April 2008 Entries
An Effective Disaster Recovery Strategy for Branch Offices - April 12, 2008
Tampa Florida -- The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season will start early this year, the second time in five years a storm will formed before June 1. As a result, experts are again predicting an above average hurricane year, estimating that there is a 74 percent chance a category three or higher storm will hit the U.S. mainland.
While the chance your business will be affected by a major natural disaster or terrorist attack is slim, other causes of unplanned downtime such as a hardware component failure, fire, power outage or surge, network attack or even human error are more prevalent. It is important to ensure your company has a reliable strategy for getting the business up and resuming normal business operations, no matter what the cause. Without a disaster recovery strategy the consequences to your business could be paramount. According to the Wall Street Journal, 92 percent of small businesses that experience significant data loss due to a major disaster go out of business within five years. You don't want to become part of this statistic.
With mission-critical data growth exploding in the small to midsized enterprise (SME) market-much of it on the edge of the network in branch offices-traditional disaster recovery solutions may not be enough to ensure business continuity throughout your entire organization.
Complete Restoration Disaster Recovery
In order to protect all company data regardless of physical location and to ensure business continuity across the entire organization, SMEs need to deploy a complete disaster recovery solution that integrates local backups and remote off-site vaulting in a single solution. Using a complete and integrated solution allows your organization to restore entire systems quickly, and get them back in the production environment as soon as possible after experiencing downtime. A complete bare metal restoration solution restores systems from the ground up-including the operating system (Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.), business applications (Exchange, SQL, Oracle, Novell, etc.), user profiles and data files, in addition to reformatting drives.
The following details what SMEs should look for in a complete disaster recovery solution that protects their data center as well as data and systems in remote offices.
Quick Recovery
When it comes to quick recoveries and an SME's ability to resume normal business operations after experiencing downtime, the stakes couldn't be higher. Simply put, if customers are inconvenienced by not being able to visit a retail location, access a Website, email a sales rep, or receive requested information in a timely manner-regardless of the reason-they will move on to a competitor. The availability of services and products at headquarters and in branch offices is absolutely vital to the health of the company, making quick restoration of the IT systems that run the business a top priority. Minutes do matter.
Most SMEs do not realize that quick restores not only rely on recovering lost data, but also rely on rebuilding damaged or lost servers and workstations. Operating systems need to be restored, drives need to be reformatted, business applications need to reinstalled, data needs to be recovered and user profiles need to be restored. End users cannot do their job unless workstations and servers are returned to their normal state before downtime occurred. This takes time.
The most effective disaster recovery solutions speed up the systems recovery process by automating this process through scripting. Automatic bare metal restore allows administrators to perform a complete systems restoration to an existing system or to a new system with different hardware. While it typically takes a seasoned IT veteran a full day or longer to completely restore a system manually, there are disaster recovery solutions that allow staffers with little IT training to recover a complete system in less than an hour.
Off-Site Backups and Vaulting
In an effort to protect against data center outages and regional natural disasters, it is essential that SMEs implement off-site backups and a remote vaulting system that store data and system information at least 150 miles away. Tape rotation at a warehouse across town, a common approach of SMEs, does not provide the same level of off-site protection since the facility will most likely be impacted by the same disruption. The best backup and recovery solutions incorporate both local and off-site backups in one package. After first performing a local backup in the branch office, the solution replicates data to an off-site location where it is stored in a data vault and is easily recoverable.
Because bandwidth and server requirements could affect performance for end users, it is essential that SMEs deploy a solution that incorporates electronic data synchronization to off-site vaults. By only sending data that is new or has changed since the last backup, the solution requires less resources and dramatically reduces the amount of data that has to be sent over the WAN. This allows backups to be completed more quickly, efficiently and reliably. In the same vein, synchronization technology enables administrators to pause and re-engage in the middle of a backup if a connection is disrupted during the data transfer, preventing administrators from ever having to manually restart a transfer.
Vendor Neutral
When a disaster hits and remote offices are pulled off-line, SMEs don't always have the luxury of being able to replace their servers with the exact model or even the same brand. Often, they must make a quick replacement with what is available. Because of this, it is important that the company's disaster recovery solution is able to restore systems to different hardware. For example, an HP server needs to be able to be restored on a Dell box if that is what is available. This also gives SMEs flexibility with their purchasing decisions, allowing them to choose hardware that is the best suited for specific business needs and budget rather than letting interoperability inhibit choice.
