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<strong>ST</strong>OR<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
The UK’s number one in IT Storage<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember/<strong>Dec</strong>ember <strong>2022</strong><br />
Vol 22, Issue 6<br />
CLEARING THE BOTTLENECK:<br />
Deploying all-flash for faster restores<br />
INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY ROUNDTABLE:<br />
Open Source storage<br />
ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong>S:<br />
Data centre strategies<br />
RESEARCH:<br />
The data protection gap<br />
COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS
On-Prem Cloud Success Stories<br />
IDC Interviews with Three IT Leaders Achieving Superior Cost,<br />
Control and Competitive Advantage<br />
Powered by Intel ®<br />
Learn more at<br />
www.supermicro.com/en/on-prem-cloud
The UK’s number one in IT Storage<br />
CLEARING THE BOTTLENECK:<br />
Deploying all-flash for faste restores<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>ember/<strong>Dec</strong>ember <strong>2022</strong><br />
Vol 22, Issue 6<br />
CONTENTS<br />
<strong>ST</strong>OR<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
CONTENTS<br />
INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY ROUNDTABLE:<br />
Open Source storage<br />
ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong>S:<br />
Data centre strategies<br />
RESEARCH:<br />
The data protection gap<br />
COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE <strong>ST</strong>UDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS<br />
COMMENT….....................................................................4<br />
Open targets<br />
06<br />
08<br />
RESEARCH: DATA PROTECTION…........................……..6<br />
Over three quarters of IT leaders see a worrying 'protection gap' between tolerable<br />
data loss and how IT is protecting their data, according to new Veeam research<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong> REDUCTION………….……….8<br />
Eric Bassier, Senior Director, Product at Quantum, explains how a move from disk to<br />
tape storage can save on data centre costs not only in terms of hardware acquisition<br />
but also in energy usage<br />
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE……........................……12<br />
In our latest industry roundtable, Storage magazine asked a panel of storage sector<br />
experts: have Open Source technologies paved the way for faster products and<br />
services development, and what advice would you give an organisation looking to<br />
adopt Open Source storage?<br />
REVIEW: INFINIGUARD….........................................……18<br />
RESEARCH: HYBRID CLOUD……............................……19<br />
Fujitsu/CIF research stresses the need to enhance support - especially with legacy<br />
integration - for organisations looking to make the most of hybrid cloud<br />
12<br />
ANALYSIS: SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY…………….................…….20<br />
Data centres are more sustainable than recent media stories might have you think,<br />
explains David Watkins, Solutions Director at VIRTUS<br />
MARKET FOCUS: MANUFACTURING……..............…..23<br />
Manfred Berger, Senior Manager Business Development at Western Digital, examines<br />
the need for enhanced data management in the microfactory of the future<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ALL-FLASH………..............................………24<br />
George Axberg of VA<strong>ST</strong> Data explains how affordable all-flash storage can be a<br />
game-changer for backup and - more importantly - restore<br />
20<br />
RESEARCH: REMOTE WORKING………....................….27<br />
New research published by Arcserve warns that the explosion in remote working is<br />
leaving data increasingly fragmented and unprotected<br />
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE ARRAYS………….28<br />
David Treadwell, Solutions Director at Titan Data Solutions, talks about Seagate's nextgeneration<br />
Exos X storage arrays - offering twice the performance alongside<br />
self-healing technology - and how this latest innovation further enhances Titan's<br />
storage proposition<br />
24<br />
MANAGEMENT: HYBRID CLOUD……….…................….30<br />
Gareth Beanland, General Manager, UK&I, Infinidat, explains how the right approach<br />
to storage architecture can help organisations rein in their OPEX costs<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk @<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards Sept/Oct <strong>2022</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
03
COMMENT<br />
EDITOR: David Tyler<br />
david.tyler@btc.co.uk<br />
SUB EDITOR: Mark Lyward<br />
mark.lyward@btc.co.uk<br />
OPEN TARGETS<br />
BY DAVID TYLER<br />
EDITOR<br />
REVIEWS: Dave Mitchell<br />
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Abby Penn<br />
abby.penn@btc.co.uk<br />
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ian.collis@btc.co.uk<br />
SALES/COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES:<br />
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MANAGING DIRECTOR: John Jageurs<br />
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk<br />
DI<strong>ST</strong>RIBUTION/SUBSCRIPTIONS:<br />
Christina Willis<br />
christina.willis@btc.co.uk<br />
PUBLISHED BY: Barrow & Thompkins<br />
Connexions Ltd. (BTC)<br />
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resulting effects<br />
The final issue of Storage magazine for <strong>2022</strong> includes an in-depth panel<br />
discussion around the impact of Open Source technologies on the storage sector,<br />
and as you'd expect there are some widely varying opinions on show in the<br />
article. While most of us would agree that OS has helped pave the way for rapid<br />
development and deployment of new systems, it is hard to argue with the idea that this<br />
has brought with it some whole new issues of management and support. Is it possible<br />
that the agility benefits of Open Source are being outweighed by a growing need for<br />
more internal skills for maintenance, for example?<br />
One standout comment was from CTERA's Aron Brand: "Open Source technologies<br />
such as Linux, Kubernetes, and Samba provide IT vendors with a huge base of<br />
intellectual property they can build upon, totally free. By publishing portions of our<br />
code on Open Source, we were able to access a deep reservoir of technological<br />
knowledge and expertise, and benefit from highly professional peer review and<br />
feedback. If your company has the technical chops for Open Source, this can be a<br />
great way to leverage the knowledge of the community and reduce your maintenance<br />
