headtop

Automation

What Data Domain does not want you to know about - Storwize Primary Storage Compression Appliances - August 19, 2008

Orlando Florida – Storwize Inc., the only provider of real-time primary storage data compression solutions, today introduced the next generation edition of its award-winning STN-6000™ product family. The Storwize P Series encompasses a family of products tailored for different customer environments, ranging from entry-level operations, to data center environments with tens of thousands of users in the most data-intensive industries, as well as oil and gas exploration and financial services.
Storwize has transitioned to a 64-bit architecture and is rolling out its high end appliance, the STN-6800p completing its solutions coverage for all market segments. The STN-6800p is designed to work with large-scale enterprise storage platforms such as the NetApp FAS6070 and the EMC Celerra NSX.

The three P Series models are application agnostic and provide optimized solutions across a range of environments:
•  STN-6300p is the company’s entry-level model providing the same availability, reliability and efficiency of higher-end models
•  STN-6500p is optimized for enterprise environments
•  STN-6800p expands enterprise functionality to high-end environments performing large file processing on huge volumes of files

All three new models are also available in an optional High Availability configuration, which provides the highest level of mission critical information availability and ensures data integrity and business continuity.

“The P Series platform addresses all the distinct user requirements for cost, performance and application optimization across the full spectrum of IT users,” said Gal Naor, Storwize CEO. “Storwize now offers end to end solutions to all market segments from entry-level to high performance computing data center environments yielding dramatic data foot print reductions regardless of the vertical or data type at stake. Our customer successes validate the maturity, leadership and industry recognition that Storwize has well earned by creating the primary optimization market.”

According to Brian McCarthy President and a 25 year Storage veteran for Sencilo solutions of Orlando Florida, “Without question, Storwize is leading the way for primary storage capacity optimization and the P Series enhancements certainly raise the performance bar for this class of products. Most of the attention about data reduction technologies has been focused on secondary storage platforms but given the vast amounts of storage that companies are still struggling to manage, the substantial cost benefits of properly applied primary compression should cause IT departments everywhere to take a hard look at the advantages of the new STN-6000 Series.” 

The Storwize family of real-time compression appliances allows companies to extend the lifecycle of their data center. All appliances in the Series are transparent to end users and applications, ensure data integrity and are vendor-agnostic. Simple plug-and-play, the P Series products are complementary to other solutions and technologies intended to reduce storage consumption, such as de-duplication, virtualization and thin provisioning.

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/data-compression.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

Primary Storage Data Compression is now a Reality - July 26, 2008

Orlando Florida -- Storewiz, Inc. is the only provider of online data compression solutions that dramatically boost storage space on network storage environments. Storewiz appliances are installed between the organization’s storage arrays and their network. Designed to work with any storage array it is connected to, the Storewiz appliance typically provides organizations with 2-5X additional capacity with associated savings in capital, operational, maintenance and management resources. Storewiz solutions have been successfully tested for interoperability with leading storage vendors such as EMC and NetApp.
Storewiz Inc., the only provider of innovative online storage compression solutions, introduces its STN-6000™ product line – a set of third-generation data compression appliances built around a new multi-core compression architecture that features state-of-the-art processors, more efficient algorithms, an improved compression ratio, a robust architecture for all future developments and other enhancements that enable the most data-intensive enterprises to maximize their growing network infrastructure at a fraction of their current cost. Designed for enterprise implementations, the new appliances are designed to provide impressive compression rates without affecting the performance of applications connected to the network.

The STN-6000 line is launching with two products targeted at companies with a wide range of applications: • STN-6300 is ideally suited for departmental/remote office, distributed applications and archival/ compliance. The STN-6300 delivers the availability, reliability and efficiency organizations require while reducing the time and equipment costs typically associated with data management. • STN-6500 is ideally suited to handle the demanding performance and scalability requirements of enterprise business and technical applications. By eliminating the need for network reconfiguration, the STN-6500 provides superior flexibility to quickly respond to evolving business needs.

“Without question, Storewiz is leading the way for this critical new market of primary storage capacity optimization,” said Brad O'Neill, Senior Analyst with Taneja Group. “Storewiz is demonstrating to enterprise IT that optimizing application data in real-time with advanced compression software is a very high-value function. Not only can it reduce primary storage costs and improve storage utilization, it also plays a key role in improving storage performance as well. Akin to how de-duplication approaches have optimized backup and archiving in the enterprise, primary storage optimization software will also soon become a defacto fixture in enterprise data centers. I believe Storewiz is in an excellent position to drive this new category's growth.”

Storewiz continues its lead in data compression technology by developing a new, patent-pending engine that leverages a powerful multi-core hardware platform that results in wire speed compression. This technology enables existing infrastructures to store on average three times more data than is available today with no performance degradation. Built upon the success of the company’s STN-5000™, the STN-6000 is a plug-and-play solution that easily adds on to storage systems while remaining completely transparent to users, applications, databases, storage and network environments.

According to Brian McCarthy, President of Sencilo solutions, “Our customers know about data growth firsthand, since they are challenged with the on-going expenses involved in adding primary storage systems and the related man hours in its management. It’s not difficult for them to quickly realize the benefits of a data compression appliance, and the ease in which it is installed and managed.”

