ITG: Cost/Benefit Case for the IBM DS8800 Systems: Comparing Costs for DS8800 and EMC VMAX Systems

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Cost/Benefit Case for
IBM System Storage DS8800
Comparing Costs for IBM DS8800 and
EMC Symmetrix VMAX Systems

International Technology Group
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
Challenges and Opportunities 1
Cost Factors 2
EMC FAST VP and IBM Easy Tier 3
Overview 5
EMC Symmetrix VMAX 6
VMAX Systems 6
VMAXe Systems 7
IBM DS8800 8
Overview 8
SFF and SAS-2 8
Space Reduction 8
Energy and Cooling 10
Other Areas 11
SSDS AND TIERING 13
General Picture 13
Storage Tiering 13
EMC FAST VP 14
IBM Easy Tier 15
Drive Blends 16
DETAILED DATA 17
Installations and Scenarios 17
Cost Calculations 19
Cost Breakdowns 20

List of Figures
1. Average Three-year VMAX and DS8800 Costs – Conventional Scenarios 1
2. Average Three-year VMAX and DS8800 Costs – Tiered Scenarios 2
3. General Comparison of EMC VMAX and IBM DS8800 Systems 5
4. EMC Symmetrix VMAXe and VMAX Systems – Summary 7
5. Number of Disks per Frame – Example 9
6. Floor Space Occupied by IBM DS8800 and EMC VMAX Systems – Example 9
7. Data Center Energy Consumption by Type of Equipment – User Example 10
8. Data Center Hot/Cold Aisle Layout – Example 11
9. DS8800 Advanced Caching Algorithms 12
10. EMC FAST Cache and FAST VP 14
11. FAST VP Management Variables – Examples 15
12. EMC FAST VP Performance Tests – Summary 16
13. Installations Summary – Business Profiles 17
14. Software Products Employed in All Comparisons 17
15. Installations Summary – Conventional Scenarios 18
16. Installations Summary – Tiered Scenarios 19
17. Three-year Cost Breakdowns – Conventional Comparisons 20
18. Three-year Cost Breakdowns – Tiered Comparisons 21

International Technology Group i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Challenges and Opportunities
At yearend 2005, the average U.S. Fortune 500 corporation contained around 150 terabytes (TB) of server
disk storage. By yearend 2010, this had increased to more than 900TB. On current trends, it will exceed
five petabytes (5,000TB) by yearend 2014. For most organizations, managing growth has become the
number one storage priority.

The elements of a solution are emerging. The storage industry has entered a period of unprecedented
change. Virtualization (a.k.a. thin provisioning), solid state drives (SSDs), nearline devices, tiering
strategies, deduplication and other new capabilities offer the potential for major efficiency gains.

But there is a downside. At a time when storage workloads are growing more complex, there are
widespread uncertainties as to which technologies should be employed, in what manner, for the greatest
benefit. Expectations are often exaggerated. Integration, optimization and management of increasingly
diverse application and technology portfolios pose new challenges.

These issues are particularly significant for the high-end disk systems that, in large organizations, support
the most business-critical workloads. Users of these remain conservative. Meeting performance demands,
maintaining service levels and ensuring enterprise-class availability and recoverability remain overriding
priorities. Technological change and cost control must occur without jeopardizing them.

This does not mean, however, that new technologies cannot be introduced, or that costs cannot be
contained. High-end systems account for a large part of organizational storage expenditures. If risk issues
are properly addressed, they may represent a major opportunity for cost savings.

This report deals with this opportunity. Specifically, it compares three-year costs for use of IBM System
Storage DS8800 and EMC Symmetrix VMAX systems.

Comparisons are presented for conventional scenarios, in which systems are equipped with standard
high-performance drives, and for tiered scenarios using EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for
Virtual Pools (FAST VP) and IBM Easy Tier V3.

In three large installations in financial services, manufacturing and IT services companies, costs for use of
DS8800 systems equipped with conventional high-performance drives average 28 percent less than for
VMAX equivalents. Figure 1 summarizes these results.

IBM 20.0
DS8800
EMC 27.6
VMAX
$ Millions
Hardware Software Software support Data center

Figure 1: Average Three-year VMAX and DS8800 Costs – Conventional Scenarios

For tiered scenarios, three-year costs for use DS8800 systems with Easy Tier V3 average 31 percent less
than for VMAX equivalents with FAST VP. Figure 2 summarizes these results.

International Technology Group 1

IBM 23.0
DS8800
EMC 33.2
VMAX
$ Millions
Hardware Software Software support Data center

Figure 2: Average Three-year VMAX and DS8800 Costs – Tiered Scenarios

In conventional scenarios, VMAX systems are configured with 300GB Fiber Channel (FC) drives
operating at 15,000 revolutions per minute (15K rpm). DS8800 systems employ 300GB Serial Attached
SCSI 2.0 (SAS-2) 15K rpm drives. DS8800 SAS-2 drives are 2.5-inch Small Form Factor (SFF) devices.

In tiered scenarios, both platforms are configured as full three-tier systems equipped with solid state
drives (SSDs). In addition, VMAX systems employ 300GB FC 15K rpm and 2TB SATA 7.2K rpm.
DS8800 systems also employ 300GB SAS-2 15K rpm SFF and 3TB nearline SAS-2 7.2K rpm devices.

In both sets of scenarios, configurations include operating systems, tiering, point-in-time copy,
multipathing and, where appropriate, real-time replication and recovery software. Hardware and software
costs are based on “street” prices; i.e., discounted prices reported by users.

Configurations in tiered scenarios are based on user experiences, supplemented by vendor test results and
guidelines for tiered environments. Configurations were established based on application, workloads and
performance and service level requirements for individual systems in each installation.

Calculations include hardware acquisition, software licenses and (for VMAX systems) maintenance and
data center costs including occupancy, energy and infrastructure equipment. Hardware maintenance is not
included, as EMC offers a standard three-year 24x7 warranty, and DS8800 calculations are based on IBM
warranty options providing comparable coverage. DS8800 software maintenance is not included as
calculations are again based on three-year, 24x7 IBM software warranty options.

The basis of these calculations, along with details of installations, configurations and pricing
methodology, may be found in the Detailed Data section of this report. Cost breakdowns for installations
and scenarios are also presented in this section.

