Data protection has now become more secure with the onset of EVault, which has a foolproof technology platform along with a strong cloud backup infrastructure. You can back-up as much of data as you want, as the storage capacity is virtually unlimited. In addition, the assurance that no matter what happens, your data will be secure as they can get it back for you with no loss whatsoever.
The recovery rate that they promise is also fast and accurate. The technology provides a local copy, which will give a faster access, an offsite backup also for faster recovery as well as a single platform. Many companies choose this system to reduce their overhead costs, which can be heavy when they invest in traditional backup systems that have limited storage capacity.
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Cloud, Virtual, Server, Storage I/O and Other Technology Tiering
Depending on who or what is your sphere of influence, or your sources of information and insight are, there will be different views of tiering, particular when it comes to tiered storage and storage tiering for cloud, virtual and traditional environments.
Recently I did piece over at 21st century IT (21cit) titled Tiered Storage Explained that looks at both tiered storage and storage tiering (e.g. movement and migration, automated or manual) that you can read here.
In the data center (or information factory) everything is not the same as different applications have various performance, availability, capacity and economics among other requirements. Consequently there are different levels or categories of service along with associated tiers of technology to support them, more on these in few moments.
Technology tiering is all around you
Tiering is not unique to Information Technology (IT) as it is more common than you may realize, granted, not always called tiering per say. For example there are different tiers of transportation (beside public or private, shared or single use) ranging from planes, trains, bicycles and boats among others.
Tiered transportation (Bikes, Trains, Planes, Gondolas)
Moving beyond IT (we will get back to that shortly), there are other examples of tiered technologies. For example I live in the Stillwater / Minneapolis Minnesota area thus have a need for different types of snow movement and management tools, after all, not all snow situations are the same.
Tiered snow movement technology (Different tools for various tasks)
The other part of the year when the snow is not actually accumulating or the St. Croix river is not frozen which on a good year can be from March to November, its fishing time. That means having different types of fishing rods rigged for various things such as casting, trolling or jigging, not to mention big fish or little fish, something like how a golfer has different clubs. While like a golfer a single fishing rod can do the task, it’s not as practical thus different tools for various tasks.
Different sizes and types of fish
Speaking of transportation and automobiles, there are also various metrics some of which have a correlation to Data Center energy use and effectiveness, not to mention EPA Energy Star for Data Centers and Data Center Storage.
Technology tiering in and around the data center
Now let’s get back to technology tiering the data center (or information factory) including tiered storage and storage tiering (here’s link to the tiered storage explained piece I mentioned earlier). The three primary building blocks for IT services are processing or compute (e.g. servers, workstations), networking or connectivity and storage that include hardware, software, management tools and applications. These resources in turn get accessed by yes you guessed it, different tiers or categories of devices from mobile smart phones, tablets, laptops, workstations or terminals browsers, applets and other presentation services.
Lets focus on storage for a bit (pun intended)
Keep in mind that not everything is the same in the data center from a performance, availability, capacity and economic perspective. This means different threat risks to protect applications and data against, performance or space capacity needs among others.
Avoid treating all threat risks the same, tiered data protection
Part of modernizing data protection is aligning various tools and technologies to meet different requirements including Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) along with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Objectives (SLO’s).
In addition to protecting data and applications to meet various needs, there are also tiered storage mediums or media (e.g. HDD, SSD, Tape) along with storage systems.
