The cost benefits of a SAN: an analysis of total cost of ownership of an iSCSI SAN, fibre channel SAN, and direct-attached storage

Computer Technology Review, July, 2004

Conclusion

A thorough calculation of all hard costs has shown that, while a traditional SCSI DAS deployment has the lowest acquisition cost, it bears a much higher total cost of ownership than either a fibre channel SAN or an iSCSI SAN. Additionally, the TCO of an iSCSI SAN is lower than that of a fibre channel SAN.

However, TCO should not be the only criteria for determining the right SAN solution. Despite slightly higher costs, fibre channel SANs provide highly reliable storage at the highest performance. And, iSCSI SANs offer the most affordable and scalable storage. Overall, however, SANs are an ideal solution for addressing the needs of burgeoning data growth.

Hardware and Software Costs

                          DAS        iSCSI        FC

HBA/RAID Controller     $  2,431    $  5,280    $  7,200

Switch                              $  6,779    $ 39,400

Cables                  $    418    $    483    $    809

RAID Box/JBOD           $ 12,787    $ 23,947    $ 60,778

HDD                     $ 18,357    $ 18,357    $ 18,870

Tape Library            $ 15,039    $ 13,889    $ 13,889

TP Drives               $ 17,199    $  8,599    $  8,599

Media                   $  1,519    $  1,519    $  1,519

Cleaning TP             $    317    $    158    $    158

PC-SCSI RTR                                     $  4,149

Software                $  4,080    $  2,790    $ 28,555

    HW & SW Cost Total  $ 72,147    $ 81,801    $183,926

TCO Analysis

Enterprise Storage Cost                  DAS       iSCSI SAN     FC SAN
Comparison

Direct (Hard) Costs:

Storage Acquisition

   Planned Capacity - (12 Months)         2,000       2,000        2,000
   GB

   $/MB                               $    0.04   $    0.05    $    0.09

           Total Acquisition Cost     $  80,000   $ 100,000    $ 180,000

Storage Administration

   Capacity per Administrator              2000        4800         4800
   (GB)

   Number of Administrators                 1.0         0.4          0.4

   Burdened Salary per                $  95,000   $  95,000    $ 110,000
   Administrator

  Total Annual Administrator Cost     $  95,000   $  38,000    $  44,000

Installation

   Installation Cost                              $     800    $   5,000

Capacity Utilisation                        50%         85%          85%

   Increased Storage to mach SAN          1,400
   (GB)

   $/MB                               $    0.04

   Utilisation Cost without SAN       $  56,000

              Total Cost of           $ 231,000   $ 138,800    $ 229,000
              Ownership Based on
              Direct Costs

            Total Cost of             $    0.12   $    0.07    $    0.11
            Ownership Based on
            Direct Costs ($/MB)

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