Cost Factors
Lower three-year costs for DS8800 systems are due to two main factors:

1. Pricing practices. Although initial EMC purchase prices for hardware and software may be
similar to or lower than DS8800 equivalents, the company tends to charge more for later
upgrades. For example, list prices for disk units are routinely 40 percent higher for upgrades, and
surcharges extend to a wide range of other hardware and software components.

User experiences indicate that IBM pricing tends to be more consistent over time, with the result
that cost comparisons over three-year or longer periods tend to favor DS8800 systems.


In cost calculations presented in this report, allowance was made for annual capacity growth rates
of between 15 and 35 percent for the financial services company, 20 to 45 percent for the
manufacturing company and 20 to 40 percent for the IT services companies, depending on
applications. In organizations experiencing higher growth, cost disparities in favor of DS88000
systems may be larger.

It should be emphasized that discounts offered by EMC and IBM vary widely between
organizations. The pricing employed in this report may thus not correspond to that experienced
by individual customers.

2. Hardware technologies. DS8800 systems support use of SAS-2 SFF drives. Although these have
been widely adopted by vendors of small and midrange arrays, IBM is the first major vendor to
have introduced them into a high-end disk system. EMC has announced plans to do the same.

SAS-2 technology is significantly faster than earlier generation SAS drives employed in volume
products. The connection speed has doubled – from 3 to 6 Gbps. In comparison, current-
generation FC drives employed in VMAX systems continue to employ 4 Gbps speeds. The next-
generation SAS-2 specification will boost speed to 12 Gbps.

The SAS-2 point-to-point connection method also generates less system overhead than Fibre
Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) technology. Moreover, FC-AL overhead tends to expand when
some drives in a loop are significantly faster than others. The performance impact is thus
comparatively high when SSDs are combined with other types of drive.

In addition, the 2.5-inch form factor enables major space savings – in DS8800 systems, twenty-
four 2.5-inch drives occupy the same rack space as sixteen 3.5-inch devices – and upward of 30
percent lower energy consumption.

The bottom-line significance of space and energy economies is often underestimated. If
allowance is made for overall data center infrastructures, occupancy and energy costs may be
three or more times higher than for disk systems alone.

Standardized cost per square foot assumptions may also mislead. Construction and operating
costs for Tier 4 data centers, which typically house business-critical systems in large
organizations, are – by wide margins – higher than for the less sophisticated facilities that feature
in most industry TCO methodologies.

Reflecting technology differences, data center costs for conventional and tiered DS8800 scenarios
average 33 and 36 percent less respectively than VMAX equivalents.

Although overall three-year costs for both platforms are marginally higher for tiered than for conventional
scenarios, comparative cost structures are generally similar. In tiered scenarios, lower DS8800 and Easy
Tier costs reflect the same factors as for conventional scenarios, as well as costs of FAST VP software
and support. Easy Tier is a no-charge feature.

EMC FAST VP and IBM Easy Tier
Aggressive EMC claims for performance improvements and cost reductions that may be realized through
FAST VP have drawn a great deal of industry attention.

EMC has reported strong growth in demand since FAST VP was introduced in January 2011. During
second quarter 2011, for example, more than 90 percent of VMAX systems were said to have shipped
with FAST software, SSDs and SATA drives.


Equally, however, IBM claims that around 50 percent of DS8700 and DS8800 users have activated Easy
Tier, and it can be expected that adoption rates will increase following the introduction of Easy Tier V3.

Clearly, both solutions have proved attractive to users. Organizations have been able to exploit the
potential of SSDs to improve performance and reduce overall disk capacities for high-end I/O-intensive
workloads. In many cases, tiering has also enabled use of high-capacity SATA drives as an alternative to
more expensive, higher-performance FC devices.

Although Easy Tier provides many of the same capabilities as FAST VP, the IBM approach to
implementation and operation has been significantly different. According to the company, this approach
responds closely to the requirements expressed by its DS8000 customers.

In principle, FAST VP enables operating parameters to be set more frequently, and with higher
granularity than Easy Tier. FAST VP is also designed to run continuously, with statistics collection,
analysis and data movement processes occurring on a 24x7 basis.

In practice, however, users have found it difficult to exploit such capabilities. Continuous data collection
and movement tend to generate system overhead that may impair production performance and service
levels. Equally, few organizations seem prepared to invest the administrator time and effort that would be
necessary to migrate data across tiers multiple times per day, on an application-by-application basis.

As a result, FAST VP processes are typically executed during off-peak periods, often in batch mode. Easy
Tier migrates small increments of data every five minutes, reducing production impacts.

A further difference should be highlighted. In sharp contrast to FAST VP, Easy Tier is designed to
minimize complexity. Administrative processes are simpler, and automation and workload management
technologies are more advanced. (For example, Easy Tier implementations involve setting only two
parameters. FAST VP requires that a wide range of parameters be set, and policies defined on an
application-by-application basis.)

FAST VP is not “fully automated” – in practice a great deal more administrator intervention is typically
required than for use of Easy Tier. “Fully automated” may be an eventual goal. But it does not correspond
to current realities.

A clear conclusion emerges. Tiering may play a valuable role in meeting today’s high-end storage
challenges. But in business-critical environments, its deployment remains subject to operational
constraints, and to the need to maintain continuity of performance, service quality and data protection.
Schemes for the future cannot substitute for solid engineering and quality of technology today.

From this perspective, DS8800 systems remain among the industry’s premier high-end disk solutions.


PLATFORMS
Overview
EMC VMAX and IBM DS8800 represent the latest chapter in a more than 20-year rivalry between these
vendors in high-end disk systems.

The EMC VMAX platform, introduced in April 2009, is the latest iteration of the EMC Symmetrix
architecture, which first reached the marketplace in 1990. The immediate predecessor of VMAX, the
DMX generation of systems, was introduced in 2003 and last updated in 2007.

The IBM DS8800 is the latest in the company’s DS8000 series of systems, the first of which was
introduced in 2004. The immediate DS8800 predecessor, the DS8700, was introduced in 2009. Both
companies have maintained high levels of compatibility between successive generations of system.

For example, the VMAX version of the EMC Enginuity allows DMX scripts to run on VMAX systems.
DS8800 OEL is said by IBM to contain around 85 percent of the same code as for the DS8700, which in
turn contained over 95 percent of the code of its DS8300 predecessor. Maintenance of compatibility in
this manner materially reduces risks of errors that may impact production.

There are numerous commonalties and some differences between VMAX and DS8800 systems, which are
summarized in figure 3.

