Posts Tagged ‘replication’

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BNMC Relies on TwinStrata CloudArray and Best Practices to Avoid Disastrous Data Loss

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

 

Customer Success: Critical Business Data Saved

BNMC; a Mass. based strategic information technology (IT) network services company, selected TwinStrata CloudArray® to provide backup services for their clients. A virtual appliance that runs on VMware, CloudArray can be deployed for backup, archive, or disaster recovery/business continuity requirements. Key to effective and rapid data recovery in the event of a site disaster is CloudArray‟s metadata so protecting this critical information is top of mind for system administrators. Eryck Bredy, BNMC President & CTO, has always been an advocate of following best practices and one day, he averted a disaster as a result. You see, Eryck accidentally deleted the CloudArray VM he was working on, rendering it terminal. This VM had 1TB of customer data on it. But Eryck wasn‟t worried. He knew that he could easily recover the data with CloudArray since he did, in fact, follow best practices, and had backed up the CloudArray configuration data. And because there was a full copy of the data in the cloud, he knew CloudArray was imminently recoverable in and of itself. After accidentally deleting the CloudArray VM (CAVM1), Eryck simply imported a new CloudArray VM (CAVM2), reset t he cache, and restored the backup of CAVM1 to CAVM2. That was it. When CAVM2 was powered on, it replayed the metadata and back-filled its cache with the data from the cloud on an as needed basis. Because of the rapid and seamless recovery capabilities of CloudArray, BNMC business interruption was avoided. And since all user data was in the cloud, CAVM2 simply re-enabled access to it without incident.

“Bottom line – unfortunate incidents are going to happen. The important thing is to be ready when they do. Using TwinStrata CloudArray helped us mitigate the effects of losing critical data and enabled us to protect the trust our customers have in BNMC.” – Eryck Bredy, BNMC President & CTO

As widespread adoption of cloud services increases, it‟s comforting to BNMC to know that solutions like CloudArray are in place to help. For Eryck, the combination of CloudArray and BNMC best practices helped avoid a potentially disastrous situation for their clients, the loss of their critical business data.

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TwinStrata Delivers Newest Version of its Leading CloudArray® Offsite Data Protection and Disaster Recovery Solution

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

 

CloudArray® Version 2.0 is available in both virtual and physical appliance configurations.

The new CloudArray Version 2.0 includes a broad range of updates designed to further enhance the overall operation, reliability, and performance of CloudArray’s robust and proven feature set for offsite data protection, archive, and disaster recovery. Additionally, CloudArray 2.0 expands its reach to include direct integration with Mezeo, Peer1, and Scalitycloud storage platforms, offering customers more choice and flexibility when implementing a cloud storage strategy. Other CloudArray 2.0 enhancements include support for HA clustering, Solaris interoperability, alert and portal improvements and performance improvements to the virtual appliance.

CloudArray V2.0 is available today from TwinStrata and through its network of partners. For more information, visit www.twinstrata.com/cloudarray, email sales@twinstrata.com or call 508-651-0199.  

You can also try CloudArray FREE for 30 days: www.twinstrata.com/cloudarray_evaluation

TwinStrataCloudArray is a proven solution that can significantly reduce capex/opex by enabling companies of all sizes to easily adopt offsite data protection and disaster recovery solutions in minutes without any changes to existing applications or need for new programming or APIs in order to connect with cloud storage providers. TwinStrata provides enterprise-class data protection solutions that are simple, affordable, and secure. These solutions leverage the scalability and efficiency of cloud storage while maintaining the availability, performance, and security of local storage. CloudArray software provides a substantial advantage over traditional off-site storage solutions, with a pay-as-you-go model, unlimited elastic capacity, local performance, in-cloud snapshots, AES256 bit encryption, and on-site, off-site or in-the-cloud access to data.

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I Have NOT Lost My Mind — I Have It Backed Up On Tape Somewhere

Monday, December 6th, 2010

 

The question is: If you can eliminate tape, then can you even eliminate backup? In a recent article, George Crump (http://www.networkcomputing.com/deduplication/you-can-eliminate-backups.php) discussed the implications of eliminating backup altogether.  His argument is that with the capabilities of modern storage systems – snapshots, deduplication, compression and replication– you can preserve multiple restore points without the need for a separate backup operation. 

