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Data Dedupe Market - 2009 will be the year of the shake out - April 3, 2009
Miami Florida -- The wider U.S. economy remains in the dumps, but the companies beating Wall Street estimates or reporting record sales this week have one thing in common: They offer data deduplication for small and medium-sized customers. We see three player either closing it's door or being sold for pennies on the dollar. Last year we saw Data Domain losing market share, some 60% worth to EMC, NetApp, Quantum, HP and other larger firms. We saw Falconstor lose OEM relationships including EMC, IBM and Dell. Exagrid was positioning it's self with Dell only to lose out to Quantum. Yes this is the year of the shake out.
While the hype about data deduplication has been going on for more than a year, it was only last quarter that a real explosion in this market occurred, according to Brian McCarthy CEO and 30 year Storage veteran for Sencilo Solutions. "This market is really just beginning," he said. Users not only needed to see the technology proven in the field, but in many cases also had to wait until older equipment was ready to be replaced. "But it's happening every day, right now."
Earlier in the week, EMC Corp. said that its Avamar data deduplication software and appliance for remote offices led its products in sales growth for the quarter, with adoption up "triple digits" and the appliance's inventory sold out before the quarter's end, far out pacing new customers vs. Data Domain and Exagrid.
Some analysts also credit the entry of vendors like IBM, HP and EMC with driving the data deduplicaton market's growth. "Now that most of the majors have it on their price lists, it's a validated technology, and one I think will go into mainstream use in the next 12 months," said Taneja Group analyst Eric Burgener.
Although not publicly traded, ExaGrid Systems Inc. volunteered this week that its second quarter sales were up 11% compared to the previous quarter and up 4% versus the same quarter last year. Over the past 5 years Exagrid has shipped 190 units, or about what Netapp ships on any given week. We are not seeing Exagrid around this time next year.
Data Domain did not see changes to sales demand this quarter and is not making any adjustments to its forecasts for the next quarter or the full year, Slootman said. But the fact that Data Domain has lost ~60% marketshare over the past 3 years to companies like HP, EMC, IBM and others does not speak well for Slootmanns forecast for 2009.
The three vendors have also announced recent product updates. The latest came from ExaGrid, which is going after the bigger fish in its small and medium-sized customer base with a 50% boost in overall system capacity, from 20 TB to 30 TB. The company also said that its EX Series of systems will now support cross replication among up to nine of its data center locations. Exagrid has not figured out how to scale beyond 30TBs which makes it a SMB only play. Having lost out on OEM deals with HP, IBM and Dell we feel that Exagrid is not going to be a player over the next 6 to 12 months.
Data deduplication reporting features
But what's really piquing user interest is the addition of data deduplication reporting features that will show users their data deduplication ratio and replication status by backup job. This is similar to reporting features already offered by Sepaton, but Sepaton generally sells into larger accounts than ExaGrid.
"The reporting is certainly of interest to us," said Edward Ruffolo, IT director for Miron Construction. The company already uses reports from its CA ArcServe backup product daily. "Now we can match those with daily reports from Sepaton, and that will help us avoid any potential problems with restores."
Sepaton and EMC Avamar also attributed much of their recent success in the data deduplication arena with recently released products, notably the 2100 array and Avamar version 4.0, respectively.
As the market expands, the diversification of product lines has also begun to increase. Data Domain has repackaged its system for use as both nearline NAS and archiving, as well as a backup target. "Mixed use is on the rise," Slootman said. "There are further efficiencies to be gained by consolidating backup and archive storage."
Better integration between data deduplication and other types of products has also probably contributed to the recent boom, Burgener said. "EMC [has integrated] the Avamar technology into the networker client, making it much easier for people to start using it, [since] they don't have to reinstall; they just have to shut down, make a few configuration changes and reboot," he said. We see EMC over taking Data Domain later this quarter.
Competition will only get hotter
Among those companies losing the most market share to data deduplication technologies are makers of tape autoloaders, which used to be the most popular backup media for SMBs. Although it's bringing its newer disk-based backup products to the forefront, Quantum is also among the vendors with a legacy autoloader business and finds itself with its stock hovering in the $1 range. It also finds itself the subject of acquisition talk for EMC. Overland Storage, which recently partnered with Diligent Technologies for its own data dedupe push, also finds its stock in a similar range.