FUNCTION EMC SYMMETRIX VMAX SYSTEM IBM DS8800 SYSTEM
System units 1-8 engines Dual 2-way or 4-way Power6+ 5.0 GHz
Each engine contains: dual integrated processor units
directors with 2 x quad core Intel Xeon Cache, I/O & disk ports separately
2.33 GHz processors each; 32-128GB configurable
physical (16-64GB effective) cache;
8-16 I/O ports; & 16 disk ports
Configuration range 96 to 2,400 3.5” drives 8 to 1,536 2.5” (SAS-2 or SSD) or 8 to 768
64GB-1,024GB physical (32GB-512GB 3.5” drives
effective) cache 32GB-384GB cache
16-128 disk ports 8-64 disk ports
4-128 host FC ports 4-128 host FC/FICON ports
4-64 host FICON ports
Drive interface 4 Gbps FC & SATA 6 Gbps SAS-2
Drive types 200GB & 400GB SSD 300GB SSD
146GB, 300GB, 450GB & 600GB FC 15K 146GB & 300GB SAS-2 15K
300GB, 450GB & 600GB FC 10K 450GB, 600GB & 900GB SAS-2 10K
1TB & 2TB 7.2K SATA 3TB 7.2K Nearline SAS-2
Host interface 4 Gbps or 8 Gbps FC/FICON 4 Gbps or 8 Gbps FC/FICON
RAID support Levels 1, 5, 6 & 10 Levels 5, 6 & 10
Thin provisioning Yes (Virtual Provisioning) Yes
Encryption method Executes on back-end processor Disk-based

Figure 3: General Comparison of EMC VMAX and IBM DS8800 Systems

Commonalities include support for tiered use of SSDs, high-performance HDDs and higher-capacity,
lower-cost media; and thin provisioning (which EMC refers to as “virtual provisioning”); i.e., the ability
to allocate space dynamically as data is written to disk, rather than in preset volumes.


Both platforms are recognized industry leaders in the following areas:

• Availability. DS8800 as well as VMAX systems incorporate sophisticated reliability, availability
and serviceability (RAS) features, and allow use of RAID to mask the effects of disk failures.

IBM and EMC support RAID level 5 (which is now routine for most high-end applications), level
6 (an enhancement to level 5 that combines four or more disks to protect data against loss of any
two disks) and level 10 (which combines level 0 striping and level 1 mirroring).

EMC continues to support RAID level 1, which provides basic 1:1 mirroring. RAID 1 is now
rarely used for new applications. RAID 10 provides superior data protection.

EMC’s engine-based packaging represents a potential vulnerability. In principle, engines can be
replaced without disrupting operations. But because each engine handles a specific set of disks,
an engine failure could result in loss of access to some or all of the data on these.

• Replication and recovery. Both companies offer robust solutions for point-in-time copy (IBM
FlashCopy and EMC TimeFinder families) and remote real-time replication and disaster
recovery. EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility/Asynchronous (SRDF/A) and Symmetric
Remote Data Facility/Synchronous (SRDF/S), and IBM Global Mirror (asynchronous) and Metro
Mirror (synchronous) are recognized industry leaders in this area.

Three-site replication solutions, which provide a further level of protection against “cascading”
outages that might affect two data centers, include EMC’s SRDF/Star and IBM’s Metro/Global
Mirror. Although there are some technical differences between EMC and IBM solutions, these
deliver generally similar functionality, and all are widely used.

DS8800 and VMAX systems both offer hardware-based encryption. EMC offers an adapter-based
implementation of RSA Data Protection Manager encryption. RSA was acquired by EMC in 2006.

IBM offers self-encrypting options for all DS8800 SAS-2 15K and 10K rpm drives. These options
employ onboard encryption engines implementing Seagate Secure technology. The company has also
announced plans to deliver similar options for DS8800 SSDs and nearline drives in the fast half of 2012.

Differences between these platforms are discussed in more detail below. In dealing with performance
issues, a distinction is drawn between system-level performance, and the effects of SSDs and tiering
solutions. These are addressed separately in the following section.

EMC Symmetrix VMAX

VMAX Systems

VMAX systems are built around engine units containing redundant Intel Xeon-based integrated directors,
along with cache, and I/O and disk ports. Up to eight engines may be configured in a frame. Engines
replace dedicated channel and disk directors employed in earlier EMC systems.

Engines contain symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) units built around quad core Intel Xeon 2.33 GHz
processors, 16GB to 64GB of RAM, up to 128GB of mirrored (i.e., 64GB of effective) cache, 8 to 16
front-end I/O ports and 16 back-end ports. Engine-based packaging means that processors, cache and (if
more than 16 are required) host ports cannot be configured separately. Expansion of these requires an
additional engine or engines.


VMAX systems support larger overall cache sizes than DMX-4 systems – up to 1,024GB compared to
512GB. However, as cache for both systems is fully mirrored, only about 50 percent is usable. The
effective increase is from 256GB to 512GB.

VMAX systems retain the same overall structure of system bays and storage bays as DMX systems.
Configurations may include up to 8 engines and 2,400 disk drives, which may be SSD, FC and/or SATA
devices. In principle, DMX-4 systems supported 1,920 drives, although EMC offered custom
configurations of up to 2,400.

EMC also offers an entry-level model, the VMAX SE, which is built around a single system engine and
supports up to 128GB physical (64GB effective) cache and 360 disk drives. VMAX SE systems cannot be
upgraded to larger VMAX configurations.

VMAXe Systems

VMAXe, which was introduced in January 2011, is a downsized version of the core VMAX platform.
VMAXe cannot be upgraded to VMAX.

Principal differences between VMAXe and VMAX systems are summarized in figure 4.

VMAXe VMAX
Maximum engines 4 8
Intel processor Westmere quad 2.4 GHz Harpertown quad 2.33 GHz
Maximum disks 960 2,400
Maximum cache per engine 96GB 128GB
64 x 8 Gbps FC ports 128 x 8 Gbps FC ports
Connectivity
32 x Ethernet ports 64 x Ethernet ports
CKD & FICON support No Yes
Power Single-phase only Single- & three-phase

Figure 4: EMC Symmetrix VMAXe and VMAX Systems – Summary

Unlike VMAX, VMAXe does not support Fibre Connection (FICON) and Count Key Data (CKD), which
effectively preclude use with mainframe systems.

Support for single-phase power only further restricts use of VMAXe systems. Single-phase is widely used
for smaller loads (e.g., for small business and residential sites), and in rural areas where distribution costs
are comparatively low. Large data centers tend to employ three-phase or combinations of three-phase
backbones and single-phase feeds. VMAX and DS8800 systems offer single- and three-phase options.

