Virtualization
Tips for Going Green and other IT Cost Cutting Ideas - February 3, 2009
Orlando Florida - So, I thought I would supply everyone with a little Ecotech news. Here are "50 Clean-Tech Tips and Going Green Facts" to help greenify the geek in you. Selling refurbished PCs is now a $6 billion-a-year business.
- The "phantom load" (electricity consumed by "switched-off" appliances like TVs, radios, microwaves, etc) can add $200 a year to your bill.
- Switched-off devices account for 40% of the energy consumed by electronics in an average home.
- The U.S. government could save $330 million over a 4 year period if its data centers complied with Energy Star Version 4.0
- Extra heat generated by computers means more heat in the office, which translates to more use of air conditioning.
- Companies that sign for the WWF's Climate Savers Computing Initiative could reduce CO2 pollution by 10 million tons annually by 2010.
- At the 2008 CES, Fujitsu showed a laptop PC whose outside plastic shell is 50% vegetable-based polymer alloy.
- Creation of a desktop PC usually requires ten times the PC's weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, most of them toxic.
- 15 billion batteries are made and sold across the globe every year.
- If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment.
- By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers.
- Typical U.S. cell phone users replace their phones every year and a half.
- 130 million cell phones each year go into retirement.
- Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold - gold that would not have to be mined.
- PCs contain gold too: 1.2 tons of PC scrap electronics has more than can be extracted from 17 tons of gold ore.
- Only 15% of Americans are aware that local recyclers will take old electronics and computers.
- Each year, the world generates 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste.
- E-waste makes up 2% of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. garbage.
- Flaws in Windows XP's sleep mode and Microsoft's choice of "High Performance" as the default performance option may have added $5 billion to power bills annually worldwide.
- NASA, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration are all now committed to buying only EPEAT-certified computers.
- Manufacturing 1 desktop and 1 monitor requires 530lbs of fossil fuel, 58lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water.
- 12% (25 million) of Americans would pay extra for greener electronics. On the other hand, 41% (90 million) are not willing to pay extra.
- Wii is the power-saving leader of game consoles, consuming only 18.4 watts. Compare the hogs: Xbox (186W), PS3 (199W), and a PC (209W at peak usage).
- While old CRT monitors use more energy to show white than black, LCDs spend slightly more energy to show black than white.
- Don't recycle, Freecycle. There are 4,226 Freecycle.org online groups helping more than 4 million users give away "junk" to others who can use it.
- The average office drone uses up 10,000 sheets of paper - about a whole tree's worth of wood pulp per year.
- 2.05 million tons of electronics were put out as garbage in the U.S. in 2005. Only about 18% of that was recycled.
- The U.S scraps about 400 million pieces of consumer electronics equipment, e-waste per year. It's the fastest-growing waste stream.
- If you buy a new system, Apple and Dell will recycle your old computer, regardless of manufacturer.
- Search EPEAT.net's Product Registry to find computers and monitors that are certified green.
- There's 4 to 8lbs of toxic lead in all CRT TVs and monitors. Flat-panels have less lead, but more mercury.
- It's estimated that as much as 80% of U.S. e-waste is shipped overseas or to Mexico to be dismantled in unsafe working conditions.
- As much as 50% of the power most desktop computers use is wasted as heat jettisoned by fans on the power supply.
- A survey by Staples in November 2007 indicated that only 23% of U.S. residents recycle electronics.
- Between 2000 and 2007, as many as 500 million computers became obsolete.
- To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers on average create 5 kilograms of waste.
- Shopping for a new HDTV? Plasma TVs consume far more energy than LCDs and they waste it as heat energy.
- Shopping for a surge protector? Buy one of reasonable capacity. The bigger it is the more energy it consumes.
- Bamboo is the most sustainable of all materials. Look for laptops encased in it, such as the ASUS Ecobook.
- By 2001, e-waste already accounted for 70% of the heavy metals and 40% of the lead in U.S. landfills.
- Some LCDs are built using plastic rather than glass, which is far easier to recycle.
- If all commuters worked from home just 1 day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil each year.
- If you listen to your CD player 2 hours a day, you can save $200 a year by switching to rechargeable batteries.
- The energy saved by recycling 1 plastic bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
- Take an HP, Lexmark, or Dell printer cartridge to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3 coupon for ink or toner.
- Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes.
- Unplug! Each year in the U.S., electronic devices that are turned off but not unplugged use electricity worth $3 billion.
- Blog, it eliminates the need for paper, thus saving a tree.
- Or better yet, turn off your laptop or PC and go outside. If we are going to having global warming, you might as well enjoy the warm weather it brings.