He specifically argues: “Using a combination of snapshots, deduplication, compression and replication is a cost-effective way of storing redundant copies. Many primary storage systems support a high number of snapshots and/or unlimited copies of data by leveraging deduplication. Most can then have that data replicated to a remote site so you are covered for a single site disaster. With these features deployed, we now have point-in-time local recovery and total system recovery in case of a disaster covered, but there are some potential drawbacks.”

Using Cloud Storage as the remote replication target in this case will work very well, and will be more cost effective than using your expensive primary storage devices for backup.  

With CloudArray, you can create instantaneous snapshots of your data, allowing you to establish multiple remote restore points from a single copy of your data.   This doesn’t have to be your primary data store. Cloud Storage can actually become an economical cog in your tiered storage strategy.

But getting back to George’s article, he discusses several drawbacks with using primary storage as your source for your restore points.  Basically, they come down to the risk, however small, of not having a separate copy of your data (both physically and logically).  Even in cases where you are replicating your data to a remote facility, a logical corruption fault could affect both sites, especially if the fault were with the logic of the de-duplication engine itself.

Some companies have eliminated separate backups very successfully, but it takes a great deal of planning in order to make sure that the restore points will be consistent across applications and data stores. It wouldn’t help you to have your accounts payable tables backed up at one point in time and your inventory shipments at a different point. 

But is it right for you? 

Maybe, but a safer approach is to still use backup software and write your backup to a physically separate data store than your primary storage.  CloudArray can do this for you as well.  If you use a backup product that can write to disk (D2D), then you can write to CloudArray and a copy of the backup images will be kept locally as well as in the Cloud.  Restores will always come from the local CloudArray disk cache if you size it properly, and in the event of a total site disruption, a copy of your data will still be housed safely offsite and can be recovered from any site you choose.

Eliminating tape is a good first step. Eliminating backup entirely might be an option for you down the road (or not). Remember the cardinal rule: “To go forward, you must backup.” So you probably shouldn’t be in a rush to eliminate it. But if you have lost your mind because you’ve backed it up on tape somewhere, then without CloudArray, you may never get it back!

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Data Storage and Protection Strategies for the Cloud Era

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

For SMBs considering traditional data backup and storage and/or for those struggling with an off-site solution, it may be time to consider the cloud as an alternative data protection solution.

Enterprise Systems Journal article by Nicos Vekiarides

Data protection and storage are substantial budgetary expenses for today’s small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs). With storage capacities increasing every year, businesses must look at leaner alternatives, especially in the face of shrinking IT budgets. For years, larger businesses have relied on remote data centers to protect and store their data, but the administrative effort, reliability concerns, and expense associated with traditional backup methods such as tape or off-site disk make this approach an unrealistic option for smaller organizations.

… to read Nicos’s full ESJ article: http://esj.com/articles/2010/11/16/Storage-and-Protection-Strategies.aspx

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Five Reasons to Evaluate Cloud Storage for Data Protection Today

Friday, November 12th, 2010

No doubt you have been hearing a lot about Cloud Storage, its advantages, and how it makes a lot of sense as a way to affordably move data offsite without having to deal with Tape or the expense of maintaining a second DR site. 

But you still haven’t tried it. 

You may be concerned about the security, or integration, or infrastructure costs.  You may b e short staffed and short budget and just trying to keep up with daily demands.  But you keep hearing about the benefits, and how it could help your operations today.  

But you still haven’t tried it.

So without any further ado, here are 5 reasons you should download and evaluate today:

1. It’s Easy.

All you have to do is go to www.cloudarray.com and click the “SignUp Now” now button.   You will be asked a few short questions, and then you will be issued a license key good for 30 days you can use to activate your trial.  You will also be able to download a copy of our Virtual Appliance for Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, or Amazon EC2.  Simply download the files and install them in your favorite HyperVisor. You won’t need a VMware expert, or Network expert, or MS expert, or even a storage admin to get up and running.  Basic system administration skills are all that is required.

 2. HyperVisors are Free.

Now some of you are thinking that you don’t have an existing Virtual Infrastructure (VI) and you don’t want to build one just to evaluate a new piece of software. Fair Enough, but you don’t need to build a complex VI to run CloudArray.  CloudArray can run on just about any 64 bit platform with a modern operating system.  For example, while it will run in Hyper-V or ESX/ESXi of course, but it will also run in VMware Workstation, and it will even run in VMware player.  VMware player is free, although you shouldn’t expect much performance out of it, and stability might also be an issue, but it will work.  Also, ALL VMware products, from vSphere all the way down to Workstation, can be downloaded for a free 60 day trial.  None of these downloads and installs requires any advanced product knowledge.  All are easily installable and have defaults prebuilt that will get you up and running.

