Best Practices in Data Center Re-Design will add $$$ to the Company's bottom-line - January 23, 2009

Orlando Florida -- Power consumption at data centers is once again in the spotlight, after Automation and Consolidation firm Sencilo Solutions of Daytona Beach Florida came up with a list of best practices in the data center that are designed to save electricity and improve cooling.

Sencilo claims that if companies follow all of it's best practices, they could typically expect to save 1 million kilowatt-hours. It says that in a conventional data center, between 35% and 50% of the electricity consumed is for cooling compared to only 15% in best-practice or 'green' data centers.

"Virtually all data centers waste enormous amounts of electricity using inefficient cooling designs and systems along with older storage arrays," said Rob Peterson, CTO and co-founder of Sencilo, in a statement. "Even in a small data center, this wasted electricity amounts to more than 1 million kilowatt-hours annually that could be saved with the implementation of some best practices."

The main reason for the waste in conventional data center cooling is the "unconstrained mixing of cold supply air with hot exhaust air on out dated servers and storage," he said.

"This mixing increases the load on the cooling system and energy used to provide that cooling, and reduces the efficiency of the cooling system by reducing the delta-T (the difference between the hot return temperatures and the cold supply temperature). A high delta-T is a principle in cooling," McGuckin said.

The following are Sencilo's 10 top tips for reducing power consumption:

Plug holes in the raised floor. Holes in the floor allow cold air to escape and mix with hot air. This single low-tech retrofit can save as much as 10% of energy used for data center cooling, says Peterson.

Installing blanking panels. Data centers are full of racks, and unused rack space needs to be covered with a blanking panel so that air flow can be properly managed -- for example, by preventing hot air leaving equipment in one section of the rack and then entering the cold air intake for other equipment elsewhere in the rack. Sencilo says that when these panels are used effectively, supply air temperatures can be lowered by as much as 22 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 5 degrees Celsius).

Look into new primary storage compression appliances and de-dupe devices for backup and reduce the number of disk drives 15x.

Improve under-floor airflow. This typically affects older data centers, where the space under the raised flooring is a lot more constrained than in newer builds. Many old data centers also use the underfloor spacing for running data and power cables, thereby restricting airflow. Clearing out of these spaces is advised.

Implement hot and cold aisles. This is one of the most obvious best practices. Sencilo says traditional data centers use a "classroom style" to position their racks, whereby all the intakes face in one direction. The problem with this setup is that hot air exhausted from one row mixes with cold air being drawn into the adjacent row, thereby increasing cold-air supply temperature in uneven ways. Newer rack-layout practices over the past 10 years instead organize rows into hot and cold aisles, which offer much better control of airflow.

Install sensors. Seems obvious, but how do you tell if you have a temperature problem in a certain area of your data center? Sencilo says a minimal investment in this technology could reap big insights into data center operations and can also provide a method for analyzing the results of improvements made to the cooling systems.

Implement cold or hot aisle containment. When a data center uses hot and cold aisles, dramatically improved separation of cold supply air and hot exhaust air through containment becomes a viable option. Sencilo reckons effective containment of the hot or cold aisles will provide, for most users, the single largest payback of any of these best practices.

Replace those older filer servers with a new NAS arrary, in one case we retired 72 Compaq file-servers with aging 32 GB SCSI drives, which a single NAS device sporting the newer S-ATA II disk.  Between reduced floor space, electricity, cooling and noise our client paid for the new NAS in 3 months.  

Exploit free cooling. It depends a lot on local climate, but in winter in Northern Florida, cold air is readily available outside the data center.

Designing new data centers using modular cooling. Traditional data centers have been cooled by the raised-floor perimeter air distribution. Mounting evidence strongly points to the use of modular cooling (in-row or in-rack) as a more energy-efficient cooling strategy.

Today Sencilo Solutions has put it's "Green Certified stamp" on over 35 companies throughout Central Florida including two Power Companies and four government agencies. 

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

IT Cost Cutting Solutions - Part Two - Using Primary Storage Compression - January 23, 2009

Clearwater Florida -- With the amount of data growing by leaps and bounds every year, technologies that can make the most of storage capacity and reduce the amount of physical space, power and maintenance that storing terabytes or petabytes of data requires are becoming increasingly attractive to large and even mid-sized organizations.

Not surprisingly, analysts predict continued strong growth and adoption of secondary storage optimization and data de-duplication solutions over the next 12 months. In times like these, it's technology that sells itself.

Now, building on the success of secondary storage optimization (SSO), a number of vendors have introduced optimization solutions aimed directly at primary storage. Although it's early days for primary storage optimization (PSO), with only a few hundred confirmed customers, analyst Eric Burgener, who covers storage optimization for the Taneja Group, sees PSO and technologies like wide area data services (WADS) gaining momentum and making inroads with storage customers over the next year.

"Over the last four years, we've seen the growth rate for secondary storage optimization [take off]," said Burgener.

But when SSO first came on the scene, "people were very hesitant about the technology, because it was new and there hadn't been anything like this around before," he recalled. "Primary storage optimization is very similar to secondary storage optimization in terms of the concept. But this time around the concept's proven. People know that the technology works pretty much — and there are thousands of referenceable customers that are using secondary storage optimization technology," whom end users can talk to.

"So we think the growth of the market is going to happen much more rapidly in the PSO space, just because people are already generally familiar with that technology," he said. PSO and SSO use different algorithms, "but the concept is very similar."