Another company that seems to have been left behind in this increasingly volatile market is FalconStor, whose Single Instance Repository data deduplication product didn't pass muster with its major OEMs -- EMC and IBM -- both of which turned to other partners for data deduplication capability.
It also remains to be seen which way Quantum will go. EMC says it has gotten "excellent feedback" in a few weeks of availability.
Despite Data Domain's promising financials, Wall Street analysts were concerned about how the company will fare with increased competition, especially from titans like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and EMC with huge sales forces. Data Domain has yet to build a channel and the several VARs interviewed in this report stated Data Domain has gone direct so the VARs are no longer selling Data Domains. "It's no longer an option for large vendors to be on the sidelines of this opportunity," Thom acknowledged. But Data Domain has been adding salespeople in preparation for what he called the "ground war" on the company's earnings call, a war in which Data Domain has 150 sales reps vs. 165,000 at IBM, HDS and HP. I am thinking it will be a 100 hour war, akind to Gulf War One.
Coming advances in data deduplication are expected to make the market even hotter. For example, Data Domain and Diligent still haven't released multinode clustered versions of their products, which would allow customers to scale their data dedupe solutions without buying multiple boxes. When that happens, "things will really get interesting," McCarthy said. "When the major players come out with multinode systems, then it becomes a pricing war."
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-virtualization.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
Storage Virtualization the next BIG thing! - March 22, 2009
Orlando Florida -- The initial approach to storage virtualization, which has been around for years, was to address it in the storage-area network because the SAN sat between the storage and servers, and would cause the least disruption to these systems. However, after nearly a decade, this approach has not taken off while server virtualization has become widely accepted. What needs to be changed to make storage virtualization as ubiquitous as server virtualization?
Before the advent of server virtualization, servers were configured for peak load but most of the time sat idling, resulting in average utilization rates in the low teens. Many attempts were made to consolidate applications on servers to utilize idle cycles, but it was difficult to convert applications between different operating systems. The breakthrough came with the ability to virtualize the server so it could run any operating system, enabling applications to be consolidated without converting them.
The utilization of storage systems is also low, typically in the 20% to 30% range. Storage gets stranded because application owners do not want to share storage and risk having other applications impact performance or availability. Since most open systems do not allow storage volumes to be expanded as the application generates more data, the common management practice is to simply overallocate storage capacity. While the declining cost of storage helps limit the cost of that practice, the operational cost for environmentals, change management, backup/recovery, technology refresh, and search and discovery escalates as storage capacity becomes increasingly oversubscribed and underutilized, stated Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo Solutions, a enterprise-class reseller in Lake Mary, Florida.
Storage for open systems is presented through logical unit numbers (LUN) or volumes that a storage system carves out of a RAID array group of physical disk drives and presents to the application. This process of creating LUNs and managing them is vendor unique. In order to virtualize storage from different storage systems, the difference in LUN or volume management must be masked, says McCarthy.
Back then
Early attempts at storage virtualization tried to address this problem by remapping heterogeneous LUNs to a common virtual LUN format for presentation to the host systems. But remapping introduced another layer of operational and management complexity, which inhibited the acceptance of the approach.
The breakthrough came with the ability to virtualize physical LUNs without the need to remap them by using a virtualization technique based on storage control units. LUNs are configured in the external storage systems in their vendor-specific way. These LUNs are then connected to the virtualization control unit over Fibre Channel ports as though they were connecting to a host server. Software in the control unit discovers the LUNs on the Fibre Channel port and presents them through the control unit's cache to an application server as if the LUNs were one of its own internal LUNs.
This approach does not remap the LUN, but enables LUNs from different systems to be managed with the common management tools of the storage virtualization control unit. The LUN image is presented inside the control unit cache and inherits all the services that are available in that control unit, like copy, move and replicate. There is no need to reinvent these functions for the purposes of virtualization. Lower-level storage can improve their native performance by connecting through the large high-performance cache of the virtualization control unit.
This approach to storage virtualization is simple to implement. It masks the complexity of managing heterogeneous storage systems and can aggregate the existing storage control unit services to enhance lower-level storage systems. Since virtualization is done at the control unit level, it is not limited to SAN connections, and it provides storage virtualization to any application server that connects through standard protocols like Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON, network-attached storage (NAS), SAN, and direct attach.