VMAXe systems support most major EMC VMAX software tools, although the EMC RecoverPoint
product has been substituted for SRDF. RecoverPoint is positioned for use with EMC midrange systems.

Because of requirements for mainframe connectivity, SRDF compatibility and/or three-phase power,
VMAXe systems would not be realistic candidates for use in any of the installations upon which cost
comparisons presented in this report are based. All VMAX calculations are based on mainstream models.


IBM DS8800
Overview

The DS8800 platform is, in some respects, an evolutionary upgrade of the DS8700. Systems continue to
employ redundant SMP clusters built around IBM POWER RISC processors. In DS8800 systems, core
processors have been upgraded from 4.7 GHz POWER6 to 5.0 GHz POWER6+ technology. Maximum
cache size remains 384GB.

The IBM SMP implementation is different from that of EMC. VMAX processor cores are dedicated to
specific front-end or back-end tasks in the same manner as for DMX-4 directors. In DS8800 systems, all
tasks are shared between all cores. This approach uses overall processor capacity more efficiently.

In addition to standard models, IBM also offers a DS8800 Business Class. This is a single-frame version
equipped with a single two-way SMP cluster. It may be configured with up to 10 disk enclosures (up to
240 drives), 16GB to 64GB cache, and two to four host adapters. Business Class frames may be equipped
with more drives per adapter than standard models, reducing configuration cost and complexity.

DS8800 Business Class models are designed for smaller environments, such as those of organizations
employing low-end System z Business Class mainframes.

SFF and SAS-2

The DS8800 differs from earlier DS8000 systems in its use of Small Form Factor (SFF) 2.5 inch drives
with SAS-2 interfaces.

Use of 2.5-inch drives delivers key benefits in three areas – space reduction, power and cooling overhead
and performance. According to IBM, use of 2.5-inch SAS-2 drives will typically result in to 40 to 50
percent reductions in footprint, and at least 30 percent reduction energy consumption compared to 3.5-
inch FC drives. These claims are consistent with industry experience.

EMC has announced plans to replace FC with SAS-2 in their high-end disk systems, while EMC has
indicated that it expects eventually to standardize its high-end systems on two-tier configurations
employing combinations of SSDs and SAS-2 drives.

This process has already begun with the company’s new VNX midrange platform, introduced in January
2011. VNX supports use of 2.5-inch as well as 3.5-inch SSD, high-performance SAS-2 and Nearline
SAS-2 drives. The system also employs 6 Gbps SAS-2 disk interfaces.

Market researchers estimate that SAS devices currently represent between 40 and 60 percent of the
overall disk drive market, and that demand will continue to expand more rapidly than for FC or SATA.
Costs will thus tend to decline more rapidly than for the latter. Some analysts also predict that Nearline
SAS will replace SATA.

There is no impact on availability. The disk mechanisms employed in enterprise-class FC and SAS-2
drives are the same – they simply employ different interfaces.

Space Reduction

The space reduction potential of use of 2.5-inch drives is apparent within the IBM DS8000 product line.
DS8700 systems employ disk enclosures that house sixteen 3.5-inch drives in a 3.5U enclosure. DS8800
systems may be configured with Gigapacks that contain twenty-four 2.5-inch drives in a 2U enclosure.
Drives may be acquired and installed in increments of 8, 16 and 24.


One key implication is that more drives may be housed in the same frame. Figure 5, for example, shows
numbers of drives supported by three-frame configurations of both systems.
st nd
Base 1 2
Platform Total
Frame 95E 95E
DS8800 (2.5”) 240 336 480 1056
DS8700 (3.5”) 128 256 256 640

Figure 5: Number of Disks per Frame – Example

Configurations are the same physical size, and include base frames (which house processor units and
other system-level components) as well as 95E expansion frames. Maximum DS8800 and DS8700
configurations are 1,536 drives in four frames, and 1,024 drives in five frames respectively.

The amount of data center floor space occupied by DS8800 systems also compares favorably with EMC
VMAX. Figure 6, for example, shows floor space occupied by DS8800 and VMAX configurations
supporting approximately the same number of drives, 1,056 and 960 respectively.

IBM DS8800: 1,056 drives EMC Symmetric VMAX: 960 drives

Back Service Clearance Back Service Area

– Depth – 125.88” (319.7 cm)
– Depth – 124.6” (316.5 cm)

STANDARD
95E 95E
FRAME STORAGE STORAGE STORAGE STORAGE
336 drives 480 drives SYSTEM
240 drives
BAY BAY BAY BAY
BAY
240 drives 240 drives 240 drives 240 drives

Front Service Clearance
Front Service Area

– Total Footprint – – Total Footprint –
96.8 sq. ft. 132 sq. ft.
(9 sq. meters) (12.26 sq. meters)

– Width – 111.9” (284.2 cm) – Width – 151” (383.5 cm)

Figure 6: Floor Space Occupied by IBM DS8800 and EMC VMAX Systems – Example

In this presentation, which includes vendor-recommended service clearances, the DS8800 configuration
occupies 27 percent less floor space overall, and a third less space per drive.

The cost implications of such differences are magnified if allowance is also made for space occupied by
computer room air conditioning (CRAC), chillers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), power
distribution systems (PDS) and other infrastructure equipment; and for aisles and other interactive areas.

In most data center environments, space requirements for these are proportional to those for active IT
equipment. Depending on data center layouts, equipment types and other factors, it may be necessary to
multiply space directly occupied by disk systems by three to five times to determine real occupancy costs.

Another issue should be highlighted. Industry methodologies for calculating data center occupancy costs
often employ assumptions based on standard facilities housing distributed servers and small and midsize
storage arrays. High-end disk systems, however, support business-critical systems in large organizations
and are typically housed in more sophisticated and expensive Tier 3 or Tier 4 data centers.


The Uptime Institute, which sets de facto industry standards for data center resiliency, defines four tiers.
The highest of these, Tiers 3 and 4, involve extensive redundancy of infrastructure components,
“hardened” construction parameters and rigorous operating practices. Designs are intended to realize
99.982 percent (Tier 3) to 99.995 percent (Tier 4) availability.

Capital and operating costs for Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centers are significantly higher than those for lower-
level facilities. For example, construction costs for Tier 4 data centers are typically five to ten times
higher than for Tier 1 equivalents, and operating costs are three to five times higher.

