Nick's Data Storage Blog

Computing and Storage Infrastructure Key to Big Savings

Nick — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:59:14 -0500

Leaders of information technology are facing extreme pressure to reduce both opex and capex spending. When looking into the playbook on ways to get this accomplished, these leaders are first squeezing suppliers and then going after staff reductions. Previously, the deployment of application software would help the business save money, but that’s not as much the case today.

So where can most organizations save a significant amount of money and increase their service levels? Computing and storage infrastructure.

To understand why this is the best place to save money, we first must do a review of how we got to where we are with infrastructure. Most organizations deployed applications to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of their company. The strategic part was the application, not the infrastructure supporting it. In fact we were so worried about the application that we often over-sized infrastructure. Over time, this phenomenon caused the inefficiencies we have with infrastructure.

So, it is easy to understand why server consolidation and virtualization have become so popular. If organizations stop there, however, they will only be getting a small fraction of the potential savings. Here is a partial list of infrastructure saving techniques:

· Server virtualization
· Storage virtualization
· Thin provisioning
· De-duplication
· Writable snapshots
· Multiple protocol connectivity
· RAID 6
· WAN accelerators
· Tiered storage
· Data archival
· Virtual tape libraries

Let me be so bold as to paint a vision. What if your infrastructure was dial tone for your applications? And you would deploy an application by setting service levels for security, performance and availability. Sound too far-fetched? This is the definition of private cloud computing.

Getting started is an exercise in the details. You need to document and understand your requirements starting from the application to the infrastructure.

Email me at nicksblog@adexisstorage.com

Which of these are applicable to your environment? Which ones should you do first? What has the biggest payback? Before answering, you must start with the end in mind—data center optimization. This is more of a journey than an event. It requires a vision and the architecture to support.

Demystifying Cloud Computing Oct. 20 Complimentary Webinar

Nick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:26:49 -0400

Cloud computing is certainly enjoying fame and glory at the top of the technology topic hit charts—but what is it really? The volume of information is confusing in a rapid-paced technological wo rld where business depends on the need to know.

So is cloud computing complex...cost saving...simple...useful...costly...easy to implement...the future...risky?

During an Oct. 20 webinar (noon Eastern),WorldWide Technologies’s Scott Miller, former President of Server Centric, will join me as co-presenter for a webinar that will reveal exactly what all the clamor means. Be sure to join us for "Demystifying Cloud Computing: Beyond the Hype to the Heart of the Matter." Register here: http://ow.ly/te5h

Why is it crucial to understand the cloud?

“The disconnect between IT and business is growing,” Miller says. “ Business wants a place to experiment, fast integration Looser IT restrictions and responsiveness. IT wants plenty of notice, predictability, stability, justification.”

Bringing both sides together for a reality check with a unique focus on this topic brings a valuable informational offering. We will address the adoption drivers for cloud computing, challenges, overall value, cost, cloud sweet spots, practical applications and much more.

Regster here for this complimentary webinar. http://ow.ly/te5h

Best Practices in Keeping Data for Years

Nick — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:18:11 -0400

Keeping archived data for years is very cumbersome. The problem with long-term archived data is that it must be retrievable through many generations of infrastructure technology.

Many organizations use existing tape backup resources for long-term archival of data. This is accomplished by simply creating a policy that has a long retention period. Most of these companies understand that offsite tapes stored for a period of time need to be refreshed. So, on a periodic basis, they retrieve the tapes and make tape-to-tape fresh copies.

This media life cycle maintenance continues until the “archived” technology is replaced. When this occurs, most diligent organizations will restore the archived data to disk and backup the data using the new technology. Of course this back file conversion increases the complexity of the implementation of the new infrastructure. But, by doing so, this process accomplishes a couple of things. First, it verifies that the archived data can be restored with the current infrastructure, and secondly, it updates the archived data with the current infrastructure.

Periodically, we are asked, “How can we make sure that the technology we use today for archival will be around in X number of years?” The simple answer is, “You can’t.”

What is at the root of this type question is a poor assumption that once you archive data (using whatever method or media you prefer) you can forget about it. The truth is, you must maintain your archive’s technology using a lifecycle process. To think that any technology will be around in X years is a very risky bet.

While choosing the most promising technology for your archive data does increase the distance between technology refreshes, it will not relieve you from the responsibility of actually doing the refresh.

I feel very comfortable, for instance, that optical media has a longer shelve life than tape. Therefore, if I can economically use optical media for my archive, I would. In addition, I would replace the optical reader when it is end of life with the appropriate technology at that time.

Visit Adexis at www.adexisstorage.com

Take the Disaster Recovery Tour

Nick — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:01:34 -0400

In this digital age, the speed of doing business increases at an accelerating rate. The safety of your critical business data, and the applications that make use of that data, are paramount. VMware disaster recovery solutions provide rapid, simple, reliable and affordable protection in the event of a disaster…protection that enables rapid recovery from planned and unplanned downtime. Take the disaster recovery tour and see what we mean.

Have a good day,

Nick Cellentani

Visit Adexis at www.adexisstorage.com

Nick — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:46:24 -0400

Who knew what H_²O could do? In case you haven't seen this, it's a riot.

On a more serious note there are some videos with serious value I would like to share with you, too. Check out my recent blog post for a seven-part video series on Virtualization.

Have a good day,
Nick

Visit Adexis at www.adexisstorage.com

Virtualization Video Series

Nick — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:12:51 -0400

You may be interested in seeing my complimentary, seven-part video series, "Virtualization, Avoiding the Hype," where I discuss real world tips and techniques about implementing and maintaining a virtualized environment. Virtualization topics I cover include data storage, disaster recovery, server hardware, network, the integrated approach, and services.

Have a good day,

Nick Cellentani

visit Adexis at www.adexisstorage.com

The Secret to Meeting Your Data Availability Requirements

Nick — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:23:44 -0400

Meeting or exceeding your availability requirements is a matter of assessing, designing and implementing the correct solution, right?

Well it starts there, but the real secret is staying diligent after you put your solution in place. Many organizations initially do a great job of eliminating single points of failure, but years later nobody remembers how it all works. Even with the best documentation, this erosion of knowledge still takes place.

I have witnessed things that will make your hair curl. The most recent was a well-known disk array manufacturer lost three drives in a RAID 6 at the same time. This occurred after the transfer switch from the generator failed to close completely--therefore draining the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and dropping the array cold.

So, lets start at the beginning. The generator/UPS combination was designed and tested weekly to be up and running in 30 seconds after a power failure. Over a five-year period this combination failed to work only once (over 300 tests including real outages). This one failure caused a load bank test and many mock utility outages to be performed and the solution performed flawlessly. But just in case it did not work, scripts were written to shut down all servers in the event that the UPS battery fell below five minutes.

So years go by and the computer room is never even powered off and on. Then a situation like the above occurs. Things are forgotten and have changed and eroded overtime. What is the secret? Test completely!! Don’t just test what should work, but test what might happen if something that should work doesn’t.

visit Adexis at www.adexisstorage.com