burden." Note the emphasis there on "IF your company has the technical chops" - even<br />
today, Open Source is not for the faint-hearted.<br />
In addition there are concerns around security and resilience of systems developed<br />
using Open Source approaches. Nakivo's Veniamin Simonov argues: "Open Source<br />
storage software enables businesses to meet their storage needs more affordably than<br />
proprietary software. However, it comes with a catch, namely global availability…<br />
making it a central attraction point for cybercriminals. OS software code gets updated<br />
frequently by developers around the world; unfortunately, not every developer is wellintentioned,<br />
and this global accessibility makes creating a breach less challenging."<br />
Nonetheless, the fact is that most large customers today are relying on Open Source<br />
software to varying degrees, be it commercial or community versions. The benefits of<br />
the Open Source approach range from reduced costs to increased flexibility and<br />
shorter times to market. However, reliance on the developer community to bring the<br />
code closer to completion, or even just to spot and address issues, might be a risky<br />
strategy.<br />
Alex McDonald of the SNIA does not mince his words: "I like Open Source projects<br />
for their initial impact and vision, but they can lead to longer-term poor maintenance<br />
processes and responsiveness, and a lack of development direction as they mature.<br />
Faster doesn't mean better either." Perhaps those four words - 'faster doesn't mean<br />
better' - should be written in large bold type across the first page of any future tender<br />
that insists on Open Source?<br />
04 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk
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RESEARCH:<br />
RESEARCH: DATA PROTECTION<br />
HEADING FOR AN EMERGENCY?<br />
OVER THREE QUARTERS OF IT<br />
LEADERS SEE A WORRYING<br />
'PROTECTION GAP' BETWEEN<br />
TOLERABLE DATA LOSS AND<br />
HOW IT IS PROTECTING THEIR<br />
DATA, ACCORDING TO NEW<br />
VEEAM RESEARCH<br />
New research from Veeam Software<br />
has revealed that UK and Irish<br />
businesses are headed for what<br />
the company describes as 'a data<br />
protection emergency'. Nearly eight in ten<br />
(79%) of UKI IT decision makers and<br />
professionals disclosed gaps between their<br />
data dependency, backup frequency, SLAs<br />
and ability to get back to productive<br />
business when asked by researchers<br />
compiling the Veeam Data Protection<br />
Trends Report <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
improve results.<br />
Despite this, businesses appear to be<br />
losing the battle when it comes to<br />
defending against ransomware attacks.<br />
EMEA data from the Veeam Ransomware<br />
Trends Report <strong>2022</strong> shows that 88% of<br />
ransomware attacks attempted to infect<br />
backup repositories to disable victims'<br />
abilities to recover without paying the<br />
ransom, 75% of those attempts being<br />
successful.<br />
Meanwhile, 76% of respondents admitted<br />
falling prey to at least one ransomware<br />
attack in the past year, with 65% now using<br />
cloud services as part of their data<br />
protection strategy to increase resiliency.<br />
Twenty percent of IT leaders polled say they<br />
will change backup solutions for cost<br />
reasons, while 23% are looking to<br />
Furthermore, one in three organisations<br />
say that most or all of their backup<br />
repositories have been impacted as part of<br />
a ransomware attack.<br />
While companies report that 47% of data<br />
centre servers, 50% of remote offices and<br />
44% of cloud instances are impacted in an<br />
06 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
RESEARCH:<br />
RESEARCH: DATA PROTECTION<br />
"While it's becoming increasingly common for 'production' to outpace 'protection,' the<br />
growing gap between what organisations expect and what IT is placed to deliver is<br />
worrying. Add in the fact that ransomware is almost a guaranteed threat that every<br />
organisation must prepare for and we are clearly headed for a data protection<br />
emergency. To protect your data, you need a secure, immutable backup in place as<br />
your last line of defence, and while IT departments are under pressure to cut costs,<br />
data protection budgets should never be reduced. It's a false economy to think you<br />
can save money on your data protection strategies."<br />
from the URL below.<br />
"While it's becoming increasingly common<br />
for 'production' to outpace 'protection,' the<br />
growing gap between what organisations<br />
expect and what IT is placed to deliver is<br />
worrying," said Dan Middleton, Vice<br />
President UK & Ireland, Veeam. "Add in the<br />
fact that ransomware is almost a<br />
guaranteed threat that every organisation<br />
must prepare for and we are clearly<br />
headed for a data protection emergency."<br />
attack, paying the ransom is not a recovery<br />
strategy. Nearly one in three (29%) of<br />
organisations who paid the ransom still<br />
could not recover their data. However,<br />
22% of organisations could recover without<br />
paying any ransom due to having sufficient<br />
data protection.<br />
TECHNOLOGIES FOR SURVIVAL<br />
Eighty four percent of organisations rely on<br />
backup logs or media readability to assure<br />
recoverability, meaning only 16% routinely<br />
test by restoring and testing functionality.<br />
However, just over half (52%) of<br />
organisations first restored to an isolated<br />
sandbox before recovering data after a<br />
ransomware attack.<br />
Veeam commissioned a quantitative<br />
research study into data protection market<br />
trends, adoption, and perceptions across<br />
enterprise organisations globally. The<br />
research has been conducted of 3,000 IT<br />
decision makers (at organisations with<br />
more than 1,000 employees) from 28<br />
countries, using an unbiased quantitative<br />
approach to ensure impartiality for the<br />
results. The full report can be downloaded<br />
"But what's more concerning is the<br />
effectiveness of attackers to proactively<br />
destroy their victim's data backup<br />
repositories," he went on. "To protect your<br />
data, you need a secure, immutable<br />
backup in place as your last line of<br />
defence, and while IT departments are<br />
under pressure to cut costs, data protection<br />
budgets should never be reduced. It's a<br />
false economy to think you can save<br />
money on your data protection strategies.<br />
Instead, by investing wisely and taking a<br />
modern approach to data protection, you<br />
