IBM FlashSystem

Celerity - [suh-ler-i-tee]. Noun. Swiftness; speed.

 So, what would happen if Celerity were to be coupled with IBM's new FlashSystems?
Our Technical Headquarters excitedly took delivery of some new toys last month and have since been playing, training and testing 2 IBM FlashSystem boxes ever since. If all goes to plan then next month we aim to take over the world!  Well ok, these FlashSystem boxes might not be quite that good, but they are certainly making us explore the new opportunities that are available to clients now that we have them in our possession.

 

 

HDDs may be getting bigger but they are not getting faster. We all know that SSDs are much faster than HDDs, but they cannot realise their potential because they are stuck behind a slow disc interface. Late last year IBM acquired solid state veterans of 34 years Texas Memory Systems for their flash memory based systems, later to be re-named IBM FlashSystems as part of the IBM System Storage portfolio. IBM’s flash memory storage arrays remove the bottlenecks of HDDs and SSDs which greatly speeds up access to your data held on flashcards containing the fastest 32nm Toshiba flash chips. The flashcards use DRAM as a buffer to help achieve up to 570,000 read IOPS with less than 100 ms latency. With 4 models offering up to 24 TB storage in a 1U enclosure using less than 400 watts, it offers one of the industry’s best IOPS per watt ratio.

 

IBM Flash System arrays give reliability; small footprint, low power consumption and low latency that makes them perfect to accelerate Oracle, DB2, SQL databases, VDI and critical applications on Windows, Linux and AIX. Reduced I/O wait time can increase CPU efficiency allowing more to be done in less time, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership. To get the performance of a FlashSystem using traditional HDD arrays would need the equivalent of up to 750 HDDs, with all the power, cooling and space requirements to go along with them!

 

IBM FlashSystems are built for micro latency. They let you access your data fast, but they can also integrate with IBM’s SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM Storwize V7000 to allow extra features such as easy tier, preferred read and manual data placement, to give a huge boost in performance by storing hot data on the faster flashcards, and cool data on slower cheaper HDDs and SSDs. This means that they can be dropped into your existing data centre to give you that increase in performance whilst still keeping existing storage.

 

 

 

The lower capacity (1–10TB) 710 and 720 arrays use single level cell (SLC) chips which offer a 33x improvement in endurance over some vendor’s multi-level cell (MLC) chips. The higher capacity (6-24TB) 810 and 820 arrays use Enterprise-grade eMLC chips; which typically offer 10x greater chip longevity on writes over that of standard MLC. Endurance is improved and systems are protected with; ECC at chip level; Variable stripe RAID (VSR - to protect against chip failure); 2D flash Raid (eliminates single point of failure); wear levelling and over provisioning. Hot swappable parts and the 2 management NICs on the 720 and 820 give them enterprise reliability and with the on-board batteries data can be written to the flash chips in the event of a power outage.

 

The low TCO and high ROI of IBM FlashSystems means that your business will perform better and allow you to pursue new opportunities using your existing hardware and software - you’re undoubtedly missing out if you do not at least consider flash memory technology to enhance your storage environment.

 

Please contact a Celerity Representative for more information on IBM FlashSystems.

IBM FLASHSYSTEM ASSESSMENT FOR ORACLE

 Submit a 1 hour Oracle AWR, or Statspack report and we will provide you with a FREE detailed performance assessment to demonstrate how much of an improvement FlashSystems can bring to your organisation. You can then actually experience these benefits in your own environment with a 2 week on-site trial of the equipment – what have you got to lose?

 

John Carson - Technical Consultant - Celerity Limited

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- See more at: http://www.celerity-uk.com/news/212/ibm-flashsystem#sthash.XiSKXBmT.dpuf

Veeam Backups with Data Domain

Posted on: 08/08/13

 

Celerity recently implemented an EMC Data Domain into our own environment for use as our main backup storage device and because our infrastructure is primarily virtualised we use Veeam as our backup solution of choice. After some initial testing we have found that using Data Domain as your backup storage in combination with Veeam can help you cut costs and improve data retention.

 

Veeam, as a standalone product, is extremely good which is why it is the #1 VM backup solution on the market, but when combined with the power of Data Domain it can be even better.

 

The major limitation with Veeam is that deduplication is limited to the virtual machines within each individual backup job. Veeam suggest that you keep similar machines in the same backup job, which works well for the OS files, but what about all that data spread across multiple backup jobs? And, what happens if you want to run an ad-hoc backup on a single machine?

 

Limitations within Veeam mean you must run a full job which could contain multiple virtual machines to get a backup of the virtual machine you want.

 

And so, this is where a deduplication storage system such as Data Domain comes into its own. It allows you to deduplicate globally across all virtual machine backups regardless of the job they are in. This means you can group your backups into smaller sub-jobs, or have singular backups for certain machines, without impacting on the amount of storage that would otherwise be required.

In essence what this means is that you can backup more machines, more of the time while using less space.

 

A Data Domain storage solution does not just benefit Veeam, it can also be used to backup physical machines to further reduce storage requirements for backups. You also have access to all of the other features Data Domain has to offer such as replication to another Data Domain device for offsite backups or for use as a Virtual Tape Library, which may be of interest with the release of Veeam Backup and Replication v7.

 

When time allows, I intend to do some further testing on the difference between regular Veeam backups and Data Domain to obtain the required information to confirm my initial findings, the results of which I will include in a future article.

 

Should you require to discuss your requirements please do not hesitate to contact a Celerity representative.

 

Barry Knox - Technical Consultant - Celerity Limited

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See more at www.celerity-uk.com/news

Endpoint Manager for Core Protection

Antivirus and anti-malware is a necessary evil in today’s world and is a standard deployment in all organisations. IBM’s Endpoint Manager for Core Protection offers more than standard AV and anti-malware products while using fewer resources than many of its competitors.

Some bloated AV products consume more CPU, network bandwidth and may need many dedicated servers to achieve less than Endpoint Manager for Core Protection. It does this by using IBM Endpoint Manager’s powerful and versatile, yet lightweight delivery and management infrastructure. This also includes patch management to keep all of your protected computers installed software up-to-date. At its heart is a version of Trend Micro’s Office Scan whose cloud based database gives up-to-date real time protection using a variety of methods to keep all of your Windows and Mac platforms protected.

IBM Endpoint Manager for Core Protection stops threats before they arrive by checking files, URLs and emails for malicious potential in real time.
Source: ibm.com

 

Features include:

• Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware, Endpoint Firewall, Patch Management, Asset Discovery, Compliance Management and Optional Data Loss Prevention and Device Control to protect your network from all angles.

• File, web and email reputation along with behaviour monitoring for anti-virus and anti-malware. Provided by Trend Micro, who have 25 years’ experience in business security.

• Virtualisation aware. Scanned and certified gold images only need changes rescanned during duplication to speed up scanning time in VDI environments. Serialises scans of Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View virtual endpoints to avoid antivirus storms.

• Lightweight threat protection. Using the cloud to reduce the amount of data held on endpoints. Putting less strain on endpoints and networks whilst giving them the latest threat information.

Optional Data Protection

To help enforce organisational security policies IBM’s Endpoint Manager for Core Protection offers an optional Data Loss Protection plug-in. This adds dlp and device control to safeguard your data against accidental or deliberate loss.

Not only can it regulate, log access to drives, USB devices, ports based on security and user policies, but it can identify files based on attributes, keywords and patterns. This can ensure that sensitive data is controlled to allow organisations to comply with data privacy laws.

Please contact a Celerity Representative for more information on Endpoint Manager for Core Protection.

John Carson - Technical Consultant - Celerity Limited