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IT Cost Cutting Solutions - Part Two - Using Primary Storage Compression - January 23, 2009
Clearwater Florida -- With the amount of data growing by leaps and bounds every year, technologies that can make the most of storage capacity and reduce the amount of physical space, power and maintenance that storing terabytes or petabytes of data requires are becoming increasingly attractive to large and even mid-sized organizations.
Not surprisingly, analysts predict continued strong growth and adoption of secondary storage optimization and data de-duplication solutions over the next 12 months. In times like these, it's technology that sells itself.
Now, building on the success of secondary storage optimization (SSO), a number of vendors have introduced optimization solutions aimed directly at primary storage. Although it's early days for primary storage optimization (PSO), with only a few hundred confirmed customers, analyst Eric Burgener, who covers storage optimization for the Taneja Group, sees PSO and technologies like wide area data services (WADS) gaining momentum and making inroads with storage customers over the next year.
"Over the last four years, we've seen the growth rate for secondary storage optimization [take off]," said Burgener.
But when SSO first came on the scene, "people were very hesitant about the technology, because it was new and there hadn't been anything like this around before," he recalled. "Primary storage optimization is very similar to secondary storage optimization in terms of the concept. But this time around the concept's proven. People know that the technology works pretty much — and there are thousands of referenceable customers that are using secondary storage optimization technology," whom end users can talk to.
"So we think the growth of the market is going to happen much more rapidly in the PSO space, just because people are already generally familiar with that technology," he said. PSO and SSO use different algorithms, "but the concept is very similar."
Inline vs. Post-Processing
In defining the PSO market, Burgener identifies two distinct camps: the inline approaches (exemplified by Storwize) and the post-processing approaches (exemplified by NetApp and Ocarina Networks).
Which approach is right for optimally storing your primary data depends on the problem you are trying to solve, said Burgener. "There's no one [PSO] technology that's the best for all kinds of situations," he said. "The different approaches characterize what happens to writes to storage. All PSO solutions handle reads of capacity-optimized data at wire speeds."
By way of examples, Burgener cites Ocarina Networks as "the most application-specific player on the primary side," with, as of late September, 112 different algorithms — or 112 different file types that its Ocarina ECO System could identify, including TIFF, MPEG, Word, and PPT files.
"They've actually got an algorithm that's specific to each one of those," he said. "So if you're dealing with, say, pictures, or an online photo database, Ocarina [with its post-processing approach] is a pretty good fit for that — and why Kodak chose them, because these algorithms give them higher data reduction ratios than you could get out of a more generic technology like, for instance, what Storwize is using against that particular data set."
On the other hand, if your goal is to increase your storage capacity at every point in the data's lifecycle, you're probably better off using an inline approach, like Storwize's STN appliances use, said Burgener, because that data is constantly being optimized.
The difference, he said, is that "the Ocarina approach is going to end up using more storage capacity in the earlier days or weeks of a particular piece of data's lifecycle, but then it ends up reducing it as it gets older, whereas Storwize's approach is much more 'let's reduce it right away.'"
In addition to Storwize, Ocarina Networks and NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), which Burgener said has "basically packaged a de-duplication capability with their Data ONTAP operating system, so that every NetApp box that goes out has got that capability [to do PSO]," Burgener cites Hifn (NASDAQ: HIFN) and greenBytes as two players to watch in the PSO space.
With its Express DR family of PCI Express cards, Hifn OEM customers have a choice of using an inline or a post-processing approach to PSO, said Burgener, making the solution attractive to organizations with virtual tape libraries (VTLs) and backup appliances.
As for greenBytes, its new, just-coming-out-of-beta Cypress NAS, with its Sun/ZFS+-based approach, make it very appealing to Solaris users who are running ZFS, he said. "It also might make greenBytes an attractive acquisition candidate for Sun," he added.
Benefits of PSO
The main benefit of PSO is that it reduces the overall space and power required for primary storage. Primary Storage Optimization also "shortens overall backup-and-restore times, since less data must be written to or retrieved from disk for any given data set," explained Burgener, and, "in cases where data sets must be shipped across networks, the smaller, capacity-optimized data sets require less bandwidth, thereby reducing network traffic."
PSO can also be used with Secondary Storage Optimization solutions, oftentimes resulting in a significant overall reduction in space and power consumption. Though as Burgener cautioned, "data reduction ratios with combined use will vary based on the actual solutions used and the workload types. The only way to really understand the benefit PSO, or a combination of PSO and SSO together, will provide is to test it on specific workloads."
