March 2008 Entries
Migrating Data from Direct Attached Storage (DAS) to SAN - March 29, 2008
Orlando Florida - After you go through the purchasing and deployment process to implement your new storage area network (SAN), you'll need to migrate all of your data to the new platform and switch off the old file servers or arrange some downtime to remove those redundant direct-attached disks.
When migrating your data from direct-attached storage (DAS) to iSCSI or FC SAN, consider the following: how to move the data from file servers; how to move your database-type information; and whether to go to that final mile and host operating systems on the SAN, so your servers don't need any local disks at all.
Moving the data from file servers is perhaps the easiest task to manage, but it takes the longest. "Historically, Fibre Channel (FC) been the de facto SAN connection, but many small and midsized businesses (SMBs) opt for an iSCSI-based solution that connects to the network over Ethernet and effectively joins the domain for security purposes", states Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo Solutions and Storage Veteran of over 25 years. This allows you to create shares on the SAN just as you'd create a share by using your workstation Computer Management snap-in to create remote shares on a Windows-based server.
Before moving anything, see what users are mapping to over and above the drive letters that you've assigned through policies or login scripts. If you're lucky, you're in a business where the users are given everything they need and never go searching for other secret places to stash their files. Once all of your users are logged off the affected systems, change the share permissions so that they either have no access -- or at best read-only access. Then, use Robocopy to move the files from the server to the SAN. Re-mapping the login scripts will allow your users to carry on working the next day as if nothing had happened. The shares will all look the same and the permissions they had when the files were on the server will be the same when the files are on the SAN with products from NetApp or MDI of Lake Mary, Florida.
Database servers are a little bit more complex, and can be time-consuming because of the preparatory steps that you need to take. Depending on the type of SAN you are deploying, connecting the server to the storage network is a matter of additional Ethernet ports or FC host bus adapters (HBA). How the servers and the SAN are physically connected doesn't matter for this article. However, the way that all the storage on the network is presented to the server does. Each SAN vendor does it a little differently, but the bottom line is that either the reseller will have taught you how to create and configure logical unit numbers (LUNs), or they'll have done an initial setup for you. Setting up LUNs doesn't take long and can be as quick as half a dozen clicks through a browser interface. Once created, the server will automatically pick them up in the Disk Management snap-in. All you need to do is to give them a drive letter and format them.
The next step is to research the best or supported way to move a database from one drive letter to another. In the case of Microsoft Exchange and SQL databases, this can be done from either the command line or from the graphical user interface. After the migration of the information, you'll need to schedule additional downtime to decommission the unused local disks from the server.
For Web servers and other applications that don't actually have any data that's kept on local disks, booting the server from networked storage could be a good option for you. "Boot from SAN" is a term that might strike fear in many people, but it's really nothing to be afraid of. There are two very good reasons for looking at this particular technology. First, an operating system and application rarely need more than 30 GB of space to run. Disks from server vendors these days are up to four or five times that size. That's a lot of wasted space that you really can't use for anything else. Second, leaving disks in the server to generate heat when there's more than enough space in the SAN, isn't particularly ecological. iSCSI and FC networks are far quicker and more resilient than they were some years ago, so the FUD -- fear, uncertainty and doubt -- around booting from the SAN is now simply irrelevant. Moving from local disks to a SAN is not a complex operation either. DDChanger is an application that will take the operating system on local disks and push it up to a bootable LUN on the server.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-area-network.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
Midmarket Enterprises embrass iSCSI SANs vs. FC SANs - March 29, 2008
Jacksonville Florida - Storage networks allow disparate storage resources to be centralized and organized within the data center. The available storage can then be centrally managed and allocated to users or applications. Fibre Channel (FC) has been the dominant storage area network (SAN) architecture for years, but its high cost and management complexity have deterred many SMBs from adopting this SAN technology.
Internet SCSI, or ISCSI, addresses these SAN problems by carrying SCSI commands and storage traffic over existing IP networks. Transporting "SCSI over IP" leverages ubiquitous Ethernet networks, and that translates to lower costs, easier maintenance and simpler management, which in turn makes SAN deployment more attractive to SMBs. This article examines the basics of iSCSI, enumerates deployment roadblocks and anticipates future trends.
Understanding iSCSI SANs
The development of iSCSI is a good example of problem-solving by using existing technologies in new ways. "Traditional FC storage networks use the SCSI command set, carrying SCSI storage commands over physical FC infrastructures" say Andy Mapp CTO of Sencilo Solutions of Lakeland Florida. As developers sought ways to overcome the cost, configuration and management complexities associated with FC networks, it made sense to place SCSI commands across other network architectures. Thus, iSCSI is SCSI block-storage access that is mapped to run across an IP network -- almost universally an Ethernet network. Although the iSCSI standard was ratified in 2003, iSCSI technology has only recently started receiving broad attention.
iSCSI SANs offers several benefits to an organization; cost, labor/management, and reach. The ubiquitous nature of Ethernet means that IP networks can be deployed quickly and easily in organizations of all sizes. Ethernet is also readily understood, so IT personnel can deploy and maintain an IP environment without specialized FC SAN training. It's not necessary to hire more IT personnel to implement and manage the SAN. Where FC SANs are typically small islands of technology located in a data center, the use of IP networks also gives iSCSI a global reach leading from a LAN to a WAN and onto the Internet -- allowing storage to be located almost anywhere.
