What is the role of storage in the IT system?

インテック ネットワーク&アウトソーシング事業本部 クラウドサービス事業部 クラウドサービス部 サービス企画開発課 主任 三浦智洋氏

Basic knowledge of storage

--What is storage in the first place?

Mr. Miura: In a nutshell, it is a dedicated device that can save digital data in an IT system and take it out by application requests.

About five years ago, the number of situations in using data on the cloud has increased, and it has become commonplace to save the data itself on the cloud.The cloud environment is still mainstream, but it is actually stored in a device called "storage" even if the data is on the cloud.

-Please tell us the difference between storage and server

Miura: Storage is a device that specializes in reading and conservation of data, and the main role is that the server processes data.The server is mainly composed of CPUs and memory, and the data taken out of the storage and data that are temporarily generated in the server are placed in memory that is faster than storage, and the CPU processes it.The memory is volatile, and the data disappears when the power is cut off.

I think there is a scene where access to the server is concentrated and down, but even if the server occurs, it will eventually recover because the important data itself is stored in storage instead of the server.。

-How important is storage?

Miura: There are three types of elements that support the IT area infrastructure in modern times: storage, network, and server.I can't say it unconditionally, but I think storage is the most affected when a failure occurs.

In recent years, virtualization has become the mainstream, and there are many situations where virtual servers are built on physical servers.Even if the physical server breaks down, the virtual server can be restarted on another physical server, so it can be restored in a relatively short time.

Even if a network is impaired, the service will not be available while the communication is not possible, so it will be large, but it will be available if it is restored.

On the other hand, storage disorders not only cannot read and write data, but may also lose data.In this way, if you consider a situation in the unlikely event that it is most important to protect corporate data, you may be able to understand the importance of storage.

Three elements that compare storage

--What are you required for storage?

Miura: In general, there are three points: "capacity", "performance" and "function".

"Capacity" is an index indicating how much data amount can be saved.In recent years, the use of data has become commonplace, so first of all, there are many services that require data accumulation.As the amount of data required is increasing every day, it is becoming more difficult to estimate how much data should be purchased.Therefore, it is an element that you want to take into account "expandability" that can add capacity later while operating the storage.

"Performance" is an index indicating how fast data can be processed.Taking a web system as an example, it is an element that is also related to the reaction properties after clicking the button on the screen.In many cases, storage is accessible from multiple servers at the same time, so it is necessary not only to respond to one request, but also that processing in parallel does not slow down.

When considering the performance of the entire storage, the CPU mounted on the storage is also an important factor.Generally, the higher the model, the more high -performance CPU is installed, so you can read and write data efficiently.In addition, the performance of the entire storage changes depending on the difference in CPU, memory device, and software, so the characteristics are divided for each manufacturer and model.

The last is the function.This is a QOS (Quality of Service) that balances the overall balance according to the amount of data reading and writing, and a function that controls the capacity by compressing and eliminating the amount of data.It contains a function called a snapshot that saves data up to a certain point like a backup.Of these three indicators, select the product according to what you value.