The Pitfalls
As with other storage technologies, there is a performance versus capacity trade-off with PSO. "Access latency is a problem that is a real concern for primary storage, though not so much for secondary storage," said Burgener.
"In-line approaches (the Storwize approach) have to deal with this; it's less of an issue for post-processing approaches (the Ocarina approach), but the issue with post-processing is that it will definitely require more storage capacity," he said. "How much more depends on what schedule the post-processing is run on (e.g., within hours of writing the data, within days of writing it, or within months of writing it, etc.)."
That's why, he noted, it's important for storage and network administrators to understand their organization's particular storage challenges and weigh the pros and cons of each approach before choosing a PSO solution.
The Future's So Bright
Over the next 12 months, Burgener sees the adoption rates for both primary and secondary storage optimization solutions accelerating. "There are still a lot of end users who have heard about the technology but don't really understand how it works yet, and as more and more vendors [like EMC, IBM and Symantec] get into the space, they're going to hear more about this."
Indeed, from what Burgener has seen happening in the storage industry, and the economic arguments for doing storage optimization being so compelling, he believes that PSO is almost a forgone conclusion. "Why would you spend 10 or 20 times as much to store a piece of data if you don't have to? And there's no risk associated with doing capacity optimization. I think we're going to see this penetrate rapidly."
"It's not there right now," he said, but over the course of the next 12 months he expects PSO adoptions to increase, though "we don't think the market is going to be as large as the secondary side, just because there's a lot less data."
Burgener also predicts that within the next 12 months or so, we're "going to see one or two of the WADS vendors [like Cisco or Riverbed] make public comments that are going to put them in direct competition with people like Storwize and Ocarina in the PSO space," as well as some industry consolidation as some of the larger players snap up the smaller, more specialized vendors (such as Sun Microsystems acquiring greenBytes).
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/data-reduction.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Data Domain, EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, HDS, IBM, Commvault, Xiotech and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, storage virtualization installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral Green Simpana Offerings Projects: BC DR planning Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection StorageX Brocade FAQ SSD Solid state disk SANmelody FalconStor tier zero Xiotech ISE nx4 ax4 greenBytes ZFS Sun Top 10 ROBOBak managed services hosting cloud grid Datacore Compellent compellant equallogic lefthand networks don't buy storage stop buying storage itguardian cherub networks Arkeia Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts
Best Practices for Tier 0 Storage - January 22, 2009
Tampa Florida -- Companies are starting to use solid-state drive (SSD) technology in a high-performance tier of storage called Tier 0.
Tier 1 storage, also known as production storage, can be considered the first class cabin for production data. Tier 2 and lower storage tiers were developed to handle data that is not quite as critical or does not need the performance characteristics of Tier 1 storage.
Now there's a new tier of storage: Tier 0. Tier 0 is solid-state memory-based storage which is used to improve performance beyond what current Tier 1 storage can offer. In the past, Tier 0 storage has been in the form of a RAM disk and was quite expensive. In fact, to justify the high cost of RAM disk, you had to not only know for certain that your performance problems were storage-based, but also be able to show a return on your investment in RAM disk.
Today, however, this is changing. The dropping cost of solid-state devices is making SSD technology more accessible throughout the data center. But while these cost reductions in SSDs are broadening the technology's appeal, the primary consideration for when a company chooses a SSD option is still performance.
Matching the performance of a 4U SSD would take a huge and expensive disk array with a large disk LUN striped across many drives. As always, simplicity wins out. Given the choice between a simple 4U SSD or a large disk array with a complex drive setup, many customers are choosing SSDs, says Brian McCarthy of Sencilo Solutions.
SSDs come in two forms: RAM-based systems and flash memory-based systems. Flash memory is what is changing the SSD landscape. Although flash does not have the performance of a RAM-based system, flash is significantly faster than traditional disk-based arrays -- even the top-performing arrays -- making it, for some data centers, the perfect solution.
RAM-based systems are more expensive than flash. For instance, a common capacity purchasing point today for flash-based SSDs is 2 TB. That 2 TB of flash memory would typically list for about $190,000. A common RAM-based capacity purchase is 128 GB and that would list for about $70,000. If a RAM-based SSD were purchased in 2 TB, it would come to more than $1 million.
