March 2009 Entries
Storage Virtualization the next BIG thing! - March 22, 2009
Orlando Florida -- The initial approach to storage virtualization, which has been around for years, was to address it in the storage-area network because the SAN sat between the storage and servers, and would cause the least disruption to these systems. However, after nearly a decade, this approach has not taken off while server virtualization has become widely accepted. What needs to be changed to make storage virtualization as ubiquitous as server virtualization?
Before the advent of server virtualization, servers were configured for peak load but most of the time sat idling, resulting in average utilization rates in the low teens. Many attempts were made to consolidate applications on servers to utilize idle cycles, but it was difficult to convert applications between different operating systems. The breakthrough came with the ability to virtualize the server so it could run any operating system, enabling applications to be consolidated without converting them.
The utilization of storage systems is also low, typically in the 20% to 30% range. Storage gets stranded because application owners do not want to share storage and risk having other applications impact performance or availability. Since most open systems do not allow storage volumes to be expanded as the application generates more data, the common management practice is to simply overallocate storage capacity. While the declining cost of storage helps limit the cost of that practice, the operational cost for environmentals, change management, backup/recovery, technology refresh, and search and discovery escalates as storage capacity becomes increasingly oversubscribed and underutilized, stated Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo Solutions, a enterprise-class reseller in Lake Mary, Florida.
Storage for open systems is presented through logical unit numbers (LUN) or volumes that a storage system carves out of a RAID array group of physical disk drives and presents to the application. This process of creating LUNs and managing them is vendor unique. In order to virtualize storage from different storage systems, the difference in LUN or volume management must be masked, says McCarthy.
Back then
Early attempts at storage virtualization tried to address this problem by remapping heterogeneous LUNs to a common virtual LUN format for presentation to the host systems. But remapping introduced another layer of operational and management complexity, which inhibited the acceptance of the approach.
The breakthrough came with the ability to virtualize physical LUNs without the need to remap them by using a virtualization technique based on storage control units. LUNs are configured in the external storage systems in their vendor-specific way. These LUNs are then connected to the virtualization control unit over Fibre Channel ports as though they were connecting to a host server. Software in the control unit discovers the LUNs on the Fibre Channel port and presents them through the control unit's cache to an application server as if the LUNs were one of its own internal LUNs.
This approach does not remap the LUN, but enables LUNs from different systems to be managed with the common management tools of the storage virtualization control unit. The LUN image is presented inside the control unit cache and inherits all the services that are available in that control unit, like copy, move and replicate. There is no need to reinvent these functions for the purposes of virtualization. Lower-level storage can improve their native performance by connecting through the large high-performance cache of the virtualization control unit.
This approach to storage virtualization is simple to implement. It masks the complexity of managing heterogeneous storage systems and can aggregate the existing storage control unit services to enhance lower-level storage systems. Since virtualization is done at the control unit level, it is not limited to SAN connections, and it provides storage virtualization to any application server that connects through standard protocols like Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON, network-attached storage (NAS), SAN, and direct attach.
Another feature that has been missing in early storage virtualization approaches is partitioning. Partitioning guarantees users who share virtualized storage safe multitenancy and quality of service (QoS). In server virtualization, time slicing is used to partition virtual servers and QoS can be managed by controlling the allocation of time slices.
In storage virtualization, users who share a pool of storage resources must be guaranteed safe multitenancy, the guarantee that other users who share the same virtual storage resources will not be able to access their data nor impact performance. With a controller-based virtualization approach, partitioning can be done through cache addressing and port priority processing. Partitioning can be done close to the physical storage, where it can be enforced.
Right Now
The time is right for storage virtualization, and DataCore Software storage virtualization approaches can provide these basic capabilities:
* Use existing LUNs from heterogeneous storage systems and avoid the complexity of remapping LUNs to keep it simple
* Provide storage virtualization for all storage users, whether they are direct attach, SAN, NAS, Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON, etc.
* Aggregate storage services and make them available as reusable services to enhance lower-level storage systems.
* Provide users the ability to safely share resources without impacting their security, availability or performance requirements.