Inline vs. Post-Processing

In defining the PSO market, Burgener identifies two distinct camps: the inline approaches (exemplified by Storwize) and the post-processing approaches (exemplified by NetApp and Ocarina Networks).

Which approach is right for optimally storing your primary data depends on the problem you are trying to solve, said Burgener. "There's no one [PSO] technology that's the best for all kinds of situations," he said. "The different approaches characterize what happens to writes to storage. All PSO solutions handle reads of capacity-optimized data at wire speeds."

By way of examples, Burgener cites Ocarina Networks as "the most application-specific player on the primary side," with, as of late September, 112 different algorithms — or 112 different file types that its Ocarina ECO System could identify, including TIFF, MPEG, Word, and PPT files.

"They've actually got an algorithm that's specific to each one of those," he said. "So if you're dealing with, say, pictures, or an online photo database, Ocarina [with its post-processing approach] is a pretty good fit for that — and why Kodak chose them, because these algorithms give them higher data reduction ratios than you could get out of a more generic technology like, for instance, what Storwize is using against that particular data set."

On the other hand, if your goal is to increase your storage capacity at every point in the data's lifecycle, you're probably better off using an inline approach, like Storwize's STN appliances use, said Burgener, because that data is constantly being optimized.

The difference, he said, is that "the Ocarina approach is going to end up using more storage capacity in the earlier days or weeks of a particular piece of data's lifecycle, but then it ends up reducing it as it gets older, whereas Storwize's approach is much more 'let's reduce it right away.'"

In addition to Storwize, Ocarina Networks and NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), which Burgener said has "basically packaged a de-duplication capability with their Data ONTAP operating system, so that every NetApp box that goes out has got that capability [to do PSO]," Burgener cites Hifn (NASDAQ: HIFN) and greenBytes as two players to watch in the PSO space.

With its Express DR family of PCI Express cards, Hifn OEM customers have a choice of using an inline or a post-processing approach to PSO, said Burgener, making the solution attractive to organizations with virtual tape libraries (VTLs) and backup appliances.

As for greenBytes, its new, just-coming-out-of-beta Cypress NAS, with its Sun/ZFS+-based approach, make it very appealing to Solaris users who are running ZFS, he said. "It also might make greenBytes an attractive acquisition candidate for Sun," he added.

Benefits of PSO

The main benefit of PSO is that it reduces the overall space and power required for primary storage. Primary Storage Optimization also "shortens overall backup-and-restore times, since less data must be written to or retrieved from disk for any given data set," explained Burgener, and, "in cases where data sets must be shipped across networks, the smaller, capacity-optimized data sets require less bandwidth, thereby reducing network traffic."

PSO can also be used with Secondary Storage Optimization solutions, oftentimes resulting in a significant overall reduction in space and power consumption. Though as Burgener cautioned, "data reduction ratios with combined use will vary based on the actual solutions used and the workload types. The only way to really understand the benefit PSO, or a combination of PSO and SSO together, will provide is to test it on specific workloads."

The Pitfalls

As with other storage technologies, there is a performance versus capacity trade-off with PSO. "Access latency is a problem that is a real concern for primary storage, though not so much for secondary storage," said Burgener.

"In-line approaches (the Storwize approach) have to deal with this; it's less of an issue for post-processing approaches (the Ocarina approach), but the issue with post-processing is that it will definitely require more storage capacity," he said. "How much more depends on what schedule the post-processing is run on (e.g., within hours of writing the data, within days of writing it, or within months of writing it, etc.)."

That's why, he noted, it's important for storage and network administrators to understand their organization's particular storage challenges and weigh the pros and cons of each approach before choosing a PSO solution.

The Future's So Bright

Over the next 12 months, Burgener sees the adoption rates for both primary and secondary storage optimization solutions accelerating. "There are still a lot of end users who have heard about the technology but don't really understand how it works yet, and as more and more vendors [like EMC, IBM and Symantec] get into the space, they're going to hear more about this."

Indeed, from what Burgener has seen happening in the storage industry, and the economic arguments for doing storage optimization being so compelling, he believes that PSO is almost a forgone conclusion. "Why would you spend 10 or 20 times as much to store a piece of data if you don't have to? And there's no risk associated with doing capacity optimization. I think we're going to see this penetrate rapidly."

"It's not there right now," he said, but over the course of the next 12 months he expects PSO adoptions to increase, though "we don't think the market is going to be as large as the secondary side, just because there's a lot less data."

Burgener also predicts that within the next 12 months or so, we're "going to see one or two of the WADS vendors [like Cisco or Riverbed] make public comments that are going to put them in direct competition with people like Storwize and Ocarina in the PSO space," as well as some industry consolidation as some of the larger players snap up the smaller, more specialized vendors (such as Sun Microsystems acquiring greenBytes).

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

IT Cost Cutting Solutions - Part One - January 2, 2009

Jacksonville, Florida -- Data is growing at explosive rates, but the real news around that topic concerns new technologies designed to help users manage this growth.

Storage capacity optimization (SCO) technologies, such as enhanced compression, single instancing, and data de-duplication, are being used to reduce the amount of physical storage capacity required to store a given amount of data. SCO technologies include enhanced compression, file-level single-instancing, and data de-duplication, among others.

Generally defined as capacity optimization approaches that achieve at least a 3:1 data reduction ratio, solutions built around these technologies can often deliver ratios as high as 20:1 or greater, depending on the data types. Savings accrue in the areas of storage infrastructure, management overhead, and energy and floor-space costs, while significantly increased storage densities can enable new tiering strategies that provide the foundation for a variety of operational improvements.