"Although the terms "iSCSI" and "storage over IP" are often used interchangeably, this is technically incorrect", says Mapp of Sencilo Solutions. While iSCSI may be the dominant subset of IP storage, there are other IP storage technologies to consider, such asFCIP (Fibre Channel over IP) for exchanging data between FC networks across the Internet and iFCP (Internet Fibre Channel protocol) for extending FC networks across the Internet.
Debunking common IP network myths
The low cost of iSCSI is usually its strongest selling point, but the issue of iSCSI cost is a bit more complicated than people think. People buy iSCSI because they want a cheaper alternative to FC. "Users have $2,000 Windows servers that they'd love to put on a SAN, but they can't afford to spend $2,000 more to connect them to a Fibre Channel SAN," says Stephen Fosk. Leveraging an existing Ethernet network can indeed be far less expensive than deploying and interfacing to a new FC SAN, but businesses will ultimately spend capital on iSCSI storage arrays or specialized iSCSI adapters to enhance a server's connectivity.
The IP network itself is often a point of confusion. While iSCSI will certainly work over an existing Ethernet network using hardware, storage and software already on hand, it's vital to keep iSCSI traffic off the main production network. Not only can iSCSI traffic congest an everyday network, it's necessary to keep sensitive corporate data segmented from the general user population. "It is a SAN, and you don't want data essentially 'leaking out' of the data center," Fosk says.
Right now, the "sweet spot" for iSCSI is the midmarket. Where iSCSI is most readily embraced is in a Windows storage environment by organizations that have not previously implemented a SAN -- typically SMBs. However, iSCSI is also making inroads in the enterprise within the department or large workgroup where it can serve as primary storage to support Exchange, Oracle databases, VMware, and other block applications. Larger enterprises are even adopting iSCSI as secondary or even tertiary storage. "It's being used as an alternative to direct attached, Fibre Channel SAN attached, or even NAS [network attached storage]," says Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst with the StorageIO Group.
Implementing iSCSI SANs
It takes three components to establish an iSCSI SAN: a network, a target and an initiator. The network component is relatively easy; virtually any IP network, such as Ethernet, will work. ISCSI is ideally suited to Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) and faster deployments, but it's crucial to keep the iSCSI SAN separate from the production LAN through a VLAN. Either that, or implement a different LAN segment and switch just for the iSCSI SAN. This separates storage and user traffic, and reins storage within the SAN.
The "target" is basically a storage destination. In the early days of iSCSI, routers were popular targets, allowing iSCSI hosts to access FC storage. Although this approach is still a viable transition technology, it has largely been abandoned, due to the availability of dedicated hardware and software products. Hardware iSCSI targets include dedicated storage arrays from vendors such as Nexsan, MDI and Hitachi Data Systems.
Today it is increasingly common to use a software-based iSCSI target running on a PC -- turning the server and its storage into an iSCSI target. Many open source products can be applied to Linux and BSD environments. Commercial software can also be employed, including iSCSI Storage Server for Windows from FalconStor Software Inc., SANmelody from DataCore Software Corp. and Microsoft's iSCSI target software, released as part of Windows Storage Server.
We should emphasize that there is no such thing as an iSCSI hard drive; any disk, such as SATA, in a server or array fitted with target software can be treated as "iSCSI storage." According to Schulz, "You can roll your own iSCSI storage, or you can redeploy a server to be an iSCSI array."
Each system that will access iSCSI storage will also need a hardware or software "initiator." Today, free iSCSI initiator software is already available for download with Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows XP Pro. Software is the most popular initiator choice. "The majority, maybe 90% to 95% of all iSCSI implementations, involve a software initiator," Schulz says. Hardware initiators are also available as controller cards from many FC and TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) controller vendors, such as QLogic Corp. and Broadcom Corp.
Areas of concern
Most analysts and users agree that iSCSI is easier to deploy and manage than FC -- especially in the IP network and initiator. Some training and configuration may be needed to optimize iSCSI targets, but this depends on the target. A dedicated iSCSI array may demand more training and management than an iSCSI server deployed in-house. Ultimately, an iSCSI storage administrator will still need to be concerned with LUNs, volumes, provisioning and other common SAN issues. Pilot deployments can often help organizations identify potential problem areas and determine the tangible value of iSCSI.
Network architecture and performance is also critical to iSCSI. The technology is not tolerant of network interruptions, and an iSCSI array can easily crash as a result of interruptions or bottlenecks. Consequently, an iSCSI implementation should include an aluation of network performance and reliability. Old or outdated hardware components should be overhauled to improve network performance or ease bottlenecks, and failover measures should be deployed wherever possible to ensure network reliability. Typically, iSCSI is not recommended for use in large transactional environments where performance is critical.
ISCSI storage performance is also related to the number of spindles (drives) available in the network. you can achieve excellent iSCSI storage performance by load balancing more storage nodes (clustering) rather than placing more drives into fewer large iSCSI boxes. "Most high-end iSCSI arrays balance I/O across many more spindles than a Fibre Channel array," Foskett says. "If you look at the performance tests, you'll see that iSCSI outperforms Fibre Channel [due to the design of the storage array]."
The future of iSCSI SANs
ISCSI will have to find a way to flourish in the shadow of NAS, which is currently easier to deploy and manage -- particularly when coupled with virtualization techniques from companies like Compellent, MDI, and NetApp. But analysts say that iSCSI has a bright future in the SMB and enterprise, mainly because there is so much potential for growth. According to Foskett, about 80% of all servers (primarily low-end Windows servers) are not connected to shared storage, so iSCSI can expand shared storage dramatically by interconnecting that untapped wealth of storage.