Higher construction costs may also increase annual costs. An initial construction cost of, say, $5,000 per
square foot amortized over ten years would represent more than $500 per square foot per year.

All three of the organizations upon which comparative costs presented in this report were based housed
high-end disk systems in Tier 4 data centers.

Energy and Cooling
Industry experience has shown that use of 2.5-inch rather than 3.5-inch drives typically reduces energy
consumption and cooling requirements by 30 to 40 percent.

The general industry “rule of thumb” is that IT equipment causes 30 to 40 percent of overall data power
consumption. The remainder is accounted for by infrastructure equipment such as that described above,
and by support systems and the space occupied by these. In Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centers with high levels
of power and cooling redundancy, the proportion may be lower.

Figure 7 shows an example for one of the organizations used as the basis of comparative cost calculations
presented in this report.

Other
CRAC 6%
12%
IT
equipment
Power 32%
equipment
17% Chillers
33%

Figure 7: Data Center Energy Consumption by
Type of Equipment – User Example

Overall power consumption is proportional to that by IT equipment. In this case, it would thus be
necessary to multiply energy savings realized by use of 2.5-inch drives in DS8800 systems by more than
three times to determine the actual bottom-line impact.

Potential energy and cooling savings are magnified by the DS8800’s use of front-to-back cooling; i.e.,
cold air is drawn into the front of the system, and hot air is expelled from the back. Conventional designs
(often referred to as “chimneys”) draw cold air through both the front and back of systems, and expel it
upward, where it is eventually returned to CRAC units.

Front-to-back cooling increases the effectiveness of “hot aisle/cool aisle” layouts that have become
widely adopted in high-end data centers. Figure 8 shows a simplified example.


Figure 8: Data Center Hot/Cold Aisle Layout – Example

By improving airflow efficiency, such approaches have commonly reduced overall data center power and
cooling costs by 20 to 30 percent.

VMAX systems employ front-to-back cooling only for system bays. Storage bays, which generate
significantly higher power and cooling overhead in most VMAX installations, employ chimneys.

Other Areas
There are also significant technical differences between DS8000 and VMAX systems in a number of
other areas. These include the following:

• Cache technologies. Although VMAX systems may be configured with larger caches, this does
not necessarily translate into higher performance. User experiences have shown that IBM
DS8000 systems typically require less cache than VMAX equivalents.

There are a number of reasons for this. Only about 50 percent of VMAX cache is usable.
Moreover, the mirroring processes employed by EMC tend to increase contention for memory
resources, and to degrade overall system performance.

In addition, while EMC employs DMX-era cache techniques, DS8800 systems implement newer
algorithms developed by IBM’s Research Division that accelerate performance and improve
capacity utilization. These are summarized in figure 9.

A key advantage of the IBM approach is that it draws upon proprietary autonomic technologies.
Autonomic computing, meaning the application of advanced artificial intelligence to system
administration and optimization tasks, has been a major IBM research focus for more than a
decade. The company is the recognized industry leader in this area.


ALGORITHM FUNCTION
Sequential Prefetching in Manages cache allocation for random & sequential I/Os; pre-fetches
Adaptive Replacement & loads data into cache; dynamically learns what data should be
Cache (SARC) stored in cache based upon the frequency needs of the hosts;
optimizes overall performance & capacity utilization.
Adaptive Multi-Stream Determines data to be prefetched based on workload characteristics;
Prefetching (AMP) minimizes idle cache capacity; improves performance for common
sequential & batch processing workloads; optimizes cache efficiency
in response to changing workloads.
Intelligent Write Caching Organizes & manages order of cache writes to minimize use of disk
(IWC) resources & improve overall I/O performance; can double throughput
for random write database workloads.

Figure 9: DS8800 Advanced Caching Algorithms

Finally, while DS8800 systems divide cache into 4-kilobyte (KB) increments (commonly referred
to as “slots” or “pages”), VMAX systems employ 64KB increments. Although random I/Os are
typically 4KB to 8KB in size, the EMC approach assigns them a full 64KB of cache. As a result,
overall cache utilization may be significantly lower.

• Volume management. System-level performance and capacity utilization are materially affected
by the manner in data volumes are organized, modified and managed. If underlying structures are
inefficient, the effects may be magnified when these are mapped to RAID configurations, and the
performance and functionality of tiering solutions overlaid on them may be impaired.

Legacy VMAX structures oblige administrators to build higher-level metavolume structures out
of hypervolumes located on individual disks. In comparison, IBM uses a single category of extent
pools, which are constructed using standardized 1GB blocks of data (extents). Extent pools
operate more efficiently, leave less unused capacity and do not need to be micromanaged by
administrators.

The IBM approach has proved a great deal less complex and more flexible. It provides particular
value when organizations must deal with dynamic workloads characterized by high levels of
growth and/or change.

DS8800 Storage Pool Striping allows workloads to be spread across all extents within a pool, and
provides load-balancing functions that reduce risks that “hot spots” will develop. A key benefit is
that, by implementing these capabilities as part of the core operating system, the tasks that must
be handled by Easy Tier and other optimization solutions are simplified.

In addition, I/O Priority Manager enables organizations to prioritize workload access to system resources
based on performance and/or quality of service (QoS) targets. Administrators may define up to three main
priority levels and 16 sublevels for specific applications. The facility provides highly granular monitoring,
load balancing and policy-based allocation of system resources.

Experiences with I/O Priority Manager suggest that it may obviate the need for cache partitioning
techniques such as those employed by EMC in VMAX systems. This would improve ability to respond to
workload changes, and would not limit cache resources to specific volumes.

I/O Priority Manager originated as a tool for UNIX, Linux and Windows environments. In the latest
version, support has been extended to the mainframe z/OS environment. Key capabilities include support
for z/OS volumes and integration with the z/OS Workload Manager (WLM).


SSDS AND TIERING
General Picture
Solid state drives (SSDs) originated in the 1990s, and were initially employed in specialized defense,
aerospace, communications and other compute-intensive applications. Demand for high-performance
systems for such applications continues to form a high-end niche within the overall SSD market. Most
“100 percent” SSD systems are for this type of application.

SSDs began to move into mainstream commercial applications in the early to mid-2000s. This trend
overlapped with the appearance of storage virtualization technologies that made it possible to combine
SSDs and HDDs in the same virtual pool. This approach, generally referred to as “tiering,” was pioneered
by specialist vendors and later adopted by major industry players.

