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Data Storage Consolidation
The amount of information that organizations must store, protect, and make accessible continues to undergo explosive growth, keeping effective storage management solutions high on the IT administrator's priority list.
While server consolidation reduces the number of distributed servers in an organization in favor of fewer, more powerful servers (generally with more storage capacity), storage consolidation, in contrast, uncouples storage from servers, placing storage on a separate network where it can be shared for provisioning on an as-needed basis.
Consolidating storage onto a network provides administrators the opportunity to consolidate both backup hardware and software, helping organizations realize considerable cost savings.
On the hardware end, a SAN can support a single automated tape library with multiple tape drives, eliminating the need for backup equipment on each server, and centralizing media administration processes. Because the backup process has been moved off the servers and off the LAN, backups no longer impact work schedules or bandwidth.
By using snapshot technologies integrated with the backup process, helping to ensure high fidelity backups and significantly reduce the backup window. Backups are stored centrally on the SAN; if a server goes down a second server can access the snapshot and make it available for use. Not only does this simplify backup management, but it also speeds time to restore dramatically.
The centralized storage benefits—localized rather than distributed backups, reduced administration and simplified management—of a Fibre Channel SAN can be inexpensively extended to legacy servers. Rather than installing costly Fibre Channel HBAs to connect to the SAN, the standard IP networking equipment (onboard network interface cards) and the iSCSI initiator coupled with an iSCSI gateway facilitates connection to the SAN.
Consolidating SAN Islands - Although SANs can scale to large sizes, it is more common for organizations to deploy multiple SANs, dedicating each SAN to a specific mission-critical database application, or each SAN serving a separate department or remote site location. Without interconnection, each of these SANs must be protected and managed independently, increasing cost and complexity. Islands of Fibre Channel SAN can be connected by extending the Fibre Channel infrastructure between them; however across long distances, this is an expensive proposition. (This is not a problem for iSCSI SANs, because no special equipment is required.) A less expensive solution is to use the existing LAN to extend a connection between distant SANs and an iSCSI bridge to translate between iSCSI and Fibre Channel protocols.
At InLine we will consult with management to determine business needs and processes, then working closely with your IT staff, determine the best technology approach to meet your organizations needs.
For more information about InLine's storage solutions, please contact our Storage Specialist:
Brian Collier
205-278-8123
BCollier@InLine.com