Another feature that has been missing in early storage virtualization approaches is partitioning. Partitioning guarantees users who share virtualized storage safe multitenancy and quality of service (QoS). In server virtualization, time slicing is used to partition virtual servers and QoS can be managed by controlling the allocation of time slices.
In storage virtualization, users who share a pool of storage resources must be guaranteed safe multitenancy, the guarantee that other users who share the same virtual storage resources will not be able to access their data nor impact performance. With a controller-based virtualization approach, partitioning can be done through cache addressing and port priority processing. Partitioning can be done close to the physical storage, where it can be enforced.
Right Now
The time is right for storage virtualization, and DataCore Software storage virtualization approaches can provide these basic capabilities:
* Use existing LUNs from heterogeneous storage systems and avoid the complexity of remapping LUNs to keep it simple
* Provide storage virtualization for all storage users, whether they are direct attach, SAN, NAS, Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON, etc.
* Aggregate storage services and make them available as reusable services to enhance lower-level storage systems.
* Provide users the ability to safely share resources without impacting their security, availability or performance requirements.
Storage virtualization simplifies today's increasingly complex storage environment, allowing organizations to simplify the management of their infrastructures and consolidate storage systems from different vendors into one pool of storage. Additionally it allows organizations to mask the complexity of the underlying physical structure and greatly increase utilization through the use of thin provisioning, the ability to provision storage capacity as it is actually used and provide it as a service to storage systems that do not have that capability. Storage virtualization also brings about significant cost reductions and efficiencies by reducing the need for additional storage management tools, licences and administrators.
Storage virtualization will deliver significant efficiencies, cost savings, power and cooling benefits, as well as greater agility in aligning storage infrastructure to business requirements. For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-virtualization.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
Case Study - Storage Virtualization from DataCore and Server Virtualization from VMware - March 21, 2009
The Challenge
City of Inverness in Citrus County, Florida, has selected DataCore's SANmelody storage virtualization solution to manage and protect their data center. With SANmelody, not only was the City of Inverness able to use existing hardware, it was able to get twice as much use out of its existing storage space as well as adding a new level of business continuity protection and scalability for the future, which the city did not previously have.
When Joey Johnston, IT director, City of Inverness, came on board he inherited approximately thirteen server systems. He knew enough about VMware to know that he could greatly improve productivity and cost savings.Therefore, he decided to consolidate these servers. In order to take full advantage of the functionality of VMware across systems, he also knew he needed to deploy a SAN. Johnston did his research and a key priority at the outset was finding a SAN that would work with VMware and provide a level of automated failover protection. Johnston soon found DataCore in his research and identified the company's SANmelody as a potential solution that supported and was fully compatible with VMware. He also spoke with EqualLogic and LeftHand Networks as well as some other, major SAN solution providers. What Johnston soon realized was that other SAN solutions were not very scalable in comparison with DataCore's SANmelody.
Taking EqualLogic, for example, if he would have purchased a 3TB solution and then needed to add another terabyte or two in the future, he would have then needed to buy another storage hardware module as an upgrade. This could cost $25,000 just to accommodate the additional storage capacity. Also, while fiber channel (FC) was not an immediate requirement, the fact that SANmelody supported all of its services over FC or iSCSI protocols on Ethernet connections left the option open for the future.
The Solution
"With DataCore, you can simply add an additional license to manage three more terabytes of storage - or sixty terabytes, or an unlimited option," said Johnston. "The high-availability option was also a very big deal as was being able to re-provision servers. We could take a server that might not be up to the task of managing a geographical information system (GIS) or a mail host and re-provision it as a SAN server solution running SANmelody. It is very easy to just add more disks to a SANmelody server, since it is a standard server just like the ones running other applications. You simply populate the SANmelody server with more disks to get to six terabytes
in capacity - in our case all for under $5,000. On another vendor's solution, you will easily spend three or four times the amount just to get the same capacity." Johnston took about eight weeks in total to make this decision - from his initial introduction to DataCore to signing off on purchasing SANmelody. That time was primarily taken doing some of the underlying work to get his environment ready for the new SAN, such as making sure the switch fabric was up to the task. "I talked and met with each vendor, I attended the webinars they offered and considered the options," continued Johnston. "Budgetwise and performance-wise, SANmelody won out. The performance numbers on SANmelody are right there with any of the top vendors and we are able to use servers that would either be doing nothing or would be offered up for auction. The main business drivers for going with SANmelody were the price point, the scalability, as well as the breadth of storage services that can be taken advantage of with the product."