not only gain an advantage over attackers<br />
but also increase business resiliency which<br />
can give you the edge over competitors."<br />
More info: go.veeam.com/wp-dataprotection-trends-<strong>2022</strong><br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
07
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong> REDUCTION<br />
POWER PLAY<br />
ERIC BASSIER, SENIOR DIRECTOR, PRODUCT AT QUANTUM,<br />
EXPLAINS HOW A MOVE FROM DISK TO TAPE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE CAN<br />
SAVE ON DATA CENTRE CO<strong>ST</strong>S NOT ONLY IN TERMS OF<br />
HARDWARE ACQUISITION BUT ALSO IN ENERGY USAGE<br />
Electricity prices have been rising<br />
steadily for years but due to the<br />
current global energy crisis, those<br />
prices are about to skyrocket to levels never<br />
seen before. This year, in the UK alone<br />
energy prices increased by 54% in April<br />
<strong>2022</strong> and they were due to increase by a<br />
further 80% in October - however, the new<br />
Energy Price Guarantee limited this increase<br />
to 27%. In the face of ever increasing<br />
prices, companies are looking for ways to<br />
reduce their energy consumption and<br />
ultimately, their costs.<br />
Depending on the industry, the enterprise<br />
data centre is a major energy consumer,<br />
making it a candidate for one of the<br />
primary sources where a company can<br />
reduce electricity consumption. Fortunately,<br />
there's a well-known technology that<br />
promises great potential for saving energy in<br />
the data centre: tape storage.<br />
08 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong> REDUCTION<br />
"For years, technology manufacturers have been trying to make the increasingly<br />
powerful systems and servers within a data centre as efficient as possible.<br />
However, since the demands on availability and performance for applications<br />
are constantly increasing, the savings potential is diminished. Apart from<br />
computing power, data storage is one of the most power-consuming<br />
components of the data centre. And since the amount of data to be stored is<br />
increasing exponentially in virtually all sectors, possible savings are not only a<br />
question of the acquisition costs for the storage servers, but also of the<br />
exponentially increasing amount of energy that must be used to operate them."<br />
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DRIVES<br />
POWER CONSUMPTION<br />
Due to ongoing digital transformation<br />
across all industries, data centres are not<br />
only becoming more critical to business<br />
operations, but they are also becoming<br />
significantly larger and more powerful -<br />
and consequently, they are consuming<br />
more and more electricity. For years,<br />
technology manufacturers have been<br />
trying to make the increasingly powerful<br />
systems and servers within a data centre<br />
as efficient as possible.<br />
However, since the demands on<br />
availability and performance for<br />
applications are constantly increasing,<br />
the savings potential is diminished. Apart<br />
from computing power, data storage is<br />
one of the most power-consuming<br />
components of the data centre. And since<br />
the amount of data to be stored is<br />
increasing exponentially in virtually all<br />
sectors, possible savings are not only a<br />
question of the acquisition costs for the<br />
storage servers, but also of the<br />
exponentially increasing amount of<br />
energy that must be used to operate<br />
them.<br />
MORE DATA IS BEING <strong>ST</strong>ORED -<br />
BUT NOT USED<br />
When it comes to data storage, it is<br />
important to realise that 90 percent of<br />
all data that exists today has only been<br />
created in the last 10 years. More<br />
increasingly, this data is retained for<br />
compliance or business reasons, but may<br />
not be used for years, if ever. Common<br />
storage solutions, however, are geared<br />
towards the constant availability of data<br />
- even when that data is not being<br />
accessed frequently - and mostly use<br />
power-intensive architectures based on<br />
hard disks.<br />
Given this trend of more data being<br />
generated and stored, regardless of how<br />
often that data is used, this traditional<br />
storage paradigm needs to be<br />
reconsidered if companies are looking to<br />
save on energy costs.<br />
The challenge is to create a storage<br />
architecture that enables effective<br />
management of data over longer life<br />
cycles for a wider variety of workloads -<br />
at a significantly lower cost of<br />
acquisition and energy consumption.<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
09
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY:<br />
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong> REDUCTION<br />
"The potential savings in electricity used for operation and cooling by using<br />
tape storage are significant. To calculate the overall TCO savings that can be<br />
achieved with tape storage, the LTO Consortium has created a useful LTO<br />
calculator. Using a model calculation where 10 PB of cold data, increasing by<br />
35 percent annually, is moved from hard disks to tape storage, it arrives at a<br />
total cost of ownership reduction over 10 years of 86 percent. The savings<br />
mainly result from lower acquisition and energy costs. Since the price of<br />
electricity has been rising steadily for years and will probably continue to do so<br />
in the foreseeable future, the potential for savings from the electricity used will<br />
become even greater."<br />
TAPE: CHEAPER TO ACQUIRE<br />
AND RUN<br />
The main argument in favour of tape<br />
storage has always been lower acquisition<br />
costs. Per gigabyte, the cost of tape<br />
hardware is about half that of disk-based<br />
storage. In the overwhelming majority of<br />
hard disk arrays sold today, all hard disks<br />
are constantly spinning, even when no data<br />
is being read or written. Tape libraries, on<br />
the other hand, use little to no energy when<br />
data is not being read or written and very<br />
little energy when it is, with almost no heat<br />
dissipation that needs to be cooled.<br />
The potential savings in electricity used<br />
for operation and cooling by using tape<br />
storage are significant. To calculate the<br />
overall TCO savings that can be achieved<br />
with tape storage, the LTO Consortium has<br />
created a useful LTO calculator. Using a<br />
model calculation where 10 PB of cold<br />
data, increasing by 35 percent annually, is<br />
moved from hard disks to tape storage, it<br />
arrives at a total cost of ownership<br />
reduction over 10 years of 86 percent.<br />