STN-6000 features include: • An improved data compression ratio of on average 10 percent greater than previously offered with the STN-5000

• A robust architecture designed to support future storage-related developments and applications

• Management enhancements built into the system’s high-availability design that ensure continued access to data and help eliminate costly downtime

• An enhanced read cache algorithm that improves system response times by reducing the number of physical I/O requests that are read from storage

• Improved maintainability in order to allow monitoring and ease of maintenance

“No other vendor has even approached the sophisticated abilities of our first generation of data compression appliances and yet here we are launching our third,” said Gal Naor, Storewiz CEO. “Our unique approach to real-time compression through the offloading and centralization of data in a powerful and dedicated appliance such as our STN-6000, provides users with an unbeatable business solution that enables them to maximize current and future storage investments while safeguarding their business-critical information with no performance degradation.”

The Storewiz STN-6000 requires no workflow changes, no software agents, no drivers and no configuration changes. It supports both file- and block-level data compression for all tiers of storage and applications, including OLTP databases. By compressing data at rest, Storewiz lets organizations retain fast access to files and databases while saving capital, operation and maintenance costs – without altering vendor storage functionality. And with no resident file system, Storewiz appliances are interchangeable with no loss of data.

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/data-compression.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

EMC CLARiiON CX now shipping with Solid-State Drives (SSD) - June 20, 2008

Orlando Florida -- EMC Corp. will add a new Clariion midrange storage array with solid-state drives (SSD) over the next few months, SearchStorage.com has learned.  EMC began offering SSD in its enterprise Symmetrix systems earlier this year, and industry sources say that EMC will extend its support of SSD technology with the Clariion CX4-80, which is expected to be generally available in August.  Brian McCarthy President and EMC Partner stated "tier 0 is long over do, and welcomes moving his client based to this new technology". 

One source familiar with the SSD-supported Clariion arrays said the latest versions of Symmetrix and Clariion arrays share hardware components, including disk trays and outer skins. This makes it relatively simple for EMC to slot SSDs into the Clariion now that it's been done for Symmetrix.

EMC would neither confirm nor deny the rumors about the Clariion CX4-80, issuing a statement saying, "At EMC World, we spoke about the many benefits of flash technology, EMC's investment in testing and qualification, and that we would incorporate it into our product portfolio where it made the most sense. Beyond that, we are not going to be able to provide any specifics as to announcements, products or time frames."

Since EMC pledged in January to support SSDs in Symmetrix, other vendors, including Xiotech, FalconStor, Nimbus Data Systems, Hitachi Data Systems, NetApp and Sun, have also said they would support SSDs in enterprise storage arrays. That leaves Hewlett-Packard and IBM as the two major players who have yet to divulge their plans regarding SSDs in enterprise storage arrays.  HP and IBM are still playing catch up on so many fronts, done look for SSD any time soon, stated McCarthy. 

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/

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

The Next Generation of Backup will include incremental backups and CDP for VMware - June 13, 2008

Orlando Florida -- Symantec Corp. boosted its support for VMware's products in two new incremental releases for NetBackup at Symantec Vision.

The updates to NetBackup come as part of two new "double-dot" releases, NetBackup 6.5.2, which is available immediately and NetBackup 6.5.3, which is expected later this summer. "We have a new release model for NetBackup," said Matt Kixmoeller, vice president of product management for Symantec. "We're looking to get innovations to market faster, rather than just having an enormous big-bang release every few years."

Support for incremental and parallel snapshots of VMware hosts through NetBackup's VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) integration are the main new features of the NetBackup 6.5.2 release, which also includes CDP and complete integration with PureDisk's data deduplication.

"On the large scale, the XenServer platform has some fundamental advantages," said Rob Soderberry, senior vice president for Symantec's storage and availability management group. "Our strategy is to create the best possible exploitation of the XenServer and VMware stack, and let customers and clients decide what they want to pursue."

Symantec is adding granular recovery technology into NetBackup. The feature was first incorporated into its product line with Backup Exec 11d, which allows unique object recovery from a single backup instead of through a secondary redundant backup that forced customers to use twice the space and time for backups if they wanted granular restores. Version 6.5.2 will make the feature available for Windows hosts, VMware hosts, and SharePoint Portal. Exchange integration will follow in NetBackup 6.5.3.

"Most snapshots, including Microsoft's VSS, don't allow you to get a file directly out without restoring the full snapshot," said analyst Lauren Whitehouse, Enterprise Strategy Group. "That feature puts Symantec a step above even Microsoft and other VCB integrations at this point."

NetBackup customer Eddy Navarro, a storage computer systems manager for J. Craig Venter Institute, said he's been waiting for the ability to schedule multiple concurrent snapshots of VMware hosts. "[In previous versions], NetBackup purposely set a cap on concurrent snapshots, meaning you could only schedule one at a time," Navarro said. This was done to avoid overwhelming environments that couldn't handle the load of parallel snapshots. "But, we have the infrastructure that can handle it," Navarro added.

Navarro said he's also looking forward to support for NDMP backups to disk in the new version. He wants that for his NetApp filers. While there might be ways to make the NAS backup standard dump directly to disk, Navarro wasn't familiar with them and wants all backups done through one portal. "I don't want to have to go back when I want to do a restore and say, now which way did I back this up?" he said.