SANmelody now runs on Dell PowerEdge 2500 servers - servers that would have been decommissioned. SANmelody supports the city's GIS system, which is used to map properties, chart water lines, track tree management initiatives as well as monitor and manage roads and streets for maintenance and usability purposes. SANmelody will go a long way in terms of ease-of-management as the City of Inverness outgrows its direct, attached storage. Of huge benefit to Johnston, who is the only IT person working on behalf of the City of Inverness, is the ability to scale his thirteen servers into one virtual machine. Likewise, consolidated storage and the ability to automate the provisioning of storage to servers without human intervention was a major plus. Furthermore, Johnston is now able to do fast disk-to-disk back-ups and replication and he is able to test these services. Before, he neither had the time nor the funds to buy a server to test back-ups. "SANmelody is all about ease of use and scalability and allows you to have enterprise-level functionality at an SMB price," added Johnston. The AIM technology DataCore offers for asynchronous IP mirroring enables Johnston to replicate critical data over the Internet. Next year, Johnston plans on fully implementing a remote server at a replication site. With a location smack in the hurricane zone of Florida, the ability to protect data outside of Florida with another local government agency in another state will mean Johnston can achieve a higher level of disaster recovery as well as have highavailability. He plans to connect to that remote site via a thin-client and do asynchronous data mirroring transfers at night. The replicated environment will encompass both payroll information as well as email on the servers. The financial package, which currently runs on Solaris, is also migrating to Windows and will live on the VMware platform too, all running in conjunction with SANmelody.
"The City of Inverness bought DataCore and VMware in tandem," said George Teixeira, president and CEO, DataCore Software. "They knew they needed to go with a SAN in order to fully leverage the functionality inherent to VMware. Whereas a SAN originally looked cost-prohibitive to the City of Inverness, when Joey found our SANmelody solution he was able to get full functionality without sacrificing his requirements. He was also able to repurpose some of his old servers that he had slated to be retired. Not only has DataCore delivered an affordable SAN, but now he has at his disposal a fully automated high availability SAN that can grow with his needs."
The mail server is in the process of going live this month along with the financial servers and the GIS systems. The deployment at the City of Inverness will first manage six terabytes on a DataCore powered SAN supporting auto failover and recovery across dual SANmelody servers - each supporting three terabytes. When Johnston fields calls now from the other SAN providers who are keen to know why he went with DataCore, he has the answers for them. "DataCore offers up functionality and the most competitive price point," he said. "Moreover, in terms of functionality, I mention high-availability and auto failover data protection as well as AIM - asynchronous mirroring for remote site disaster recovery. And the price point was just over $15,000 for all that functionality and two licenses. This is less than half of what I was quoted for one box from a traditional SAN hardware solution." Johnston concluded, "We bought a scalable storage infrastructure and not a box that we would soon find ourselves outgrowing."
About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore's portable storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare operating systems as well as hypervisors from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other suppliers. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-virtualization.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
Over 70 million Website-infected with SQL injection attacks and counting - March 17, 2009
Orlando Florida -- Website-infecting SQL injection attacks hit 450,000 a day Cybercriminals are spreading invisible infections far and wide across the Internet by hammering hundreds of thousands of websites each day with so-called SQL injection attacks.
The trend started last summer and has continued to accelerate. Sencilo Solutions Internet Security Systems says it identified 50% more infected Web pages in the last three months of 2008 than it did in all of 2007, says Brian McCarthy, CEO and well known Security expert of Sencilo Solutions.
Click on one and you won't notice anything. Your PC gets turned into an obedient "bot," short for robot, deployed to attack other computers. All of your sensitive data get stolen.
SQL attacks take aim at the database layer of websites. They typically were manual attacks designed to pilfer customer data from merchant websites. But last June someone figured out how to automate the attacks, and use them to plant infections.
"It was a brilliant tactical move. You sit back and wait for someone to visit the site, and soon you infect thousands of PCs," says Ryan Barnett, Breach Security's director of research.
