Building a storage solution for a business matters more than most companies realize. It needs to be more than dragging and dropping files onto a random file server, since these are files the company needs to run the business, often including sensitive client information. It also needs to work as one system across the whole business, rather than as 10 different independent setups that cost far more and eat up a large share of IT’s time. Building a single storage solution for the whole company makes more sense than letting each department handle it on its own.
Choosing the Right SAN and Hardware
So how do we build that solution? Ideally, the core should be a SAN system such as a Dell EqualLogic or Compellent, though converting a server into a storage platform can also work well. RAID should be in place without question, and a secondary backup for the SAN is even better, since no matter how powerful the SAN is, it is never wise to keep all your eggs in one basket as a single point of failure. Dell produces multiple SAN and server solutions we can recommend based on your needs.
Software Options for Your Storage Solution
At the software level, there is a lot more to weigh. Using VMware to handle storage gives you plenty of options, though the licensing costs are worth considering. On the other end of the spectrum, a tool like TrueNAS lets you build that storage server with no additional licensing costs, but without the manufacturer support that comes with a solution like VMware. Nexenta offers both a community edition and an enterprise edition, so you get a growth path if you start with the free version and later decide paid support is worth it. Many paid software solutions also include data deduplication to save disk space, cutting costs in a different way by reducing how much storage you actually need. Bigger hardware manufacturers such as Dell often have relationships with software vendors like Nexenta, so the software comes pre-shipped and that step is handled for you. Picking the right solution depends on what you need and what you expect from the manufacturer if something goes wrong.
Picking the Right RAID Level
Back to RAID: there are many variations worth considering. Every RAID variant offers some level of redundancy and protection against system failure, except RAID 0, which exists purely to boost performance. RAID 1, the traditional mirroring setup, works well for an application server, but for a storage system it is worth looking at a more redundant and efficient option, such as RAID 6 or RAID 10. RAID 10 performs best, but it is not very efficient, so RAID 6, or even RAID 5, is the better call when you are storing large amounts of data.
Which Hard Drives Should Power Your Storage Solution?
At this point you have a general sense of the configuration options and the software that can power your SAN, or a server in smaller setups. From here, the next question is which hard drives should actually store your data. SATA drives cost the least and offer the largest potential storage, but they also take the longest to transfer data and can become a bottleneck. SSD drives are the fastest available, though they typically come in smaller sizes and cost the most. SAS drives sit in the middle, balancing speed, size, and performance between SSD and SATA. This still depends on your specific needs, so it is hard to make a firm recommendation without a conversation about what you need.
If you need help gauging the right storage solution for your company, we are here for it. Whether you want to build a smaller storage server on one of our dedicated servers, or you want to colocate a SAN in our data center, we can work with you to find the best fit for your business. We can even procure a SAN solution from Dell at very competitive pricing, thanks to our preferred partnership with Dell. To learn more about how Vault Networks can procure hardware to power your storage, reach out to us by calling (305) 735-8098 option 2 or by emailing sales@vaultnetworks.com.
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