The savings mainly result from lower<br />
acquisition and energy costs. Since the<br />
price of electricity has been rising steadily<br />
for years and will probably continue to do<br />
so in the foreseeable future, the potential<br />
for savings from the electricity used will<br />
become even greater.<br />
DRA<strong>ST</strong>IC ENERGY CO<strong>ST</strong><br />
REDUCTION<br />
Managing data centre energy<br />
consumption is a necessary challenge to<br />
make IT more sustainable. At the same<br />
time, data availability must also be<br />
guaranteed. To achieve this balancing act,<br />
more and more organisations are turning<br />
to tape storage.<br />
Tape is cheaper to purchase and<br />
operate, particularly as organisations<br />
generate more data that needs to be<br />
stored but not accessed frequently,<br />
including energy consumption.<br />
Organisations looking for ways to improve<br />
their energy footprint in the face of everincreasing<br />
energy prices should consider<br />
tape as an important part of their data<br />
storage strategy. And as a winning side<br />
effect, it can even improve an<br />
organisation's carbon footprint.<br />
More info: www.quantum.com<br />
10 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
OPEN GOALS<br />
IN OUR LATE<strong>ST</strong> INDU<strong>ST</strong>RY ROUNDTABLE, <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE MAGAZINE ASKED A PANEL OF <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE SECTOR<br />
EXPERTS: HAVE OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES PAVED THE WAY FOR FA<strong>ST</strong>ER PRODUCTS AND<br />
SERVICES DEVELOPMENT, AND WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE AN ORGANISATION LOOKING TO<br />
ADOPT OPEN SOURCE <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE?<br />
Open Source (OS) is big business.<br />
Originally seen as the rebel of the<br />
IT industry, today not only does it<br />
command the attention of individual<br />
developers and small communities of<br />
programmers, but also that of large, global<br />
companies, organisations which now<br />
realise that it makes business sense to<br />
embrace this approach. In a bid to benefit<br />
from the growth of OS adoption,<br />
Accenture, Intel, and Microsoft are just a<br />
few of the big table players who have<br />
opened their doors to it.<br />
It has evolved to such an extent that today<br />
it sees vendors collaborate and develop<br />
joint technologies and launch or run<br />
initiatives around it. The SODA Foundation<br />
for example, that aims to foster an<br />
ecosystem of open source data<br />
management and storage software for data<br />
autonomy, counts industry innovators such<br />
as Fujitsu, IBM, NTT, Scality, Seagate, and<br />
Vodafone among its members.<br />
For end users, Open Source can be an<br />
effective path to cost savings. Of course,<br />
it's easy to try out some free or<br />
exceptionally low-cost OS software away<br />
from the production environment. But when<br />
it comes to deploying it at the front line, it's<br />
another story.<br />
That's why any organisation looking to<br />
adopt Open Source technologies should go<br />
through an exhaustive check list before<br />
taking the plunge. "It really comes down to<br />
examining the potential for success that the<br />
Open Source platform has for your<br />
organisation," says Andrew Moloney, Chief<br />
12 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
"I have mixed feelings on Open Source<br />
technologies. Open Source can easily make<br />
some developments and collaboration quicker,<br />
but sometimes innovation can get stifled because<br />
IP can be too free flowing, resulting in holdbacks<br />
on truly wonderful ideas because of IP<br />
concerns."- Tim Klein, ATTO<br />
Marketing Officer at SoftIron. "We see a lot<br />
of companies adopting Open Source<br />
technologies and then finding out that there<br />
wasn't the sort-of 'enterprise-ready' support<br />
structure to deliver what they needed at the<br />
production level. In those cases, they have<br />
to find the support out in the wild, which can<br />
be a real challenge. Doing some due<br />
diligence is critical to both the short, and<br />
especially long-term success of an Open<br />
Source implementation."<br />
This is a widely held view among vendors,<br />
given that OS software often lacks a level of<br />
refinement and finish in terms of usability<br />
when compared to commercial systems.<br />
Paul Speciale, Chief Marketing Officer at<br />
Scality, explains: "We do see organisations<br />
using Open Source storage software for<br />
dev/test, and pilot projects. Many of those<br />
same projects later elect to use<br />
commercially supported software in<br />
production, for a combination of reasons<br />
related to ease-of-use, features/capabilities,<br />
and quality of support. Also, from those<br />
customers who have elected to use Open<br />
Source in production, the cost of the<br />
enterprise support offering from those<br />
vendors often equals the cost of commercial<br />
licence subscriptions, so any perceived cost<br />
advantages are quickly negated." The OS<br />
model, however, still has an extraordinarily<br />
strong appeal: according to the survey<br />
paper 'The State of the Software Supply<br />
Chain: Open Source Edition 2021' from<br />
VMware, 95% of companies use OS<br />
software in production.<br />
KEEP AN EYE ON QUALITY<br />
Open Source will give an IT organisation<br />
benefits with regards to cost and speed for<br />
example, but it may fall down when it comes<br />
to scope and/or quality. An OS project<br />
could be realised quickly, but it may also fail<br />
just as quickly. Matt Starr, Chief Technology<br />
Officer at Spectra Logic, expands on this<br />
point: "Open Source projects are great in a<br />
university setting where innovative science<br />
projects are encouraged. However, usage of<br />
Open Source storage by mainstream<br />
enterprises can pose massive issues. For<br />
example, when the system goes down, the<br />
corporate CIO does not want to hear that<br />
there is no support for the solution because<br />
it was 'designed over the weekend'."<br />
Today, a large number of businesses rely<br />
on Open Source software to enhance the<br />
delivery of their services, and yet are<br />
unaware of this. The OS model enables<br />
solutions to be developed faster, it tends to<br />
show up bugs quicker, and allows<br />
organisations to tap into talent pools<br />
outside their business boundaries. On the<br />
other hand, it is critical for OS users to<br />
keep on top of any issues related to the<br />