The eventual move to 10 GigE and faster wireless networking standards will also impact iSCSI further in the future, enabling additional bandwidth for iSCSI and ultimately challenging the dominance of FC. "We're just scratching the tip of the iceberg with iSCSI," Schulz says. "[The year] 2008 is when I think iSCSI will really start to come into its prime." ***
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-area-network.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 for E-Discovery, E-mail Archiving and Data Retention - March 29, 2008
Tampa Florida - Understand what your main problems are before you purchase technology.
The biggest mistake IT managers make when researching e-mail archiving is to not fully understanding the reasons for it. Often, companies are reacting to one problem of concern, such as an audit suggestion, which leads to rushing out to buy e-mail archiving technology for FRCP, Florida Sunshine Laws, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and not taking into account productivity or storage problems.
Most companies will have more than one problem that can be solved with e-mail archiving and record retentation. Whether it be regulatory compliance, litigation support or storage management, make sure you understand all of your needs before you take the next step.
Create or update e-mail retention policy to reflect today's business needs.
Very few companies have an up-to-date record retention policy. An effective document retention policy will address what the document retention policy covers, the company data retention philosophy, responsibilities and procedures. It will also have retention timeframes for all types of records in a company including unstructured data like Microsoft Office files, semi-structured records like e-mail and structured records like mainframe databases. You will also want to create retention schedules that employees can easily follow and remember. Make these documents short and simple. Also document how long you will keep records (including e-mails). There is lots of good software to assist you with data migration or working with a local reseller or consulting firm is always an option.
Periodically perform a legal or regulatory refresh.
When you have a data retention policy, be sure to review it annually. Regulations and laws change regularly, and so must your data retention policy. New regulations are created regularly as well as judicial rules of evidence. Government regulatory agencies and the courts expect companies to be fully aware of new regulations and laws.
Include all stakeholders: legal, compliance, HR, finance, investor relations, engineering, production and administration.
A data retention policy affects every employee in the company and should reflect input from everyone. Create a cross-functional team that represents most business operations or departments. Interview a wide sampling of employees and departments to determine how and why they create documents; if they re-use or reference them later; and where they store the documents. This helps you create a retention policy that won't adversely affect the employees and their day-to-day work.
Focus on similarities in laws or regulations and create "high water mark" retention lengths.
Multipage retention schedules are rarely effective or followed. Simplify them as much as possible. Most data retention requirements are for minimum retention periods. Create "high water marks" for similar types of documents. For example, retention regulations for employment records vary widely from one year to 10-plus years. "It is easier for employees to follow one retention period that meets all retention requirements for all employee-related records than to try to remember many different retention periods," states Brian McCarthy CEO and Archiving Consultant for Sencilo Solutions of Daytona Beach. "Creating high-water marks for retention periods will also make it much easier to adopt automated e-mail archiving processes," says McCarthy.
Socialize your policy companywide.
Be sure to adequately inform employees about the new or existing policy and make it easily accessible. Many employees don't know if their company has a data retention policy or where to find it if there is one. All employees should be "trained" on a new policy, including knowing why the policy was created (legal, regulatory or other); how to use any new technology associated with the new policy; and consequences for the company and employee if the policy is not followed. Offer annual training refreshers.
Don't attempt to teach employees to subjectively recognize "business" records.
It is very difficult to create a uniform archive across a company if you are asking employees to individually decide which records are business records and what can be archived. For example, in a company of 1,000 employees, you will have 1,000 different retention policies if you rely on employees to interpret the policy and make archiving decisions. The less complicated the policy, the more uniform the archives will be.
Don't forget the e-mail use policy.
Even when you have a data retention policy, you should still publish an e-mail use policy that informs the employees of their responsibilities, including things they shouldn't do, privacy expectations and consequences for system misuse. There are alot of good archiving products on the market like award winning Barracuda Archiver, Intradyn Orca eMail archiver vs Mimosa Systems. Some of the legacy products are for the most part over priced by today's standards like Symantec Enterprise Vault, CA's Message Manager vs EMC's Legato.
Move e-mail retention from a manual process to an automated process.
Take e-mail archiving out of the hands of employees. Automated e-mail archiving will ensure uniform archiving, increase employee and IT productivity and most importantly, put in place a system that can ensure no message protection if a litigation hold procedure is instituted.
Discourage employees from creating personal archives (PSTs).
Most employees, in companies without e-mail archiving automation, create their own "personal archives" or PSTs for many reasons. They create them for future protection, for reference or re-use. This adversely affects employee productivity. If the company is capturing e-mail traffic, employees won't need to spend time trying to find, access and create archives.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/c2c.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, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC 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 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 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4
TJX to face security audits for the next 20 years for losing data - March 28, 2008
Tampa Florida -- TJX Cos Inc. will implement tighter security and allow its data to be audited to settle charges that its poor security led to the massive data security breach, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.
Under a settlement agreement reached with the FTC, the discount retailer agreed to open its records to an audit. Specifically, TJX must obtain audits by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years, the FTC said.
TJX also agreed to establish and maintain a comprehensive security program. The FTC said the program must protect the personal information it collects from or about consumers. The FTC is requiring the retailer to conduct a risk assessment to identify holes that could put consumer data at risk and then design and implement policies and security technologies to mitigate the risks. Had TJX had the right Firewalls from companies like Juniper or Barracuda Networks maybe thing would be a whole lot different.