- Last but not least, paint your laptop and/or PC green. It will trick the components inside into running at a more energy efficient level. Ok, fine, this last one is a lie. But using a green colored computer will make you look hip to all those that have jumped aboard the "going green" bandwagon.
Now go hug a tree. It's Earth Day!
- Selling refurbished PCs is now a $6 billion-a-year business.
- The "phantom load" (electricity consumed by "switched-off" appliances like TVs, radios, microwaves, etc) can add $200 a year to your bill.
- Switched-off devices account for 40% of the energy consumed by electronics in an average home.
- The U.S. government could save $330 million over a 4 year period if its data centers complied with Energy Star Version 4.0
- Extra heat generated by computers means more heat in the office, which translates to more use of air conditioning.
- Companies that sign for the WWF's Climate Savers Computing Initiative could reduce CO2 pollution by 10 million tons annually by 2010.
- At the 2008 CES, Fujitsu showed a laptop PC whose outside plastic shell is 50% vegetable-based polymer alloy.
- Creation of a desktop PC usually requires ten times the PC's weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, most of them toxic.
- 15 billion batteries are made and sold across the globe every year.
- If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment.
- By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers.
- Typical U.S. cell phone users replace their phones every year and a half.
- 130 million cell phones each year go into retirement.
- Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold - gold that would not have to be mined.
- PCs contain gold too: 1.2 tons of PC scrap electronics has more than can be extracted from 17 tons of gold ore.
- Only 15% of Americans are aware that local recyclers will take old electronics and computers.
- Each year, the world generates 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste.
- E-waste makes up 2% of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. garbage.
- Flaws in Windows XP's sleep mode and Microsoft's choice of "High Performance" as the default performance option may have added $5 billion to power bills annually worldwide.
- NASA, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration are all now committed to buying only EPEAT-certified computers.
- Manufacturing 1 desktop and 1 monitor requires 530lbs of fossil fuel, 58lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water.
- 12% (25 million) of Americans would pay extra for greener electronics. On the other hand, 41% (90 million) are not willing to pay extra.
- Wii is the power-saving leader of game consoles, consuming only 18.4 watts. Compare the hogs: Xbox (186W), PS3 (199W), and a PC (209W at peak usage).
- While old CRT monitors use more energy to show white than black, LCDs spend slightly more energy to show black than white.
- Don't recycle, Freecycle. There are 4,226 Freecycle.org online groups helping more than 4 million users give away "junk" to others who can use it.
- The average office drone uses up 10,000 sheets of paper - about a whole tree's worth of wood pulp per year.
- 2.05 million tons of electronics were put out as garbage in the U.S. in 2005. Only about 18% of that was recycled.
- The U.S scraps about 400 million pieces of consumer electronics equipment, e-waste per year. It's the fastest-growing waste stream.
- If you buy a new system, Apple and Dell will recycle your old computer, regardless of manufacturer.
- Search EPEAT.net's Product Registry to find computers and monitors that are certified green.
- There's 4 to 8lbs of toxic lead in all CRT TVs and monitors. Flat-panels have less lead, but more mercury.
- It's estimated that as much as 80% of U.S. e-waste is shipped overseas or to Mexico to be dismantled in unsafe working conditions.
- As much as 50% of the power most desktop computers use is wasted as heat jettisoned by fans on the power supply.
- A survey by Staples in November 2007 indicated that only 23% of U.S. residents recycle electronics.
- Between 2000 and 2007, as many as 500 million computers became obsolete.
- To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers on average create 5 kilograms of waste.
- Shopping for a new HDTV? Plasma TVs consume far more energy than LCDs and they waste it as heat energy.
- Shopping for a surge protector? Buy one of reasonable capacity. The bigger it is the more energy it consumes.
- Bamboo is the most sustainable of all materials. Look for laptops encased in it, such as the ASUS Ecobook.
- By 2001, e-waste already accounted for 70% of the heavy metals and 40% of the lead in U.S. landfills.
- Some LCDs are built using plastic rather than glass, which is far easier to recycle.
- If all commuters worked from home just 1 day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil each year.
- If you listen to your CD player 2 hours a day, you can save $200 a year by switching to rechargeable batteries.
- The energy saved by recycling 1 plastic bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
- Take an HP, Lexmark, or Dell printer cartridge to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3 coupon for ink or toner.
- Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes.
- Unplug! Each year in the U.S., electronic devices that are turned off but not unplugged use electricity worth $3 billion.
- Blog, it eliminates the need for paper, thus saving a tree.
- Or better yet, turn off your laptop or PC and go outside. If we are going to having global warming, you might as well enjoy the warm weather it brings.