product in question, as soon as these<br />
become known, and to have the ability to<br />
take the necessary steps to minimise or<br />
eliminate the resulting impact.<br />
Rakesh Jain, a representative of the SODA<br />
Foundation governing board and of IBM<br />
Research, reinforces these points: "Given<br />
that Open Source software doesn't come<br />
with any warranty and official support, the<br />
organisations have to spend some extra<br />
effort in ensuring that its quality is up to the<br />
mark to their expectations. I would<br />
recommend that the organisations adopting<br />
an Open Source storage software become<br />
actively involved in that project's community,<br />
become a member of the end-user<br />
community if the project offers one, and<br />
employ a full DevSecOps approach while<br />
adopting the software so that any issues can<br />
be identified early in the cycle and can be<br />
addressed by the community as well."<br />
So are there must-haves at the top of the<br />
planning list when considering the OS path?<br />
"Implementing enterprise-grade data<br />
protection, and strong security would be at<br />
the top of the list," Krista Macomber, senior<br />
analyst at the Evaluator Group tells us.<br />
DIPPING INTO THE TALENT POOL<br />
In today's market, where everyone is looking<br />
to remain competitive, and maintain or gain<br />
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MAGAZINE<br />
13
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
"We see a lot of companies adopting Open Source<br />
technologies and then finding out that there wasn't<br />
the sort-of 'enterprise-ready' support structure to<br />
deliver what they needed at the production level. In<br />
those cases, they have to find the support out in the<br />
wild, which can be a real challenge. Doing some due<br />
diligence is critical to both the short, and especially<br />
long-term success of an Open Source<br />
implementation."- Andrew Moloney, SoftIron<br />
market share, business agility is<br />
paramount. Whether an organisation can<br />
rapidly adapt to changes in business and<br />
customer demands, can spell its success or<br />
doom. Open Source allows businesses to<br />
not waste time reinventing the wheel, but to<br />
focus on a specific aspect of the<br />
technology they need to develop, building<br />
on what an exceptionally large, global<br />
pool of technical talent, has already<br />
created. This leads to much shorter times<br />
to market.<br />
Many vendors have been tapping into the<br />
OS talent pool for this and more reasons:<br />
"SoftIron has built its business from the<br />
outset with Open Source at its heart. Our<br />
approach enables us to produce the best<br />
outcomes for our customers without<br />
locking them into our solution," SoftIron's<br />
Moloney tells us. "When we eliminate<br />
vendor lock-in for our customers, it forces<br />
us to do whatever is necessary to cater to<br />
their needs or risk losing them to someone<br />
else. You will see us continually make<br />
investments into the communities we are a<br />
part of, including contributing code,<br />
participating in the ongoing maintenance<br />
of these communities, and engaging with<br />
them to solve modern challenges."<br />
For similar reasons, Speciale explains why<br />
Scality has been keen on Open Source from<br />
the start: "Since Scality was founded in<br />
2009, we've been very involved in open<br />
communities and development; when object<br />
storage was in its infancy, Scality was one of<br />
the first adopters of S3 with an Open Source<br />
project. In 2017, our dedicated engineers<br />
built and released Zenko, an open software<br />
code-base for managing data across AWS,<br />
Google Cloud, and Azure to avoid cloud<br />
vendor lock in. Zenko was accepted as a<br />
SODA Foundation EcoProject and Linux<br />
developers can use it with the support of<br />
industry-standards organisations such as<br />
SODA and the Linux Foundation. We have<br />
also used OS technology extensively in our<br />
storage solutions; for example, we leverage<br />
Kafka, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes,<br />
MongoDB, and of course our own OS<br />
Zenko technology for multi-cloud<br />
enablement."<br />
PATCH QUICKLY FOR SECURITY<br />
However, Open Source has its flaws. Just<br />
like proprietary technologies, OS solutions<br />
are a target for cyber criminals. And while<br />
organisations are allocating increasing<br />
proportions of their IT budgets to security,<br />
the number of threats is also on the rise -<br />
fast. According to researchers at<br />
Cybersecurity Ventures, global ransomware<br />
damage costs are set to exceed $265 billion<br />
by 2031.<br />
SoftIron's Moloney says "Reports of attacks<br />
on the software supply chain, whether it be<br />
Open Source or not, have become much<br />
more common in recent years; but there's a<br />
level of transparency inherent in OS that can<br />
at least assist in revealing attacks that might<br />
otherwise be obfuscated."<br />
A <strong>2022</strong> end user survey carried out by<br />
Acronis shows that 69% of EMEA<br />
organisations allocate between 4 and 15%<br />
of their IT budgets to IT security, with this<br />
budget rising to over 25% for 20% of<br />
organisations in South Africa and 18% in<br />
the UAE. Despite the OS model being<br />
open to security risk from code<br />
vulnerabilities, Spectra Logic's Starr<br />
believes Open Source solutions may have<br />
a security advantage against vendors' own:<br />
"In many cases, Open Source is faster to<br />
patch against a new-found variant due to<br />
community collaboration." The key is to<br />
ensure any Open Source technologies in a<br />
data centre are constantly patched to<br />
counteract known issues.<br />
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MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
"Open Source technologies such as Linux, Kubernetes, and<br />
Samba provide IT vendors with a huge base of intellectual<br />
property they can build upon, totally free. By publishing<br />
portions of our code on Open Source, we were able to<br />
access a deep reservoir of technological knowledge and<br />
expertise, and benefit from highly professional peer review and<br />
feedback. If your company has the technical chops for Open<br />
Source, this can be a great way to leverage the knowledge of the<br />
community and reduce your maintenance burden."- Aron Brand, CTERA<br />
AVAILABILITY COMES AT A CO<strong>ST</strong><br />
"Open Source storage software enables<br />
businesses to meet their storage needs more<br />
affordably than proprietary software,"<br />
