Storing large volumes of SharePoint content creates significant performance, cost and manageability issues (something that Microsoft acknowledges with its newly released storage guidelines). The Microsoft defined method for addressing these issues is binary large object (BLOB) offloading from SharePoint content databases. Despite being generally accepted by the SharePoint community, there are still a number of misconceptions. Questions remain regarding what BLOB offloading actually delivers for SharePoint and how it should best be used. It is time to sort fact from fiction and learn the truth about SharePoint and Remote BLOB Storage (RBS). Dr. Steve Marsh from Metalogix will dissect what RBS really offers by answering these key questions: 1) Do the new Microsoft SharePoint storage guidelines remove the need for BLOB offloading? 2) Does SharePoint have native RBS capabilities? 3) How does BLOB offloading impact SharePoint performance? 4) By using RBS, does it make a disaster recovery strategy more complex? 5) Is the Microsoft RBS FILESTREAM Provider an enterprise-class solution for BLOB offloading?

1. #SPSBE
The Myths and Truths about BLOBs,
SharePoint and the FILESTREAM
Provider
#SPSBE25
Dr. Steve Marsh
Metalogix EMEA Director of Technology & Product Marketing

2. WHO AM I?
• Metalogix
• Ex-Microsoft
• Physicist & Microelectronics Engineer
• @drstevemarsh
• steve.marsh@metalogix.com

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4. Agenda
• Why is this subject relevant?
• What is a BLOB?
• What is BLOB Offloading?
• Myths and Truths

5. WHY MYTHS AND TRUTHS OF SHAREPOINT
BLOBS?
• SharePoint adoption is growing • Content is growing
• 125,000,000 licenses to 65,000 • 2010 – 1.2 ZB
Customers
• 2020 – 35 ZB
• 62,000,000 licenses for SharePoint
• Content is growing at 60% Year over
2010
Year
• 80 % of Fortune 500 have SharePoint
• 700,000 developers working on
SharePoint, 1,062 books

6. WHAT IS A BLOB?
• BLOB  Binary Large OBject
• BLOB is the data stream associated with a file
• SharePoint file metadata and BLOBs are stored in SQL databases
• BLOBs do not participate in query operations
• Sample BLOB operations: Get, Put, Read range, etc.

7. SHAREPOINT - WHEN BLOBS ATTACK!

8. WHAT IS REMOTE BLOB STORAGE?
• RBS (or EBS) is the API set from Microsoft
• Allows BLOBs to be separated from the File metadata
• BLOBs can be stored outside of SQL DB

9. TIME FOR SOME AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
• Myth or Truth?

10. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Does SharePoint have native or out of
the box Remote BLOB Storage (RBS)
capability?

11. MYTH

12. THE TRUTH
• SharePoint has no capability to offload BLOBs out of the
box
• SharePoint requires additional software to turn it into an
RBS aware application

13. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Do the new Content DB size guidelines
mean we don’t need BLOB off-loading
anymore?

14. MYTH

15. THE TRUTH
• A SharePoint Content DB is defined as the metadata and
the BLOBs regardless of where the BLOBs are stored
• Putting 4TB of SharePoint content into a single SQL only
Content DB is a bad idea

16. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Is BLOB offloading detrimental to
SharePoint performance?

17. MYTH

18. THE TRUTH
• Writing BLOBs into SQL is a slow, resource intensive
process
• Poor performing/inefficient RBS providers often cite 1MB
as the average file size to consider using RBS
• The reality is that the average file size can be as small a
few tens of KB

19. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Can an RBS solution be used instead of
archiving?

20. TRUTH

21. THE TRUTH
• What are we trying to achieve with “Archiving”?
• RBS Providers can integrate with SharePoint Information
Management Policy
• Enterprise-class RBS solutions are Proactive Storage
Optimisation combined with Traditional Archiving
Concepts

22. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Can using RBS make your disaster
recovery strategy more complex?

23. MYTH

24. THE TRUTH
• Need to consider the back-up of the BLOB store
• SQL becomes easier to manage and maintain
• Native SQL and SharePoint back-up tools are now more
effective and a realistic option

25. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Is Microsoft’s FILESTREAM Provider an
enterprise-class solution for BLOB
offloading?

26. MYTH

27. FILESTREAM PROVIDER
• WSS 3.0 with the WIDE (Windows Integrated Database) option does not have a
database size limit, thus organizations can and have put large volumes of content
into this "at no additional charge“
• With release of SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SQL Server 2008 Express
edition, Microsoft introduced database instance limits.
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition has a 10 GB instance limitation
• The FILESTREAM Provider lacks basic features required to call it an enterprise
solution.
• No user interface
• Lack of support for "remote" storage,
• Lack of a multithreaded garbage collection process
• FILESTREAM does not bypass SQL Server for the processing of BLOBs

28. MYTH OR TRUTH?
• Can BLOB offloading reduce SharePoint
storage costs, improve performance and
scalability?

29. TRUTH

30. WHY OFFLOAD BLOBS?
 Improved Scalability
 Increased Performance
 Reduced Network and Storage Requirements
 Simplified Backup and Restore
 More Secure Transmission and Storage
 Tiered Storage/HSM Options
 Off-premise Storage Platform Options
 Leverage Advanced Storage Technologies
…Without sacrificing performance, functionality, or user
experience!

31. THE SIMPLE CASE FOR RBS
• BLOBs can be stored on less-expensive storage
and SQL clusters can be right-sized sans all the
DOC
TIFF
PDF BLOB I/O.
XLS PPT
• Eliminates SQL Server as the bottleneck for
performance and scalability
• Smaller content databases. Can leverage
Attached
Direct-
DFS, snapshot-ing, and/or mirroring for BLOB
store recovery.
• BLOBs can be stored on WORM-compliant
Addressable
Network-
storage platforms like EMC Centera, Hitachi
HCAP, or OSAR.
• You can implement HSM where content can be
moved to less expensive storage tiers as it
Cloud
becomes less relevant.

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