New CDP, data deduplication integration

NetBackup 6.5.2 will also include the first integration with Symantec's CDP software acquired from Revivio in late 2006 and renamed RealTime 6.5.

NetBackup will be able to request snapshots from RealTime, but it will otherwise use a separate repository and interface until NetBackup 7.0 is released next year. While a new "NetBackup-like" interface on RealTime lays the groundwork for an integrated GUI, the repository will probably remain separate because Symantec expects users to deploy the "copy every write" software sparingly, according to Kixmoeller.

"The first generation of CDP struggled because there wasn't enough deep integration with applications," he said. With this re-release of Revivio's IP, NetBackup agents running on application servers will create pointers to quiesced snapshot copies in the CDP stream. The catalog of files and recovery screens will also be done in NetBackup.

Symantec has yet to integrate CDP with replication, another item on its roadmap since last year. "Symantec supports several replication products," said senior analyst Eric Burgener, Taneja Group. "Depending on how replication is linked into the CDP process, it can make it difficult to unlink it and use it with something else."

NetBackup 6.5.2 also completes an integration process between NetBackup and Symantec's PureDisk data deduplication software that has been ongoing since NetBackup 6.1. PureDisk agents can now perform data deduplication at the client, backup media server or target. Symantec is also supporting a stack of PureDisk, Veritas Cluster Server and Storage Foundation to create a grid architecture for post-process data deduplication on the target side.

While this stack of licenses could get confusing, the number of options Symantec is offering is more important, Whitehouse said. "It allows you to coordinate your backup strategy to your workload." "And, setting up various agents is a process you only do once."

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php

About Us

Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.

Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral

Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication  thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX  virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ

How much should you spend on disaster recovery (DR)? - May 31, 2008

Orlando Florida -- It's a trick question that few, if any, storage administrators know how to answer. You can easily spend a king's ransom to protect your data, but few companies have that kind of money. The key to cost-effective DR is first placing a value on the data--and understanding how the data's value changes over time--and then matching various data protection technologies to that value.  Here in Florida Hurrican season starts tomorrow, June 1 and last until November 30th.  So my guess to those of us in the Gulf States - Will you be ready? 

In an earlier blog (see The search for cost-effective disaster recovery), I described how to develop an application/data classification foundation (ADCF) that lays the groundwork for cost-effective DR. This foundation has six steps:
Classify each application and its data into four categories:


  • Mission critical

  • Essential

  • Important

  • Less critical



  • Determine the required recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) for each class of data.

  • Determine the available DR options per class of data.

  • Establish each option's TCO for the expected life of the implementation.

  • Evaluate the skills required at all DR locations.

  • Match the data, DR options and skills to the budget to determine the breadth of the DR GAP (the difference between the level of DR required and the level of affordable DR, or the difference between the actual level provided and the level required).

  • Remote mirroring

  • Remote mirroring provides data accessibility protection for an application using physically separate locations. While similar to mirroring within a RAID array, remote mirroring takes place over MAN or WAN distances. It's usually between storage arrays or storage appliances, and can be synchronous or asynchronous.


Synchronous remote mirroring is the highest possible level for DR RPO and RTO. The RPO is "zero" lost data, and the RTO is typically seconds to minutes. Synchronous remote mirroring does this by neither completing nor acknowledging the local write until the remote write is completed and acknowledged. Additional writes can't occur until each preceding write has been completed and acknowledged. This means local performance is directly related to the performance of the DR remote device; distance is the limiting factor. Remote synchronous mirroring is rarely deployed for circuit distances greater than 160km (100 miles).  http://www.sencilo.com/storage-software.php

With asynchronous remote mirroring, local writes are completed and acknowledged before the remote writes. Asynchronous remote mirroring is a "store-and-forward" technique that reduces I/Os and wait delays, allowing remote writes to fall behind the local writes. This means the RPO for lost data can range from seconds to minutes, and even hours in some cases. Asynchronous remote mirroring is most often utilized when the remote site is a long distance from the local site.

The primary advantage of both synchronous and asynchronous remote mirroring is the minimal (asynchronous) to zero (synchronous) risk exposure in losing data during a disaster. A secondary advantage is the potential for quick data recovery when a disaster occurs. Remote mirroring doesn't require server agents, and it provides heterogeneous server and application support. 

Remote mirroring applications are often pricey, the equipment is usually expensive, and it typically requires at least twice the primary disk space and sometimes much more. However, when the lowest possible RPO and RTO are the requirement, remote mirroring is the answer.

Another disadvantage is that remote mirroring doesn't prevent a rolling disaster, data damage, corruption or accidental deletion. If data is corrupted, damaged or deleted at the primary site, it will also be at the DR site. Some asynchronous remote mirroring products timestamp each transaction and allow recovery to a point in time before the corruption or deletion occurred, but they're exceptions to the rule. This means procedures other than remote mirroring must also be implemented to allow for recovery of corrupted, damaged or deleted data. Other disadvantages include lack of support for heterogeneous arrays, no support for internal storage, and nearly no application and file information.