Storage virtualization simplifies today's increasingly complex storage environment, allowing organizations to simplify the management of their infrastructures and consolidate storage systems from different vendors into one pool of storage. Additionally it allows organizations to mask the complexity of the underlying physical structure and greatly increase utilization through the use of thin provisioning, the ability to provision storage capacity as it is actually used and provide it as a service to storage systems that do not have that capability. Storage virtualization also brings about significant cost reductions and efficiencies by reducing the need for additional storage management tools, licences and administrators.
Storage virtualization will deliver significant efficiencies, cost savings, power and cooling benefits, as well as greater agility in aligning storage infrastructure to business requirements. For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-virtualization.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
Case Study - Storage Virtualization from DataCore and Server Virtualization from VMware - March 21, 2009
The Challenge
City of Inverness in Citrus County, Florida, has selected DataCore's SANmelody storage virtualization solution to manage and protect their data center. With SANmelody, not only was the City of Inverness able to use existing hardware, it was able to get twice as much use out of its existing storage space as well as adding a new level of business continuity protection and scalability for the future, which the city did not previously have.
When Joey Johnston, IT director, City of Inverness, came on board he inherited approximately thirteen server systems. He knew enough about VMware to know that he could greatly improve productivity and cost savings.Therefore, he decided to consolidate these servers. In order to take full advantage of the functionality of VMware across systems, he also knew he needed to deploy a SAN. Johnston did his research and a key priority at the outset was finding a SAN that would work with VMware and provide a level of automated failover protection. Johnston soon found DataCore in his research and identified the company's SANmelody as a potential solution that supported and was fully compatible with VMware. He also spoke with EqualLogic and LeftHand Networks as well as some other, major SAN solution providers. What Johnston soon realized was that other SAN solutions were not very scalable in comparison with DataCore's SANmelody.
Taking EqualLogic, for example, if he would have purchased a 3TB solution and then needed to add another terabyte or two in the future, he would have then needed to buy another storage hardware module as an upgrade. This could cost $25,000 just to accommodate the additional storage capacity. Also, while fiber channel (FC) was not an immediate requirement, the fact that SANmelody supported all of its services over FC or iSCSI protocols on Ethernet connections left the option open for the future.
The Solution
"With DataCore, you can simply add an additional license to manage three more terabytes of storage - or sixty terabytes, or an unlimited option," said Johnston. "The high-availability option was also a very big deal as was being able to re-provision servers. We could take a server that might not be up to the task of managing a geographical information system (GIS) or a mail host and re-provision it as a SAN server solution running SANmelody. It is very easy to just add more disks to a SANmelody server, since it is a standard server just like the ones running other applications. You simply populate the SANmelody server with more disks to get to six terabytes
in capacity - in our case all for under $5,000. On another vendor's solution, you will easily spend three or four times the amount just to get the same capacity." Johnston took about eight weeks in total to make this decision - from his initial introduction to DataCore to signing off on purchasing SANmelody. That time was primarily taken doing some of the underlying work to get his environment ready for the new SAN, such as making sure the switch fabric was up to the task. "I talked and met with each vendor, I attended the webinars they offered and considered the options," continued Johnston. "Budgetwise and performance-wise, SANmelody won out. The performance numbers on SANmelody are right there with any of the top vendors and we are able to use servers that would either be doing nothing or would be offered up for auction. The main business drivers for going with SANmelody were the price point, the scalability, as well as the breadth of storage services that can be taken advantage of with the product."
SANmelody now runs on Dell PowerEdge 2500 servers - servers that would have been decommissioned. SANmelody supports the city's GIS system, which is used to map properties, chart water lines, track tree management initiatives as well as monitor and manage roads and streets for maintenance and usability purposes. SANmelody will go a long way in terms of ease-of-management as the City of Inverness outgrows its direct, attached storage. Of huge benefit to Johnston, who is the only IT person working on behalf of the City of Inverness, is the ability to scale his thirteen servers into one virtual machine. Likewise, consolidated storage and the ability to automate the provisioning of storage to servers without human intervention was a major plus. Furthermore, Johnston is now able to do fast disk-to-disk back-ups and replication and he is able to test these services. Before, he neither had the time nor the funds to buy a server to test back-ups. "SANmelody is all about ease of use and scalability and allows you to have enterprise-level functionality at an SMB price," added Johnston. The AIM technology DataCore offers for asynchronous IP mirroring enables Johnston to replicate critical data over the Internet. Next year, Johnston plans on fully implementing a remote server at a replication site. With a location smack in the hurricane zone of Florida, the ability to protect data outside of Florida with another local government agency in another state will mean Johnston can achieve a higher level of disaster recovery as well as have highavailability. He plans to connect to that remote site via a thin-client and do asynchronous data mirroring transfers at night. The replicated environment will encompass both payroll information as well as email on the servers. The financial package, which currently runs on Solaris, is also migrating to Windows and will live on the VMware platform too, all running in conjunction with SANmelody.