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Excerpt, Chapter 9: Storage Services and Systems from my book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking book (CRC Press) available via Amazon (also Kindle) and other venues. 9.2 Tiered Storage Tiered storage is often referred to by the type of disk drives or media, by the price band, by the architecture or by its target use (online for files, emails and databases; near line for reference or backup; offline for archive). The intention of tiered storage is to configure various types of storage systems and media for different levels of performance, availability, capacity and energy or economics (PACE) capabilities to meet a given set of application service requirements. Other storage mediums such as HDD, SSD, magnetic tape and optical storage devices are also used in tiered storage. Storage tiering can mean different things to different people. For some it is describing storage or storage systems tied to business, application or information services delivery functional need. Others classify storage tiers by price band or how much the solution costs. For others it’s the size or capacity or functionality. Another way to think of tiering is by where it will be used such as on-line, near-line or off-line (primary, secondary or tertiary). Price bands are a way of categorizing disk storage systems based on price to align with various markets and usage scenarios. For example consumer, small office home office (SOHO) and low-end SMB in a price band of under $5,000 USD, mid to high-end SMB in middle price bands from $50,000 to $100,000 range, and small to large enterprise systems ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Another method of classification is by high performance active or high-capacity inactive or idle. Storage tiering is also used in the context of different mediums such as high performance solid state devices (SSD) or 15,500 revolution per minute (15.5K RPM) SAS of Fibre Channel hard disk drives (HDD), or slower 7.2K and 10K high-capacity SAS and SATA drives or magnetic tape. Yet another category is internal dedicated, external shared, networked and cloud accessible using different protocols and interfaces. Adding to the confusion are marketing approaches that emphasize functionality as defining a tier in trying to standout and differentiate above competition. In other words, if you can’t beat someone in a given category or classification then just create a new one. Another dimension of tiered storage is tiered access, meaning the type of storage I/O interface and protocol or access method used for storing and retrieving data. For example, high-speed 8Gb Fibre Channel (8GFC) and 10GbE Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) versus older and slower 4GFC or low-cost 1Gb Ethernet (1GbE) or high performance 10GbE based iSCSI for shared storage access or serial attached SCSI (SAS) for direct attached storage (DAS) or shared storage between a pair of clustered servers. Additional examples of tiered access include file or NAS based access of storage using network file system (NFS) or Windows-based Common Internet File system (CIFS) file sharing among others. Different categories of storage systems, also called tiered storage systems, combine various tiered storage mediums with tiered access and tiered data protection. For example, tiered data protection includes local and remote mirroring, in different RAID levels, point-in-time (pit) copies or snapshots and other forms of securing and maintaining data integrity to meet various service level, RTO and RPO requirements. Regardless of the approach or taxonomy, ultimately, tiered servers, tiered hypervisors, tiered networks, tiered storage and tiered data protection are about and need to map back to the business and applications functionality. |
There is more to storage tiering which includes movement or migration of data (manually or automatically) across various types of storage devices or systems. For example EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering), HDS Dynamic Tiering, IBM Easy Tier (and here), and NetApp Virtual Storage Tier (replaces what was known as Automated Storage Tiering) among others.
Likewise there are different types of storage systems or appliances from primary to secondary as well as for backup and archiving.
Then there are also markets or price bands (cost) for various storage systems solutions to meet different needs.
Needless to say there is plenty more to tiered storage and storage tiering for later conversations.
However for now check out the following related links:
Non Disruptive Updates, Needs vs. Wants (Requirements vs. wish lists)
Tiered Hypervisors and Microsoft Hyper-V (Different types or classes of Hypervisors for various needs)
Tape is still alive, or at least in conversations and discussions (Using different types or tiers of storage)
EMC VMAX 10K, looks like high-end storage systems are still alive (Tiered storage systems)
Storage comments from the field and customers in the trenches (Various perspectives on tools and technology)
Green IT, Green Gap, Tiered Energy and Green Myths (Energy avoidance vs. energy effectiveness and tiering)
Has SSD put Hard Disk Drives (HDD’s) On Endangered Species List? (Tiered storage systems and devices)
Tiered Storage, Systems and Mediums (Storage Tiering and Tiered Storage)
Cloud, virtualization, Storage I/O trends for 2013 and beyond (Industry Trends and Perspectives)
Amazon cloud storage options enhanced with Glacier (Tiered Cloud Storage)
Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage? (How much data are your preserving or hoarding?)Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories
I/O Virtualization (IOV) and Tiered Storage Access (Tiered storage access)
EMC VFCache respinning SSD and intelligent caching (Storage and SSD tiering including caching
Green and SASy = Energy and Economic, Effective Storage (Tired storage devices)
EMC Evolves Enterprise Data Protection with Enhancements (Tiered data protection)
Inside the Virtual Data Center (Data Center and Technology Tiering)
Airport Parking, Tiered Storage and Latency (Travel and Technology, Cost and Latency)
Tiered Storage Strategies (Comments on Storage Tiering)
Tiered Storage: Excerpt from Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, see more here)
Using SAS and SATA for tiered storage (SAS and SATA Storage Devices)
The Right Storage Option Is Important for Big Data Success (Big Data and Storage)
VMware vSphere v5 and Storage DRS (VMware vSphere and Storage Tiers)
Tiered Communication and Media Venues (Social and Traditional Media for IT)
Tiered Storage Explained
Ok, nuff said (for now).
Cheers gs
Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
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Cloudscaling Dumps Its CEO
«We are a fast-firing, hard-charging, startup of professionals who are passionate about building clouds using OpenStack,» wrote Cloudscaling founder and CTO Randy Bias today as he announced that he and the company’s Board of Directors, having decided that a change in leadership is needed, have «initiated a leadership transition process» – or, in non-jargon, have dumped their existing CEO.