The agreement also addresses TJX's process of selecting service providers to handle credit card transactions. The company must take steps in selecting a service provider and in handling consumer information it receives from business partnerswhich should of included encryption.
"By now, the message should be clear: companies that collect sensitive consumer information have a responsibility to keep it secure," said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. "These cases bring to 20 the number of complaints in which the FTC has charged companies with security deficiencies in protecting sensitive consumer information. Information security is a priority for the FTC, as it should be for every business in America."
Scott Crawford, an analyst with Boulder, Colo.-based Enterprise Management Associates, called the settlement significant for the FTC, which is trying to send the message that it is ensuring enforcement of data security on businesses.
"The impact on individual consumers is what is at stake here and the FTC wants to make sure that TJX is not just paying a penalty but it is required to practice some standard of appropriate security," Crawford said.
The FTC does not have the ability to impose fines, but the agency has reached settlements before. In January, 2006, the FTC reached a settlement with ChoicePoint, which agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million in consumer redress to settle charges that its security and record-handling procedures violated consumers' privacy rights and federal laws.
A full, independent security audit monitored by the FTC would be a costly process, Crawford said. While enterprises won't be able to plug all holes, the FTC is trying to send the signal that organizations should be proactive on security of consumer data.
"The idea that you could hermetically seal an organization from outside threats is unrealistic," he said.
At last year's RSA conference, Majoras said the FTC would be aggressive in taking action against firms that fail to protect consumer data. She said the FTC has taken action against companies for a variety of issues from failing to protect against SQL injection attacks to low-tech attacks such as dumpster diving.
TJX, which operates over 2,500 stores worldwide used legacy Wi-Fi security. A report issued by Canadian privacy officials said the retailer should have moved faster to upgrade its Wi-Fi security from WEP encryption to WPA encryption. Hackers tapped into TJX's servers using the weaker Wi-Fi encryption, pilfering millions of credit and debit cards over an 18-month period by in what experts say was the biggest data breach in history.
Several banking associations reached an agreement with TJX in December, to be reimbursed for the costs associated with canceling and reissuing credit cards.
Since the breach, TJX has been steadily improving its security safeguards. In a prepared statement following the settlement, Daniel J. Forte, president, of the Massachusetts Bankers Association praised TJX for the steps it took to improve security following the breach.
"TJX maybe the first, but they will not be the last". "The message is lock it down or pay the price", states Brian McCarthy CEO and Security Consultant for Sencilo Solutions of Orlando Florida.
"We are pleased to see the steps undertaken by TJX to improve the protection of cardholder data. Those steps have resulted in TJX having recently been certified as fully PCI DSS compliant by an independent PCI-approved assessor," Forte said.
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.
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
FUJIFILM Launches World's First Datatape Tracker with SC-Integrity's LoJack InTransit(TM) Monitoring Network - March 28, 2008
Orlando Florida (BUSINESS WIRE)--FUJIFILM Recording Media today announced the immediate availability of the Fujifilm Tape Tracker™, a first-of-its-kind wireless tool to help data managers increase security of data by tracking in real-time the location and status of sensitive removable media cartridges while in transit.
Fujifilm is partnering with SC-Integrity (SCI), the world's most comprehensive covert cargo monitoring, recovery and loss prevention service to provide real-time monitoring and notification for the Tape Tracker using the Fujifind™ interactive web application. Based in Bothell, Wash., SCI entered into an agreement in 2006 with the LoJack Corporation to add the power of the LoJack® brand to SCI’s well-known theft prevention, investigation, tracking and recovery solution for the global cargo security market. Fujifind is based on SCI’s powerful LoJack InTransit™ software platform and provides simple management of multiple Tape Trackers.
“The tremendous feedback we received from customers when we introduced this concept last year made clear – there is a significant desire to maintain visibility and control over removable media during shipment from one location to another,” said Daniel Greenberg, New Product Manager, Marketing, Fujifilm Recording Media. “The ability of tape to store large quantities of data in a cost effective, energy efficient, removable format make it a preferred medium to backup and archive critical business data. The Tape Tracker gives power back to the data managers to maintain a chain of custody for these assets as they move between data center backup, vault or disaster recovery destinations.”
This is no doubt a service required with what appears to be daily lost tapes reported in the media, usually starting off with "Iron Mountain again lost a batch of tapes off a truck today".
Unique Product, Established Network
The Fujifilm Tape Tracker (patents pending) is designed within a half-inch tape cartridge format, enabling it to fit snugly and discreetly inside nearly any tape media case. The Fujifind application uses the information, tracking, geo-fencing and notification capability of the LoJack InTransit monitoring solution that currently provide corporations and government the ability to track and monitor high value cargo, audit driver activities, and conduct surveillance operations to ensure that their valuable assets are protected, worldwide.
LoJack InTransit uses the largest Law Enforcement Protocol and Dispatch Network in the cargo security business and the SCI Communications Command Center can dispatch appropriate authorities direct to the data tape location to ensure recovery, facilitate resolutions and prevent future losses.
“Data assets are well-protected in the data center and within a vault or duplicate operations center – but there has been no way to maintain continual chain of custody in real time. Now, with Tape Tracker combined with the LoJack InTransit, there is an effective solution,” said Robert Furtado, CEO, SC-Integrity. “If left unmonitored, back up, disaster recovery and archive data assets can become the Achilles heel to any business or an industry – particularly if the data is sensitive.”
