I was just re-reading two posts from early March: Rick Cook’s article about tips for LUN provisioning in SMB storage, and ‘Zilla’s post about the value of turning storage knowledge into “application-speak”.
These posts present two different ends of the spectrum. Rich’s post is essentially a primer on logical units (LUNs). He introduces his post in the following way:
Although extremely helpful in large data storage enterprises, LUNs are just as important for small- to medium-sized
businesses (SMBs). This tip explores the background of LUNs in an SMB data storage environment, the different LUN features vendors have to offer and how to determine what type of LUN is best for your environment.
His post goes on to explain such concepts as striping, RAID-levels, LUN masking, zoning, etc.
I agree with the first statement (LUNs are important for SMBs), but I’m not sure if I agree that SMB administrators will want to “determine what type of LUN is best” for their environment.
This brings me to the ‘Zilla-angle: RAID, LUNs, and masking are “wonky” to IT generalists and application administrators. I translate “wonky” as: “I’d prefer not to know about these terms if they are not necessary for me to get my job done”. Indeed, he clarifies this later by using the following statement about provisioning for applications:
whatever voodoo has to go on to make that happen should be something they [administrators] don’t have to think about
User interfaces in typical data centers provide a high degree of visibility to LUN concepts. What ‘Zilla is positing is perhaps the concept of LUNs shouldn’t be exposed at all. Wizards and workflows that are framed in the context of the application are more appropriate.
I like this line of thinking: introduce application-aware workflows into SMB environments and extend them up into the enterprise (as opposed to bringing enterprise-level screens down into the SMB market).
I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts. I’m also interested in hearing if I’ve translated the Irish meaning of “wonky” appropriately.
Steve
http://stevetodd.typepad.com
Twitter: @SteveTodd
EMC Intrapreneur
No, you’re pretty much dead on with it’s use in that context.
When I get a moment I’ll have to revist the topic.