Efficient storage strategies for virtualized data centers

Data center virtualization
Virtualization has gained mainstream traction as a result of its compelling cost and management benefits. First leveraged to consolidate resources and simplify management of test, development, and internal, non-mission-critical workloads, rapid virtualization adoption facilitated the evolution and maturity of virtualization platforms and tools. Now those platforms are well suited for business-critical Tier 1 applications, allowing virtualization to gain even greater traction in data centers. This recent Tier 1 application virtualization development demands new levels of performance, reliability and agility from the virtual infrastructure and, consequently, the storage infrastructure that supports such virtual deployments.

The performance, reliability and agility needs of the next-generation data center, combined with explosive data growth, put high demands on the underlying storage supporting virtual infrastructures. Storage plays a key role in ensuring the success of these virtual deployments.
Inadequate and outdated storage technologies can severely limit organizations from taking full advantage of virtualization.
In order to succeed, organizations need storage solutions that are designed with virtualization in mind.

EqualLogic virtualized iSCSI SAN solutions
EqualLogic PS Series virtualized storage area network (SAN) arrays offer several efficiencies that save IT organizations time and money while extending the benefits of virtualization. Designed to complement virtual server environments, the arrays scale in accordance with business growth and meet demands for performance, availability and reliability. Automated intelligent management capabilities reduce overhead; integration with virtualization platforms optimize performance and agility; and innovative data protection and disaster recovery capabilities keep corporate information safe and users productive.

Predicting future storage needs is complicated at best. Estimate too low and the problem of lagging controller resources goes unsolved. Estimate too high and the budget is spent on idle power. And the budget isn’t the only thing to take a hit. Unnecessary capacity upgrades disrupt end-user work, resulting in lower productivity and IT having to ‘fight fires’. The virtualized, scale-out approach enabled by EqualLogic PS Series SAN arrays allows IT managers to scale capacity and performance seamlessly, and only when required. Each array is equipped with its own controller resources. When storage capacity is added, so is performance, in the form of controller-based processing, cache and network resources. Capacity upgrades do not disrupt end-user productivity. With a virtualized storage architecture, there is no need to take services offline. Data is dynamically and automatically balanced over the new resources. By incorporating virtualized scale-out architecture, EqualLogic enables seamless, non-disruptive scaling of storage capacity and performance in a way that naturally complements scale-out virtualized server infrastructure.

Support critical workloads with optimal performance and exceptional responsiveness
Performance can have a tangible impact on the success of next-generation virtualized data centers that host and service business-critical workloads, such as databases and ERP systems. EqualLogic helps enable outstanding performance through built-in performance optimization features, innovative multi-tiered mixed-media arrays and tight integration with VMware tools and APIs. SAN storage offers multi-tier hybrid arrays that include both SSD and SAS drives in a single enclosure. Granular, automated tiering migrates data that is accessed frequently, or ‘hot data’, to high-performance SSD resources. Less frequently used data takes advantage of lower cost, high-capacity SAS resources. This has dual cost advantages: it eliminates the need for overprovisioning of resources to meet performance demands, and it eliminates management overhead associated with manual data tiering.
Data placement is continuously rebalanced as access patterns change.

Not only does this result in performance improvements, it also alleviates the IT staff from manual load-balancing efforts. In keeping with their history of collaboration, EqualLogic also features tight integration with VMware vStorage APIs that further enhance performance. The PS Series arrays were one of the first to incorporate VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) support into its firmware. This integration enables offloading of certain storage-intensive tasks to storage tier.
That frees up network bandwidth and host compute resources by allowing EqualLogic arrays to perform tasks such as data copy, block zeroing and hardware-assisted volume locking, which in turn speeds provisioning and deployment of VMs from templates and improves storage performance for volumes shared by multiple VMs. EqualLogic VASA Provider, a component of EqualLogic Host Integration Tools for VMware, integrates with vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA), enabling responsiveness, agility and consistent adherence to service-level agreements through policy-based automation.
Through such integration, EqualLogic arrays communicate storage attributes such as drive type and speed, RAID settings and snapshot reserve space to VMware vSphere. Because it is aware of underlying storage capacities, vSphere can perform intelligent migration of workloads across data stores to optimize latency, performance and capacity utilization.

Lower cost and simplify management
One of the greatest benefits of virtualization is cost reduction. IT departments need to contain cost even as their virtual data centers grow. EqualLogic is designed to extend the cost benefits of virtualization through its lower total cost of ownership as well as simple management. The cost of operating a data center is one of the biggest line-item expenses for IT. It takes a tremendous amount of time and resources to stay on top of the technology that supports every corner of the business. Dell’s business-ready solutions greatly simplify virtual deployment implementations. Integrated server, storage, network and software stacks are preconfigured, optimized and tested by Dell before shipping. Deployment time is slashed from months to weeks or even days, greatly reducing time to value while considerably lowering expenses related to setup and configuration of virtual infrastructure.
In addition to streamlining deployment, the single-vendor approach helps to reduce pre-purchase research and gives IT managers a single point of contact for procurement and on-going support. They continue to benefit from Dell’s expertise and access to consultants and technicians who have implemented a wide range of virtual data center resources.

Ideal storage platform for the next-generation virtualized data centers
Corporate data centers initially embraced virtualization to achieve resource consolidation and cost containment. Initially deploying VMs to serve fast-moving test, development and internal, non-mission-critical environments, IT managers are now starting to support business-critical Tier 1 applications with virtual servers. These next-generation virtual environments require high-performance, reliable, responsive and cost-effective storage infrastructure. Sub-optimal storage selection can severely restrict the benefits of virtualization and impede IT’s ability to support business goals. Through tight integration with virtualization platforms and tools, virtualized scale out architecture and built-in intelligent software features, SAN arrays deliver the performance, reliability and agility that the next-generation data center demands, while reducing cost.

Manufacturer drives growth with easier IT management

H+H UK increases business agility by deploying IT services in hours rather than weeks thanks to its flexible server and storage environment.

Business need
Manufacturing firm H+H UK wanted to ensure it could deliver an uninterrupted IT service to staff and customers. It decided to introduce a simplified virtualized infrastructure.

Solution
H+H worked with Dell Partner Upgrade Options to consolidate its server infrastructure with VMware, while introducing a new backup and disaster recovery strategy based on Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell EqualLogic storage.

Benefits
£ Customers receive uninterrupted service with resilient infrastructure
£ IT team deploys new services in hours rather than weeks
£ Firm lowers costs by 20 per cent, and consolidates servers by
80 per cent
£ Company reduces power and cooling in the data centre
£ Responsive support service provides quick access to expertise

Solutions featured
£ Backup and Recovery
£ Data Center Virtualization
£ Disaster Recovery
£ Global Support and Deployment Services
£ Networking
http://angelbc.com/marketing/lead/188/dell