An infected PC thereafter gets put to work delivering spam and spreading more infections. And any sensitive data, such as log-ons and account numbers, get stolen.
For the first five months of 2008 Sencilo Solutions ISS helped a Orlando based financial corporation block about 5,000 SQL attacks a day. By mid-June, daily attacks spiked to 25,000; by October they topped 450,000 a day. Andrew Mape, Sencilo Solutions ISS threat response manager, says the infections take advantage of security flaws in cool website features, such as online-delivered video, music, photos, documents and work files.
"Web applications are one of the most outward facing components a corporation could have, and one of the least protected," he says. "And SQL injection is the fastest-growing category of attacks affecting Web applications."
Financial institutions and online merchants have put up strong defenses, says Brian McCarthy, CEO of a security Sencilo, a security firm. "The same is not necessarily true of regional banks and credit unions, smaller online retailers and state government agencies."
Security experts say consumers must keep updates for anything to do with their browser current, though most now do not do this. This includes updates for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, iTunes, QuickTime, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer. Such updates increasingly include important security patches that can block infections from taking hold.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/services-penetration.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
How IT can cut cost? - February 28, 2009
Orlando Florida -- It is great to see so many different ways of business have benefited from the Internet. One of the benefits has been the ease of outsourcing. Now you can outsource almost everything to the experts, thus save time and money…not to forget peace of mind.
Outsourcing your server management; server monitoring and server maintenance to an IT services outsourcing company usually helps you to focus your time and energy in expanding your own business by focusing on your core expertise, rather than dealing with technical support staff every day and manage the quality they provide to your customers. If you have business critical applications running then server uptime is critical to your business.
Server monitoring and server management is a full time job that needs real professionals who can handle your servers professionally. Outsourcing your server management; server monitoring and server maintenance requires specific skill sets and hiring people with such skill sets and with right attitude is a difficult job in its own way. Due to these reasons, outsourcing of server monitoring, server maintenance and server management has become the norm.
There are many businesses that have business critical applications running on the server. Any kind of server downtime or application down time means a huge loss of money and wasted labor for the day. Not to mention running upgrades, applying patches and analyzing the risk factor before performing these tasks. Due to such reasons server management; server monitoring and server maintenance are critical for these small businesses. There are many IT outsourcing companies that provide these services round the clock…. round the year, says Brian McCarthy President of Sencilo Solutions.
Most of these companies will provide access to your employees with a HelpDesk environment by phone, email, chat or remote control. This Helpdesk environment is a place from where your employees will get in touch with your techs who would have a similar interface to answer our queries. Helpdesk interface is a great way to contact your support team. All of the above mentioned points can be described briefly ...OutSourced Helpdesk.
There are many organizations which have cut costs by outsourcing helpdesk to a third party. Cutting costs is important to all businesses, irrespective of the size. Monitoring cost starting at $1. Call us today: (407) 265-6293 x1910 or go to http://www.sencilo.com/managed-services.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
Hurricane Season just a few months away, Will You Be Ready? - February 28, 2009
This year is predicted to bring 14 named storms to the Atlantic Ocean, with seven of them becoming hurricanes, according to a university report that forecasts an "above average" 2009 hurricane season. The annual report was released Wednesday by Colorado State University forecasters Philip Klotzback and William Gray -- six months before the Atlantic hurricane season starts.
Storms do not acquire names until they are designated tropical storms with sustained maximum winds of at least 39 mph. The CSU report predicted that three of the season's seven hurricanes will develop into intense or major storms, meaning Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Category 3 storms have sustained winds of at least 111 mph. There is a 63 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the United States, according to the report. The authors of the report stress that it is preliminary and will be revised several times as the hurricane season approaches. "The media and general public should realize that there is a large amount of uncertainty with our early December prediction, issued seven months prior to the start of the hurricane season," Klotzbach said. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30.
In May, CSU predicted 15 named storms for the 2008 season. Of those, it predicted eight would become hurricanes and four would grow into major hurricanes. The university's December 2007 report had predicted there would be 13 storms. The revised May report turned out to be more accurate. There were 16 named storms during the 2008 season. Eight became hurricanes and five were Category 3 or higher. A typical season has 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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
The Best Business Continuity Solutions and Storage Virtualization that are VMware Ready Certified - February 28, 2009
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida -- DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization solutions, today announced that its SANmelody(tm) and SANsymphony(tm) storage virtualization solutions are now VMware Ready Certified(tm). "This certification assures resellers, joint customers and prospects of both companies of compatibility and interoperability with the latest features of VMware Infrastructure," said James Price, vice president of product and channel marketing, DataCore Software. "DataCore's VMware Ready(tm) certification underscores our commitment to maintaining and expanding the most comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery solutions in the industry."