EMC was the first large storage systems vendor to introduce SSDs as well as FC and SATA drives on its
major platforms during 2008. Support was extended to DMX-4 high-end, CLARiiON midrange and
Celerra network attached storage (NAS) systems. The company currently claims to be the largest vendor
of SSDs in high-end and midrange disk arrays.

IBM added SSD support for DS8000 and DS5000 disk systems, the IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC)
cross-platform storage virtualization system, and IBM Power and System x servers in 2009. A broader
initiative was also launched by the company to optimize exploitation of SSDs by all IBM server
platforms, as well as by DB2 and Tivoli software.

With certain types of workload, organizations have been able to achieve increases in overall system
performance of hundreds or even thousands of times with relatively small SSD quantities (e.g., two to
three percent). Most current applications, however, require larger SSD capacities and/or deliver smaller
performance improvements.

Storage Tiering
The most common form of storage tiering currently involves manual intervention by administrators to
identify “hot spot” data that would benefit from location on SSDs, move these to SSDs, and relocate them
as and when workloads change. Decisions are supported by periodic collection and analysis of data
distribution and performance statistics.

Manual techniques have proved adequate for high-end I/O-intensive applications where SSDs provide
most benefit. However, for some vendors – EMC has been in the forefront among these – the ability to
develop a larger market for tiering depends upon automation.

In most organizations, storage workloads have become increasingly diverse over time. This trend has
been accelerated by server as well as storage consolidation initiatives, and by the increasingly mixed
nature of workloads in most application areas. In such environments, manual techniques would be
prohibitively expensive in administrator time an/or would not be feasible for operational reasons.

Numerous other vendors now offer solutions that provide such capabilities in varying ways, and to
varying degrees. These include 3PAR (Adaptive Optimization), Compellent (Intelligent Tiered Storage),
Hitachi (Dynamic Tiering), XIO (Continuous Adaptive Data Placement) and others. 3PAR and
Compellent have been acquired by Hewlett-Packard and Dell respectively.


EMC FAST VP
EMC’s FAST has developed in two phases. The original version of FAST, introduced in 2009, supported
allocation and re-allocation of data only in logical unit number (LUN) increments, and was subject to
other limitations that restricted its appeal to a small minority of early adopters.

FAST VP enables movement of data blocks with sub-LUN granularity. The smallest increment, according
to EMC, is 7.68MB, and the largest is 1GB.

FAST Suite software consists of two products: FAST Cache employs up to 2TB of SSD to cache data
drawn from FC and/or SATA drives; and FAST VP, which moves data from FC drives to SSDs and/or
SATA drives. The roles of these products are illustrated in figure 10.

SSD
Fibre
Channel

FAST FAST Fibre
Cache VP Channel

SATA

SATA

Figure 10: EMC FAST Cache and FAST VP

FAST VP is built upon the storage pool structures implemented by VMAX thin provisioning. It
incorporates two core algorithms: intelligent tiering (which determines the appropriate tier for a given
data set); and allocation compliance (which detects when allocated capacity of a storage group exceeds
set limits, and initiates corrective data movements).

These are applied to three main processes: collection of statistics; analysis of these; and movement of data
between tiers in response to the results of analysis. Collection of statistics may run continuously as a
background task, or may be scheduled to occur periodically. Analysis and data movement windows may
also be set by users. EMC supplies Tier Advisor Tool to assist in making such decisions.

FAST VP deployment involves two distinct phases: initial analysis of workloads and data distribution,
setting of configurations, system parameters and policies, and related tasks; and ongoing activities –
which, in principle, occur continuously and are fully automated.

In practice, however, users have found that it is often not realistic to conduct FAST processes during peak
operating hours. Statistics collection and repeated movement of blocks of data between disks tend to
generate levels of system overhead that impair production performance. Equally, it is often not feasible to
assign administrator time during periods of high activity.

For both reasons, statistics are typically collected, and data is moved in batch mode during off-peak
periods. Windows for both typically range from one to eight hours, depending on application and
workloads, and on the size and complexity of data volumes.

Equally, effective use of FAST requires that storage administrators perform a variety of manual tasks
such as reviewing statistical analyses, performing a variety of management functions (e.g., confirming or
changing variables such as those shown in figure 11) and initiating relocation of data between tiers.


Tiering policies Data allocations
Auto-tier e.g. 10% SSD – RAID 5
Highest available tier 40% FC 15K – RAID 1
Lowest available tier 50% SATA – RAID 6
Tier 1/2/3
File system properties Relocation rate
Statistics collection Speed of data movement
Analysis • 10 settings
Data relocation
Storage pool properties File system properties
Pool type; e.g. mapped Deduplication enabled/disabled
Disk type Predict full
• Single disk type Read/write throughput
- Flash/FC/SATA Automatic extension enabled/disabled
• Multiple disk types File-level retention enabled/disabled
• Mirrored Slice volumes?
- Mixed/Performance/Capacity Replications
- Extreme performance Disk usage
Advanced data services
• Thin/Compressed/Mirrored
• Tiering policy
Predict full
Automatic extension enabled/disabled
Obtain unused disk volumes
Slice pool volumes by default?
Template pool
Stripe Size/stripe members

Figure 11: FAST VP Management Variables – Examples

These effects might be manageable where workloads are comparatively simple, stable and/or predictable.
However, growth in a number of variables – including configuration and workload complexity, and in the
size and frequency of data movements (which would tend to occur if data volumes were expanding
rapidly) – would exacerbate operational challenges faced by users.

Administrative costs and difficulties would escalate well beyond current levels. This would particularly
be the case if, as EMC has indicated as an eventual goal, policies and parameters were set on an
application-by-application basis. Declining batch windows would also pose problems for many users.

FAST VP is also supported by EMC on its Clarion CX-4 and VNX midrange disk systems.

IBM Easy Tier
IBM’s Easy Tier was first introduced in April 2010 for DS8700 systems, and support was later extended
to the DS8800. Easy Tier is accompanied by the Storage Tier Advisor Tool that identifies “hot spots,”
recommends where data should be located, and models the effects of configuration changes. Storage Tier
Advisor Tool is a no-charge feature.

The initial version, now referred to as Easy Tier V1, enabled concurrent use of two out of three tiers –
SSDs and high-performance HDDs, or SSDs and nearline devices. Easy Tier V2 added the ability to
rebalance workloads within tiers in the event that imbalances developed, or when capacity was added to
or removed from systems. V3 featured additional enhancements, including concurrent three-tier support
and support for thin provisioning.