3. It’s Secure

If you will be using real data as your test load, you can configure CloudArray to encrypt the data before sending it to the Cloud Service Provider.  CloudArray uses 256 bit AES encryption, and you retain the keys (they don’t get sent to the CSP or to TwinStrata at any time).   You won’t even have to worry about deleting the data when you are done.  Just delete the keys and you are safe and secure.

4. You don’t even need a CSP

If you are just getting started, you probably don’t have a relationship with a CSP.  We can help you there, and will provide temporary credentials so you can store up to 100GB of data for 30 days at a public CSP without charge. 

5. It integrates easily

Once your new CloudArray storage appliance is up and running, you can integrate your existing applications with Cloud Storage as easily as you would mount a new volume.  Step one is to create a new LUN and assign it to a server.  Step 2 is to mount that LUN on the server and assign it to your application to use.  There is no step 3 required.  Go ahead and use your new volume just as you would local storage.

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Take the Aberdeen Benchmark Survey: Determine Best-in-Class Procedures for Disaster Recovery, Cloud Storage

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Recent Aberdeen research has shown that 67% of organizations already utilize IT resources in the Cloud, with almost 10% more who are planning to do so later this year. The migration to the Cloud is well underway, and one of the ways this new technology is impacting companies is through changes in the way they are able to recover from computer downtime. If you have a disaster recovery program and/or are storing data in the Cloud, please take this brief survey and tell us your experiences.

By participating in this brief survey, you will be able to see how your experiences in Cloud storage and disaster recovery compare with those of your peers, benchmark your performance, and see how you can achieve Best-in-Class results.

Aberdeen Group is conducting a survey that will help companies such as yours determine the Best-in-Class procedures for disaster recovery and avoiding computer related incidents of downtime, including the utilization of Cloud storage to protect your data. Your participation is a vital part of the report development, and serves as the foundation of Aberdeen’s research. If your company is planning on implementing a Cloud storage or disaster recovery solution, or is simply evaluating the potential benefits, we would appreciate your feedback in this brief, 10-minute survey.

In appreciation for sharing your time and thoughts with Aberdeen, you will be be provided with complimentary access to the full benchmark report as soon as it is published (a $399 value). Individual responses will be kept strictly confidential, and data will only be used in aggregate.

The Aberdeen Group survey can be easily accessed from the TwinStrata web site at:  www.twinstrata.com

Aberrdeen and TwinStrata thank you for participating.

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VMware Use Cases for Cloud Storage: more than you think…..

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

by Greg Roody

]We get asked how VMware environments can take advantage of Cloud Storage often enough that I thought I’d mention a few options here for use cases that make financial and operational sense.

Backup

I’ve covered using CloudArray with VDR here before, so I won’t dwell on this other than to mention that any backup application that makes use of the new vStorage API’s,  performs deduplication and can write to disk is an excellent choice to reduce backup expenses as well as gain an offsite storage component with Cloud Storage.

Archival

Another interesting use case is archival of older VM’s, Templates, or infrequently used VM’s such as test environments.  In these cases, you can use Storage vMotion to migrate the datastore for these VM’s from your primary SAN to Cloud Storage.  They will still appear as though they are local to your ESX server, but the data will be kept resident in offsite Cloud Storage.  If you need to use them at any time, they can either be used with their datastore on Cloud Storage or they could be migrated back for the time they are needed.  You can also Clone VM’s, or Clone VM’s to a Template with the target being cloud storage volumes.

Migration/Replication

By now you are seeing that Cloud Storage can be an excellent way to store VM’s you don’t need immediate access to, either by using a backup product such as VDR or by simply archiving your VM’s.   But there is another valuable use for Cloud Storage use as well; as a migration “swing” set.  For example, if you have some VM’s that you want to transfer between datacenters, or even between ESX hosts, you can use Cloud Storage as a place to first write the VM files from one host or site, and then read them to another host or site.

Pay as you go, provision it yourself

Remember, Cloud Storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.  If you need a few TB of storage to do a migration, you will only pay for the storage you actually use until you destroy it.  Additionally, it is elastic and can be self provisioned.  You don’t have to make a request to a Storage Administrator to provision and assign the storage resources.  A VMware administrator could easily manage this themselves.

Is Cloud Storage ready for VMware?  Absolutely, and so are you.

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