Benchmarking Storage Systems

[April 2, 2008] A look at the reasons behind the refusal of EMC and other storage vendors to participate in benchmarks — and a suggestion for improving the usefulness of benchmarks.

[February 21, 2008] Hardware isn't the only benchmark category that could use an overhaul; file system benchmarks can be just as misleading.

[February 20, 2008] Network Appliance takes the unprecedented step of benchmarking its products against EMC's.

[October 1, 2007] HDS claims breakthrough performance for its USP V storage platform, reopening a long-simmering debate over the value of storage industry benchmarks.

[April 12, 2007] In the second part of a series on storage benchmarks, we examine the Storage Performance Council's recent efforts to expand its battery of tests to better evaluate vendor performance claims.

[March 28, 2007] Storage benchmarks from the likes of the Storage Performance Council (SPC) can help users evaluate competing products, but you've got to be careful how you use them.

[January 8, 2004] Our benchmarking storage systems series concludes with a focus on writing the specification for the benchmark and the process for analyzing and scoring vendor responses.

[December 11, 2003] Our benchmarking storage systems series continues with a focus on developing representations of your hardware and software environment, as well as a consideration of the pros and cons of using your applications and real data in a benchmark as opposed to developing emulations of your workload.

[November 13, 2003] Henry Newman breaks down the components of a storage benchmark and explains how each of the hardware and software pieces can have a significant impact on the performance, reliability, and price of the storage system.

[June 11, 2003] The benchmarking process for storage is often quite complex, time consuming, and costly, but it's also one of the first critical steps in the storage architecture and acquistions process. Henry Newman breaks down storage benchmarking by focusing on the key considerations, providing insight into the inner workings, and offering suggestions on how to optimize the process.