Easy Tier is designed to minimize complexity. It may be set up in, at most, a few hours by in-house IT
staff. In comparison, FAST VP deployments typically require assistance by the EMC Professional
Services organization or EMC qualified service partners, as well as extensive administrator retraining.

Easy Tier offers Manual and Automated Modes. Manual Mode is employed for major tasks such as
moving entire volumes between tiers, to a new pool in the same tier, striping volumes or changing RAID
configurations, while Automated Mode enables workload recognition, movement of data in smaller
increments, and other routine tasks to be performed without administrator intervention.

IBM autonomic technologies are employed. Autonomic computing, meaning the application of advanced
artificial intelligence (AI) to IT administration and optimization tasks, has been a major IBM R&D focus
for more than a decade. The company is the recognized industry leader in this area.

One example is that Easy Tier is built around a continuous learning algorithm that enables the system to
recognize and adapt to evolving workload patterns. When Easy Tier is first activated, it normally requires
that statistics be collected over a 24-hour period to enable “workload learning” (IBM’s term).

Easy Tier is also supported for the IBM Storwize v7000 midrange platform, and for the company’s SAN
Volume Controller (SVC) cross-platform storage virtualization solution.

Drive Blends
Although performance and/or capacity utilization benefits may be realized with two to three percent SSD
configurations, the proportion of SSDs is often higher.

FAST VP performance test results published by EMC, which are summarized in figure 12, for example,
employ configurations in which ten percent of drive populations are SSDs. In some user environments,
percentages are significantly higher.

FAST VP PERFORMANCE
TEST
CONFIGURATION IMPROVEMENT
Oracle 11gR2 finance & HR 80 drives: 81% improvement in transactions
database workloads on x86 8 x 400GB SSD (10%), 40 x 300GB per minute for combined database
Linux server FC 15K rpm (50%), 32 x SATA 1TB workload; 160% improvement for
April 2011 7.2K rpm (40%) separately-managed workloads
Complex OLTP environment on 80 drives: 0.76% to 13.46% improvements in
three DB2 9.7 LUW databases 8 x 400GB SSD (10%), 40 x 300GB transactions per minute depending
January 2011 FC 15K rpm (50%), 32 x SATA 1TB on workload characteristics
7.2K rpm (40%)

Figure 12: EMC FAST VP Performance Tests – Summary

IBM tests have shown similar variances. According to the company, an internal test using a transactional
database workload showed that use of 13 percent SSDs achieved a 171 percent performance gain. This
blend offered the lowest cost of storage per transaction per second of any of the configurations tested.


DETAILED DATA
Installations and Scenarios
Cost comparisons presented in this report are based on high-end disk system installations in three large
user organizations whose business profiles are summarized in figure 13.

FINANCIAL SERVICES MANUFACTURING IT SERVICES
COMPANY COMPANY COMPANY
Diversified retail bank Consumer packaged goods Data center, application &
$600 billion assets $15 billion revenues telecommunications services
15+ million customers 70+ manufacturing & $4 billion revenues
2,000+ branches distribution centers 10 operations centers
65,000 employees 35,000 employees 20,000 employees

Figure 13: Installations Summary – Business Profiles

Installations were based on data on disk system hardware and software configurations, applications,
capacity growth rates, host platforms (e.g., mainframes, UNIX, Windows or Linux servers) and other
subjects reported by users of EMC VMAX and/or IBM DS8800 systems.

Organizations also employed older EMC and IBM high-end disk platforms. These were translated into
VMAX and DS8800 configurations based on installed capacity in terabytes, performance characteristics,
business criticality and projected growth rates.

In the financial services and IT services company installations, high-end disk systems support mixes of
mainframe and open systems hosts. In the manufacturing company installation, systems support UNIX
and Windows servers. Because of mainframe connectivity requirement and/or data center and operational
characteristics, VMAXe systems were not realistic candidates for use in comparisons.

For each installation, two scenarios were developed:

1. Conventional scenarios are for use of VMAX and DS8800 systems equipped with 15K rpm
300GB 3.5-inch FC and 2.5-inch SAS-2 disks respectively.

2. Tiered scenarios are for use of the same systems in three-tier configurations employing FAST VP
and Easy Tier V3 respectively.

VMAX systems were equipped with 3.5-inch 400GB SSDs, 15K rpm 300GB FC, and 7.2K rpm
2TB SATA disks, while DS8800 systems were equipped with 2.5-inch 300GB SSDs, 2.5-inch
15K rpm 300GB SAS-2, and 3.5-inch 7.2K rpm 3TB Nearline SAS-2 drives.

For both sets of scenarios, RAID 5 with normal complements of spares was employed. Configurations
also include the software products shown in figure 14.

FUNCTION EMC VMAX SYSTEM IBM DS8800 SYSTEM
Operating system Enginuity 5875 Operating Environment License
Point-in-time Copy TimeFinder FlashCopy
Real-time replication SRDF/A, SRDF/S Global Mirror, Metro Mirror
Multipathing PowerPath (host-based) Subsystem Device Driver

Figure 14: Software Products Employed in All Comparisons


Real-time replication software is employed only for systems requiring exceptionally high levels of
availability and recoverability.

Tiered VMAX scenarios also include EMC FAST Suite and Tier Advisor Tool. Tiered DS8800 scenarios
include Easy Tier V3 and Storage Tier Advisor Tool.

Hardware and software configurations were then determined for each installation and scenario over a
three-year period. Results are summarized in figures 15 and 16.

EMC VMAX SYSTEMS
Initial Configuration
Business-critical Business-critical Business-critical
2 x 198TB, 2 x 86TB 2 x 144TB 2 x 158TB
Other systems Other systems Other systems
1 x 221TB, 1 x 198TB 1 x 189TB, 1 x 126TB 1 x 113TB, 1 x 90TB
1 x 108TB 1 x 99TB, 1 x 95TB

Total: 1,095TB Total: 797TB Total: 519TB
End of Period Configuration
2 x 405TB, 2 x 203TB 2 x 317TB 2 x 347TB
1 x 162TB 1 x 185TB

Total: 2,225TB Total: 1,710TB Total: 1,059TB
IBM DS8800 SYSTEMS
2 x 202TB, 2 x 86TB 2 x 144TB 2 x 158TB
1 x 108TB 1 x 101TB, 1 x 94TB

Total: 1,109TB Total: 792TB Total: 525TB
2 x 410TB, 2 x 209TB 2 x 317TB 2 x 346TB
1 x 166TB 1 x 187TB


Figure 15: Installations Summary – Conventional Scenarios

Terabyte values shown are for raw physical capacity.