Less-expensive alternatives to remote mirroring can also provide the lowest possible RPO and RTO. They're generally continuous data protection (CDP) products and include time-based continuous snapshots, automated backup, replication of changed data and automated, generational-change distributed backup. They offer a lower TCO than remote mirroring, support heterogeneous storage and provide better rollback capabilities. But they usually require installing and managing agents. 

Backup
Backup applications copy primary stored data directly from the application server and move it over TCP/IP networks to a local backup server or remote DR backup server. The server then writes the copied data to disk or tape. RPO is the window between backups or incremental backups. RTO is minimally hours, but usually days to weeks.

While backup is the primary DR application deployed in most IT organizations, it also has the highest failure rate. Failures can be attributed to user error, bandwidth issues, throughput issues, tape issues and even application server availability requirements. http://www.sencilo.com/prod-storagesoftware.php

The primary advantage of backup is its familiarity--it's a known quantity, both good and bad. Storage administrators know how to deploy and use backup, and the TCO is relatively low depending on the storage environment.

The two key disadvantages of backup are that its RPO and RTO are usually quite high, and backup is a local process. There are exceptions, however. Several backup programs distribute and centralize backup while providing continuous incremental backups, shrinking the RPO considerably. Unfortunately, recovery time is still a lengthy process. Data consistency and usability--the ability to use the backed up data without modification, reordering or re-creation--may also be a problem. Backup programs require server-based agents and backup costs escalate sharply as the environment scales and grows more complex.

Backup products are evolving and improving. Virtual tape, disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) and massive array of idle disks (MAID) technologies speed backups and recovery times. New types of backup software, such as content-addressable storage (CAS), reduce the amount of data required to back up by sending only changed data and meta tags about data. This significantly reduces recovery times and dramatically increases recovered data usability. Distributed backup eliminates the installation of server agents. These new types of backup have RPOs and RTOs that can be used for critical data. http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php

Replication
Replication software replicates data from server to server synchronously and asynchronously. There are incremental and CDP modes. Replicated data travels over TCP/IP networks to a remote server's disk, and then a backup client is needed to move the data to a storage device. RPO for replication is similar to the RPO for storage array remote mirroring, depending on whether it's synchronous or asynchronous. RTO can be a little faster because the DR application servers are already collocated with the DR storage.

Replication software is easy to install and operate. It can run locally and distributed, and because it's server-, storage- and infrastructure-agnostic, there are no hardware lock-ins. Replication software costs are less than those for backup software and much less than storage array-based remote mirroring. Replication has evolved to include application-aware agents, continuous protection and rollback capabilities. One important benefit to replication is data migration. Replication software simplifies the process and replicates only the data that needs to be replicated in a non-disruptive manner.

Replication software can't prevent damaged data from being replicated, and server agents must be maintained and managed. RTO can be significantly increased if there's a single DR server caching the replication from different application operating systems. In the event of a disaster, all data must be recovered and rewritten before the applications can access the data. This is similar to backup. If there's a DR replication server per operating system, the RTO rivals storage array mirroring.

Snapshot
A snapshot provides a point-in-time reference marker to data stored on a storage system. Snapshots are a way to speed RTOs. There are two primary types of snapshots: copy-on-write and split-mirror.

A copy-on-write snapshot stores changes and additions to existing data. Data recovery is rapid in case of a disk write error, corrupted file or program malfunction; however, all of the previous snapshots must be available if complete archiving or recovery is required. A split-mirrored snapshot references all the data on a set of mirrored drives where one is local and the other is local or remote. Each time the snapshot is run, it snaps the entire volume, not just new or updated data.

Snapshot is easy to install and operate. A copy-on-write snapshot provides a short RTO and a relatively slow RPO (data must still be recovered before it can be used). Split-mirror snapshots have a relatively long RPO, but they speed data recovery (RTO), duplication and data archival. One important benefit to split-mirror snapshots is that it's possible to access data offline for tasks such as data mining and offline production data testing. Some snapshot applications provide continuous snapshots and rollback capabilities based on a point in time, which offers faster RTO.

A split-mirror snapshot uses a lot of system resources and will degrade the performance of the platform it's running on while it creates the snapshot. And snapshots can't prevent a rolling disaster of snapping corrupt data.

DR hardware platforms
There are four principle hardware delivery platforms: storage array, general-purpose server, purpose-built storage appliance and the intelligent storage networking switch. The storage array is a purpose-built storage server for block or file-based storage. Many storage vendors provide optional storage array DR software, which includes synchronous and asynchronous remote mirroring and snapshot. These software products are typically specific to the individual vendor and its storage offerings.  http://www.sencilo.com/storage-area-network.php

Storage array-based software usually doesn't require application server agents. The arrays are server operating system-agnostic and the DR applications run fast. They are also installed in thousands of locations, and are proven and mature.

However, the array DR applications don't work with heterogeneous storage. In general, they don't have file-level or application awareness. (Array applications with application awareness use agents.) Storage array IOPS and throughput decline while DR applications are running. And these DR applications are licensed and managed on a per-array basis. Storage array DR applications have some of the highest TCOs and, in some cases, consume more raw storage than non-array based alternatives.