according to Veniamin Simonov, Director of<br />
Product Management at NAKIVO. "However,<br />
it comes with a catch, namely global<br />
availability, that allows anyone to modify,<br />
examine, and share the software, making it a<br />
central attraction point for cybercriminals.<br />
OS software code gets updated frequently by<br />
developers around the world; unfortunately,<br />
not every developer is well-intentioned, and<br />
this global accessibility makes creating a<br />
breach less challenging. Since OS software<br />
lacks service and support packages,<br />
mitigating the impact of such incidents on<br />
business operations can be very challenging.<br />
Hedging bets would not be the best action<br />
when the stakes include critical data,<br />
considering the global ransomware threat."<br />
It is not just vendors who are banging the<br />
security drum. Evaluator Group's Macomber<br />
also encourages OS users to be aware of<br />
cyber threats and take all necessary<br />
measures to thwart them: "Cyber criminals<br />
do not discriminate. Additionally, Open<br />
Source software has some unique security<br />
vulnerabilities that hackers will exploit, and<br />
often times organisations have lax practices<br />
when it comes to tracking and updating<br />
known vulnerabilities of the various OS<br />
components that they use."<br />
MULTIPLE PROTECTION LAYERS<br />
Another independent expert who strongly<br />
encourages users to protect themselves from<br />
these threats is Jain, from the SODA<br />
Foundation and IBM. He says: "[Open<br />
Source] vulnerabilities are public knowledge<br />
and need to be addressed on a higher<br />
priority basis. However, one can plan for it<br />
by deploying the storage software such that<br />
there are multiple layers of protection; for<br />
example, have a setup such that it is not<br />
easy for adversaries to reach the storage<br />
software to be able to exploit it. Simply put,<br />
do not expect to not have any cyber security<br />
issues, but plan in advance on how to<br />
address them on short notice."<br />
When it comes to the integration of OS<br />
solutions, interoperability can be<br />
challenging. One of the SODA Foundation<br />
goals is to have certified suppliers via<br />
standard specification for products,<br />
compliance, and certification, and a<br />
compliance lab for seamless interoperability.<br />
What would the benefits of such a<br />
programme be for vendors and for end<br />
users? Scality is one of the founding<br />
members of the foundation and Speciale, its<br />
CMO, shares his thoughts on the<br />
advantages of having a common<br />
framework: "Standardisation is a powerful<br />
way to simplify data management and<br />
promote data autonomy and mobility for<br />
end users. That is the reason Scality is one<br />
of the founding members of the SODA<br />
Foundation."<br />
SoftIron's Moloney is also a supporter of<br />
the idea of vendor certification but sees its<br />
limitations: "For all of the advantages of<br />
Open Source, its flexibility comes at the<br />
expense of complexity. So any attempt to<br />
abstract some of that complexity away<br />
through testing and certification to help<br />
broader adoption can only be a good thing<br />
for the community as a whole. That said,<br />
while this type of testing and certification<br />
can be useful in assuring some basic levels<br />
of compatibility between what can quickly<br />
become a huge number of Open Source<br />
projects, in our experience the real<br />
challenges tend to happen as you integrate<br />
into the customer environments, which often<br />
encompass integrations beyond those within<br />
the scope of any of these types of projects,<br />
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MAGAZINE<br />
15
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
"Open Source storage software enables businesses to<br />
meet their storage needs more affordably than<br />
proprietary software. However, it comes with a catch,<br />
namely global availability, that allows anyone to<br />
modify, examine, and share the software, making it a<br />
central attraction point for cybercriminals. OS software<br />
code gets updated frequently by developers around<br />
the world; unfortunately, not every developer is wellintentioned,<br />
and this global accessibility makes<br />
creating a breach less challenging. Since OS software<br />
lacks service and support packages, mitigating the<br />
impact of such incidents on business operations can<br />
be very challenging."- Veniamin Simonov, NAKIVO<br />
especially with more proprietary projects."<br />
Spectra Logic's Starr takes the argument<br />
further: "I do not think certified suppliers<br />
should be considered, mostly because of<br />
the number of certifications out there. For<br />
example, certifications like this do nothing<br />
to allow a storage device to connect to a<br />
secure government network. Those<br />
certifications are completely different, and<br />
the same goes for many corporations."<br />
Having a standardised framework for<br />
developers to align to could indeed further<br />
speed up the creation and adoption of OS<br />
solutions, building on the existing pace of<br />
technology development and innovation<br />
inherently linked to the Open Source<br />
model. This is arguably one of the<br />
attractions of Open Source, as Jain<br />
explains: "Open Source technologies have<br />
had considerable impact on faster<br />
development, both of Open Source<br />
projects and tools, as well as proprietary<br />
software. This is because the processes and<br />
methods used in the Open Source world<br />
are time tested and matured, and now<br />
used in proprietary software product and<br />
services development."<br />
Scott Sinclair, senior analyst at ESG<br />
Global agrees: "Open Source technologies<br />
have made it easier for new start-ups to<br />
enter the space, which fuels more<br />
innovation."<br />
LEVERAGING THE COMMUNITY<br />
The Open Source world also encourages<br />
innovation in the commercial side. "The<br />
combined efforts of the OS Community<br />
respond to the needs of that space and<br />
gradually build out a solution that supports<br />
all the valuable features and capabilities.<br />
That process continues until all significant<br />
needs are met, and restarts as needs<br />
change over time," comments Curtis<br />
Anderson, software architect at Panasas.<br />
"Successful Open Source projects allow<br />
significant innovation, but they also disrupt<br />
any existing commercial solutions unless<br />
those are responsive to customer needs. If<br />
they are not, the OS alternatives will grow<br />