"What DataCore does on the storage side is what VMware does on the server-side", states Kosmas Schtz, IT Director at the Munich Schwabing Hospital. "Today with DataCore and VMware, we can manage far more systems with the same number of employees."
A Winning Combination for Economic Efficiency: VMware and DataCore
The VMware Ready Certified(tm) logo program recognizes VMware partner products that have been certified by VMware to work with VMware's products, making it easy for customers to identify solutions that can be used with confidence in VMware environments. DataCore's VMware Ready Certified(tm) storage virtualization solutions provide radically simple High-Availability for VMware customers, stated Sencilo solutions CEO and Co-founder Brian McCarthy
"DataCore SANmelody has revolutionized and simplified the way we approach and manage storage," said Robert Wayt, Network Manager, Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) Okinawa. "It's fast, flexible, easy and efficient. We no longer have a server with all the internal disk space 'hard-wired' and solely dedicated to itself. We can network and fully use the storage that we purchased and avoid waste".
Storage is one of the most critical resources in Virtual Infrastructure and is often limited by conventional SAN architectures. Moreover, system administrators spend more money and more time managing their storage infrastructures rather than managing their business. DataCore's radically simple, high availability storage virtualization solutions reduce infrastructure complexity and cost of ownership while maximizing business agility for VMware customers.
DataCore's Fast, Affordable and Flexible Solutions Simplify IT and Maximize Business Agility for VMware Customers
Truly Nolen embraced DataCore's virtual storage in conjunction with their server virtualization from VMware. The national pest control company achieved total virtualization with the combination of DataCore and VMware. "We knew that DataCore could improve our high availability and serve as the lynchpin of a disaster recovery solution," noted Themis Tokkaris, systems engineer, Truly Nolen.
DataCore Software Delivers Non-Stop Business Continuity and Virtual Infrastructure Agility with VMware
VMware Virtual Infrastructure combined with DataCore's storage virtualization solutions allow business to deliver resources, applications and storage continuously - when and where they are needed. Infrastructure consolidation with VMware and DataCore enables their joint customers to typically save 50-75% on overall IT infrastructure costs resources by increasing utilization while delivering a highly available virtual infrastructure.
About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization SAN software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore's portable storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare operating systems as well as hypervisors from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other suppliers. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-storage.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
Storage Award for the Best Midsize SAN goes to..... - February 28, 2009
Orlando Florida -- Xiotech Corporation has been named a leader in the midsize enterprise storage area network (SAN) marketplace by Info-Tech Research Group, in Info-Tech's 2009 "SANs for Midsize Enterprises" report released yesterday.
According to the report, Xiotech has been "offering innovative storage solutions for almost a decade," and its storage products – including the Emprise™ family and Magnitude 3D® 4000 – "offer ease of use and manageability." Several company and product strengths also were highlighted, including: "excellent usability and management features;" "easy migration path and continuous data access to storage system;" "mature vendor with solid revenue growth;" "large and growing customer base;" "built-in resiliency and scalability features;" "ease of installation and management;" and "good service and support."
"Our patented Intelligent Storage Element (ISE™) technology and ICON Manager integrated storage management platform are compelling solutions for all organizations looking to do more with less from a storage perspective in today's economic climate," said Xiotech® Vice President of Marketing Mike Hoch. "Our customers are saving significant money and time by deploying the top-notch performance, reliability and scalability offered by ISE and the single-console operations across the array, server and virtual machine layers offered by ICON Manager."
The 2009 "SANs for Midsize Enterprises" report by Info-Tech assesses and ranks nine industry vendors on their product and service offerings. Vendors are categorized as "leaders," "competitors" or "followers" based on the relative strength of their products and services and how well they serve the marketplace. In addition, the report offers a comprehensive overview of the midsized enterprise SAN market, with summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor and its products. The goal of the report is to help IT decision makers reach successful technology acquisition decisions, choose the right products and negotiate the best deals for their organizations.