General-purpose servers have very low acquisition costs and low TCO. Implementing, servicing and managing them are known quantities. Performance is tunable and DR application performance leverages ongoing improvements in server technology. Increasing performance or scalability may be as simple as buying the next-larger server, and more memory and processing power. Other advantages include support for heterogeneous storage, and application and file-system awareness. General-purpose servers require DR application agents.

The purpose-built storage appliance is nothing more than a DR application optimized server. A good way to think of the purpose-built storage appliance is to view it as a networked storage controller. It leverages technologies specifically optimized for storage DR applications. Optimization includes I/O performance, throughput, scalability and high availability (no single point of failure). TCO is definitely lower than for the storage array or intelligent server, but the purpose-built appliance is proprietary. It may also have higher initial acquisition costs and may not keep up with server technology advances.

The intelligent storage networking switch is a relatively new DR delivery platform. The storage area network (SAN) switch is the ideal system to provide DR applications because it sits between application servers and their target storage, and it also has visibility into all servers and storage targets.

There are two principle types of intelligent storage-network switches. The first essentially integrates the purpose-built storage appliance as a server blade into a Fibre Channel SAN switch or director. The second packages it as a storage software delivery platform that just happens to use switching as part of its architecture. It leverages a new technology called split path acceleration of independent data streams (SPAID). SPAID improves performance by separating the control path (the slow path) from the data path (the fast path). It enables out-of-band virtualization without requiring server agents and runs most DR software applications without any changes. Initial costs and TCO will probably be much higher than for non-integrated systems.  http://www.sencilo.com/back-up-restore.php

No other platform has the DR application performance potential of the SPAID intelligent storage networking switch. SPAID switches have an inherently higher level of reliability, availability and serviceability than storage appliances because of the separation of control path from data path. Unfortunately, there are only a small handful of products that use the SPAID architecture. These include software from Incipient Inc., Maranti Networks, StoreAge Networking Technologies, Troika Networks Inc. and Veritas Software Corp. Of these, only StoreAge has a comprehensive suite of DR applications that works with all of the SPAID intelligent storage networking switches. Maranti has its own suite of DR applications, and Troika is working on a suite with tie-ins to other software-based DR applications. Incipient and Veritas are currently limited to volume management only.

Remember, a cost-effective DR strategy requires a mix of DR applications running on several platforms. Managing cost and effectiveness requires matching the value of the data to specific DR capabilities. This mix-and-match approach will reduce overall DR cost while meeting the organization's needs (see Sorting out disaster recovery options). Of course, this process must be repeated periodically to re-evaluate new technologies, products, SLA requirements and compliance regulations.

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/continuity-disaster.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

Simply steps to reduce your IT's carbon footprint - May 31, 2008

Lake Mary Florida -- The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) believes CIOs should be on the frontlines of their states' environmental programs and policies. The organization, which advocates for technology policy, urges its members to take steps now to become leaders in reducing their states' carbon footprints, issuing a 17-page brief on ways to do that.

Although specific to state CIOs, NASCIO's recommendations can be employed by large organizations as well. Here are the group's tips for getting started:

Develop a plan: States that have developed green IT plans, including Missouri, Kansas and Oregon, have incorporated ideas for green efforts in nearly every aspect of their state CIOs' jurisdictions. These include purchasing equipment, recycling, and consolidating and virtualizing data centers, among other areas. Reaching out to states that have developed plans can help put you on the path toward implementing green IT initiatives.

Establish a baseline and determine a metric: Before you move a project forward, ascertain where your state is on energy consumed, greenhouse gas emitted, etc. Developing a baseline and a way to measure progress can be built into a total carbon footprint reduction plan at the outset of an initiative, For state data centers: The Green Grid and other industry groups have published a metric that can tell state CIOs how much energy is spent on the productive use of IT versus wasted on the physical infrastructure.

Track and monitor success: Once a metric is determined, continue to track and monitor a project's success rate. For example, in following a data center consolidation initiative, examining the energy usage rate prior to consolidation and then comparing that to energy usage in the aftermath of consolidation can help determine success and show the benefits accrued from the project.

Become a transformational leader: Utilize existing authority through enterprise architecture or other means to drive toward greener practices without making major jurisdictional policy changes. In other cases, state CIOs must often work to gain authority to implement these programs for their employees. For instance, despite the significant increases in employer adoption of telework, it still remains a subject of debate, particularly among older workers. In order to incorporate a telework process, state policy issues must first be resolved. By emphasizing these green benefits of telework, state CIOs may be better poised to advocate for the implementation of these initiatives.

Don't go it alone -- enlist partners: Collaborate with other agencies within your state to establish jurisdiction and authority and to gain buy-in for a green IT initiative or agenda. Reach out to other states to gather best practices and lessons learned. Engage staff members -- they also hold a stake in enterprise success and may be eager to help drive these green efforts. Tell vendors green initiatives are important to your state. Many vendors offer green components to their products and services, as well as those dedicated solely to incorporating green practices. 

