Storage Service Provider - The How-To

How to Start Your Own Storage Service Provider? Flashback from ISP days.

I had the opportunity to setup an ISP during Dot-Com days in the bay area from 1997 - 2000. I also had experience with Wireless gears from Breezecom during 1999-2000 to build a WISP (Wireless ISP). To build an ISP, normally you need to following:
1. Router - for Internet gateway
2. Leased line - connected to your Internet gateway
3. POP (Point of Presence) - your dial-up modems for users to connect
4. RADIUS (authentication server) - for POP to verify users
5. DNS (Domain Name Server)
6. E-Mail system (both e-mail relay, e-mail gateway, and e-mail server)
7. Billing system (this could come with RADIUS) to charge customer based on their usage, or you can choose to charge flat rate
8. Web server - for ISP's sake

The cheapest way to build an ISP is:
1. Router (low-end router that could server T1 line)
2. POP (racks of modems)
3. Authentication/Billing PC (Radius+Billing)
4. E-mail/DNS/Web server PC

All above could be done with 10,000 US dollars. What about WISP? What are the required equipments? Wireless ISP provides Internet for users through wireless traffic (IEEE 802.11 - or WiFi or 2.4GHz free spectrum). Instead of buying a POP, WISP buys a Wireless antenna (directional or others), outdoor Wireless gear and put these on high water tank or up the hill from a village. This could serve a number of clients. So WISP customers would have to buy antenna, WiFi card to connect. So the cheapest way to build a WISP is:
1. Router (same as above)
2. Wireless POP (antenna, wireless radio - access point, wiring from WISP office to WiPOP location)
3. Authentication/Billing PC
4. E-mail, DNS, Web server PC

Since ISP market was under consolidation, the wrath of AOL, a lot of small ISPs and WISPs are going under. It's too bad since return on investment for ISP, WISP is normally within 6-9 months in a rural area without the big ISPs' presence.

How to Build Your Own Storage Service Provider

As mentioned yesterday, you at least need Network and Storage to start SSP service.

1. The right data center

Since Storage systems are very sensitive to heat, dust, and humidity. Finding the right home (data center) is the first issue to solve. Current storage systems do not fare well against vibration (its performance drops significantly), nor heat (typical storage system creates more heat than a blade server with the same size). There are many data centers around the world. They are facility provider (space, power, cooling, and some may provide monitoring service). They charge based on space requirement and additional service.

You'll need data center with 24x7 staff, monitoring service, and a good SLA to respond to your request to change spare hard drives.

2. Large Network Connectivity to the Data Center

Storage traffic is much more bursty than typical Internet traffic. You need to find a co-location provider that's connected to the largest Internet exchange as possible.

3. Large Storage Pool

SSP needs to spend the most of its investment in researching the best partner to deliver this service. There are certain companies with good technology but their management does not have the right mindset to deliver SSP service. So go with the one with aggressive attitude and good technology. Price is not the main issue here. You don't want to work with a vendor that will go away in 6-12 months.

You will need to reserve enough space in the data center to host at least 20 TB of storage. Based on my calculation, 20TB is the right combination between investment (storage price) and cost of maintenance (administrator salary). Buying a small storage system to start with, most of your cost is going to be administrator cost. So buying the right amount of storage is the key.

4. Storage Feature

Storage system feature is another critical issue. Buying a new brand with no distinct feature is a bad idea. This is directly involved with #4. But it deserves its own place. Typical features that you have to look for are: Snapshot, Replication, RAID (0,1,5,10,50), BCV (EMC term), Scalability, Reliability, Availability (whether everything's redundant).

Since storage system will host customer's data, reliability and availability are very important. You cannot afford to stop Storage service once it's started. It must be at least 99.99% uptime.

5. People/process/procedure

You need to hire the best you can afford. This is the make or break issue. I have had the chance to train my team from zero. So it's not very hard but you need to set the courses for new-hires. It's better to make them online so new-hires can go and read before asking the seniors. I recommend to look at ITIL. My company does ITIL training for years. It's already proven and is going to be ISO 20000.

Once you have all the above, you can start your SSP service. The minimum requirement for an SSP is:
1. Storage system (20TB)
2. Management console PC
3. Data Center connectivity (committed 1/10/100 Mbps - depending on customer volume)
4. Storage system administrators (24x7)
5. Network equipments, Fiber-Channel equipments (depending on storage technology that your SSP is going to offer). Currently the most popular storage technology is Fiber Channel. This depends on the end user's requirements.

If you need to clarify these points, please feel free to write a comment or leave me your e-mail address.