Key features of the Fujifilm Tape Tracker system include:
- Discreet tracking cartridges that resemble other tape media in transit
- Fujifind web application for geo-mapping location with satellite imagery and online mapping created and supported directly by SCI
- Geo fencing capability, perimeter entry/exit notifications, in transit route discrepancy alerts
- Evidentiary reporting for continuous incident resolution and security protocol improvements
- User-defined activity and chain of custody history reports
- 24/7 expert staffed monitoring center, service and support
The Fujifilm Tape Tracker will be available through Fujifilm resellers in the United States at an MSRP of $150 per month.
About FUJIFILM
FUJIFILM Recording Media is the US-based manufacturing, marketing and sales operations of professional broadcast video and data tape recording media for FUJIFILM Corporation. Based on a history of thin-film engineering and magnetic particle science such as Fujifilm NANOCUBIC technology, Fujifilm creates breakthrough products for partners and end users.
Fujifilm is a leader in supplying the IT industry with advanced storage media including LTO Ultrium and enterprise-class data tape featuring the lowest cost per GB for mass storage applications while requiring very low power. Fujifilm provides broadcast and data center customers and industry partners with a wide range of unique data center accessories, value-added services and programs.
About Supply Chain Integrity (SCI)
Based near Seattle, Washington, SCI is committed to providing its community of members with the industry’s most comprehensive covert cargo theft detection, recovery, loss prevention and shared intelligence analysis service. At the core of SCI’s services is the federally-sanctioned Supply Chain Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), a secure and trusted information-sharing community for members to share incident information and actionable intelligence needed to protect the supply chain infrastructure. SCI services also include LoJack InTransit™, the world’s most comprehensive covert cargo monitoring, recovery and loss prevention service, and SC Investigate™, a powerful investigative sharing and management system with global intelligence-sharing capability.
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.
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
Juniper unveils Security Threat Response Manager (STRM) solution - March 27, 2008
Miami Florida - Juniper Networks Inc., a provider of networking solutions, announced Monday the availability of the Juniper Networks Security Threat Response Manager (STRM) solution. The comprehensive STRM solution provides IT administrators with a centralized, scalable and effective way to efficiently and effectively log and manage the evolving threat landscape and adhere to compliance mandates.
With the continuous pressure to increase network visibility, respond to threats and measure effectiveness and security posture in their network, businesses need a cost effective, comprehensive solution to manage the evolving threat landscape and help sustain regulatory compliance. The Juniper Networks STRM solution advances the fundamentals and economics of networking by simplifying security operations, monitoring and securing enterprise networks from external and internal threats.
Juniper offers network infrastructure that creates an environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network, which helps to fuel high-performance businesses vs Cisco MARS.
"In today's market there are too many segmented network and security management products that don't enable businesses to extract all of the value from their current infrastructure," said Andrew Mapp, CTO and noted Security Expert at Sencilo Solutions, a Juniper Networks J-Partner. "Juniper's STRM provides enhanced network security efficiency through the delivery of a single network security management solution that enables customers to maximize the efficiency of their network and better secure their business-critical assets." Look for this product to be part of Gartner's Magic Quadrent in the security space.
"High-performance businesses require an easy-to-deploy and easy-to-manage solution that converges security and network operations to deliver real-time surveillance and detection of today's more complex IT-based threats," said Oliver Tavakoli, vice president of Network Management, Juniper Networks. "Juniper's STRM solution intelligently monitors and secures multi-vendor networks by providing a comprehensive security and compliance "safety net" from external and internal threats."
The Juniper Networks STRM solution offers customers compliance management, log management and threat management to monitor and secure their network. The STRM solution delivers embedded intelligence to detect complex insider abuse and external threats with integrated behavior analysis. With unparalleled real-time surveillance, IT administrators have the advanced visibility to easily and quickly detect existing and emerging threats and pinpoint application policy violations.
The STRM solution helps prevent network and security event overload by collecting, archiving and searching events and logs from networked devices to provide integrated management of network and application flow data. The STRM solution also delivers the accountability, transparency and measurability that are critical to the success of any IT security program tasked with meeting regulatory mandates.
The Juniper Networks STRM500 and the STRM2500 are currently available. The Juniper Networks STRM5000 is scheduled to be available in the second half of this year. The list price for the STRM500 starts at US $15,000 and the list price for the STRM2500 starts at US $37,000.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/security-threat-management.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
SAN-based storage virtualization: Five benefits - March 23, 2008
Storage virtualization is getting a lot of press these days, but it isn't new. Host-based volume managers have long enabled nondisruptive extension, reduction and migration of application data independent of the disk storage. Soon after the emergence of host-based volume managers, storage left the host, and we connected to external cached disk arrays, which hid the messy details of SCSI targets, controllers and RAID protection from the servers. Not long after that, we installed storage area networks (SANs), further virtualizing the connectivity to storage. No, virtualization is not new; it's what modern storage systems are all about!
Even with all the storage virtualization benefits we enjoy today, there are still several storage management problems left unsolved. Storage customers complain that it's tough to migrate data from one storage platform to the next and that the administrative burden of storage systems is still too manual and difficult. These challenges mean that storage teams have to spend all day keeping the system running, instead of optimizing it.
SAN-based storage virtualization holds the promise of addressing these problems, enabling you to improve your customer's data management and deliver storage efficiencies. Empowering customers to migrate and manage data quickly means that they will be more inclined to refresh aging technology. This tip covers five value propositions for SAN storage virtualization.