Point-in-Time Recovery
Giving customers the ability to restore systems to a set point in time is an essential element of a complete disaster recovery solution. This is especially useful if a single system crashes and a database needs to be synched up with other end users. Email is another example. Point-in-time recovery allows administrators to recover deleted emails or files as needed or restore systems to a point in time within the past 30 days.
Simple Management
Most SMEs do not have the IT and staffing resources to dedicate to backup management and monitoring, making it essential that any disaster recovery solution be easy to use and automate as much manual process as possible. This is especially true on the edge of the network in branch offices where often there is no full-time IT administrator and a business staff member is typically tasked with starting the backup process each night.
It doesn't have to be this way. SMEs can make sure their disaster recovery solution is managed consistently from a central management console, giving a trained and dedicated administrator at headquarters complete access and visibility into the backup cycle. In addition, the solution needs to automate basic tasks, including the recovery process. This can help streamline IT management, prevent human errors and take business continuity responsibility off the shoulders of untrained business staff.
Scalability
Complete restoration solutions also need to be scalable to allow SMEs to expand their disaster recovery strategy in line with the business. It seems strange to think that a company can over-protect its IT systems, but it is nearly impossible to protect every server all of the time. SMEs need to determine what systems need to be protected and how fast they need to be recovered. Deploying a scalable disaster recovery solution that is flexible is a good start, as growing companies' needs can change quickly.
Some providers price their solutions on a per gigabyte of user data basis in conjunction with time-to-recovery needs. This ensures that SMEs are getting exactly what they require at an affordable price and that the IT budget is directly tied to the needs of the business.
Security
Another feature that SMEs may need is encryption technology that secures data as it is in transit and while being backed up and restored. Industry and government regulations are getting tighter every year, forcing companies-especially growing businesses-to plan for future compliance requirements, making it essential that all sensitive data is properly encrypted from the outset.
It is vital that SMEs take into account remote office computing when implementing their business continuity strategy, relying on a robust and complete disaster recovery solution that enables efficient backups and quick restores. Administrators need to ensure that they are able to manage the backup and recovery process from a central location, conduct complete restorations and recover systems to different hardware. Only then can SMEs be truly prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws their way.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ
'Well Above-average' Hurricane Season Forecast For 2008 - Will You be Ready? - April 12, 2008
Miami Florida Science Daily (Apr. 10, 2008) — The Colorado State University forecast team upgraded its early season forecast today from the Bahamas Weather Conference, saying the U.S. Atlantic basin will likely experience a well above-average hurricane season.
"Current oceanic and atmospheric trends indicate that we will likely have an active Atlantic basin hurricane season," said William Gray, who is beginning his 25th year forecasting hurricanes at Colorado State University.
The team's forecast now anticipates 15 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Eight of the storms are predicted to become hurricanes, and of those eight, four are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. Long-term averages are 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 intense hurricanes per year. DR BC plans will be tested this year.
"Based on our latest forecast, the probability of a major hurricane making landfall along the U.S. coastline is 69 percent compared with the last-century average of 52 percent," said Phil Klotzbach of the Colorado State hurricane forecast team. "We are calling for a very active hurricane season this year, but not as active as the 2004 and 2005 seasons." Disaster Recovery should be on the minds of every Florida based companies.
Current conditions in the Atlantic basin are quite favorable for an active hurricane season. The current sea surface temperature pattern in the Atlantic - prevalent in most years since 1995 - is a pattern typically observed before very active seasons. Warm sea surface temperatures are likely to continue being present in the tropical and North Atlantic during 2008 because of a positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Also, the currently observed weak Azores High will likely promote weaker-than-normal trade winds over the next few months enhancing warm SST anomalies in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. Be it Backup Exe, NetBack, CDP or Snap Shot just backup your data.
Additionally, the team expects neutral or weak La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific, which, combined with a predicted warm north and tropical Atlantic, is a recipe for enhanced Atlantic basin hurricane activity. These factors are similar to conditions that occurred during the 1950, 1989, 1999, and 2000 seasons. The average of these four seasons had well above-average activity, and Klotzbach and Gray predict the 2008 season will have activity in line with the average of these four years. When you backup to disk or tape look for companies with VTL De-dupe Data Domain, Quantum, EMC or Exagrid.