Reach-out to a trusted advisor like Sencilo Solutions of Lake Mary Florida that has consolidated 100's of data center thoughtout Florida.  Brian McCarthy CEO and Consolidation Consultant advises companies to start small, move your under utilized file servers over to a modern NAS storage device.  Most files servers use 80 to 160 giga-byte drives, today's drives are 1,000 giga-bytes with 1,500 gigs units arriving later this summer.  Next look at VMware to again consolidate those old Compaq, Gateway, etc. servers in few VM servers.  Sencilo has just completed a Florida based Bank and retired several hundred servers in favor of ten dual CPU, quad core units. http://www.sencilo.com/network-attached-storage.php

Leverage the circumstances: With rising energy costs -- particularly fuel prices -- on the mind of nearly every citizen and lawmaker, green initiatives will likely be met with unprecedented support. State CIOs are uniquely poised to become leaders in the green IT revolution.

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-consolidation.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 FAQ Storwiz Primary Storage Compression Ocarina Networks

What the PCI Council wants you to know! - May 9, 2008

Jacksonville Florida -- When the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council released version 1.1 of the PCI Data Security Standard in September 2006, it clarified existing mandates and added, in Requirement 6.6, some new ones pertaining to the custom application code that handles protected payment card data.

Basically, the council offered enterprises a choice: have an application security organization review custom application code for common vulnerabilities, or install a Web application firewall in front of Web-facing applications.  See http://www.sencilo.com/security-web-application-controllers.php for more info. 

In keeping with the council's measured approach to improving the security of payment card data, what was put forward as a "best practice" in 2006 will become a full-blown requirement on June 30, 2008. Many companies are already bemoaning the burdensome nature of PCI compliance and will no doubt chafe at paying for either more outside consultants or more security hardware and software.

On the other hand, there are plenty of security professionals who will say that what the PCI DSS requires is nothing more than the same application development and deployment approach that many companies have used for years. I can think of several financial and telecom companies that adopted a similar strategy when working with internally imposed PCI-comparable standards in 1999. Since then, there has been an increase both in the number of people qualified to conduct code reviews and in the availability of commercially supported application-layer firewalls.

Amid today's threat climate, where there is no shortage of people prepared to use whatever attacks they can to gather and exploit payment card data, a strong case can be made for both putting an application-layer firewall in front of Web-facing applications and having application code independently reviewed. However, in the real world, where cost constraints have never been tighter, some enterprises must choose one or the other.

The case for application firewalls
The main reason for an application firewalls like Barracuda Networks is that it will, if properly supported, actively protect against emerging threats, something a one-time code review will not. Sure, a code review might be able to list classes of attack against which the code is deemed secure, and a reviewer may be able to discount some emerging threats by referring to that list. A code review, however, does not provide a way to tweak application proxies in response to attacks.

One common argument against the application firewall is that it may be tricky to fit into an existing architecture. Another objection is that it may work out to be more expensive than a code review. Pricing varies between brands but you could easily be looking at a purchase cost of around $5,000 for something that will handle around 900 MB of throughput, rising to around $8,000 for 2 gigabites per second (Gbps). Total cost will depend upon the level of application traffic, ongoing licensing fees and personnel costs to manage and maintain your Web application firewall capability. However, if you have staff on hand with the skills to tune and manage an application firewall, like the folks who are already running your enterprise firewall, the additional cost may only be incremental or a security based consultant like Sencilo Solutions of Lake Mary Florida. 

The case for code review
A code review is not cheap and in most cases much more expensive the a firewall. For whomever performs it, you are probably looking at tens of thousands of dollars in cost, although the exact figure will obviously depend upon application complexity. Bear in mind, though, that a code review doesn't require the same level of ongoing care and maintenance as a firewall (although future code revisions will need review).

However, enterprises should already be budgeting for code review as part of the software development process. Unfortunately, some earlier PCI guidelines gave the impression that internal code reviews would not be acceptable. Thankfully, we now know it's possible to use an internal staff for the review if it is a) trained and specialized in application-code assessments and b) not the same people who developed the application, this according to the Feb 2008 "Information Supplement: Requirement 6.6 Code Reviews and Application Firewalls Clarified" document.

This clarification document approves, with the above caveat, the "proper use of automated application source code analyzer (scanning) tools" and the "proper use of automated web application security vulnerability assessment (scanning) tools."

Making the choice
So now it looks like there may be three avenues available, and in each case the choice may simply come down to people. Does the enterprise have staff who can:
a. Configure and maintain an application-layer firewall?
b. Perform a code review?
c. Use a third-party vulnerability detection tool and fix any problems the review uncovers?

Of course, the decision could also depend upon architecture considerations and how well an application-layer firewall would work with existing systems and devices.

Another factor to consider, particularly for those leaning toward a third-party code review, is how comfortable the organization may be with the status of its code. It is not unusual for payment card applications to develop over time and include some legacy code of unknown origin and unclear purpose. A security staff may not want to remove legacy code and run the risk of breaking a mission-critical application. Without suggesting that anyone should sweep potential bugs under the carpet, placing a firewall in front of an application might be less costly, or less disruptive, than re-writing it in light of a code review.