Since its initial introduction in 2004 by Data Domain, SCO technology has achieved strong penetration in both large and small enterprises, with purchase intent on the increase for 2009. Today, SCO is primarily deployed in secondary storage applications such as backup and archive—market segments Taneja Group refers to as secondary storage optimization (SSO).

The other major market segment within SCO is primary storage optimization (PSO), where vendors are applying capacity optimization technologies against primary application environments, such as databases, home directories, online image repositories, and other unstructured data environments that don't have anything to do with data protection. Most of the major industry players have entered the SSO space, whether by acquisition or OEM agreements, including EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Sun, and Symantec, and there are a number of smaller vendors in this space as well, including Active Circle, Data Domain, Exagrid, FalconStor, Hifn, NEC, Overland, Permabit, Quantum, Sepaton, and Tarmin. PSO is a space that is still primarily dominated by smaller companies.

PSO is defined separately from SSO because primary storage is different from secondary storage in two key ways:

-- Access latencies for primary storage are generally much more stringent than for secondary storage. Because SCO processing introduces latency, approaches and algorithms that have worked successfully in the SSO space do not necessarily translate well for use with primary storage.

-- Primary storage generally exhibits significantly less redundancy than secondary storage. SSO algorithms that are just looking for data redundancies do not necessarily produce the highest capacity optimization ratios when used against primary storage. These two characteristics have led a number of vendors to introduce capacity optimization algorithms that are specific not only to primary storage but also to specific data types in an effort to achieve higher capacity optimization ratios.

A lot has happened in the PSO market in the last year, including two recent developments that are likely to herald some significant changes in the industry over the next two years. In this article, we'll review the available architectures, trends and issues in this emerging space, and examine two critical developments.

PSO architectures

PSO products have developed along lines similar to those used with SSO products. There are in-line and post-processing architectures, generic and application content-aware algorithms, and different locations where the technology can be deployed. Since early 2007, when there was only one vendor (Storwize) focusing on PSO, there has been a trend towards architectural proliferation, with six vendor offerings in the market now representing a variety of different approaches. With thousands of production deployments in the market today, some trends are starting to emerge that end users can use to help guide future deployments.

First, let's take a look at the different architectures:

-- In-line vs. post-processing. With in-line processing, data is capacity optimized in real time so that it is already in capacity optimized form before it is ever written to a storage target. In post-processing approaches, data is first written to the storage target in its original form, then a secondary process picks that data up, capacity-optimizes it, and writes it back to primary storage. Inline approaches require less overall raw storage capacity, but processing speed may be an issue as there is a concern that primary application performance may be negatively impacted. Post-processing approaches introduce no additional latencies that may impact primary applications, but they do require more storage, with the actual amount of incremental storage depending on how quickly the data is processed into capacity optimized form.

In-line vendors include greenBytes and Storwize, while post-processing vendors include Ocarina Networks. Two vendors, NetApp and Hifn, offer PSO technologies that can be deployed either in-line or post-processing, depending upon implementation or configuration.

-- Generic and content-aware algorithms. Generic approaches use the same capacity optimization algorithms against all data types, whereas content-aware algorithms first identify the data type and then apply an algorithm that was specifically developed for that particular data type. Generic approaches introduce less processing latency, but they may not offer capacity optimization ratios as high as content-aware approaches. Content-aware solutions, however, may be limited in the number of data types they handle. Vendors leveraging generic algorithms include greenBytes, Hifn, NetApp and Storwize, while only Ocarina Networks deploys a content-aware approach.

-- Different deployment locations. Source-based solutions capacity optimize the data on the source that created the data, whereas target-based solutions use off-host resources to capacity-optimize the data. Source-based approaches draw on host-based resources, and can potentially impact application server performance in ways that target-based approaches do not. Although source-based solutions are available in the SSO market today, most notably integrated with backup clients, all currently available PSO products are target-based today. That is likely to change over the next 6 to 12 months, however, with major vendors such as Microsoft and Sun talking about possibly integrating SCO technologies into their operating system platforms, as well as the recent introduction of hardware based PSO on a card by Hifn, an OEM vendor which does not sell SCO solutions directly to end users.

PSO issues and trends

When SCO technologies were first introduced, end users were concerned about a number of issues. Performance (throughput and latency) was a concern for both in-line and post-processing solutions, and those evaluating in-line approaches additionally focused on the latencies introduced by PSO algorithm processing as data was being written to primary storage.

Data reliability was also top of mind: Could solutions offer a way to validate that the data that was initially written into the capacity-optimized store was the data that you actually got back out?

And finally, how were availability issues addressed? If PSO solutions failed, how did this impact data availability, and how quickly could recoveries occur?

For most products in the market today, these issues have been addressed. Solutions that can handle wire speeds of up to 800MBps are available, making them applicable to many of even the most mission-critical applications. Added latencies during reads (and re-conversion) are well under 10 milliseconds for many of these solutions. Data fingerprinting based on 128- or 256-bit hashing algorithms minimize hash collision risks, and separate validation checks – generally performed through a form of checksumming – verify that data is being reliably retrieved. Availability is generally addressed by deploying PSO appliances in pairs, with indexes mirrored between appliances in cases where that is required. Some  vendors, such as Storwize, leverage enhanced compression algorithms that do not rely on an index and so do not need to mirror them.