The hurricane forecast team predicts tropical cyclone activity in 2008 will be 160 percent of the average season. By comparison, 2005 witnessed tropical cyclone activity that was about 275 percent of the average season.
The hurricane forecast team reiterated its probabilities for a major hurricane making landfall on U.S. soil:
A 69 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coastline in 2008 (the long-term average probability is 52 percent).
A 45 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent)
A 44 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle west to Brownsville (the long-term average is 30 percent).
The team also predicted above-average major hurricane landfall risk in the Caribbean.
"The United States was quite fortunate over the last two years in that we had only one hurricane landfall (Humberto - 2007)," Klotzbach said. "None of the four major hurricanes that formed in 2006 and 2007 made U.S. landfall." Using virtualization from VMware vs. Virtual Iron for disaster recovery is the best way to keep businesses running.
The Colorado State hurricane forecast team has cautioned against reading too much into the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 when Florida and the Gulf Coast were ravaged by four landfalling hurricanes each year. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne caused devastating damage in 2004 followed by Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005.
"The activity of these two years was unusual, but within the natural bounds of hurricane variation," Gray said.
Probabilities of tropical storm-force, hurricane-force and intense hurricane-force winds occurring at specific locations along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts within a variety of time periods are listed on the forecast team's Landfall Probability Web site. The site provides U.S. landfall probabilities for 11 regions, 55 sub-regions and 205 individual counties along the U.S. coastline from Brownsville, Texas, to Eastport, Maine. The Web site, available to the public at http://www.e-transit.org/hurricane, is the first publicly accessible Internet tool that adjusts landfall probabilities for regions, sub-regions and counties based on the current climate and its projected effects on the upcoming hurricane season. Klotzbach and Gray update the site regularly with assistance from the GeoGraphics Laboratory at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.
The hurricane team's forecasts are based on the premise that global oceanic and atmospheric conditions - such as El Nino, sea surface temperatures and sea level pressures - that preceded active or inactive hurricane seasons in the past provide meaningful information about similar trends in future seasons.
The team will issue seasonal updates of its 2008 Atlantic basin hurricane activity forecast on June 3, Aug. 5, Sept. 2 and Oct. 1. The August, September and October forecasts will include separate forecasts for each of those months.
Tropical Cyclone Forecast for 2008
(1950-2000 Averages in parenthesis)
Named Storms 15 (9.6)*
Named Storm Days 80 (49.1)
Hurricanes 8 (5.9)
Hurricane Days 40 (24.5)
Intense Hurricanes 4 (2.3)
Intense Hurricane Days 9 (5.0)
Net Tropical Cyclone Activity 160 (100%)
* Numbers in ( ) represent average year totals based on 1950-2000 data.
The entire report is available on the Web at http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Network Firewall Award Goes to Juniper - April 6, 2008
St. Petersburg Florida -- In-depth, high-performing network security products remain crucial to combat the ever-evolving threats to information technology coming in from branch offices and VPNs alike. Firewalls are a definite part of this defense and are often the heart of an overall secure enterprise network. vs. Secure Computing, Cisco, Barracuda
On top of protecting against denial of service (DoS) attacks, viruses, worms and Trojans (and combinations thereof), a good firewall cannot compromise the network's functions. Even a very powerful firewall will do little if network latency becomes unbearable or slows down business processes. Gartner Magic Quadrant winner
In today's network security landscape, network management, high bandwidth, and advanced applications (such as unified communications) all factor into the security product decision-making process. Modern networks need security products with ease of management and flexible controls on top of superior intrusion prevention and unified threat management (UTM) capabilities.
One product that fulfills these requirements is the Integrated Security Gateways (ISG) series from Juniper Networks. For the second year in a row, the ISG series has earned a gold medal in SearchNetworking.com's Product Leadership Awards.
Juniper has successfully created an all-in-one multi-gigabit firewall, VPN, and intrusion detection/prevention system that network administrators can manage easily. The fourth-generation, ASIC-based firewall uses GigaScreen3 to map programmable, high-speed microprocessors that support new protocols through software updates. According to Juniper, "No other security solution has the ability to accelerate security processing through software updates."