Finally, it has to be said that PCI DSS, admirable as its goals may be, has been far from perfect in practical terms. Not knowing exactly where the PCI Security Standards Council has drawn the line with Requirement 6.6 can be frustrating for those who are otherwise keen to toe that line. To a security professional who would normally urge the use of both code reviews and firewalls, it is another example of the compliance dilemma. If you promulgate a standard intended to increase security, you must be prepared to answer the question: "What must I do to comply with the standard?" The problem is, the question often becomes "What is the minimum I can do to be in compliance?" Just a few weeks ago, the PCI Council also released a clarification stating that companies can either perform the code review or install the application firewall, but that they would ideally like to see enterprises do both.

I recommend taking the time to understand PCI's Web application requirements, including the clarification documents, and consider how the approved options mesh with your architecture and resources. It is now clear that enterprises have multiple paths to compliance and, if executed properly, any of the options will not only help achieve compliance, but also improve Web application security.

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/security-web-application-controllers.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 DLP Tumbleweed Ironmail Ironport Secure Computing compare

What Symantec's Enterprise Vault Division does NOT want you to know! - May 6, 2008

Lake Mary, Florida -- Barracuda Networks Inc., the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances, today launched the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 models for enterprises and large organizations searching for an affordable solution to preserve and index all emails.  The Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 models also help organizations to efficiently store and manage emails while satisfying regulatory compliance criteria for saving email.“One of the biggest challenges facing larger organizations today is the need to balance making sure that their email server continues to operate efficiently while also future proofing their network for compliance,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks.  “The Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 enable enterprise customers to achieve legal and regulatory compliance needs while making more efficient use of storage technology by providing increased performance, reliability and scalability inside the IT organization.”


The Barracuda Message Archiver 850 can archive and index email for up to 4,000 users and the Barracuda Message Archiver 950 has enough processing power to handle 6,000 users.  Both models include dual-redundant power supplies and hot-swappable RAID arrays.  In addition to offering the full set of storage capabilities – including single instance storage and built-in storage and redundancy through internal or external mirroring – offered with all Barracuda Message Archiver models, the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 models also include a hardware-based iSCSI host based adapter for high-performance interaction with Storage Area Networks.


Reliable Search and Storage for Public Records Requests

As the second largest school district in Washington with more than 29,000 students spread across 54 schools, the Spokane Public School District in Spokane needed to ensure that it was equipped to quickly respond to email discovery requests.  In Washington, all public organizations, including school districts, are subject to public records requests and various entities can request specific information, such as emails, related to district operations.  Spokane Public Schools selected the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 to help manage and store the email of its more than 4,500 email users to fulfill these public records requests.


“Prior to installing the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 there was no centralized way to fulfill this type of request,” said Brown.  “All employees would be asked to go through their own email inboxes and forward any emails related to the specific request to the IT staff for inclusion in a response to the requesting entity.  This was a slow, time-consuming and ineffective process.”


As with the full Barracuda Message Archiver product line, the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 offer a complete set of message archiving features designed with both compliance and storage efficiency in mind.  The Barracuda Message Archiver stores and indexes all email for easy search and retrieval by both regular users and third-party auditors and offers greater ease of use and administration, enabling deployment in less than 60 minutes.


“We were pleased that the Barracuda Message Archiver 850 not only was able to archive on a going forward basis but it also allowed us to automatically import in all messages already in our email system giving us access to information that had been up to that point difficult to retrieve,” said Brown.  “In addition it is easy to maintain and we appreciate that updates and enhancements are made in a timely fashion.”


Pricing and Availability

The Barracuda Message Archiver 850 and 950 are currently available in the U.S. and priced at $29,999 and $44,999 respectively with no per user licensing fees.  International pricing and availability varies by region. 


About the Barracuda Message Archiver

The Barracuda Message Archiver is a complete and affordable email archiving solution, designed to effectively index and preserve all emails, achieve legal and regulatory compliance needs, and make more efficient use of storage technology inside the IT organization.  Leveraging standard policies and seamless access to messages, email content is fully indexed and backed up to enable administrators, auditors and end users quick retrieval of any email message stored in an organization’s email archive.  Delivered by Barracuda Central, Energize Updates provide automatic updates to its extensive library of virus and policy definitions for enhanced monitoring of compliance and corporate guidelines, document file format updates needed to decode content within email attachments and security updates for the underlying platform to remain free of potential security vulnerabilities.


For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php


About Us


Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.


Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.


Key words:  DR BC Replication De-Dup iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant LTO Backup Exc NetBackup Legato TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud Enterprise Vault


De-Dup now with GRID Storage - May 6, 2008

ExaGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with byte-level data de-duplication, recently announced the industry's first 30TB disk-based backup system with data de-duplication and a scalable GRID architecture. This product enhancement allows customers to store a 30TB full backup, plus weeks or months of retention, in a single GRID system. The expanded 30TB capacity will be available for both ExaGrid's EX series servers with internal storage, as well as the ExaGrid iSCSI Gateway for Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage arrays.

In addition to expanded backup capacity, ExaGrid provides best-in-class backup performance by writing to disk at full disk speed (post-processing) and by adding complete servers in a GRID for system expansion, instead of just more disk capacity. This scalable GRID-based approach maintains fast backup performance even as data grows. ExaGrid is also uniquely fast for restore performance as it stores the most recent backup in its complete, non-de-duplicated form ready for rapid restoration or tape copies.