Some applications compress data using standard Lempel-Ziv-based algorithms before storing them as standard operating procedure. In the 2007 release, Microsoft Office does this for all data files in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Office files are a major contributor to the explosive data growth the industry is experiencing. As more applications take this approach, this may affect capacity optimization ratios that solutions using enhanced compression techniques can achieve against these data types. This makes it more important  than ever to evaluate PSO technologies against your data sets prior to deployment.

While capacity optimization ratios achievable with PSO can vary wildly by data type, users should expect to see lower ratios against primary storage than what has been achieved with SSO against secondary storage. Note, however, that primary storage tends to be significantly more expensive than secondary storage on a $/GB basis, so lower ratios can still result in higher overall savings, depending on the size of the data sets against which PSO is deployed.

And don't rely on vendor claims of average capacity optimization ratios being achieved with their technologies: The only important metric is what type of capacity optimization ratios you achieve against your data. Most vendors offer "predictor" software that can be run on a server to predict the ratios achievable with their technology to get an idea of the value it offers before you install the complete solution. Discussions with references can indicate the accuracy these predictors have achieved against data sets similar to your own.

With deployments on the rise over the course of the last year, PSO technology is proving
itself across a variety of different vertical markets, including financial services, rich media, social networking, medical and life sciences, oil and gas, telecommunications, and manufacturing environments. All PSO vendors support NAS interfaces to their products (greenBytes uniquely also supports an iSCSI interface), so by definition, all of the target data sets are unstructured.

PSO solutions shipping today do seem to be applicable across a variety of different data types, and vendors in this arena seem uniformly concerned that their technologies might be pigeonholed for use against a particular data type. Still, it's interesting to note that Ocarina Networks has racked up some wins with image-based data, boasting a 20PB installation with Kodak for photographs stored online, while Storwize is the only vendor quoting performance data (throughput and capacity optimization ratios) against OLTP database environments (Oracle running on NAS) based on production installations. NetApp doesn't appear to have developed any particular data type affinities, but the company has packaged its solution, called NetApp DeDupe for FAS, with every Data ONTAP shipment, and so has a larger market footprint than the other vendors. As a recent market entrant, greenBytes is pushing the "green" envelope farther than other players in this space by integrating massive arrays of idle disks (MAID) technology into its in-line, target-based PSO solution. Virtual machine environments present a great opportunity for PSO, and most of the vendors have a number of customers using
their technology in this way.

Game-changing developments

Today, all SCO solutions are software-based. But Hifn's introduction of a hardware approach, based on a data de-duplication ASIC on a card, will make it easier and less expensive for OEMs to integrate SCO technologies into their server and storage platforms. Based on Hifn's Express DR 255 card, this product must be combined by the OEM with separate indexing and data redundancy technologies not available from Hifn to form end-user solutions, so it will likely not be until 2H09 that we start to see products based on this technology. But it is apt to draw a loose analogy between what happened to software-based compression products when hardware-based compression was introduced. Also, the higher performance that presumably will be enabled by running de-duplication in hardware could eventually broaden the applicability of SCO technologies against primary storage where performance is more of an issue, particularly for in-line solutions.

In the long run, the availability of hardware-based de-duplication will lead to broader deployment of SCO technologies and will drive prices down. It is a shot across the bow of both PSO and SSO vendors today, whose solutions are based on software.

The other game-changing development is the impending release of a network-based SCO technology that the vendor, Riverbed Technology, claims can be used against both primary and secondary storage. Due in the first half of 2009, this approach leverages Riverbed's Steelhead line of wide area data services (WDS) appliances as the capacity-optimization engine. At this point, there are still a lot of performance and scalability questions around this particular implementation, but if SCO can be applied as a network service, it could effectively recast source- and target-based solutions as niche plays. Niche plays can be profitable business models in the PSO space, given sufficient data volumes, but such a development is likely to change the SCO market landscape.

In gauging the effect of these two developments on the market over the next several years, Taneja Group believes that the availability of network-based SCO, applicable to both primary and secondary storage – and possibly supercharged by hardware-based capacity optimization algorithms – will force end users to think more strategically about how they deploy SCO technology. If data can be capacity-optimized soon after its  creation, and kept in that form except when it is being used by applications, this could go a long way towards managing explosive data growth cost-effectively. The network could be an efficient and potentially cost-effective central point where data is capacity-optimized and/or re-expanded prior to use. Ultimately, it will come down to the performance, scalability, and reliability of network-based SCO implementations, but theoretically, the advent of this model is a game-changer.

The value of SCO technology to primary storage is as interesting as its use against secondary storage. If vendors can supply SCO technologies that can be effectively used against both primary and secondary storage, there will be a clear end-user preference for these solutions over more niche-oriented solutions that can just address primary or secondary storage, but not both.

But this will not happen anytime soon. The value to be gained from SCO technology is very much linked to the overall capacity of data, which must be retained, regardless of whether that is primary or secondary data. With data growing 50 to 60% a year or more, many enterprises will soon be managing hundreds of terabytes of primary data, if they are not already. At this scale, and given that the cost of primary storage can be 10x the cost of disk-based secondary storage, capacity optimization ratios do not need to be very high before PSO becomes a compelling economic imperative.