Product Leadership survey results found that more than 97% of respondents rated the series' ability to block intrusions, attacks and unauthorized network traffic good or excellent. No user said that the firewall protection was less than fair. The application-layer, protocol and HTTP controls received a combined good and excellent rating of 93%, while its ease of management and maintenance was rated good or excellent by 84% of respondents.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
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The Best Web Application Accelerator unit is the Juniper Networks DX - April 6, 2008
Transparent acceleration, protection, and encryption make this pricey load balancer worth the money
Jacksonville Florida -- The days of the proprietary client are waning fast, as more and more enterprise applications become Web-enabled or entirely Web-based. Critical applications from e-mail to CRM to custom internal apps are all running on either internal or external Web sites, and they need both quick response times and fault tolerance. vs. Cisco. That's where load balancers come in. Adding redundancy and scalability to Web applications, load balancers create a cluster of Web servers, over which they distribute incoming requests, sending new requests to the server with the least load at any given moment. If a Web server goes offline, the other servers in the cluster take up the slack. Geographic load balancers create clusters at different physical locations so that applications will still be available even if an entire datacenter loses connectivity. vs Barracuda or Websense Citrix
The Juniper DX3680 goes well beyond the relatively simple task of creating clusters of Web servers – it can accelerate Web applications with several methods, including by compressing the HTTP sent between the Web server and the client, caching static parts of the Web page, and offloading SSL processing from the Web server. It will also optimize the network traffic so that the viewing of a Web page, which might normally take 100 back-and-forth messages between the Web server and client, can be accomplished with only a few messages.
In addition, the DX3680 shields applications running on Web servers from Internet-based attacks, preventing hackers from issuing unauthorized commands or taking advantage of known bugs in the Web server software, and it can handle user authentication via RADIUS or LDAP. Look for us in the Gartner Magic Quadrant
Cluster call
Juniper Bucking the trend of cramming load balancers with switches and as many as 20 Ethernet ports, Juniper decks out the DX3680 with a total of 4 ports, which should be enough in most cases – one in and one out is all a load balancer really needs. Initial setup of the system is straightforward, via serial terminal, though it’d be nice to see a default IP address allowing for initial configuration via browser.
Once the basic networking information is set, you can begin creating virtual clusters, as well as rules for how each cluster will be used. There are three types of clusters: a basic cluster, a forwarder, or a redirector.
A basic cluster defaults to high security and allows only basic HTTP functions – anything more has to be explicitly allowed through a rule. The DX3680 has predefined rules for a number of standard Web applications, including Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) and SharePoint, PeopleSoft, and IBM/Lotus Domino. Most of the rules have to be applied at the command line rather than through the Web GUI. If you want to create your own rules, there are examples to work with, but it's not a simple process – be prepared to test and debug your new rules. This is equally true with similar load balancer products, such as F5’s application rules.
For non-HTTP traffic, a forwarder simply passes all traffic to the server cluster without processing it or accelerating the outgoing traffic. A redirector takes traffic addressed to a given address and sends it to a different one, without processing it at all.
A basic load balancing cluster can be set up quickly and easily. Adding functions such as encryption, server application protection, "sticky" sessions for e-commerce or other stateful transactions, and acceleration of Web traffic will make the cluster as complex as you like.
Balancing acts
To test this system, I set up a standard Web site and simulated lots of clients accessing the site. The DX3680 should be able to handle large amounts of traffic without problems; in my testing, I had to use artificially small requests to generate any load on the system, but with normal requests, the system can handle more users than the network connection will support. (As for the DX3680's basic stats, it handles up to 256 HTTP proxy clusters; 1,024 server load balancing clusters; 64 servers per application cluster; 7,300 SSL transactions per second; 80,000 concurrent SSL connections; and 1.1 million concurrent SLB connections.)
Characterizing acceleration is more difficult – the amount of noticeable acceleration a user sees will vary greatly, depending on the type of application, how many users are on the system, which browser the user has, and many other factors. I tested response times for several types of Web transactions, including OWA, the serving of static pages, and a basic Java application, and found that applications were 30 to 400 percent faster than without the load balancer in place. One process that is simplified is converting a Web site from HTTP to HTTPS. Instead of rewriting all of the code on the site, the DX3680 handles the conversion automatically, and it takes care of the SSL processing, too.
The standard ruleset available when the DX3680 box is initially configured is called the Nitro.apprule. This set of rules protects against common attacks, causes clients to cache images, enables active acceleration of Web pages, and more. It's a simple starting point for getting acceleration working without having to do any programming.