1.) Single point of administration: Customers understand that a little friendly competition between storage vendors can help reduce the price of storage; SAN virtualization can be implemented in multi-vendor storage environments, so if a potential customer doesn't run the brand of storage equipment that you offer, converting them to a SAN virtualization setup could open the door to storage hardware sales. SAN-based storage virtualization provides this benefit by virtue of the fact that all of the SAN storage is provisioned to the virtualization device, so from that point on, all of the storage administration occurs at the virtualization layer from manufactures like Brocade StorageX.
2.) Nondisruptive data migration: Many customers do not replace their storage arrays when the lease or support expires or when the products are fully depreciated -- not because it is cheaper to keep the storage (the manufacturers make sure it's not), but because it is very difficult to migrate to the next storage platform. Without storage virtualization, migrations often require application outages and lots of sweat equity. These efforts are extremely difficult to coordinate across the various teams and business units involved. With SAN virtualization, the storage team can execute disk array swap-outs without impacting anyone else. This capability brings benefits to storage managers and VARs alike; migrations suddenly become not only possible but easy enough to make them worthwhile, allowing storage managers to take advantage of the declining cost of storage and bringing VARs an opportunity to sell new storage.
3.) Information lifecycle management (ILM): Customers want to know that they are putting their application data on the most appropriate tier of storage. Data access patterns are a key criterion in determining where to put the data. Often, a single business application or database has certain regions of data that are frequently accessed and require high-performance storage, while other regions are rarely accessed and could exist on more cost-effective storage. Because SAN virtualization tools sit between the server and the storage hardware, they have awareness of the access patterns. If the virtualization engine can use this access pattern information and leverage its online migration features, it may be possible to transparently relocate frequently accessed data to more expensive, high-performance storage and move less frequently accessed data to less expensive storage, bringing true ILM within reach.
4.) Improved allocation efficiencies Storage managers know that improving asset utilization is a quick way to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for their department. One of the common causes of low utilization is that the application teams demand more storage than they need. This may be because the process for requesting more storage is too slow; on the other hand, it could be because the application is new and there's not enough history to properly plan for growth. Storage virtualization promises to solve both problems. In the first case, the pace of deployment can be improved when all storage, regardless of brand or type, has a single administrative interface for allocation. And capacity planning challenges could be alleviated with thin provisioning services in the virtualization layer, which allow pre-allocation of storage and shared free space across applications optimizing unused disk, which is the most expensive storage asset.
5.) Heterogeneous replication One of the huge challenges associated with maintaining agnosticism among disk array vendors is disaster recovery replication. Most array-based storage replication is not heterogeneous, meaning that the production and disaster recovery frames must be of the same brand and often of the same type. Host-based replication options are heterogeneous, but management is cumbersome when a large number of hosts have replicated data. SAN virtualization can split the difference, providing a single method of replication for multiple types of storage arrays and a limited number of management points.
Storage virtualization in all of its forms has been providing benefits to businesses for years; yet there are still some challenges that remain. It's easy to see that SAN-based virtualization holds a lot of promise for the industry. Discuss these value propositions with your customers to open their minds to the possibilities of SAN virtualization for manufactures like EMC, NetApp, Compellent, MDI, and Hitachi.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-software.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
Symantec NetBackup Updates v6.5 and adds VMware Support - March 23, 2008
Orlando Florida - NetBackup 6.5 incorporates native disk-based backup, data dedupe features, as well as heterogeneous snapshot and continuous data protection (CDP) functionality. The latter feature enables the software to provide centralized management of consolidated snapshots taken from storage arrays of vendors including EMC Corp., IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co., NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., according to officials of Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec.
Later this year, the product will add block-level CDP capability offering point-in-time snapshots that can be journaled and replayed to NetBackup to speed up data backup operations, officials said. A NetBackup client on the primary storage array will replicate to the CDP server hosting and managing snapshots to enable data to be kept on cheaper storage.
NetBackup 6.5 is equipped with a new storage area network (SAN) client that lets storage administrators perform SAN backup to a disk pool. Further, the upgraded backup tool can be married to Symantec's PureDisk de-duplication technology to minimize unnecessary file duplication and wasted storage space, Symantec officials noted.
Symantec is providing NetBackup with four new enterprise disk options to augment how the company's flagship product manages storage disks, the company said. The Virtual Tape and OpenStorage Disk Options focus on intelligent backup appliances, while the Flexible Disk and PureDisk Storage Options focus on commodity storage disk pools.
By building deeper NetBackup integration with third-party backup appliances, end-users can augment existing virtual tape library deployments by managing third-party devices as disks. A new API has also been added to NetBackup for simplified plug-in, vs. Commvault or EMC Legato Networker.
Kevin Donnellan, assistant CIO for Screen Actors Guild - Producers Pension & Health Plan in Burbank, Calif., said he is looking forward to implementing the upgraded version of the tool to help corral nightly 3TB to 5TB storage backups and 10TB to 12TB backed up on weekends.
In just four years, the company's storage has grown from 1TB to 30TB on two SANs, he noted.
Donnellan said his current configuration of dual backups - one in-house and another at an off-site storage company - could use some more firepower in the form of disk-to-disk capabilities, which he expects to receive from NetBackup v.6.5.