much faster and the commercial solution<br />
will be forced to change and innovate.<br />
Having an Open Source project in a<br />
market niche breaks up enclaves<br />
dominated by solutions that are not<br />
responsive to customer needs."<br />
"Open Source technologies such as Linux,<br />
Kubernetes, and Samba, provide IT<br />
vendors with a huge base of intellectual<br />
property they can build upon, totally free,"<br />
explains Aron Brand, CTO at CTERA. "By<br />
publishing portions of our code on Open<br />
Source, we were able to access a deep<br />
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MAGAZINE
ROUNDTABLE: OPEN SOURCE<br />
"Open Source projects are great in a university setting where innovative science<br />
projects are encouraged. However, usage of Open Source storage by mainstream<br />
enterprises can pose massive issues. For example, when the system goes down, the<br />
corporate CIO does not want to hear that there is no support for the solution<br />
because it was 'designed over the weekend'."- Matt Starr, Spectra Logic<br />
reservoir of technological knowledge and<br />
expertise, and benefit from highly<br />
professional peer review and feedback. If<br />
your company has the technical chops for<br />
Open Source, this can be a great way to<br />
leverage the knowledge of the community<br />
and reduce your maintenance burden."<br />
FOR OR AGAIN<strong>ST</strong>?<br />
The experts we spoke to have varying<br />
views on whether the OS approach has<br />
accelerated technology development and<br />
whether Open Source generally is good<br />
news. Data storage industry expert and<br />
chair of the Storage Networking Industry<br />
Association (SNIA) EMEA Alex McDonald<br />
does not mince his words: "I like Open<br />
Source projects for their initial impact and<br />
vision, but they can lead to longer-term<br />
poor maintenance processes and<br />
responsiveness, and a lack of development<br />
direction as they mature. Faster doesn't<br />
mean better either."<br />
McDonald's comment finds further<br />
validation in the reality that once a piece<br />
of code is shared with the Open Source<br />
community, a developer may take that and<br />
build something new with it but,<br />
depending on the path that software takes,<br />
it may or may not become a very reliable<br />
and stable technology. Moloney is singing<br />
from a similar song sheet when he says<br />
"There's a double-edged sword here:<br />
quickly deploying Open Source<br />
technologies on generic hardware can<br />
produce some very mediocre results<br />
without the skilled intervention of (a team<br />
of) talented engineers."<br />
Starr brings up an interesting point,<br />
highlighting the need to look at the entire<br />
process, from initial development to<br />
deployment in production environments:<br />
"Open Source technologies have paved<br />
the way for faster products and services<br />
development, but you still need to test OS<br />
software. So the development efforts are<br />
faster, but the testing remains the same."<br />
Tim Klein, president and CEO at ATTO<br />
has seen the Open Source industry<br />
develop over the past forty years, and<br />
believes there are pros and cons to the<br />
effect this approach has on a solution's<br />
time to market: "I have mixed feelings on<br />
Open Source technologies. Open Source<br />
can easily make some developments and<br />
collaboration quicker, but sometimes<br />
innovation can get stifled because IP can<br />
be too free flowing, resulting in hold-backs<br />
on truly wonderful ideas because of IP<br />
concerns."<br />
This is a very valid point: the moment an<br />
individual developer, or a company looking<br />
to profit from their technology, moves their<br />
code into the OS community to benefit<br />
from a much larger talent pool and a<br />
quicker time to availability, they need to<br />
have a solid business plan to monetise said<br />
product, one that making the code<br />
available to other developers will not<br />
jeopardise. This could indeed slow down<br />
the development of, or even stop, some<br />
innovative technologies, possibly to the<br />
disadvantage of thousands of<br />
organisations that might benefit from them.<br />
WHAT NEXT?<br />
Nonetheless, many vendors have come<br />
round to the idea that embracing Open<br />
Source may make more financial sense for<br />
them than fighting it (looking at you,<br />
Microsoft). This is in part due to the fact<br />
that vendors that get involved in OS<br />
projects will find recruiting talent easier,<br />
and that most large customers today are<br />
relying on Open Source software to<br />
varying degrees, be it commercial or<br />
community versions.<br />
So where now? The benefits of the Open<br />
Source approach are significant and range<br />
from reduced costs to increased flexibility<br />
and shorter times to market. However,<br />
reliance on the general developer<br />
community to bring the code closer to<br />
completion, or even just to spot and<br />
address issues, can be a risky strategy.<br />
Vendors need to ensure they put all the<br />
necessary policies in place to confidently<br />
bring a technology to market that their<br />
customers can adopt and trust. What<br />
about end users? In order to benefit from<br />
the advantages of the many Open Source<br />
technologies available today, they would<br />
be wise to pick solutions that have some<br />
form of commercial support to avoid<br />
encountering problems that may have a<br />
direct - and possibly significant - impact<br />
on their productivity and, ultimately,<br />
bottom line down the road. <strong>ST</strong><br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
17
PRODUCT REVIEW REVIEW<br />
INFINIDAT INFINIGUARD<br />
The alarming rise in<br />
ransomware attacks<br />
shows clearly that many<br />
enterprises are spending too<br />
much time trying to secure the<br />
network perimeter and not<br />
enough on storage system<br />
cyber resilience. This apparent<br />
disconnect between storage<br />
and cybersecurity is costing<br />
them dearly with many<br />
organisations having to pay<br />
huge ransom fees to recover<br />
encrypted data.<br />
Infinidat specialises in cyber storage<br />
resilience on its InfiniGuard solution with<br />
InfiniSafe technology, which provides a wealth<br />
of data protection and anti-ransomware<br />
measures. These include immutable snapshots<br />
that can never be modified or deleted, logical<br />
air-gapping, and a fenced and isolated<br />
forensic environment.<br />
The solution delivers an industry leading<br />
ingest rate of up to 180TB/hour with the latest<br />
