RE: SAN vs i5 disk was: Any thoughts on the PowerVM and lx86 announcement?

It's been a while since I've priced one. Most SAN zealots talk about
the commodity price of the disk units as well as the increased
functionality. Some of which hasn't applied to i5/OS but in most cases
should be very soon(see V6R1 announcements). I've not checked
everything out but V6R1 and certain hardware changes have made a huge
impact on some barriers to i5/OS and SAN's.

I think pricing comparison's will vary from instance to instance and
from company to company. SAN's won't always be cheaper, but neither
will internal. But until you price it out and see where things fall you
won't know.

For us there are three barriers. One, I've never been able to come up
with a scenario where a SAN will reduce expenses. I should qualify
that. Reduce expenses in a short enough time frame. If I spend more
money and can't show a return in a short enough of a time frame I can't
do it. Perhaps a bit short sighted but those are the rules I have to
live with. About 3/4's of my projects have an ROI of under 12 months.
The other 1/4 is under 18 months. Two, comes down to manpower. The
added functionality is great but I have concerns about the added care
and feeding that the SAN will entail. Right now I'm at .03 of an FTE to
manage all things disk related - storage, performance, backup, etc. I
can't afford to increase it much. It's not a huge change in some
comparisons but we estimated that it might go to .2 or .3 an FTE. Not
bad but I don't have room to give yet. Hopefully, we will get there
someday. Third, is minor but right now all system related performance
is under one umbrella. I5/OS doesn't have good visibility into SAN
metrics which means that when you are reporting and doing diagnosis you
have another external vehicle to deal with. Not a show stopper but an
area that needs improvement.

With the changes in V6R1 and hopefully with continued management
improvements for the SAN I would definitely see that in our future.
Assuming I've got everything understood.


Michael Crump

Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f

While you're waiting, read the free novel we sent you. It's a Spanish
story about a guy named 'Manual.'
Dilbert

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-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:23 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: SAN vs i5 disk was: Any thoughts on the PowerVM and lx86
announcement?

Are SAN's really any cheaper? I thought that as soon as you mentioned
SAN
people assumed you had infinite pockets. Much like the price
difference,
back in the day, between a rack mounted twinax to balun distribution
panel
versus the exact same thing as stand alone.

We have an IBM 2109-F16 SAN switch in between our 5704 fiber cards and
our
high end tape drive. Not only do you have the initial outlay but each
port to hook up a fiber cable costs $300. And it's a ridiculous small
thing that simply plugs into a hole and has two holes for the fiber
cable.
We have 13 ports. Thus that's $3,900 (not counting the box) right
there.
What does a SAN cost - ready to run?

Rob Berendt