PSO's bright future

Our forecast of these developments should not preclude the tactical purchase of either PSO or SSO solutions today, provided you can show compelling economic cases to do so based on near-term hard cost savings. Given sufficient data volumes, both PSO and SSO technologies offer huge value to enterprises today, but more comprehensive solutions, which cover both primary and secondary storage, could replace niche solutions over the next three to five years.

The PSO market has expanded from a single vendor to six vendors, and some of the major industry players are expected to enter the market this year. PSO has proved its value, and is being widely considered for use in enterprises of all sizes, but it is definitely not yet a mainstream technology. Given the cost of primary storage and explosive data growth rates, though, it's a technology whose time has come.

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

Disaster Recovery Planning Starts Before the Disaster - December 19, 2008

Tampa Florida -- The corporate headquarters building for OSI Restaurant Partners is a mere 800 feet from the end of runway at Tampa International Airport. But according to OSI Chief Information Officer Dusty Williams, that's the least of their concerns.

OSI, the company that owns popular restaurant-chain brands such as Outback Steakhouse, Roy's and Carraba's Italian Grill, is smack dab in the eye of the storm zone, in hurricane country. Their 750-person operation in Tampa includes all back office functions, including the financial, legal and real estate divisions. If a hurricane strikes and the building is impacted, the amount of sensitive data that is at stake is immeasurable.

"We're in an A zone as far as flooding is concerned. You don't really want your data center here."

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season produced a record number of consecutive storms, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The season saw a total of 16 named storms. With water temperatures rising due to climate change, many meteorological experts predict even tougher seasons to come. For companies in a hurricane zone, business continuity and disaster recovery preps need to be in place now, and not when the storm clouds begin churning.

It is that kind of thinking that inspired Williams to find a new home for the data center. In 2003, the main data center in headquarters had no back up power and a business continuity/disaster recovery plan was a vague notion. Williams got initial approval to move OSI's data center to an off-site facility hosted by backup and storage service provider Qwest.

"Typically when we talk BC/DR, it's always around hurricanes. The plan was to move the data center locally to a Qwest facility," said Williams. "The building itself is a category 3 or 4 that is built to sustain hurricane damage and has back up and battery power that we don't have in the headquarters facility."

Within months, the plan was put to the test. Florida experienced a severe hurricane season in 2004. Williams said Hurricane Charley illuminated the fact that they had made the right decision to move data off-site.

"On a Thursday night at 5 o'clock, officials told us they would be shutting power down to the grid we are on. So, if we had not outsourced the data center, we would have been dead in the water. "

Williams said the entire summer of '04 was spent preparing for hurricanes. At least four blew through the area of varying intensity. While no major damage was sustained, when the season was over, it became clear that the BC/DR plan needed to include more than just one off-site data facility. OSI now has a second cyber center in Chicago that includes all critical systems. The company has more than 1200 restaurants around the country. The Chicago center would allow OSI and its restaurants to have operations back up and running within a few hours if the Florida off-site facility went down, according to Williams' estimate.

OSI's BC/DR plan is tested regularly to ensure connectivity to restaurants is maintained. Williams says he tests by bringing the main data center down and bringing the Chicago facility online.

Outsourcing the data center is crucial to any business with a natural disaster risk, according to Iain Hardcastle, senior consultant with professional services firm Deloitte & Touche at their operations in Bermuda. On the small island where his company operates, there is only one power supply. The local office, which stores all data on a SAN, also replicates the information at a local data hosting center.

"The accounting side of our business is managing trust funds and looking after accounts for many name-plate companies. They can be absolutely multimillion-dollar, global clients. They dont care if we have a bit of a weather problem down here."

"Buns on seats" preparations
The data is only one part of the picture when it comes to business continuity in a natural disaster-prone area. If a facility goes down because of power failure or flooding, many organizations need a physical location to place their staff so operations can continue. Deloitte has what Hardcastle refers to as a "buns on seats" office off-island. So, too, does OSI. OSI maintains a comprehensive facility in Atlanta, which they have had to use at least twice in the last 4 years.

"Once we declare a disaster, we have 50 cubes available there," said Williams. "But we have to go up and make sure everything is up and running and ready. So we have people, from an IT perspective, head up 72 hours out ahead of any storm in private aircrafts to make sure everything is ready to go."

Sometimes it isnt just humans that need to be relocated. One year, according to Williams, OSI tried to send a check printer up in a plane so vendor checks could continue to be cut. Unfortunately, the machine didn't fit through the door of the aircraft. The check printer was delivered to Atlanta by van instead.

The process of relocating people, and sometimes equipment is time consuming, labor intensive and costly. The company even has contracting companies on standby for employees that may need assistance with boarding up houses before they depart. As complicated as it all sounds, Williams says, thankfully, most of it can be planned.

"With hurricanes, you have a distinct advantage over an earthquake or a tornado. You really don't know when they will strike."

Can you ever be completely prepared?
Even the most comprehensive BC/DR plan isn't without some risk, according to Hardcastle, who calls the Sencilo Solutions BC/DR plan a "continuously evolving process."
Williams admits he is still troubled at the prospect of keeping track of personnel in a worst case scenario.

"I dont worry as much abut the technical side of it as a do the operations/people side of it. How do you find people?" he said.

OSI says disaster plans are also considered regionally for all of its 1200-plus restaurants and each have special numbers set up so people can dial-in and alert the company as to where they are.

"But you worry about how long that will take if cell service, phone service, is down" said Williams.

And despite the plans put in place at the headquarters building, there will still inevitably be some loss if the facility itself is damaged in high winds or flood waters, said Williams.