The DX3680 can offload quite a bit of processing to reduce the load on the Web servers. In addition to SSL processing, it will cache images and other static content – even JavaScript so that requests from browsers are served by the DX3680 rather than by the Web servers in the cluster. This is intended to reduce loads on the servers, but it may increase performance for end-users as well.
Logging and reporting functionality is broad and deep, covering all aspects of cluster operations, and offers up as much detail as you want. The system provides detailed logs for all the clusters it serves (it pushes them to a central log server), including real-time performance logging for every user connection, if desired. The reporting tools provide a wealth of information, and I found them well organized and easy to follow.
Additional features include quality of service, which can be specified separately for each cluster, and ActiveN clustering that makes adding more DX systems a simple process. vs Radware
Pricey, but worth it
The Juniper DX3680 is not a system that someone would buy for simple load balancing. With a price as tested of $70,485 and a base price of $49,995, there are many less expensive load balancers out there that will create clusters of Web servers.
However, the system's sophisticated rules engine and acceleration features, as well as its ability to provide authentication, to protect Web servers and application servers, and to transparently add SSL encryption to a Web site without redoing code, will not be found on inexpensive load balancers. The DX3680 should allow even a small company to provide enterprise-class Web applications without a big investment in recoding.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/network-application-acceleration.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Why is VMware and LeftHand offering a iSCSI SAN, Customers are asking? - April 5, 2008
Orlando Florida -- LeftHand Networks Inc.'s Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) today becomes the first software-only storage device named to VMware's hardware compatibility list. The two companies' mutual channel partners will begin selling the VSA packaged with VMware's Infrastructure Acceleration Kits this week.
The bundles of 2 TB VSA licenses with VMware's small and medium-sized business (SMB) license packages turn an iSCSI SAN into a virtual machine running on the same physical server as virtualized applications, eliminating the need to support separate storage devices in small environments. "VMware is showing it means to take the value of the hypervisor well beyond server virtualization with this release," said Mark Bowker, an Enterprise Strategy Group analyst. "This shows a new way for virtualization to leverage the same hardware platforms." Wants VSA to support more than 2 TB of storage At least one user would like to see the VSA support more storage. "I'd definitely like to see them expand beyond 2 TB," said Pat O'Day, chief technology officer of IT infrastructure service provider BlueLock LLC, which is planning to offer its smaller clients prepared packages of server hardware with the VSA bundles. "You can always set up SAN/iQ on a server, but some clients have older disk shelves and are looking for an economical way to turn them into an iSCSI SAN." BlueLock uses the VSA to save space in its data center, further compressing its iSCSI SAN environment by loading VMware and the VSA on Hewlett-Packard c-Class blade server chassis. Using VSA this way turns HP's SB40c blades into networked storage for VMs running on direct-attached server blades. O'Day said he's hoping to see HP break the hard-coded relationships between server blades and SB40c blades in the chassis, so he can also use Storage VMotion to move VSAs around. O'Day added, "The only thing I don't have with this setup right now is the ability to have the same redundancy for my storage as I do for my virtual servers." Christopher Kalos, network manager for medical publishing company Jobson Medical Information LLC, said he recently installed a VSA on the same box as VMware hosts at a small branch office to eliminate the need for on-site IT staff and tape backups. "We can give this environment true remote support this way," he said. Backups are snapshots sent through LeftHand's replication to a secondary site for disaster recovery. Staff at the company's headquarters can log in and manage all the storage and server software remotely. Cost and remote support were the two main factors in Kalos's decision to put in the VSA. "It cost us about $6,000 for the VSA, and the cheapest module of LeftHand's software otherwise is still about $13,000," he said.
But not all VMware and Storage VARs are buying it, I have seen primary testing from some early production systems and I have to say, customers are not seeing value. When you can purchase a SAN that goes way beyond 2TBs, say Brian McCarthy President of Sencilo Solutions. We sell SAN storage from the top manufactures in the world including HDS, EMC and NetApp, for under $5,000 for 2TBs. By the time you add up the VMware and Lefthand licenses, plus the cost of HP storage you will pay by 3 to 4x the cost of a SAN. Oh by the way who are you going to call for support, VMware, Lefthand or HP when the trouble starts, McCarthy asks? McCarthy goes on to say, rumors are all saying if Lefthand is not bought by the end of 2008 their investors will close them down, so watch for a firesale.