While sales of flash-based systems are now outpacing RAM-based systems (in total capacity), RAM-based SSD systems sales are increasing on a per-unit basis as well. When you need RAM-based performance, you can usually justify the extra expenditure.
Unlike flash-based SSDs, RAM-based systems are not sensitive to the amount of data being written to them. There is a theoretical limit to the amount of writes that a flash-based system can handle. Additionally, flash-based systems do not offer the same level of write performance as RAM-based systems.
As a result, in scenarios where there are very active files with significant write I/O like those that have redo logs or Undo Segments, RAM-based systems are usually the better alternative. Database environments where redo logs or Undo Segments are choking current disk I/O capabilities are where the most significant I/O increase can be measured and the return on investment quickly realized.
How to create a Tier 0
The first step in establishing a Tier 0 is identifying the data that should go on the system. With RAM-based systems, these are applications with high write I/O transactions. In these applications, specific files can be identified as "hot," meaning that the files are so active they need more I/O than the disk subsystem can deliver.
Let's return to the situation above, where redo logs or Undo Segments from databases are placed on a RAM disk. The three most likely solutions are to upgrade to a faster (and more expensive) disk array; spread the data across more drives in the array (leaving you more vulnerable to a double drive failure); or buy an SSD. These high write I/O applications are ideal for RAM-based systems as opposed to flash memory. The other driving factor in RAM SSD installations is low latency. For many applications, latency is more important than absolute peak IOPS numbers, though the best combinations offer both low latency and high IOPS.
Data that would do well on flash-based systems is from read-intensive applications or at least those with a more normal level of writes. If the flash system has a large enough RAM cache, it can also support high bursts of writes, meaning it is suited to applications that require significant disk I/O but where individual hot files cannot be identified, such as data warehouses.
Flash-based systems offer higher capacities than RAM-based systems, as well as lower power consumption. Because of the capacities available with flash-based SSD, it is now possible to move entire databases onto a SSD.
Protecting Tier 0
How can you protect this new Tier 0? It is, after all, memory. Flash is typically sold in modules that are grouped in an array set, with one module designated as a parity drive. This effectively builds a RAID 3 protection strategy. Also, like the memory in your USB thumb drive, flash drives do not need power to maintain stored data.
But since RAM drives do require power at all times, protection becomes an overriding concern. Some RAM-based systems use battery backup and have built-in hard drives to store data in the event the system is shut down manually or by a power outage. During a power loss, the system's battery will keep the unit running and the system will copy its contents to the hard disk drive(s), in case power does not return before the battery runs out.
RAM-based SSDs also leverage error correcting memory (ECC) and IBM's Chipkill technology. (HP offers an equivalent system, called Chipspare.) These technologies offer a form of advanced error checking and correcting (ECC) technology that protects computer memory systems from any single memory chip failure, as well as multi-bit errors from any portion of a single memory chip.
For example, Chipkill performs this function by scattering the bits of an ECC word across multiple memory chips, such that the failure of any one memory chip will affect only one ECC bit. This allows the system to reconstruct the contents of the memory contents, despite the complete failure of one chip.
Chipkill is frequently combined with dynamic bit steering, so that if a chip fails (or exceeds a threshold of bit errors), a spare memory chip replaces the failed chip. The concept is similar to that of RAID, which protects against disk failure, except that now the concept is applied to individual memory chips. When Chipkill was developed by IBM in the 1990s, it was focused on mainframes and high-end Unix systems, but it is now being utilized in SSD. A study done by IBM on the effect of Chipkill suggests that it decreases the likelihood of data loss in a memory system by two orders of magnitude.
RAM-based systems: Are they green?
Are RAM-based systems green? On a power per TB comparison, the answer is no, but that comparison is not real-world. The traditional method of getting more performance to an application hungry for disk I/O is to create LUNs with a high drive count in them. The more drive spindles in the array group, the faster the disk I/O performance. These extra drives require more power and typically, especially in non-virtualized storage technology, there is a vast amount of wasted disk capacity, especially in non-virtualized storage environments. The user has to sacrifice effective capacity utilization for speed.
SSDs do not need extra spindles; they deliver high speed out of the box. The result is a lower number of devices and therefore a lowering of power consumption rates.
Performance expectations
A typical hard disk drive performs 4- to 5-msec reads or writes and approximately 150-300 random I/Os per second. A RAM-based SSD does .015 msec reads and writes and about 400,000 I/Os per second. A flash-based SSD does about 0.2 msec reads and 2-msec writes. I/O performance is 100,000 random I/O per second on reads and 25,000 I/Os per second on writes.
