability to set disk space quotas and security access permissions at the file and directory level, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support, a fully functioning FTP server, and SMART predictive disk-failure analysis.
Directly targeting Snap's leading supplier position is San Clemente, Calif.-based FIA Storage Systems Group, which introduced its first entry-level NAS products this past June.
FIA’s POPnetserver 2000 line of NAS equipment aims to offer cheap storage and constant availability in a compact design.
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The POPnetserver 2000 aims for that same sweet spot the Snap product line proved was so popular, offering cheap-as-possible storage with good performance, compact form factor, and constant availability. FIA claims, for example, the 2000 delivers better throughput (tested via Net-bench) than the Snap Server 2000.
But FIA claims it will beat Snap by targeting a lower total cost of ownership. While the POPnetserver 2000 ($795 for a 40GB system) prices similar to the Snap Server 1000 ($799 for 40GB), the 120GB POPnetserver 2000 ($1,395) bests, at press time, the Snap 2000 ($1,399 for 80GB), while additionally offering RAID 5 to Snap 2000's RAID 1 and 0.
Though not as compact as the Snap Server 1000, the POPnetserver 2000 also emphasizes a high-density, ultra-slim design. At 17.25in., it's less wide than standard rack units, though it optionally fits there or mounts on a wall. However, the sleek, silvery unit is designed almost as a fashion statement, standing upright with a 1.75in. depth and 17.50in. height.
FIA claims it offers the best data transfer rate per square inch, using the latest 1in. tall drives. That enables flexible configurations; the POPnetserver works as a standalone, stackable, or rackmount unit. Models are available in 40GB, 80GB, or 120GB configurations.
The POPnetserver 2000 also features POPassist, a web-based user interface for system administration. Users access the server remotely, with realtime monitoring and management of their storage.
Another nice touch: The POP netserver 2000's sequential multi-kernel boot technique allows it to boot from any drive within the system, and its thermal sensor significantly adds to its long-term reliability. Like the Snap Server, the POPnetserver 2000 is a plug-and-play device that can be installed in less than five minutes with just a couple of mouse clicks.
According to Gene Lu, FIA president and CEO, the POPassist development roadmap over the next months will add hot-pluggable drives, on-the-fly rebuilds, replication, mirroring, and other technologies “only seen in the high end previously, and something Snap doesn't offer in its lower-priced products.”
Driving your decision
Do you even need a RAID, NAS, or SAN to handle basic editing? No. For working with a single stream of DV (which runs at 3.5MBps), a single ATA EIDE drive is enough.
An EIDE drive runs slower — i.e. delivers lower throughput — as it fills with data, so just buy the biggest drive you can afford, as long as you're working on a short (30 minutes or less) edit.
But even working with dual DV streams using a realtime videocard, today's fast ATA100 drives (or even the standard, slower ATA66 drives) can handle the necessary 10.5MBps sustained data transfer rates.
So if you've decided to forego external storage for the moment, it's still a good time to invest. While 10,000rpm and even 15,000rpm drives get the big press, there's great value — and capability — in deploying 7200rpm ones. IBM, comparing the performance of 5400rpm and 7200rpm versions of its popular Deskstar drive, saw a 15% improvement in performance (Win-Bench Business Disk WinMark 99 benchmark), with only a minimal cost increment over the 5400rpm drives.
Other drive aspects improve, too. Take the recently released Seagate Barracuda ATA IV (80GB) and Western Digital's WD800BB (80GB), for example. Running at 7200rpm, it delivers high data transfer rates and quick access times. And while former drives usually were hot and loud, the latest generation is surprisingly quiet — without any impact on performance.
And that can't come soon enough for some. Gargantuan databases containing more than a terabyte (one trillion bytes) are becoming the norm as companies begin to keep more and more of their data online, stored on hard disk drives, where the information can be accessed readily.
Happily, improvement in storage technology has been nothing short of legendary. Innovations such as the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head, introduced by IBM in 1997, have the potential to extend magnetic recording to the tens of billions of bits per square inch. According to Jon William Toigo, writing in Scientific American, the capacity of hard disk drives grew about 25% to 30% each year through the 1980s and accelerated to an average of 60% in the 1990s. By the end of 1999 the annual increase had reached 130%.
Today disk capacities are doubling every nine months, fast outpacing advances in computer chips, which obey Moore's Law and double in speed every 18 months. And that could accelerate soon. According to Microsoft, current disk size limits of 130GB will be surpassed with the upcoming devices that support new ATA/ATAPI-6 48-bit logical block addressing (LBA) technology. The Redmond, Wash.-based empire plans to include this capability in its new Windows XP operating system after the technology reaches the market.
Price per megabyte of disk storage will continue to fall by 50% every 15 to 18 months, according to Toigo. The average price per megabyte plunged from $11.54 in 1988 to $0.04 in 1998, and should reach $0.003 per MB by 2002, according to James Porter of Disk/Trend.