- Last but not least, paint your laptop and/or PC green. It will trick the components inside into running at a more energy efficient level. Ok, fine, this last one is a lie. But using a green colored computer will make you look hip to all those that have jumped aboard the "going green" bandwagon.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-assessment.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
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
Cost Cutting Tips and Tricks for DR Plans - July 18, 2008
Orlando Florida -- In these days of extremely tight budgets and ever-increasing energy and transportation costs, who would waste money? You have to look at your spending from various angles to see where you may have wasted dollars. For example, refusing to spend money on technologies that can reduce your disaster recovery (DR) deployment and testing costs actually wastes money. This is the first of the top DR budget wasters discussed in this tip.
Not virtualizing your data center: Virtualization can save you money in DR maintenance and testing. "I have talked to many customers who have leveraged virtualization to build DR solutions, even with applications that are not readily consolidated. In other words, they have implemented a 1:1 consolidation ratio just to gain the benefits of virtualization's mobility to simplify DR," says Brian McCarthy President and Enterprise class VMware Consultant in Lake Mary Florida.
Consolidated virtual infrastructures can save even more money. Let's look at a real life example from a CIO of a medium sized business I spoke with. Like many companies diving into virtualization, they had virtualized the bulk of their applications and services in order to gain the benefits of consolidation. The CIO had not thought that he would see any additional savings and was very pleasantly surprised to see a dramatic reduction in DR testing time and personnel.
Before they virtualized, their DR tests (performed twice a year) would take three to five days to complete with seven to 10 IT staff involved. After virtualizing, the testing time dropped to one to two days and used only two IT staff. How much money does this save? Assume that a fully burdened IT engineer costs $175,000 per year and works 260 days per year. Best case savings for this company (10 staff for five days twice a year down to two staff for one day twice a year) is $64,616 per year and that does not include opportunity costs -- the work that was not being done by the extra IT staff that was busy performing the DR testing tasks. To be fair, let's look at the worst case savings (seven staff for three days twice a year down to two staff for two days twice a year) that would still be a savings of $22,884 per year. Bottom line: Leverage virtualization to avoid wasting money on DR testing.
Not maintaining your DR plan: You have spent considerable time and money on your business continuity plan. You have the plan implemented, or so you think. You have performed an initial test or two. But business needs and tightening budgets drive you down the path of justifying putting off the next DR test until the current critical project is completed. By the time that project is mostly completed, the next critical project is looming over your head. Again, you delay your DR testing to focus on meeting the demands of the business. This vicious cycle continues and continues. Does this sound familiar?
I've seen this too many times, even in large mature IT organizations. Putting off your plan maintenance and testing means that you spent your initial DR investment in vain. You wasted all that money -- thousands to millions of dollars. Without ongoing testing and maintenance, history has proven time and time again that recovery is bound to fail, or at least take longer than expected as the staff wades through hundreds of small issues that would have been resolved through regular plan testing and maintenance. Bottom line: Maintaining and testing your plan is a critical project; without maintenance, any money spent on DR previously is mostly wasted.
Lack of CEO oversight and board involvement: I've heard too many stories where business continuity and DR is driven from the CIO and not the CEO. All of the companies that have experienced a disaster where the DR plan was driven by the CIO have had one thing in common: The IT department is up and running, but the rest of the business is broken and in a disaster state.
DR and business continuity are the safety nets for the health of the whole company, not just the IT department. DR planning, testing, and maintenance should be driven by the CEO and board of directors as a top priority. It represents protecting all corporate assets. When DR is not being driven by the CEO, all the money and time spent on DR by the CIO is in vain. It is wasted as the overall corporation remains in a non-functional state in the event of a disaster.
On the bright side, I talked to a CIO who had a CEO that drove DR across their company (a large distributor with five warehouses and a central data center). This CIO wasn't that excited about DR personally, but kept the plan going as a result of the CEO's continued vigilance. When Internet communications were cut to the central data center by an impatient back-hoe operator, the plan operated within parameters so that orders did get out by their deadlines. Some minor issues with the plan were discovered and repaired, and in the post mortem, it was determined that the plan worked. It had included the whole company, and it was the business units and employees that kept the business running while the data center was off-line. Bottom line: DR and business continuity are only effective if driven by the CEO and board of directors across the whole company. "Any money spent on DR for IT alone without DR for the rest of the company is wasted, says McCarthy.
Over protecting your environment: I have not seen this sin committed as often as the preceding mistakes, but I have seen it nonetheless. Executives tend to believe every service and component is critical and needs protecting at top levels -- especially at companies new to building business continuity plans. Handing them the bill for what they are asking usually brings a level of sanity back to the business unit head.