Texas Memory Systems has developed a cached flash SSD. By leveraging a RAM-based cache, it delivers similar performance numbers to RAM-based SSD on cache hits and as a result delivers the best of both worlds.
Companies who pioneered the SSD market, such as Texas Memory Systems, are now being joined by storage array manufacturers like EMC, Sun, NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems in an attempt to address this rapidly expanding market. NetApp and HDS, for example are expected to deliver SSD solutions this year as well.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/prod-ssd.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 to choose which Backup type is right for your Data - January 22, 2009
At the request of Tech Target's - Rick Olin email address: rolin@techtarget.com we have been asked to remove this article
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Data Backup software for VMware ESX and how they Compare - January 20, 2009
At the request of Tech Target - Rick Olin rolin@techtarget.com has asked us to remove this article
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/prod-storagesoftware.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
Data Breach Disclosed - 100 Million Credit Cards Compromised - January 20, 2009
Orlando Florida -- A data breach disclosed today by Heartland Payment Systems may well displace TJX Companies' January 2007 breach in the record books as the largest ever involving payment data with potentially over 100 million cards being compromised.
Heartland, a Florida-based provider of credit and debit card processing services said that unknown intruders had broken into its systems sometime last year and planted malicious software to steal card data carried on the company's networks. The company, which is among the largest payment processors in the country, claimed to have discovered the intrusion only last week after being alerted by Visa and MasterCard of suspicious activity.
The card companies' alerts triggered a subsequent investigation by "several forensic investigators" during which the intrusion was discovered, Robert Baldwin Jr., Heartland's president and CFO, said in the statement. The company said the intrusion may have been the result of a "widespread global cyberfraud operation".
Heartland claimed that no merchant data, cardholder's Social Security numbers, or unencrypted personal identification numbers (PIN), addresses or telephone numbers were compromised.
As with most data breach notifications, Heartland offered no explanations on when it was first informed of the breach by the card companies, when in 2008 the company had been breached, how long the intruders had remained undetected, or how many cards might have been compromised in the intrusion. A company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But given that Heartland processes more than 100 million card transactions per month, it is very possible that the number of compromised credit and debit cards is at least that much, if not more, said Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc. "It does look like the biggest ever," Litan said. The TJX breach involved the compromise of over 45 million cards.
It also appears that those behind the breach "made off with the gold" by intercepting and stealing the so-called Track 2 data from the magnetic stripe on the back of cards, which is all that's needed to create counterfeit cards, Litan said.
Dan Clements, president of CardCops, an identity protection service of Affinion Group Inc., said that he has noticed activity in underground chat rooms that suggested a major compromise at a processor such as Heartland.
Typically when a card is stolen, crooks first check to see if the cards are still active by using it for some transaction -- often a very small donation to a charitable organization -- to see if it works. This sort of validity check has increased by nearly 20% over the past few months, suggesting a major compromise. But it's not clear yet if it is related to the Heartland breach, Clements said.
The Heartland compromise is the second involving a large payment processor over the past few weeks. One Dec. 23, RBS WorldPay, the payment processing division of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, announced that its systems had been breached by unknown intruders, resulting in the compromise of personal information belonging to about 1.5 million card holders. The compromised information included the Social Security numbers of 1.1 million individuals using payroll cards, the company said.
The incidents suggest that cybercrooks are increasingly beginning to target payment processors, Litan said. "Attacking a processor is much more serious than attacking a retailer. A processor sits at the nerve center of the payment process,"and processes far more payment card data than any retailer, she said.
"More radical security moves" need to be taken by payments industry as a whole to address the problem, she added. Such incidents show that the security requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) being pushed by the major card companies is clearly not enough, Litan added.
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
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
Looking for the Right BC/DR Consultant - What to know - December 19, 2008
Orlando Florida -- Siemens IT Solutions and Services always had a solid business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan in place. But it wasn't until 9/11 that BC/DR planners truly understood what was lacking.
"We probably had the larger things covered, but on a moment's notice we were not as well put together as we could have been," says Debbie Hoppenjans, manager of business continuity planning. "It made us, as a company, really take a step back and look at what we would do."
So the company began its search for business continuity consulting services. But it wasn't exactly thrilled with most of its prospects.
"There seem to be a lot of them out there, and from our experience a lot of them are not very good," says CISO Dave Bixler.