Like O'Day, Kalos said the single-box approach cut down on the redundancy of the system. "If I want to do maintenance on the box, I can't do it whenever I want like I can with the full LeftHand SANs where I can use the two-way replication [between servers] and failover," he said. Because of the limitations of the VSA approach, one analyst said it's a good idea to go with the full iSCSI SAN if possible. "For very small businesses and branch offices, this is a very good solution," said Chris Wolf of the Burton Group "But if users have the resources and physical space to do a full SAN, that's definitely what they should be doing." McCarthy from Sencilo agrees with Chris completely on that point.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-area-network.php
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ
Best Practices in backing up VMware using VTLs and De-Dupe - April 4, 2008
It's can be said that a server virtualization project may actually an infrastructure redesign project. In areas related to storage and data protection, the impact can be dramatic both in terms of the volume of data and in the operations to support and protect it. Backup is a particular case in point.
Fundamentally, there are two approaches to backup in VMware environments: the first is to mimic the traditional physical server backup approach by installing backup client software on each VM and backing them up individually. The second is to perform image-level backups of virtual disks using either VMware's snapshot capability or a third party. More and more, this second method is being enhanced by mounting snapshots to a VMware Consolidated Backup proxy server for final backup via a traditional backup application.
Besides the integration and coordination effort required, another important consideration is the increase of the volume of data created by virtual environments. The standard use of configuration templates for creating virtual machines results in numerous cookie-cutter VMs of a particular class that are nearly identical. Backing up and storing the myriad copies of nearly redundant data consumes significant storage, a fact that has certainly not escaped data de-duplication product vendors.
There are at least three ways that de-duplication technology can be leveraged in a VMware Virtual Iron vs Virual Machine backup infrastructure:
For the traditional backup within a VM approach, both EMC's Avamar and Symantec's NetBackup PureDisk offer VMware clients that de-duplicates data within a VM prior to sending it across the network.
The storing of aggregated snapshots is, of course, a prime target for de-duplication making NAS storage platforms that offer de-duplication, like EMC Data Domain and NetApp, NEC and Exagrid may be attractive options.
Finally, if data is ultimately being backed up via traditional backup applications, VTL platforms that incorporate de-duplication, such as Overland Storage, Diligent, FalconStor, HDS, Quantum, and Sepatonmay be worth considering.
Or ask your local reseller for advice. Each approach offers its own benefits and trade-offs, but in any case, the opportunity for dramatic data reduction -- and therefore dramatic storage savings -- will only increase as virtualization continues to expand throughout the enterprise.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
About Sencilo Solutions
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Is Quantum blasting pass Data Domain in Data De-dup Market? - April 4, 2008
De-duplication eliminate redundant data to improve space and power efficiencies for really green storage
Miami Florida NetApp Inc. on Tuesday announced that the de-dupe adoption rate among its customers has tripled since November 2007, reaching more than 3,500 systems and 100 petabytes (PB) of raw storage capacity.
The storage vendor claimed that more than 1,000 customers have deployed de-dup across all tiers of data, including primary, backup and archival data. Companies like Data Domain Quantum Sepaton vs Falcon Stor Exagrid are not growing close to this.
De-duplication technology, which plays an important role in virtualized environments, is quickly gaining traction among customers who are struggling with data proliferation. Look for EMC Diligent and IBM to join in.
Now customers can eliminate redundant data quickly to improve space and power efficiencies, as well as to reduce the amount of raw storage required. Unlike other Disk to disk or D2D technologies.
NetApp claimed that it is the only major storage and data management vendor to embed de-duplication technology across its entire line of storage systems and to provide an end-to-end solution. Magic Quadrant by Gartner and Awarding winning no doubt. So why LTO-4 tape?
Brian McCarthy President of Sencilo Solutions and Storage Veteran of 25 years said there is a definite trend in the market today toward virtualizing storage environments.
"De-duplication is just one example. Organizations are embracing de-duplication because of the efficiencies it provides their organizations [and] significantly reducing the amount of physical capacity that must be purchased and managed," she said.
Dexma Inc., a company that creates and hosts mortgage-lending software for financial institutions, has used de-duplication to expand its data storage management capabilities.
By combining NetApp and VMware Inc. offerings, the company has created a virtual environment that enhances storage provisioning and increases its ability to more easily scale its storage system to meet its data management needs.
Since the installation of NetApp deduplication in September 2007, Dexma has recovered much of its previously utilized disk space.
This has freed up crucial disk space to be used by other applications, according to the David Waterhouse, the company's senior systems administrator.
