Appendix C. Solid State Drives On The Ibm System Storage Ds5000 Series - IBM Midrange System DS4000 Series Hardware Manual

An example of an existing storage environment is shown in Figure C-1. The design results in
a significantly increased cost associated with maintaining and supporting the infrastructure. In
addition to the immediate effect associated with this balance, growth continues at an
increased rate in the higher cost area of Tier 1. Thus, as the growth occurs, the distribution of
data continues to grow in a non-optimal direction unless there is careful planning and
discipline in deployment.
Cost versus Performance
Tier 0
Ultra High
Performance
Cost
per
Gigabyte
Figure C-1 Tiered Storage: Cost versus performance
Properly balancing these tiers leads to the minimal cost and best performance solution.
Typically, an optimal design keeps the active operational data in Tier 0 and Tier 1 and uses
Tiers 2 and 3 for less active data. An example is shown in Figure C-2. The benefits
associated with a tiered storage approach are simple; it is all cost related. This approach will
save significant cost associated with storage itself, as lower tiered storage is less expensive.
Beyond that, there are the environmental savings, such as energy, footprint, and cooling
reductions.
Storage Pyramid
1-3%
15-20%
20-25%
50-60%
Figure C-2 Example of a tiered storage pyramid

Appendix C. Solid State Drives on the IBM System Storage DS5000 series

Tier 1
High
Performance
Mission Critical
Medium
Performance
Non-Mission Critical
Performance
Tier 0: Ultra high performance applications
Tier 1: Mission critical, revenue generating apps
Tier 2: Meet QoS for non-mission critical apps
Tier 3: Archives and long term retention
Tier 2
Tier 3
Low
Performance
Archival/Tape
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