"As many organizations do, we have a finite backup window every night, and even on weekends," he said. "We're looking at disk-to-disk to offload processing quickly onto another set of storage, so if we do run into production window with our backups we don't run into [hampered] response times with our users." Donnellan said the testing of the new NetBackup software registered 10x to 15x performance improvements via disk-to-disk backups over SAN.
"In 6.0," he added, "we have only one backup policy we can put together at one time so all our servers have to live under the same policy. [NetBackup] 6.5 allows multiple backup policies so you can rank the importance of your backups as opposed to a timestamp which is very good for us."
Donnellan's organization serves as the pension and health insurance arm for motion picture television and commercial actors, providing medical benefits, vision, and pension benefits for SAG members who meet the retirement criteria. The insurer runs HP9000 servers running Microsoft Windows 2003, Red Hat Linux and HP-UX. The company uses Symantec tools for managed security services and NetBackup to back up core application data.
NetBackup 6.5 also includes links to EMC Corp.'s VMware Consolidated Backup to offload backups from the primary VMware server onto a secondary backup server. The upgraded product enables single-image level backups to provide either full-image or granular file-level recovery, said Symantec officials. However, for smaller VMware environments, end-users must use Symantec's PureDisk offering in a virtual machine and replace the NetBackup client.
The entire NetBackup platform features capacity-based and per-TB pricing options.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-software.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
NetApp certified with VMware Infrastructure 3 - March 23, 2008
NetApp has announced that its StoreVault S500 has been certified to work with VMware Infrastructure 3 from VMware Inc.
The combination of StoreVault with VMware Infrastructure provides SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) with infrastructure virtualization strategies that better manage storage and server resources, NetApp said. This announcement further expands the joint collaboration between VMware and NetApp to provide combined consolidation solutions, NetApp said on Monday.
Available immediately, the StoreVault S500 helps customers benefit from combining storage with infrastructure virtualization, NetApp of Sunnyvale, California said. VMware Infrastructure allows SMB customers to optimize and manage their IT infrastructure by allowing a single hardware platform to run multiple virtual machine instances simultaneously, maximizing hardware efficiency, the company said. When the StoreVault S500 is deployed in VMware environments, it can simplify storage management concerns such as resources, data backup and recovery, and capacity provisioning, NetApp added.
Data growth challenges create a number of headaches for SMBs through data loss, backup, and recovery, NetApp said. Many IT environments of SMBs consist of many servers with DAS (direct attached storage), and as a result there is an increasing interest among SMBs to realize the same benefits that enterprise data centers have, but on a smaller scale, the company said. Severing the physical dependencies between servers and storage will achieve better returns on both server and storage resources, NetApp added.
StoreVault, a NetApp division, is focused on delivering data storage solutions tailored to the needs of SMBs. StoreVault combines enterprise-proven technology from NetApp, a provider of unified storage solutions for today�s data-intensive enterprise, with the scalability, simplicity, security, and affordability required by SMBs, StoreVault said.
VMware is a provider of virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems. Companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT environments, and to fully use their existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business demands, VMware said.
Virtualization is useful to businesses of all sizes and not just Fortune 500 companies, VMware of Palo Alto, California said. IT managers in SMBs face the same pressures as data center operators when solving storage and server management issues, while having fewer resources to address the problems, the company said. The certifying of StoreVault with VMware will enable smaller firms to meet their budgetary and reliability needs, VMware added.
Ahearn, Jasco + Company, an accounting and financial services firm based in south Florida, had older equipment, DAS, and the inability to scale resources every day, NetApp said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company�s infrastructure consisted of multiple servers running separate applications for more than 35 employees, the company said. Many of their servers were legacy systems using DAS that were performance-bound by their disks, which, consisted mainly of single drives without RAID (redundant array of independent disks), it said. As a result, performance was slow while data redundancy and fault tolerance were major concerns, NetApp added.
Many SMBs, like Ahearn, Jasco + Company, realize that DAS is inefficient, painful to grow, and unable to meet growing storage performance demands, according to Altek Computer Group, a value-added reseller (VAR) based in Miami. There exists an opportunity to help Ahearn, Jasco + Company revolutionize their server and storage environment and boost performance by either virtualizing their resources or by creating a centralized storage pool that can be accessed by virtual machines, Altek said.
With the tax season approaching, Ahearn, Jasco + Company had to address its need for increased storage, which in the past resulted in adding storage to individual systems in chunks, which led to some servers being underutilized, NetApp said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company decided that adding more DAS was not a viable option due to the low price-performance ratio, high expense, and, most importantly, downtime and disruption to employees during the important tax season, the company said.
Ahearn, Jasco + Company needed to upgrade its entire IT infrastructure on a limited budget, the firm said. It became almost impossible to understand the storage sprawl happening in its environment, it said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company required a unified view of all of its resources to improve server and storage allocation, the firm said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company was also concerned about backup, as it relied on tape devices that were slow and did not guarantee disaster recovery, which needed to be fixed with hurricane season coming, Ahearn, Jasco + Company added.
The StoreVault S500 provided Ahearn, Jasco + Company with an enterprise-proven storage technology platform from NetApp that was affordable and easy to use, NetApp said. The StoreVault S500 allows storage to be added or allocated on-the-fly without disruption to operations, the company said. The StoreVault S500 also enables faster backup and recovery for a higher degree of data reliability, it said. With a single purchase, Ahearn, Jasco + Company gained greater flexibility to grow and respond to future data storage needs without additional investment, NetApp added.