"Sometimes people have paper on their desk that they havent put into a system yet. In those cases you need to ensure you have connections with vendors to ask them "How can we get your invoice back in here and get you paid?"

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

Best Practices for Microsoft Hyper-V and Storage Provisioning - November 9, 2008

Orlando Florida -- Xiotech Corporation announced plans today, at Storage Networking World (SNW) Fall 2008, to support Linux and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environments within its award-winning ICON Manager user interface, expanding the integrated and automated storage provisioning and management it already provides. Through the end of SNW Fall, Xiotech representatives are available to discuss these and the company's other storage management tools at booth #306.

Currently, storage provisioning and management are typically "siloed" in that IT managers must use multiple management consoles to configure storage – first on the storage array, and then on the physical and virtual servers. Each step adds time and the risk of human error. ICON Manager's integrated and automated storage management enables users to provision and manage storage from a single console and gain a global view of storage throughout their IT environments.

ICON Manager, which currently provides these advanced capabilities for Windows and VMware environments, now adds support for Linux in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will support Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V by early 2009. ICON Manager also supports simplified storage provisioning and management for other operating systems, including UNIX, Mac OS and Novell NetWare.

"Our customers have saved significant money, time and stress by simplifying how they monitor, provision and manage their storage through ICON Manager," said Sencilo Solutions CEO Brian McCarthy. "Storage management is more application-driven than storage-driven, and the human error found in complex management procedures is essentially eliminated, because of the automation and control ICON Manager delivers. With support for additional operating systems, our users will now be able to realize even more functionality and savings across their entire IT ecosystems."

ICON Manager is designed for users of Xiotech's Emprise™ 7000 and Magnitude 3D® 4000 and Magnitude 3D 3000 storage systems. Based on the Web Services open architecture and utilizing Microsoft Management Console plug-ins, ICON Manager provides an unprecedented level of integration, automating storage management processes across the array and server environments. Wizards guide users through common tasks, speeding administration, reducing the possibility for errors and empowering users to realize the full value of their investment. Additionally, ICON Manager provides a global view of storage across the array, physical server and virtual machine layers, which helps avoid the inefficiencies of dark storage, where allocated but unused storage is difficult to locate and identify.

"It is good to see Xiotech extending its existing capabilities with ICON Manager into more environments," said Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Mark Peters. "With increasing system complexity as the norm in most data centers – especially as virtualized server environments grow – the capability that Xiotech offers for overall centralized storage monitoring and management is a boon. It's not just centralized and functional, but – at least as important – it's also easy to learn, navigate and use."
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com

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.

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

HP and Ocarina Networks now offering Primary Storage Compression via Sencilo Solutions - October 17, 2008

Lake Mary, Florida -- Ocarina Networks today announced that it will implement its content-aware compression and deduplication for primary storage to optimize the storage capacity of the HP family of Scalable Network Attached Storage (NAS) platforms, including the HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System (ExDS9100).

Ocarina's software stack for HP Scalable NAS offerings includes content-aware deduplication for primary storage, content-aware compression, as well as ECOsnap content-aware snapshots, allowing a customer to use the HP Scalable NAS offerings as a massive time-sequenced repository with as much as 200:1 data reduction over time. The resulting solution will include features unique for HP Scalable NAS products, including time-sequenced snapshots, metadata acceleration, and a global namespace that allows multiple HP Scalable NAS platforms to look like one larger pool of storage.

Ocarina is a leader in building storage features that use data reduction to deliver complete capacity optimized storage, says Brian McCarthy CEO and well known Storage Expert for more then 25 years. In customer implementations, Ocarina's storage optimization technology has helped customers store ten times more data on storage they already own, says McCarthy. Ocarina's award-winning self-optimizing, content-aware dedupe solution will support Scalable NAS products, offering customers comparable improvements in storage efficiency on a single integrated platform, unlike a Data Domain which requires propriety disks and complex electronics. 

HP StorageWorks NAS is part of the Ocarina ECOsphere, Ocarina's optimized storage partner program for combining Ocarina technologies with partner storage offerings to create capacity optimized storage solutions for customers.

"Ocarina's content-aware offerings coupled with the HP Extreme Data Storage solution represents a major step forward in addressing storage needs for online and digital media businesses," said Murli Thirumale, CEO of Ocarina Networks. "The combination of our primary storage dedupe and compression solution with HP's ExDS9100 forms a true capacity optimized Scalable NAS solution."

Integrated Platform Nails Dedupe for Primary Data

Unstructured data -- rich media files, email, compound business documents and PDF files -- pose a problem for simple dedupe solutions. Ocarina's content-aware solution is able to achieve results on these and other image-rich file types where traditional dedupe may disappoint. As a result, Ocarina is able to address the capacity optimized storage needs of markets like large Web 2.0 sites, seismic archives for oil/gas companies, image archives for healthcare, post-production graphics for movie studios and game developers, as well as the needs of the broad file/print marketplace. 

Ocarina's compression solution, which can run directly on up to all 16 blades of an HP ExDS9100 storage platform, offers up to 10:1 in initial data reduction on already compressed file types that are driving massive storage growth. When running Ocarina ECOsnap to create a time-sequenced repository, data reduction can climb to as much as 200:1.

"While data deduplication has transformed the way that backups are made and stored, the benefits of data reduction for archival and primary data could be significant as well," said Dave Russell, research vice president at Gartner. "The marketplace is ready for solutions that use data reduction techniques to address the capacity issues of all types of data. The idea of compression and dedupe integrated directly into the storage is one that many customers are going to find compelling."