Datalogix Selects WHIPTAIL to Accelerate Data Analytics Processing
WHIPTAIL has been chosen by Datalogix to improve the performance of applications running on its statistical analysis grid. Leveraging WHIPTAIL’s ACCELA flash storage array, Datalogix has reduced application response times and storage costs.
“Being chosen by an industry leader like Datalogix is a testament to our application acceleration go to market strategy, as Datalogix realizes the inherent value of faster, consistent and more reliable application performance,” said Erik Hardy, executive vice president of worldwide sales at WHIPTAIL.
As it worked to process massive levels of analytical data, Datalogix required a solution to improve its overall speed and efficiency, while staying compatible with its existing storage technology. It was essential for the company to sustain 2GB per second of Write/Read throughput with low latency. After reviewing a number of flash-storage solutions, Datalogix chose the WHIPTAIL ACCELA solution to run all statistical analysis system (SAS) jobs.
Five Steps to Making the Right Cloud Provider Choice
Choosing a cloud vendor is all too often an exercise in what you’re willing to give up, instead of what you are able to gain.
The truth is, just with any business relationship, there is a necessary give and take. But with infrastructure, the degree of importance to that relationship has real claims on your ability to do business the way you need to.
In that light, choosing a cloud provider who is best able to understand and map solutions to your goals is the most important metric in your decision making. However, there are a few other key considerations that are important to factor into a final decision.
Where’s the Cloud Taking IT Next?
What are the remaining barriers perhaps still preventing some companies from moving some of their on-premise computing to the Cloud, in whole or part? What specific Cloud implementations can we be most proud of, to date? In this CEO Power Panel at 12th Cloud Expo, moderated by Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, Kevin Brown, CEO of Coraid; Brian Patrick Donaghy, CEO of Appcore; Fausto Bernardini, IBM Vice President & Distinguished Engineer at IBM SmartCloud; Ross Brouse, COO and President of Solar VPS; and Terry Woloszyn, Founder of Leeward Security discussed these topics and more.
Cloud Expo 2013 Silicon Valley, November 4–7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Why Worry About Public Cloud and AWS Cost Optimization?
Most users moved to the cloud to save money — and they are saving relative to building and operating a data center. However, the story does not end there. Detailed user analysis shows that public cloud users are still leaving a lot of savings on the table – on average 40%. Here is ‘why’ and the ‘what to do’ to reduce cloud costs without sacrificing performance.
Cost optimization is a hot topic because of the enormous opportunities for the average user to reduce AWS costs. CloudCheckr surveyed 400 of its users and found that the average potential saving exceeded 40%.
UnboundID Research: Real Identity Data Is More Valuable
«There’s great value for corporations who choose to properly use digital identity data to market to individuals, not segments,» said Andy Land, Vice President of Marketing at UnboundID, on the release of new research by UnboundID that offers insight into the value of a consumer’s digital identity.
«Consumers already know that companies use their data,” Land observed, “the key is to use their data to create a better experience for the consumer. Tying multi-source data together with user consent creates a comprehensive identity profile, resulting in enhanced, more personalized marketing to the end user.»
The report, «Valuing Identity in Today’s Digital World,» shows that using real identity data increases a consumer’s profile value by up to 100 times when compared to aggregated, anonymous data. Real identity data is valued in the hundreds of dollars (up to $124 per identity) as compared to pennies on the dollar for aggregated, anonymous data.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: From the Data Center to the Cloud
“In AppZero what we do is we pick up applications and move them from one machine to another and the cloud context is the big use case is to move stuff from the data center to the cloud,” explained Greg O’Connor, President & CEO of AppZero, in this interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at our Times Square Studio in New York City.
Cloud Expo 2013 Silicon Valley, November 4–7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Why the Cloud May Require You to Learn Multiple Words for Snow
Cloud is at the center of a convergence trend that is impacting people across all of ICT. This convergence is breaking down the walls that separated the traditional silos of IT, networking, storage and security. But with this breaking down of the walls we also need to better understand the subtleties of each other’s domains in more details.
A famous urban legend is that Eskimos have many words for snow, as it makes sense to – if you spend your whole day in snow – to distinguish the subtle and not so subtle differences.
Similar in IT, where others simply refer to IT as IT, the people living in IT tend to distinguish between operations, development, support (helpdesk), testing, portfolio management, information and master data management, etc.