The VMware Infrastructure simplifies the storage environment just as StoreVault, NetApp said. The VMware Infrastructure optimizes the use of hardware assets and creates a solution that allows new server, application, and storage capacity to be provided at a moment�s notice, the company said.
SMBs like Ahearn, Jasco + Company combine blade servers running VMware Infrastructure to StoreVault storage systems for greater reliability, flexibility, and affordability, NetApp said. Multiple VMware virtual machines run on a consolidated hardware platform and access dedicated storage on StoreVault, the company said. The StoreVault S500 meets the storage needs for any new or existing workloads, and VMware Infrastructure allows entire virtual machines to be backed up, moved, and replicated with zero downtime, the company said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company also reduced rack space, lowered energy costs, and created a far more flexible environment, while improving data reliability rates and disaster recovery times, NetApp added.
Ahearn, Jasco + Company has modernized its server and storage environment while meeting its budget requirements, the firm said. The combination of StoreVault and VMware Infrastructure has provided the firm with a complementary technology solution that solved its business problems, Ahearn, Jasco + Company said.
Ahearn, Jasco + Company now has a network storage infrastructure that will last three to five years with the prospect of future scalability at a cost that is next to nothing, the accounting firm said. StoreVault and VMware Infrastructure have provided Ahearn, Jasco + Company with a powerful formula to improve its storage and server utilization and manage its capacity for future investment, Ahearn, Jasco + Company said. The StoreVault Advanced Protection Architecture and RAID-DP have also provide enterprise-class security and data protection functionality at a price that fits its budget, Ahearn, Jasco + Company added.
StoreVault sees a trend for SMBs to look for smarter, more reliable alternatives to the traditional way of handling storage, and iSCSI (Internet SCSI) SAN (storage area network) and infrastructure virtualization are getting attention, StoreVault said. The relationship with VMware is designed to bring added value to IT generalists within SMBs that are tasked with taming storage and infrastructure management with a limited budget, StoreVault said. Ahearn, Jasco + Company is a great example of one way VMware Infrastructure can be brought into play for SMBs with the StoreVault storage platform, StoreVault added.
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, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC 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 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 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4
What are Archiving Rules and E-Discovery? - March 23, 2008
Jacksonville Florida - The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) have been in existence since 1938 to govern court procedures for civil suits. Recent revisions to the FRCP have addressed the proliferation of electronic records by adding "e-discovery" rules.
In effect, the rules state that organizations operating in the U.S. must manage and archive all their electronic data so it can be produced in a timely and complete manner. Electronically Stored Information (ESI) plays a high-profile role in the most recent revisions to the FRCP, but agencies are finding there are no hard and fast rules about what ESI should be retained and for how long. Requirements are laid out in the FRCP regarding preservation and production, but guidelines for achieving compliance are vague, which leaves it up to individual agencies and organizations to develop their own e-discovery policies.
Until recently, many government records and documents were kept on paper, created by one agency, and accessed by a limited number of people. Now, the digital world has ushered in a whole new set of issues. Employees can create electronic documents anywhere and anytime, and this has introduced new complexities and a broader definition of "records." A record can include anything ranging from email messages, Instant Messages, documents, and other previously unstructured content -- all of which now must be managed and secured in case of a legal discovery request here in Florida.
Developing an agency-wide approach to understanding and organizing ESI -- sometimes called Electronic Data Information (EDI) -- should be a goal for everyone, but many storage managers don't have the technology in place to manage information such as business and personal emails and attachments. Even if they have the technology in place, however, they often don't know where to start.
Helpful Solutions
New solutions from technology vendors help agencies reduce the time and cost required to locate, retrieve and produce content from anywhere in the IT environment. Here is what agencies should look for in a solution:
Prevent data loss The ease of sharing and distributing information has greatly increased the risk of losing sensitive government data. Because of the pervasiveness of collaboration via messaging systems, IT needs end- to-end protection against the accidental or malicious loss of information. Technology can help mitigate the risks associated with data loss by offering an end-to-end solution which provides message monitoring, filtering and auditing from the gateway to the archive.
Archive and retain documents The pressure on government to manage information more effectively has intensified as the volume of unstructured data generated by email, file server environments, IM platforms and collaboration systems has increased. Intelligent technologies can capture, categorize, index and store data across the agency, making it easy to enforce retention policies and protect assets while reducing storage costs and simplifying management.
Prepare for e-discovery and audits The latest revisions to the FRCP require the retention of email, IM, documents and other files. At the same time, the frequency with which agencies need to respond to legal and regulatory discovery requests are also increasing. That means the need for comprehensive archiving and flexible, efficient discovery has become mission-critical. New products can help facilitate the collection, archiving, preservation and discovery of unstructured content and helps demonstrate compliance with policies, standards and laws.
While the FRCP provides no specific framework, technologies are available that can help ensure that your agency's messaging and collaboration systems are protected against malicious content and data loss -- all while helping to lower the total cost associated with systems management, data retention, electronic discovery and regulatory compliance. Companies like CA Message Manager, Barracuda Email Messager, Symantec Enterprise Vault and Intradyne. Where as companies like Mimosa Nearpoint is failing to deliver product promised over a year ago.
Conclusion
New FRCP rules are forcing agencies to implement solutions that address the unique requirements of protecting and storing digital assets. Now there is an urgent need for businesses and government organizations to make e-discovery and archiving initiatives a top priority.
For more information go to - http://www.sencilo.com/c2c.php
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