Info-Tech Research Group is a research and advisory firm providing research, tools and advice to help people and organizations make better decisions, align IT strategy to business goals and reduce IT risk. Services include research and advisory memberships, expert reports, best practice methodologies and consulting services.
About Xiotech
Xiotech Corporation, an innovator in data storage and protection solutions, delivers the new foundation of storage with unprecedented value, performance, scalability, reliability and ease-of-use. Its Emprise™ storage family is built on patented Intelligent Storage Element (ISE™) technology, which eliminates wasted disk space, delivers industry-leading performance and scales both capacity and performance in a building-block fashion. In addition, self-healing technology unique to ISE significantly decreases service events and allows Xiotech to offer an industry-leading five-year hardware warranty.
Xiotech's ICON Manager is unique in integrating storage management across the array, server and virtual machine layers. This enables single console operations and a global view of storage allocation and usage across all layers. ICON Manager also is the first storage management tool to simplify integration and customization using industry-standard Web Services technology.
Xiotech is based in Eden Prairie, Minn., and maintains major facilities in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Hyderabad, India.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-storage.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
Cloud Computing -- Who owns your data? - February 27, 2009
Daytona Beach Florida -- Cloud computing will soon become an area of hot debate in Washington, D.C., with policy makers debating issues such as the privacy and security of data in the cloud, a panel of tech experts said Friday.
There are "huge challenges" facing policy makers in the next year or two as cloud computing becomes increasingly popular, said Mike Nelson, visiting professor for the Center for Communication, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University and a former tech policy advisor for U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Among the major policy issues to be worked out: Who owns the data that consumers store on the network? Should law enforcement agencies have easier access to personal information in the cloud than data on a personal computer? Do government procurement regulations need to change to allow agencies to embrace cloud computing?
Cloud computing is "as important as the Web was 15 years ago," said Nelson, speaking at a Google forum on the policy implications of hosted applications and services. "We don't have any idea of how important it is, and we don't really have any clue as to how it's going to be used."
Despite the growing number of people using cloud services such as hosted e-mail and online photo storage, many consumers don't understand the privacy and security implications, said Ari Schwartz, vice president and chief operating officer of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group focused on online privacy and civil rights. So far, U.S. courts have generally ruled that private data stored in the cloud doesn't enjoy the same level of protection from law enforcement searches that data stored on a personal computer does, he said.
"Consumers expect their information will be treated the same on the cloud as it is if it were stored at home on their own computers," Schwartz said.
Forty-nine percent of U.S. residents who use cloud computing services would be very concerned if the cloud vendors shared their files with law enforcement agencies, according to a survey released Friday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Another 15 percent of respondents said they'd be somewhat concerned, according to the survey, released in conjunction with the Google policy event.
Sixty-nine percent of U.S. residents who are online use at least one of six popular cloud services, the survey said. Fifty-six percent of survey respondents use Web mail services, 34 percent store personal photos online and 29 percent use online applications such as Google Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express, according to the survey.
Among the concerns about cloud computing: 80 percent of respondents said they'd be very concerned if a vendor used their photos and other information in marketing campaigns. Another 68 percent said they'd be very concerned if the vendor used their personal information stored in the cloud to deliver personalized ads to them, and 63 percent said they'd be very concerned if the vendor kept their data after they tried to delete it.
Asked why they use cloud computing services, 51 percent said convenience was the major reason. Another 41 percent said the major factor was being able to access their information from multiple computers and devices.
One audience member suggested consumers' growing use of cloud services doesn't match with their concerns about the privacy of their data. Schwartz said consumers would embrace privacy protections if they were made easy to use.
"People are obviously making tradeoffs in privacy when they use these services," added John Horrigan, Pew's associate director for research.
Asked what policy recommendations they'd make to the U.S. government, Nelson and Schwartz suggested a change in government procurement regulations are needed for federal agencies to embrace cloud computing. But questions about data privacy and ownership are also important to address, Schwartz added.
The U.S. government should encourage the free flow of information around the globe, added Dan Burton, senior vice president for global public policy at cloud computing vendor Salesforce.com. The benefits of cloud computing could be hampered by laws that prevent the sharing of data across national borders, he said.