EMC VMAX SYSTEMS
2 x 162TB, 2 x 116TB 2 x 177TB 2 x 323TB
1 x 91TB 1 x 156TB, 1 x 77TB

Total: 1,463TB Total: 964TB Total: 1,058TB
2 x 320TB, 2 x 290TB 2 x 383TB 2 x 703TB
1 x 141TB 1 x 372TB, 1 x 149TB

IBM DS8800 SYSTEMS
2 x 174TB, 2 x 122TB 2 x 173TB 2 x 331TB
1 x 97TB 1 x 149TB, 1 x 85TB

Total: 1,457TB Total: 971TB Total: 1,061TB
2 x 360TB, 2 x 280TB 2 x 387TB 2 x 700TB
1 x 149TB 1 x 369TB, 1 x 166TB


Figure 16: Installations Summary – Tiered Scenarios

Cost Calculations
Costs were calculated as follows:

• System costs include initial hardware and license acquisition, as well as costs of hardware and
software upgrades over three-year periods.

Calculations do not include hardware maintenance costs. EMC offers a standard three-year 24x7
warranty for VMAX hardware, while costs for DS8800 systems were based on three-year
warranty models offered by the company.

VMAX costs include software maintenance. Although EMC offers a 90-day warranty for VMAX
software, this applies only to media defects. Since such defects are rare, it is assumed that no
warranty coverage occurs; i.e., maintenance charges apply upon installation. DS8800 calculations
are based on three-year system warranty options.


For tiered scenarios, software acquisition and maintenance calculations allow for variations in
EMC pricing for SATA and non-SATA devices, and in IBM pricing for use of SSD, SAS-2 or
nearline drives.

• Data center costs include acquisition and maintenance costs for data center infrastructure
equipment including CRAC, cooling, UPS, PDS and other infrastructure equipment; and
occupancy and energy costs for disk systems as well as infrastructure equipment.

Occupancy costs were calculated based on footprints for disk systems as well as infrastructure
equipment, including allowance for service clearances, aisles and other inactive areas. Costs were
calculated using an overhead assumption for cost per square foot per year for an approximately
40,000 square foot Tier 4 facility.

Infrastructure equipment costs were calculated based on discounted purchase and maintenance
prices for models from leading vendors supplying large corporate data centers. Costs were
prorated; e.g., if disk systems required 40 percent of the capacity of a 30-ton chiller, calculations
were for 40 percent of three-year costs for this unit.

Energy costs were determined using vendor ratings and independent estimates for disk systems
and infrastructure equipment. Calculations were based on specific utilization levels and hours of
operation. A conservative assumption for average cost per kilowatt-hour was employed. This
remained constant over the three-year measurement period.

All cost calculations are for the United States.

Cost Breakdowns
Detailed cost breakdowns are presented in figures 17 and 18.

Financial Services Manufacturing IT Services
Category
Company Company Company
EMC SYMMETRIX VMAX SYSTEMS
Hardware 20,405 14,118 12,913
Software 10,531 7,491 5,383
Software support 3,666 2,570 1,838
Data center 1,873 1,069 820
Total ($000) 36,475 25,248 20,954
IBM DS8800 SYSTEMS
Hardware 16,743 10,848 8,142
Software 10,735 5,965 4,868
Data center 1,289 723 522
Total ($000) 28,768 17,537 13,532

Figure 17: Three-year Cost Breakdowns – Conventional Comparisons


Financial Services Manufacturing IT Services
Category
Company Company Company
EMC SYMMETRIX VMAX SYSTEMS with FAST VP
Hardware 26,047 18,385 15,144
Software 11,722 8,522 7,333
Software support 4,063 2,909 2,548
Data center 1,512 874 645
Total ($000) 43,344 30,690 25,670
IBM DS8800 SYSTEMS with EASY TIER V3
Hardware 20,420 14,622 9,392
Software 10,136 7,012 5,014
Data center 987 571 389
Total ($000) 31,543 22,205 14,795

Figure 18: Three-year Cost Breakdowns – Tiered Comparisons


ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP
ITG sharpens your awareness of what’s happening and your competitive edge
. . . this could affect your future growth and profit prospects

International Technology Group (ITG), established in 1983, is an independent research and management
consulting firm specializing in information technology (IT) investment strategy, cost/benefit metrics,
infrastructure studies, deployment tactics, business alignment and financial analysis.

ITG was an early innovator and pioneer in developing total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on
investment (ROI) processes and methodologies. In 2004, the firm received a Decade of Education Award
from the Information Technology Financial Management Association (ITFMA), the leading professional
association dedicated to education and advancement of financial management practices in end-user IT
organizations.

The firm has undertaken more than 120 major consulting projects, released more than 250 management
reports and white papers and more than 1,800 briefings and presentations to individual clients, user
groups, industry conferences and seminars throughout the world.

Client services are designed to provide factual data and reliable documentation to assist in the decision-
making process. Information provided establishes the basis for developing tactical and strategic plans.
Important developments are analyzed and practical guidance is offered on the most effective ways to
respond to changes that may impact complex IT deployment agendas.

A broad range of services is offered, furnishing clients with the information necessary to complement
their internal capabilities and resources. Customized client programs involve various combinations of the
following deliverables:

Status Reports In-depth studies of important issues

Management Briefs Detailed analysis of significant developments

Management Briefings Periodic interactive meetings with management

Executive Presentations Scheduled strategic presentations for decision-makers

Email Communications Timely replies to informational requests

Telephone Consultation Immediate response to informational needs

Clients include a cross section of IT end users in the private and public sectors representing multinational
corporations, industrial companies, financial institutions, service organizations, educational institutions,
federal and state government agencies as well as IT system suppliers, software vendors and service firms.
Federal government clients have included agencies within the Department of Defense (e.g. DISA),
Department of Transportation (e.g. FAA) and Department of Treasury (e.g. US Mint).

International Technology Group
609 Pacific Avenue, Suite 102
Santa Cruz, California 95060-4406
Telephone: + 831-427-9260
Email: Contact@ITGforInfo.com
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ITG: Cost/Benefit Case for the IBM DS8800 Systems: Comparing Costs for DS8800 and EMC VMAX Systems