Open Storage FAQs

1. What is Open Storage?

Open Storage refers to the combined use of open source software with industry standard system components to enable breakthrough economics for storage as well as freedom from vendor lock-in.

Open Storage is what Sun calls the fundamental shift in the approach to building storage systems. It provides the context for a number of new products and technologies delivered and driven by Sun; it is also the umbrella initiative with which Sun is leading the transformation of the storage industry.

With OpenSolaris, Sun provides a proven open source software platform that delivers a rich set of Storage technologies, protocols and data services. Open Storage is also the enabler for the revolutionary set of storage appliances introduced in November 2008 , the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System series and provides the foundation for the on-going (r)evolution around Flash technology-based products.

2. Why consider Sun for Open Storage solutions?

Sun Open Storage is about three key advantages that resound positively with customers:

1. 1. New innovations in storage
   Examples are Sun's leadership around ZFS, Flash-based storage, Hybrid Storage Pools, and DTrace analytics.
   
   
2. 2. New economics for storage
   Examples are how Hybrid Storage Pools deliver the best $/GB and $/IOP, how Sun is not charging for software features, and how Sun storage systems are built on industry-standard architectures that scale with that growth curve.
   
   
3. 3. An open platform that engages developers.
   Sun is not just offering open protocols but open on-disk formats- the entire core of Sun's data stack is open. The intent is to engage developers with OpenSolaris and no other storage vendor has this means of engaging developers. And again, because of Sun's open source strategy, no other vendor offers customers the investment protection of open on-disk formats.
   
   

3. Can you elaborate more on how Sun's Open Storage initiative relates to hardware system components and software?

Open Storage Hardware Systems
 The Sun Open Storage initiative leverages the trends in storage hardware that are accelerating the shift away from proprietary closed systems. These trends include the rapid adoption of open standards and the increase in storage densities helping to drive down costs.

By using standard system components, storage systems can be built that take advantage of rapid innovation, commodity pricing as well as growth curves (indicated by Moore's law, for example) around capacity, performance etc..

Open Storage Software
Open Storage software is open source software used to build storage solutions. This includes storage software built into the Open Solaris operating system as well as storage software that can be layered on top of the OS to provide more value to storage users.

OpenSolaris is in the unique position to be the leader in Open Storage by virtue of

1. 1. ZFS- The combination of reliability, scalability and simplified management not requiring volume manager software has attracted significant industry attention.
   
   
2. 2. Portfolio- OpenSolaris has a rich offering of storage technologies for both disk and tape. For the main components see http://opensolaris.com/openstorage/storagemajor/ and for details on the full range of storage components in OpenSolaris see http://opensolaris.com/openstorage/storageall/.
   
   
3. 3. Pedigree- OpenSolaris derives from Solaris which has a strong presence in the data center due to enterprise features like Predictive Self Healing.
   See Open Storage success stories at http://opensolaris.com/openstorage/storagesuccess/
   
   

4. Where can I learn more about OpenSolaris storage technologies?

The Sun OpenSolaris storage community is centered at http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/storage (engineering site) and http://opensolaris.com/openstorage (marketing site).

5. What are the differences between OpenSolaris and Solaris 10?

There are differences in the support models and feature sets. Solaris 10 has a very complete offering of support services in line with expectations for a product with a 10+ year life span. OpenSolaris does not, as of OpenSolaris 2008.11, have a long term support model and as such, offers a much smaller catalog of support services. These differences address different users – for example OpenSolaris is more attractive to companies that want the latest features and do not require extensive support offerings or are happy to accept support in the form of upgrading to the latest release.

From a feature standpoint the major differences are

• OpenSolaris has a richer and more modern user desktop environment

• OpenSolaris has some major features not available in Solaris 10, for example with regard to storage

• COMSTAR, a technology allowing creation of storage array functionality using Industry standard computing and storage components.

• In-kernel CIFS implementation for Microsoft file system interoperability.

• OpenSolaris 2008.11 is for x86 platforms only. In the future a SPARC version will be available.

6. Does Sun sell services and support that apply to an OpenSolaris configuration?

Yes, see http://www.sun.com/service/opensolaris/