"The City of Inverness bought DataCore and VMware in tandem," said George Teixeira, president and CEO, DataCore Software. "They knew they needed to go with a SAN in order to fully leverage the functionality inherent to VMware. Whereas a SAN originally looked cost-prohibitive to the City of Inverness, when Joey found our SANmelody solution he was able to get full functionality without sacrificing his requirements. He was also able to repurpose some of his old servers that he had slated to be retired. Not only has DataCore delivered an affordable SAN, but now he has at his disposal a fully automated high availability SAN that can grow with his needs."
The mail server is in the process of going live this month along with the financial servers and the GIS systems. The deployment at the City of Inverness will first manage six terabytes on a DataCore powered SAN supporting auto failover and recovery across dual SANmelody servers - each supporting three terabytes. When Johnston fields calls now from the other SAN providers who are keen to know why he went with DataCore, he has the answers for them. "DataCore offers up functionality and the most competitive price point," he said. "Moreover, in terms of functionality, I mention high-availability and auto failover data protection as well as AIM - asynchronous mirroring for remote site disaster recovery. And the price point was just over $15,000 for all that functionality and two licenses. This is less than half of what I was quoted for one box from a traditional SAN hardware solution." Johnston concluded, "We bought a scalable storage infrastructure and not a box that we would soon find ourselves outgrowing."
About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore's portable storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare operating systems as well as hypervisors from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other suppliers. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-virtualization.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
Over 70 million Website-infected with SQL injection attacks and counting - March 17, 2009
Orlando Florida -- Website-infecting SQL injection attacks hit 450,000 a day Cybercriminals are spreading invisible infections far and wide across the Internet by hammering hundreds of thousands of websites each day with so-called SQL injection attacks.
The trend started last summer and has continued to accelerate. Sencilo Solutions Internet Security Systems says it identified 50% more infected Web pages in the last three months of 2008 than it did in all of 2007, says Brian McCarthy, CEO and well known Security expert of Sencilo Solutions.
Click on one and you won't notice anything. Your PC gets turned into an obedient "bot," short for robot, deployed to attack other computers. All of your sensitive data get stolen.
SQL attacks take aim at the database layer of websites. They typically were manual attacks designed to pilfer customer data from merchant websites. But last June someone figured out how to automate the attacks, and use them to plant infections.
"It was a brilliant tactical move. You sit back and wait for someone to visit the site, and soon you infect thousands of PCs," says Ryan Barnett, Breach Security's director of research.
An infected PC thereafter gets put to work delivering spam and spreading more infections. And any sensitive data, such as log-ons and account numbers, get stolen.
For the first five months of 2008 Sencilo Solutions ISS helped a Orlando based financial corporation block about 5,000 SQL attacks a day. By mid-June, daily attacks spiked to 25,000; by October they topped 450,000 a day. Andrew Mape, Sencilo Solutions ISS threat response manager, says the infections take advantage of security flaws in cool website features, such as online-delivered video, music, photos, documents and work files.
"Web applications are one of the most outward facing components a corporation could have, and one of the least protected," he says. "And SQL injection is the fastest-growing category of attacks affecting Web applications."
Financial institutions and online merchants have put up strong defenses, says Brian McCarthy, CEO of a security Sencilo, a security firm. "The same is not necessarily true of regional banks and credit unions, smaller online retailers and state government agencies."
Security experts say consumers must keep updates for anything to do with their browser current, though most now do not do this. This includes updates for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, iTunes, QuickTime, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer. Such updates increasingly include important security patches that can block infections from taking hold.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/services-penetration.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