Overall, complaints range from a lack of knowledge about the business and miscommunication, to not understanding the scope of the challenge.
"A lot of times the [consulting firms] are so dead-set on upselling," Hoppenjans says. "Any BCP 101 person will tell you that we have to document our plans up to today. So many times you find companies trying to help you plan for years to come." If they don't know your business and what you're going through, "how do you know this is where we need to go?" she adds.
The problem can be traced to the days following 9/11, says Russell Wooldridge, marketing manager at the Disaster Recovery Institute International in Washington, D.C. Many security firms simply added business continuity to their list of services to meet companies' demands, but offered little training and experience to back up their claims, he says.
Business continuity services represent a $3 billion to $4 billion business, according to Gartner. Some 28 percent of companies manage their business continuity plan with the assistance of an external provider, according to a survey of 254 senior executives by consulting firm KPMG. There is a higher reliance on external support—38 percent—in midsize enterprises, and the financial services sector showed the highest preference for external service providers at 41 percent.
Companies have taken giant steps in business continuity preparations, says Brian McCarthy of Sencilo Solutions, a disaster recovery and business continuity consulting firm in Lake Mary, Florida. Larger companies are forming their own DR and BC staff and certifying their skills through disaster recovery groups like The Business Continuity Institute, DRII and the Business Resilience Certification Consortium, to name a few.
"We're not out there as evangelists anymore trying to convince people to do this. There's now a genuine understanding that business continuity [planning] is a part of business, and that's good," McCarthy says. While that creates more competition for consulting firms, these in-house groups still need coaching, assistance and "spot help," he adds.
BC/DR planning consultants include large firms like Accenture, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, EDS, Booz Allen Hamilton and IBM Global Services. There are also dozens of boutique consulting firms—regional and niche players that just focus on business continuity planning like Sencilo Solutions.
How can you be sure that the consulting firm has the expertise to fill in your business continuity gaps? Here are five questions to ask when choosing the best business continuity consultant for your company.
1. Do you know what you need?
Good BC/DR planning starts with understanding what your exposures are and making a good decision on recovery strategy. If you've got a solid strategy, developing your plans becomes very straightforward. The solution may not be in place, but it's on the way. Now you can develop plans to execute that strategy.
"The most critical part of the whole process is your business impact analysis, including the risk assessment," McCarthy says. "That's where you need to spend most of your time. If your consultant tells you differently, [that's a problem]. Business impact analysis is the key to your entire plan."
Consultants should also perform a recovery option study to determine these priorities. Some consultants will perform a business impact analysis and identify the exposures and impacts to expect in a disaster. But they won't describe how to solve those problems. Make sure the consultant is willing to outline your recovery options and the amount of time each option will take.
2. Will the firm present several options?
If you go to a company that provides big-name technology solutions and consulting services, "why would it surprise you what their answer should be?" McCarthy says. There are a lot of options out there, and consultants should present several options for business continuity solutions.
"When it comes to business continuity, it's about planning and services, and it should be less about technologies," says Stephanie Balaouras, analyst at Forrester Research.
"It's your strategy for responding to business disruption and covers people, facilities and technologies. It covers everything from pandemic planning to 'Microsoft Exchange is down.'"
Firms that offer BC/DR planning and consulting services should be able to help you do a business impact analysis, identify critical business processes, map all the dependencies and define how critically you need them, and what the impact would be on revenue. "When you understand that, you can build a business case and invest in the right solutions," she adds.
Consultants should first conduct a threat assessment and then put a plan together. "It's a huge, in-depth process" that needs regular reviewing and updating, Balaouras adds.
3. Are the consultants certified in business continuity planning?
Certification ensures that business continuity consultants are well-versed in all aspects of BC/DR planning. At Siemens, certification is preferred, not required, "but I would recommend it to anyone," McCarthy says.
A survey by BC Management, a business continuity executive search firm in Huntington Beach, Calif., showed that 75 percent of the respondents were certified, while 25 percent were not. Business continuity certification bodies include BCI, DRII, BRCCI, the University of Virginia and Strohl Systems. Specialized certifications are available for emergency management, risk management, audit, security and technology. DRI International offers certification specifically for business continuity consultants and vendors to ensure that practitioners understand professional practices.
Each subject area includes the professional's role within the area and an outline of recommended knowledge within the subject area. The 10 subject areas cover topics such as risk evaluation and control, business impact analysis, emergency response and operations, awareness programs, training, crisis communication and coordinating with external agencies.
