Tag Archives: storage

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How The Data Center Is Becoming Software-Defined

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How pervasive is the concept of software-defined?

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In mid 2012 VMware CTO Steve Herrod and others began to articulate the concept of the software-defined data center. This concept was just as often received as a marketing position from vendors as an observation about the evolution of the data center. At the time, I blogged about the basic concepts of the software-defined data center and followed-up the initial post with an additional blog posts about storage challenges in the software-defined data center. Other posts addressed related topics such as how cloud adoption contributes to the evolution of APIs.

Now, since many months have passed, which can be measured in dog years in high-tech, I would like to revisit the concept of software-defined as it pertains to storage as well as compute and networking, and its status in 2013. I believe that the software-defined data center has moved beyond concept, putting us on the cusp of a time when new architectures and product offerings will make it a reality. Continue reading →

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Keeping The Lights On In An SAP Environment

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How do you keep your SAP costs under control in the modern data center?

As much as vendors like to think you spend all of your time planning architectural changes and your next purchase, the reality is more mundane. Mostly, data center personnel work around the clock to keep the lights on and business processes operational and fine-tuned to meet required service-level agreements (SLAs).

Keeping business processes operating at peak performance includes keeping mission-critical applications with their dependencies in good working order. Service-assurance for key applications such as SAP involves trained skilled staff, up-to-date database technologies, well-equipped test/dev environments, and effective data protection schemes. Maintaining service-levels thus costs money, which is not always plentiful.

Taking the right approach to data protection can not only ensure application availability but also keep personnel and licensing costs reasonable. Fortunately, for SAP environments, there is an approach that works well for physical and virtual environments today. So, in a brief departure from discussing the Software-Defined Data Center and clouds, this post focuses on keeping the data center lights on in SAP environments. Continue reading →

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EMC VMAX Cloud Edition Speeds Storage Service Delivery

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What if you could get proven enterprise-class storage in cloud-ready configurations?

IT infrastructure is acquired to meet the demands of the business it supports. For years the approach has been either turnkey involving mostly the purchase of server resources to support specific applications augmented by storage or a la carte with IT purchasing compute, networking, and storage technology from preferred vendors to launch new applications.

More recently, the time-to-market for new applications and services has shrunk, driving organizations to new ways to acquire and deploy complex technologies to meet accelerated delivery needs. For the cloud era, EMC has adapted its industry-leading Symmetrix VMAX to meet a storage consumption need for high-performance, enterprise cloud storage on-demand. 

Today, EMC introduced VMAX Cloud Edition: a self-service, enterprise-class cloud storage delivery platform that accelerates time-to-value for enterprises and service providers building private, hybrid, or public clouds. VMAX Cloud Edition applies the single-SKU approach to infrastructure to provide predefined storage service-levels for customers that require a multi-tenant, “as-a-service” delivery platform. EMC VMAX Cloud Edition provides pre-packaged classes-of-services with predictable performance at predictable price-points. Continue reading →

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Object Storage In The Enterprise

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How does object storage fit into the enterprise?

Object storage is highly scalable architecture where data gets stored by unique IDs and attributes that describe the data. It is commonly used in public clouds and is finding its way into the enterprise, especially to retain unstructured data. While object storage has its benefits, it has limitations too that need to be taken into account.

When faced with the decision to implement object storage, data center managers have basically two (2) choices: 1. they can either outsource their object storage needs or 2. bring it in-house. On-premise solutions in the data center usually mean adding yet another storage device, possibly from another vendor, to the already crowded floor.

The trade-offs between outsourcing and in-house solutions involve cost and scale, as well as security. A pragmatic approach involving balancing cost with scale will determine which approach is best. Just don’t be surprised if the tipping point falls in a gray area where a hybrid cloud model is the best solution. Continue reading →

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Automating Infrastructure Management at EMC

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What is storage-industry leader EMC doing to simplify and automate management in its data center?

EMC IT is deploying EMC, VMware, and partner management automation technologies to simplify operations in its data centers. This effort includes installing new products, adopting new processes, and changing roles to further evolve a private cloud model.

EMC practices what it preaches—and uses what it creates. EMC IT is leveraging EMC as well as third-party enterprise management, automation, and orchestration technologies to discover and manage performance across complex virtual server, network, and storage in a private cloud environment.

These infrastructure management technologies and the changes they bring to the global EMC IT structure would be unwieldy if not directed by sound principles. An internal-customer orientation with better services as a goal guides the EMC IT changes to the many areas that comprise its infrastructure management environment.  An internal governance team makes technology decisions with the entire IT organization in mind. This approach sets a good foundation for the present and for adopting new technologies in the future. Continue reading →