The government should avoid formulating specific policies governing cloud computing, according to Nelson. Government's role should be to ensure competition and allow vendors to work out details, he said. Cloud Computing
"I do think government has an almost infinite ability to screw up things when they can't see the future," Nelson said. "We have to have leadership that believes in empowering users and empowering citizens."
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
EMC now offering the Industry's First "Primary Storage Appliance" - February 27, 2009
Orlando Florida EMC (NYSE:EMC) on Monday unveiled new versions of its EMC Celerra unified storage systems, which include such new features as data deduplication of primary storage and the ability to work with solid-state drives.
The new Celerras also include plug-ins to help them integrate better into VMware server virtualization environments, said Brad Bunce, director of IP storage marketing at EMC.
"We're driving down customers' storage costs," Bunce said.
The four new Celerras, including three models based on EMC's Clariion line of midrange arrays as well as a gateway appliance with no integrated storage, are unified storage offerings that support simultaneous NAS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity.
The appliances for the first time include EMC's Avamar deduplication and RecoverPoint compression technologies in a single appliance, Bunce said.
Deduplication, also called "dedupe," removes duplicate information as data is backed up or archived. It can be done at the file level, where duplicate files are replaced with a marker pointing to one copy of the file, and/or at the subfile or byte level, where duplicate bytes of data are removed and replaced by pointers, resulting in a significant decrease in storage capacity requirements. Companies like Data Domain have seen their sales sharply drop off in recent months as competition heats up. Calls to the CEO at Data Domain went unreturned as to the reason for their decline. But what many Data Domain clients are trading in their units for EMC and Dell Dedupe units.
If both features are turned on, the appliances will compress all files with low activity to save space, and then also dedupe the files to eliminate redundancies, Bunce said. This is done on a customer-set schedule, and not in realtime, in order to not impact operations, he said.
The dedupe is done at the file level since the process is being done with inactive data where files are seldom accessed once they are written and can be done in conjunction with EMC's Rainfinity file management appliance for automated tiered storage, Bunce said.
"For customers, there are not changes in how they open, move, snapshot or backup their files," he said. "But it gives them automated storage tiering so they can create a pool to which older files are dumped while active files are kept in a higher-performance tier."
The new Celerras also take advantage of two relatively new drive technologies, Bunce said.
The first are solid-state drives, or flash drives, which boost performance by up to 800 percent compared to rotating drives, Bunce said. EMC last year first started offering flash drives in its Symmetrix line of enterprise storage arrays.
The second are low-power SATA drives, which operate at 5,400 rpm compared to other models operating at 7,200 rpm in order to cut energy use by about 32 percent per drive, Bunce said.
Also new are VMware vCenter plug-ins, Bunce said.
They include plug-ins for VMware Site Recovery Manager automated failback to let customers coordinate a failback to their original virtual infrastructure after a failover; VMware View Storage Integration, which allows the provisioning of virtual desktops using the Celerras' snapshot feature; and VMware View Composer, which, when used with the dedupe feature, can cut storage requirements for boot images by up to 70 percent, he said.
Brian McCarthy CEO of Sencilo Solutions, a Lake Mary Florida.-based solution provider, said he is not surprised to see EMC expand the capabilities of its Celerra line.
"Everybody is trying to address storage as an appliance by adding more functionality," ButlerMcCarthy said. "Companies like IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) are making acquisitions, not just for product lines, but to add core functionality to their own product to make them more appliance-like."
Features like virtualization and dedupe were game-changing technologies when first offered, McCarthy said, but are now becoming a must-have.
"How long will it take IBM or HP to do something similar?" he said. "The issues I'm dealing with are things like cloud computing and storage-as-a-service. I'm not so concerned about new products coming out now, I'm more concerned about what's coming five years from now and what I need to do to get ready."
The new Celerras are available now. The NS120 is based on the Clariion CX4-120, and scales to up to 120 hard drives. The NS480 is based on the Clariion CX4-480, and scales to up to 480 hard drives. And the NS960 is based on the Clariion CX4-960, and scales to up to 960 hard drives.
The fourth model, the NS-G8, is a storage gateway (NYSE:GTW) and does not have any integrated storage, but instead adds unified storage capabilities to any of EMC's Symmetrix or Clariion arrays.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-storage.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