Ask if the consultants you'll be working with are certified in business continuity planning.
4. Are they willing and able to prioritize?
You can save a lot of money by evaluating your BC/DR priorities, Thornton says, adding, "If you need systems back up in six hours—you can, but you'll have to throw a lot of money into that. Instead, consultants should be asking, 'Do you need that? What can you wait a couple of days on, or a week on?' and establish priorities."
Perhaps only 20 percent of the total environment—the most vital systems and applications—must recover in minutes or hours. "I can do that more economically than the whole thing," Thornton says. Different strategies can be deployed for lower priorities. "If I've got three days, I can build that system up very quickly—that's a lot less expensive than equipment that is standing there ready—not to mention the added cost of keeping that equipment current and fresh," he adds.
5. Do they offer BC/DR solutions to fit your budget?
Nearly one-quarter of companies surveyed by KPMG have not been able to justify the costs of business continuity plans. Most of these companies are focused in the large enterprise with 500 to 999 employees, according to the study. Consultants should know your business well enough to understand budget constraints and your immediate BC/DR needs.
"We let the business [units] decide what they want to spend and help coordinate based what the numbers tell us," Hoppenjans explains. "We let [business impact analysis] data tell us what each department is doing as far as BC planning, what their risks and what their vulnerabilities are, and they decide what to spend. Some responses may be customer- or contract-driven."
With all of their questions answered, Siemens IT Solutions and Services found a qualified BC/DR consulting firm and has worked with the firm since 2004.
"You can never know how prepared you are until something happens," McCarthy says. "But I think we're well-equipped with the right tools to guide us through."
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
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
Best Practices for Enterprise Solid State-Disk (SSD) - November 7, 2008
Orlando Florida --- Although solid-state disk (SSD) drives have seen insignificant adoption in the PC market, considerable excitement exists in the enterprise space for these devices. The key reason is speed. Although the price per gigabyte for an SSD drive is prohibitive in comparison to that of a traditional hard disk drive (HDD), there are server applications that use large numbers of HDDs at a fraction of their capacity to increase I/O bandwidth. In many cases, an SSD can provide more speed at an adequate capacity for a reasonable price.
"The difference between an enterprise server and a PC is that enterprise servers use a number of HDDs, whereas a PC uses only one. In a multiple-HDD system, mass storage is ranked into a storage hierarchy, with faster, more costly storage devices being placed in small amounts nearer to the processor and slower, cheaper storage devices used in larger capacities further from the processor," says Brian McCarthy CEO/President of Sencilo Solutions in Lake Mary Florida. In today's systems, the more expensive storage devices consist of enterprise-class HDDs -- disks with a high I/O rate because of high spindle speeds, wider tracks, and faster, more expensive interfaces such as Fibre Channel and SAS. Slower bulk storage devices are typically based on the same low-cost HDDs that are prevalent in PCs. This is the storage hierarchy typical of all computers, which extends all the way from processor caches down to archival storage.
An example of this hierarchy is shown in the figure, which gives a rough idea of where the different elements of the storage hierarchy fit from the perspectives of bandwidth and cost per gigabyte. We use a log-log chart format to allow us to see all the data that would be hidden if we were to use a linear scale for either performance or cost. The three orbs labeled L1, L2, and L3 are three possible layers of cache in or around the processor.
Since NAND's price per gigabyte has fallen below that of DRAM in recent years, system designers have found interesting ways to tap into NAND technology to improve performance while lowering costs. Flash SSDs are one means of reaching that goal, something McCarthy says he had worked on earlier in his career at Intel.
Enterprise-class HDDs fit at the top end of the HDD oval in the figure. As flash-based SSDs move into this market they pose a significant threat to enterprise HDDs, and many OEMs and IT managers expect future systems to be built using a combination of SSDs for speed and low-price HDDs for mass storage, eliminating the enterprise HDDs that might otherwise be used between low-cost HDDs and DRAM.
Flash SSD manufacturers have been working over the past few years to produce units that satisfy the enterprise server OEMs' needs at a satisfactory price. Their first offerings were expensive (about $10,000) so these devices are currently are being used to replace the most costly types of HDD-based enterprise arrays: those comprising short-stroked drives.
What is short stroking?