I have seen companies implement a recovery data center with site-to-site replication and hot, ready-to-go servers. They place all their services and applications into the hot site system regardless of system criticality. As a result, they protect systems at high costs that require much less aggressive protection at much lower costs (e.g., simple weekly tape backup stored off-site).
A detailed business analysis of each system can avoid such mistakes. Let's look at a slightly different example that can illustrate this point. I talked to the CIO of a large enterprise and he shared an interesting story. The sales division came to him asking for a customer account licensing tracking system for a very special class of customer. The company offered various levels of product licensing with the bulk of their millions of customers buying their standard product. The standard product license was already automated in an account tracking database system. This special class of customer license had some specific needs that could not be met by the general system.
The CIO put out RFPs and received proposals to retro-fit or add a completely new system with redundancy and protection for $2 to $3 million dollars. Then he asked the sales division how many customers are in this special case, and learned that it was currently about 400 customers. He then asked how fast that special licensing customer group was growing and what they expected it would be in three years. The answer, maybe ten percent in three years.
Armed with that business information, the CIO proceeded to purchase two locking steel file cabinets and hire two administrative assistants to manually track these customers. He arranged with the corporate records office to have copies of each customer record securely shipped to the corporate off-site archives for data protection and business continuity. The savings were between $1.5 and $2.5 million dollars. Bottom line: Look at the business aspects of what you are doing. Spending money on aggressive DR for all business processes may be wasting money.
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
FAQs on Data De-dupe Technologies - June 29, 2008
Orlando Florida -- In the storage business, data deduplication is all the rage. Our customers are clamoring to cash in on the savings, but most don't yet understand how to properly apply the technology to their environment. Sencilo Solutions can help customers sort through the three basic approaches and extract real value from data deduplication quickly will earn the trust of clients and gain lasting business.
As you know, deduplication offers a number of improvements over traditional storage for backups. But with those benefits comes a confusing set of questions from customers, the key question being: How do we choose the best dedupe technology? In answering that question, it's important not to jump ahead to focus on specific products -- by first choosing product type, whether it be host-based, VTL-based or NAS-based, Sencilo Solutions can simplify the decision process our customers. Here's how they break down.
Host-based data deduplication
Host-based deduplication requires the backup client to do a lot of the dedupe work. In many cases, that's not a problem, especially when the client is not CPU-bound. Host-based dedupe really helps when backup bandwidth is constrained by small wide area network (WAN) pipes or consolidated virtual servers.
Host-based data deduplication solutions usually require us to replace traditional backup software with the dedupe backup software, so before we recommend such a change, make sure that the benefits are significant enough.
Brian McCarthy President of Sencilo Solutions of Lake Mary Florida a reseller that specializes in Backup and Archive products and services. "Remote office backups to the corporate site will benefit from Avamar's host-based deduplication because it eliminates most or all of the backup hardware located at the remote site and optimizes the network bandwidth required to centralize backups to corporate data centers", says McCarthy. VMware backups benefit from host-based deduplication by limiting the network bandwidth required to back up multiple guest machines concurrently.
Some of the examples of host-based data deduplication technology include EMC Avamar and Symantec NetBackup PureDisk. See - http://www.sencilo.com/storage-data-deduplication.php
Virtual tape library (VTL) data deduplication
Deduped virtual tape libraries (VTLs) work well when the backups are localized to the data center and/or bandwidth between the client and backup storage is not an issue. Naturally, many customers will want to take advantage of deduplication in their existing or planned virtual tape infrastructure. VTLs are already very common in midsized and large enterprises and consume a significant part of many companies' overall storage budget. Deduping at the VTL should be simple for customers because almost all backup software platforms support VTLs. In addition, deduped VTLs are a good fit for disaster recovery replication and when the customer wants to replace tape for primary backups. Given the increased efficiency and deduped VTL-to-VTL replication, there may finally be an opportunity to show real ROI for backup to disk instead of tape.
Examples of VTL dedupe technology include EMC DL3D, Sepaton S2100 and Quantum DXi Series.
Primary network-attached storage (NAS) data deduplication
VTLs introduce a lot of the same challenges that physical tape presents, such as tape contention, poor cartridge utilization and intolerance to high storage area network (SAN) latencies. In some cases, customers want the benefits of target hardware-based deduplication without the complexity and limitations of tape. In these cases, deduped NAS file systems may be the perfect remedy. Deduped NAS storage has some impressive cost advantages because it doesn't require SAN connections or VTL licensing in the backup software. In some cases, the deduped NAS storage can be used for more than just backups, such as highly duplicate archive data where throughput is less important than space savings.
Examples of NAS data deduplication technology include NetApp NearStore with Advanced Single Instance Store (ASIS), Data Domain's DD Series, EMC's DL1500 and Quantum DXi-series appliances.
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