"We were able to decrease our storage requirements for our customer file retention by 35%," Waterhouse said. "This has had a direct effect on our bottom line."
De-duplication, which is free of charge to customers as an inherent feature in all NetApp storage systems, will also be free when it is extended to NetApp's virtual tape library (VTL) offering later this year.
The de-duplication option for NearStore VTL will dramatically reduce the cost of storing backups on disk by providing effective storage capacities that are greater than today's systems, according to the vendor.
Patrick Rogers, NetApp vice president of solutions marketing, said de-duplication has become a core element of his company's storage offerings as more customers grapple with growing amounts of data.
While the technology helps customers control growth, Rogers said it's apparent that customers are rethinking their traditional data-backup approaches as VTL becomes more prevalent.
He said recent hardware and software updates introduced in March have more than doubled the maximum usable storage capacity of NearStore VTL and increased write-compressed performance by up to 20%, enabling enterprise customers to protect more data in less time.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-area-network.php
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ
Quantum Wins Another Major Account vs. Data Domain in the De-Dupe Race - April 2, 2008
Orlando Florida --Quantum Corp. the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions D2D with byte-level data de-duplication, today announced that.............................at the request of Bill Anderson the CEO of Exagrid bandrews@exagrid.com we have been asked to remove this post.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
Juniper Networks launches Next Generation High-Performance Ethernet Switches - April 2, 2008
Orlando Florida March 31, 2008 -- Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the immediate availability of the EX-series Ethernet switches. Launched recently at the company's Global Enterprise Event in New York City, Juniper's EX 3200 and EX 4200 switches are available today, and the EX 8200 series remains on schedule for availability in the second half of 2008. vs MARS
"Juniper is now shipping the first members of a new family of high-performance Ethernet switches running on JUNOS software, our customer-proven single-source network operating system," said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager of the Ethernet Platforms Business Group at Juniper Networks. "The EX 3200 and 4200 switches deliver operational simplicity and reliability to accelerate the deployment of applications and services across the extended enterprise to advance the economics of networking." vs HP Procurve
"Juniper has proven to be a strategic partner that is more interested in solving our problems and creating a solution than simply selling us a box," said Frank Ziegler, vice president of communications at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. "The Juniper Networks EX-series is the fastest switch we've ever tested in our lab, and the solution gives us the opportunity to deliver consistency throughout our infrastructure, from the access layer, through the data center and out to the enterprise edge. Juniper's EX-series switches will also enable us to deliver an extensive layer of access control to perform defense-in-depth." This will no doublt be awarding winning and in the Magic Quadrant for switches
Juniper's EX 3200 series: Fixed-Configuration Platforms
The EX 3200 series switches are fixed-configuration Ethernet platforms offering a simple, cost-effective, standalone solution for low-density regional and corporate office deployments. Installed in wiring closets to provide network access, the 24- and 48-port EX 3200 switches offer simple plug-and-play 10/100/1000BASE-T connectivity to meet today's converged network requirements. Full and partial Power over Ethernet (PoE) options are available for supporting IP-enabled devices such as telephones, security cameras and wireless LAN (WLAN) access points in converged network environments. Optional four-port GbE and two-port 10GbE uplink modules with pluggable optics are also available for supporting high-speed connections to other switches or upstream devices such as routers. A field-replaceable power supply and fan tray lowers mean time to repair. Brocade or SMC and F5
Juniper's EX 4200 series: Virtual ChassisTM Technology
The EX 4200 series Ethernet switches with Virtual Chassis technology combine the reliability, scalability, and ease of management of modular systems with the economics and flexibility of stackable platforms, delivering a high-performance, scalable solution for data center, corporate and regional office environments. Like the EX 3200 switches, EX 4200 series switches offer 24- and 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T configurations with full and partial PoE and optional GbE and 10GbE uplink modules, plus a 24-port fiber switch offering 100/1000BASE-X support. Using Virtual Chassis technology, up to 10 EX 4200 series switches can be interconnected over a 128 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) backplane, creating a single virtual switch supporting up to 480 10/100/1000BASE-T ports and up to 40 GbE or 20 10GbE uplink ports. All EX 4200 series switches include HA features such as redundant, hot-swappable internal power supplies and field-replaceable, multi-blower fan trays to help deliver maximum uptime.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/network-switches.php
About Sencilo Solutions
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