The Ocarina-HP StorageWorks NAS Solution

Ocarina's technology will deliver three features for HP's Extreme Data Storage platform:
--  Ocarina ECOsnap: This time-sequenced hyper-compressed repository
    snapshot feature means users can keep a once-a-day snapshot of all their
    files for as much as ten years worth of data in a very small storage
    footprint. ECOsnap can extend Ocarina's 10:1 data reduction on the first
    snap of a set of files to up to 200:1 data reduction across a set of
    snapshots taken every day over a period of time.
--  Ocarina NameSpace: This feature allows a set of file systems to appear
    as one large volume, giving users a nearly unlimited pool of storage, which
    will appear as a unified, self-optimizing repository.
--  Ocarina Metadata Accelerator: This feature accelerates metadata
    performance for listing files and directories in a large repository.
   
Ocarina's relationship with HP includes a porting effort by Ocarina, as well as mutual support and escalation to ensure customers of the combined solution receive the support they need. Ocarina Storage Optimization solutions will be sold by Ocarina to be installed on HP Scalable NAS products, including the HP ExDS9100, as a validated application.

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

Tips on Consolidation, Dedupe, Data Reduction & Other Ways To Make The Most Of Your Storage - September 28, 2008

Orlando Florida -- With today’s challenging budgets, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure the dollars needed to procure new technologies. But some technologies are too essential for the enterprise, leaving little wiggle room for skimping on resources for these technologies.  Also by working with a vendor that has a working knowlege of what it takes to consolidate, automate, protect and make sure you are in compliance with your data.

Take storage, for example: An increasing dependence on storage within the enterprise and its importance in meeting regulatory data storage and archival requirements mean that, even under the onslaught of budget challenges, enterprises cannot afford to take monetary shortcuts with their storage infrastructures, says Brian McCarthy President of Storage Reseller Sencilo Solutions in Lake Mary, Florida.

So, what’s Joe Administrator to do when management clamors for budget cuts even as requirements for maintaining storage infrastructures continue to increase? Well, one general solution is to leverage new storage technologies that allow administrators to get more out of their existing storage assets. And thankfully, there are a number of approaches that allow administrators to wring more returns out of their existing storage assets.

What, then, are the main challenges facing administrators today when it comes to storage? Most experts agree that one of the main challenges is the ongoing growth of data. Tom Grave, director of product management for Diligent Technologies (www.diligent.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM, says handling rapid data growth; managing costs, backup, and recovery operations; and implementing offsite data protection are all challenges administrators are facing. In addition, he adds, recent trends in regulation and compliance are also playing a larger role. Resources are also an issue: According to Christophe Guittenit, founder and CTO of Seanodes (www.seanodes.com), today’s primary challenge for administrators is dealing with flat budgets as storage needs continue to increase.

Reclaim Unused Space

One way to get more out of existing storage assets is to ensure those assets are fully utilized. In terms of storage, the internal disks in application servers are usually unused, says Guittenit, who adds, “This requires the addition of new storage hardware frequently, both network dedicated to storage and disk arrays.” One way to do this is by using technologies that allow administrators to reclaim the large untapped storage capacity embedded in application servers to cover storage needs. Typically, this type of technology works by using software to convert internal disks and direct-attached storage into shared storage that can be used to store more data.

Andrew Mapp says this approach reclaims bought and unused storage capacity in application servers and turns them into a highly efficient, reliable, virtual networked storage device. In essence, this approach enables the use of heretofore untapped sources of storage in the enterprise: It’s all about making use of what’s already readily available within enterprise server internal disks and DAS.

The SME Challenge

One of the main challenges for SMEs is a lack of time and attention, due to the fact that SMEs lack the IT resources to scale up their business for maximum operational efficiency and better performance, says michael Eitenbichler. This, he adds, is necessary as the need to store more data becomes essential in order to stay competitive. So, even though most companies are now managing more than 30 times the amount of data they had less than 10 years ago, this means more data to manage and more complex technologies to learn.

“Ongoing administration and maintenance of the existing storage infrastructure can consume the lion’s share of most organizations’ IT budgets and time,” says Eitenbichler. And, he adds, with budgets remaining flat and data requirements increasing, the need for better storage resource management has become a business priority.

Eitenbichler points to five major methods administrators can use to reduce the costs of managing their existing storage assets and protecting their data: consolidation, centralized backup, deduplication, thin provisioning, and data life cycle management (see the “Managing & Protecting Data Cost-Effectively” sidebar for more information).

Saving Space

Quantum Corp.’ Grave says two technologies at the top of the list of approaches that help users do more with their existing storage infrastructures are deduplication and virtualization. Deduplication technologies find and eliminate redundant data within a storage repository, adds Grave, so the primary value proposition of deduplication is to maximize storage utilization.

In fact, says Carter George, vice president of products with Ocarina Networks (www.ocarinatech.com), data reduction techniques such as compression, deduplication, and more advanced storage optimization can allow an administrator to store as much as 10 times more data on the storage that they already have. For example, adds George, administrators can use caching and the use of memory for file-based storage, while solid-state disks are poised to emerge as the fastest drives in a storage system.