The latest version of the ExaGrid Disk-based Backup system includes the following important enhancements and customer benefits:

Scalable Virtualized GRID Architecture:


  • Store a 30TB full backup, plus retention of backup history, in a single GRID system (up to six 5TB ExaGrid servers in a virtualized GRID system).

  • Plug-and-play growth—new systems virtualize together automatically. No splitting data or losing de-duplication efficiency across separate systems.

  • Fully configured ExaGrid installations are managed via a single Web UI, accessed with one login, unlike other solutions that require logging into and managing multiple separate devices.

  • Performance scales with data growth since processing power and memory are added along with storage capacity.

  • Automatic load balancing across all servers in the GRID.

  • Multiple 30TB GRID systems can be installed for increased capacity.


 

 

Highest Performance for Shortest Backup Window and Fastest Data Restoration:

  • Fastest backup performance due to post-process de-duplication. Write directly to disk without any processing on the fly to slow down backups. (Backup throughput: up to 4TB/hour).

  • Fastest restore and tape copy performance with byte-level data de-duplication which keeps the most recent backup in its whole form, unlike other solutions which require re-assembly from small blocks and large hash tables. (Restore throughput: up to 2.6TB/hour).


 

Most Cost-Effective and Flexible Solution:

  • Granular sizing options "right size" to specific customer backup data requirements, today and in the future.

  • Five EX Series server configurations with internal storage hold full backups of 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB or 5TB, plus retention. Servers can be combined, with up to six servers in a single GRID (5TB EX Series servers x 6 = 30TB ExaGrid GRID system).

  • No need to over buy storage capacity upfront. Systems can be easily combined in a virtualized GRID for larger capacities as needed.


 

Support for Leading Backup Applications

  • CA ARCserve

  • CommVault Galaxy

  • Symantec Backup Exec

  • Symantec NetBackup

  • EMC Networker

  • Microsoft SQL Dump

  • VMware Backup (VMDK)


 

Energy and Rack Space Efficient Operation

  • Customers can store many times more backup data in the same space for substantial savings in power, cooling and space requirements versus standard disk.


 

"We hear over and over again that completing ever larger backups in a short backup window is a primary customer concern," said Bill Andrews, president and CEO, ExaGrid Systems, Inc. "This latest product enhancement allows customers to achieve the shortest backup window possible with our post-processing data de-duplication, but also to maintain that short backup window as their data grows by leveraging our scalable GRID architecture. This approach also allows customers the flexibility to buy only what they need, when they need it, as additional servers can be added into the GRID at any time. The strength of our scalable GRID architecture is that you can grow the system as your data grows and performance does not degrade. Each server brings additional memory, processor and bandwidth resources, along with storage capacity."

For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php

About Us

Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.

Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral

Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication  thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX  virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ

EMC has it's head in the Clouds - Cloud Storage that is! - May 6, 2008

Mozy, Inc., part of the Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division of EMC (NYSE:EMC), today announced the release of MozyHome for Mac, the industry's first unlimited online backup service for the Mac. Mac users in the home can now safely and cost-effectively back up all of their digital information over the Internet. With more than 700,000 total users worldwide and 6.2 billion files backed up, Mozy is the leading online backup service of choice for consumers and small businesses.

"Mozy is honoring its roots by augmenting its service to consumers and small businesses," said Vance Checketts, chief operating officer for Mozy. "We've had more than 43,000 individuals participate in our public beta and have devoted thousands of hours of development to this new MozyHome for Mac release."

Designed as a consumer service, MozyHome for Mac offers 2 gigabytes of online backup absolutely free with no expiration date, or $4.95 a month for unlimited online backup capacity. Mozy automatically protects all computer files including photos, music, videos and financial documents from data loss in the event of hard drive crash, accidental deletion, natural disaster or theft. All files are encrypted with 448-bit Blowfish encryption and the encrypted files are transferred via a 128-bit SSL connection – the same encryption used for online banking – during the backup process for extra security. After the initial backup, Mozy only backs up incremental changes to files and folders, meaning subsequent backups run extremely fast. In addition to the most recent backup, Mozy keeps 30 days worth of file versions as well. In the event of data loss, files may be recovered via the Mozy client software, downloaded from the Mozy website, or by ordering the files on a set of DVDs from Mozy.

"I had just completed my transition from Tiger to Leopard when my hard drive crashed," said Donald Malm, who participated in the MozyHome for Mac beta. "The restore of all my data from Mozy was completed without a single error. My Quicken data was exactly where I had left off the day before the crash. Never have I made a better purchasing decision since I started in the insurance and financial system design industry 52 years ago."

Later this summer, Mozy will release a business version of its Mac service to enhance its MozyPro and MozyEnterprise offerings. More than 20,000 business customers already trust Mozy to back up their data, and Mozy is currently backing up more than 7.5 petabytes, the equivalent to 7.8 million gigabytes, across multiple data centers. Businesses interested in an online backup service for the Mac can sign up to be notified at www.mozy.com/mac/probeta.

With the addition of the MozyHome for Mac service, EMC offers Mac users the industry's most robust backup and recovery options. Other data protection offerings for Mac users include EMC Retrospect for Macintosh and EMC LifeLine software.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php

About Us

Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage 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



headerbottomrounded