Short stroking is an approach to achieving the maximum possible performance from an enterprise HDD. The technology is relatively common, although the proportion of the overall enterprise HDD market that is used in this way is small. Objective Analysis estimates that less than 10% of all enterprise HDDs are short-stroked. The figure on p. 29 illustrates the basics of short stroking.
Two causes of delay in an HDD are access time and rotational latency. Access time is the time required for the disk's head to find a requested track, often referred to as "seek time," and depends on the distance from the current track to the requested track. Rotational latency is the time it takes for the requested data to move under the head after the head has found the right track.
While a programmer can do little to improve the latency, other than to use high-RPM disks, programmers can ensure that the head motion, and thus the access time, is as small as possible. This is done by using only a few adjacent tracks on the disk and completely ignoring the rest of the disk -- a process referred to as "short stroking."
While a short-stroked drive will only access a fraction of the available disk space, the data will be read off the disk at a significantly higher speed than normal. A disk with tens of IOPS can be "coaxed" into providing data at a few hundred IOPS by using this method. In some cases, users find that this is a worthwhile trade-off.
Another trick programmers can use to accelerate I/O is to use only the tracks at the outer edge of the disk. Data on the outer tracks is accessed at a higher rate, so transactions on these tracks are significantly faster.
An example of this approach is IBM's high-end Tier-1 storage system: the DS8300 Turbo. Offering 123,000 IOPS and a maximum latency of 16ms, this system includes 512 HDDs, in a mix of 73GB and 146GB capacities, which are mirrored and configured in a RAID formation.
Because of the redundant data required, and the fact that the drives are short-stroked, the system's 53TB of internal storage capacity whittles down to only 9TB of usable space.
An SSD can often support tens of times the IOPS of a short-stroked HDD. Often the higher bandwidth of the SSD, in tandem with the very small capacity actually used in a short-stroked HDD, will provide an opportunity for an SSD to replace a bank of HDDs. As long as the SSD's capacity is as great as that used in the short-stroked HDDs, and as long as the SSD's bandwidth matches that of the HDD array at a competitive price, the SSD may provide a more cost-effective alternative to an array of HDDs. This is the case in most of today's deployments of SSDs in enterprise environments.
Objective Analysis believes the market for short-stroked enterprise HDDs will be the first market to completely convert from HDDs to SSDs.
SSD market forecasts
Objective Analysis has arrived at estimates for the enterprise SSD market through two unrelated forecasting techniques. One of our forecasts uses the enterprise HDD forecasts of Coughlin Associates and applies some judgment to the numbers. This forecast results in strong similarities to the "bottom-up" forecast we derived by using a thorough analysis of each enterprise application type.
Our bottom-up forecast finds that the enterprise SSDs will first be adopted in transaction processing systems, but over the long term even stronger growth will occur in large Internet systems.
Our top-down forecast is based upon the following assumptions:
--5% to 10% of enterprise HDDs are short-stroked. This estimate is based on conversations with many parties in the industry;
--Acceptance of enterprise SSDs will be slow at first as IT managers evaluate the risks of introducing this new technology;
--SSD prices will decline with the conversion to MLC NAND flash technology and as SSD designers find ways to substantially reduce other manufacturing costs; and
--Today, arrays of 10 or more short-stroked HDDs can be economically replaced by a single SSD. As enterprise SSD prices decline, one SSD may economically replace even fewer enterprise HDDs.
This gives us a unit shipment forecast that grows from almost negligible shipments today to 1.7 million units in 2013 -- an average annual growth rate of nearly 150%.
Our revenue forecast is driven by this unit shipment forecast. It indicates that enterprise SSD revenues will grow at a strong 67% rate through the forecast cycle, based upon very strong 148% unit growth somewhat offset by an average annual price decline of 40%.
Enterprise SSD unit shipments will grow in 2013 to nearly 100× the expected shipments for 2008. In 2013, SSD revenues are expected to exceed $1 billion.
Enterprise HDDs are threatened by this new technology, which will initially replace enterprise HDDs at a 10:1 ratio, dropping to 3:1 by the end of the forecast period. This means that the enterprise HDD market will shrink faster than the enterprise SSD market can grow.
Summary
The enterprise server market is warming up to SSDs faster than has happened in the PC market, and with good reason. Today, entire arrays of costly high-speed enterprise HDDs can be economically replaced with a single enterprise-class SSD. Although enterprise SSDs are anything but cheap, at close to $10,000 each, they can often be used to replace an array of 10 or more HDDs, providing more speed in a much smaller footprint for about the same price.
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 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