In terms of utilization, adds George, the keys are better utilization of free space and better utilization of the space needed for data. “The key technology for free space management is thin provisioning,” he adds. This technology, says George, virtualizes the view of disk space to users and allows free space to be allocated and managed more efficiently. He adds that storage optimization is the key technology for utilization of the space needed for data storage. By using this technology, users can shrink existing files by as much as 90%, thus enabling the storage of up to 10 times more data on disks already owned by the enterprise.

Improving Performance

Beyond utilization, all administrators also want to improve the performance of their storage infrastructures. Jon Affeld, senior director of product marketing at BlueArc (www.bluearc.com), points to a number of techniques that can be used to enhance performance, including striping, tiering, caching, and upgrading.

Striping data across LUN groups and disk arrays allows administrators to do more work in parallel and bring more resources to bear for specific tasks, adds Affeld. An example, he says, is a database striped across several hundred disk drives all acting as a logical unit.

Tiering means creating different tiers of disk media and storage arrays optimized to different tasks, he adds. The use of caching technology to preload commonly used data and files can deliver speedier access. Finally, he emphasizes, upgrading to the latest firmware or technology possible for existing equipment can also improve performance.

“Look for products that are modular, easily scalable, and allow upgrading with data in place and minimal disruption to service,” says Affeld.

At the end of the day, there are a number of technologies that can enable administrators to get more from what they already have in place. In a sense, the challenge for administrators has moved beyond figuring out which primary storage solutions to choose to determining what technologies are required to effectively manage and enhance the performance and utilization of what’s already in place. 

Managing & Protecting Data Cost-Effectively

Brian McCarthy of Sencilo solutions (www.sencilo.com) points to a list of five methods SME customers should focus on to reduce the costs of managing and protecting data:

1. Consolidation. Moving data onto centralized storage systems can help administrators avoid the fragmented capacity that leads to extra maintenance work, low disk utilization, and huge backup headaches.

2. Centralized backup. SMEs should look at disk-to-disk-to-tape backup solutions that initially store data on disk drives and eventually migrate it to tape for long-term data retention. Ensuring successful backups on a nightly basis is “mission-critical,” says Eitenbichler.

3. Deduplication. Using de-duplication allows administrators to drastically reduce the amount of data stored on disk-based backup systems at data reduction ratios of 20:1 or even 40:1.

4. Thin provisioning. This technique eliminates wasted capacity by automatically sizing storage capacity needed by application requirements.

5. Data life cycle management. It sounds simple, but keeping an inventory of storage devices onsite, available capacity, and growth trends can allow administrators to delay additional purchases for several months. 
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

Best Practices for Data Reduction - Ocarina Networks - September 27, 2008

 Storage optimization vendor says its ECO System delivers 10:1 data reduction ratios

Tampa Florida -- The explosion of data and storage, and the requirement that information be stored in an economical manner that allows for easy retrieval and recovery has fueled a boom in tools and tactics to compress, de-dupe, and generally reduce the amount that is being dumped on disk drives, tapes, and other types of storage systems.

Data reduction startup Ocarina Networks , which emerged from stealth mode earlier this year, has expanded its ECO System storage optimization offering with a host of new features and the ability to shrink a wider range of file types in order to appeal to more companies and industries. It promises to deliver a 10-to-1 reduction in the data footprint of files.

"We shrink things more than any other competing technology," boasted Carter George, vice president of products and technology, to Byte and Switch, "and we do it with your existing storage technology and processes. We work on the files you already have and on the technology you already have."

Ocarina takes a three-step ECO process to compress files. Carter says most files like email, photos, videos, music, and every document created in Microsoft Office are already compressed when they're saved, and it's hard to shrink files that have already been compressed. So Ocarina identifies a file type and decompresses it to its original raw format in a process it calls "Extract," which is done in the background and can be managed through policies. It then "Correlates" and checks to see if the data is duplicated so it can eliminate copies, such as a photo that is stored, then used in a PowerPoint presentation, and later used in a company white paper. Then it "Optimizes," using a content-aware compressor and more than 100 algorithms to shrink around 500 files types, and writes the de-duped and compressed data back to disk.

The compression appliance was originally targeted at online photo-sharing sites, but now includes a batch of new file types to serve the media and entertainment, oil and gas, and medical image archive markets. New features include one-step file migration and optimization, time-sequenced file versioning and viewing, and virtual global namespaces.

Ocarina is competing in a market with a number of strong competitors, including Data Domain Inc. (Nasdaq: DDUP), NetApp Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), Riverbed Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: RVBD), and a host of others that offer data de-duplication. Larger storage vendors have, or will soon include, these optimization capabilities in their products, which will pose another challenge to Ocarina.

Gartner Research vice president David Russell says Ocarina's "secret sauce" is the ability to crack up proprietary and already compressed files and work its compression magic on a variety of raw formats: "A lot of vendors are already doing data de-duplication, but Ocarina is taking it a little bit further by being able to handle multiple workloads. The current state of the art in data de-duplication and data reduction is becoming compelling for users with a growing amount of data to store."

Advances in this area will be transformational, Russell believes, and the industry is just at the beginning of what it should able to accomplish in terms of shrinking data across all workloads. The challenge for these niche vendors, however, is whether they're offering a product or a feature that in the long run will be incorporated into larger storage systems. "The conventional trend in technology is that products like these end up as features," he says.

George understands that challenge and says Ocarina is prepared to go the partnership route. The company has inked deals with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Isilon Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ISLN) and expects to announce several more before year's end. "We're talking to every major file server vendor right now, and we're happy to be an arms merchant for storage vendors."

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