B4320 modern data protection system offering<br />
dedicated InfiniSafe space and backup space<br />
totalling around an 85PB (50PB for backup<br />
and 30PB for InfiniSafe) effective storage<br />
capacity. A key feature is Infinidat's near<br />
instantaneous data recovery as irrespective of<br />
the size of the backup store, data recovery is<br />
always 20 minutes or less - and that's<br />
guaranteed. In fact, when Infinidat launched<br />
the B4320, it demonstrated recovery of a<br />
13PB Veeam backup dataset in only 12<br />
minutes and 55 seconds.<br />
InfiniGuard has a solid foundation being built<br />
on the InfiniBox storage platform, thus<br />
delivering all of its enterprise features in<br />
performance, resiliency and data availability to<br />
the InfiniGuard solution.<br />
Infinidat dispels the notion that enterprise<br />
storage is difficult to manage as it presents a<br />
very shallow learning curve. Delivered turnkey<br />
with InfiniGuard pre-installed, engineers install<br />
drives on-site, apply updates and run a service<br />
check, with the handover measured in hours<br />
rather than days.<br />
InfiniGuard presents an intuitive web<br />
management console and to be production<br />
ready, customers only need to apply<br />
appropriate network addresses to the integral<br />
deduplication engines (DDEs) and replication<br />
services, if needed. Creating NAS shares is a<br />
breeze as you choose a protocol, and mount<br />
it ready for use by your chosen application<br />
with Infinidat supporting all major backup<br />
software vendors.<br />
InfiniGuard presents three DDEs, two primary<br />
and one for standby duties. The standby DDE<br />
delivers full failover services should either<br />
primary DDE fail and Infinidat guarantees that it<br />
will take no more than 20 minutes to migrate<br />
all data, users, shares and<br />
DDE personalities across.<br />
Snapshot recovery is swift, a<br />
simple click to choose your<br />
point in time and hit the<br />
Recover button. Infinidat<br />
doesn't miss a beat as a<br />
system recovery snapshot is<br />
also taken during this phase to<br />
ensure you can go forward to<br />
where you were after recovery.<br />
Logical air-gapping is<br />
achieved internally at both the<br />
storage and networking level. At the rear of<br />
the system are twelve 10-Gigabit or FC ports<br />
dedicated to each DDE for handling<br />
production and private networks. Using<br />
VLANs or physical switches, the DDE can be<br />
completely isolated from the production<br />
network.<br />
The standby DDE actually has a dual<br />
purpose. Its complete isolation allows you to<br />
create a safe forensics environment and carry<br />
out essential tasks such as data recovery<br />
validation and failover testing without impacting<br />
the production network.<br />
Storage systems can be monitored with the<br />
InfiniMetrics application, a user-friendly web<br />
powered AIOps tool for all Infinidat systems for<br />
the life of the products. It provides a wealth of<br />
operational information including data sizes,<br />
throughput, reduction rates, attached clients<br />
and backup operations.<br />
Product: InfiniGuard<br />
Supplier: Infinidat<br />
Web site: www.infinidat.com<br />
Sales: info@infinidat.com<br />
VERDICT: Enterprises worried about ransomware attacks can rest easy with Infinidat's innovative InfiniGuard on their side. Its clever combination<br />
of multiple deduplication engines, immutable snapshots and air-gapped forensics networks provide essential protection and Infinidat's<br />
highly efficient data recovery services will have your production networks up and running in a few minutes with satisfaction guaranteed.<br />
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MAGAZINE
RESEARCH: HYBRID CLOUD<br />
PUBLIC CLOUD <strong>ST</strong>AGNATING IN FAVOUR OF<br />
HYBRID CLOUD<br />
FUJITSU/CIF RESEARCH <strong>ST</strong>RESSES THE NEED TO ENHANCE SUPPORT - ESPECIALLY WITH LEGACY<br />
INTEGRATION - FOR ORGANISATIONS LOOKING TO MAKE THE MO<strong>ST</strong> OF HYBRID CLOUD<br />
increasingly common."<br />
This need for greater support is especially<br />
pertinent when looking to the future: 88%<br />
expect to accelerate their cloud adoption<br />
in the next 12 months, while 42% consider<br />
cloud migration one of their organisation's<br />
most important IT projects (second only to<br />
cybersecurity on 58%). Further, 80% cite<br />
cloud infrastructure as an important<br />
technology over the next five years, while<br />
68% mention cloud SaaS.<br />
New research from Fujitsu UK - in<br />
conjunction with the Cloud<br />
Industry Forum (CIF) - has<br />
revealed that 60% of organisations have a<br />
hybrid cloud strategy in place, comfortably<br />
ahead of the 36% that embrace a cloudfirst<br />
arrangement. This underlines how the<br />
appetite for public cloud is decreasing as<br />
more businesses opt for the convenience<br />
and flexibility of hybrid, indicating that<br />
cloud providers should optimise their<br />
hybrid offerings to meet this demand.<br />
The data was taken from the joint Fujitsu<br />
UK and CIF white paper 'The<br />
transformational impact of cloud'. While<br />
the desire to embrace cloud - and in<br />
particular hybrid cloud - remains high, the<br />
research also found that 58% of<br />
respondents said their company struggles<br />
to keep up with new cloud technology,<br />
while 57% said cloud has introduced more<br />
complexity to the organisation.<br />
The prime concern on the minds of<br />
leaders is that new technology will fail to<br />
integrate with legacy technology<br />
(mentioned by 44%), which demonstrates<br />
the need for better support for companies<br />
increasing their cloud adoption.<br />
Graham Bromham, Head of Regional<br />
Sales & Service Providers at Fujitsu UK,<br />
commented on the research findings:<br />
"Cloud continues to offer great potential in<br />
helping companies transform their<br />
approach to IT and deal with future<br />
challenges, providing they receive support<br />
to make these projects a long-term<br />
success. It is clear from the research that<br />
many businesses still need assistance in<br />
making this happen, particularly when it<br />
comes to integrating legacy applications<br />
as cloud-based approaches become<br />
Bromham added: "A company's choice of<br />
cloud approach is very much a workloaddependent<br />
decision. There are<br />
applications and workloads perfectly<br />
suited to a cloud or SaaS approach, but<br />
the time, risk and cost associated with<br />
refactoring and migrating legacy<br />
workloads are often barriers to successful<br />
cloud adoption."<br />
He concluded: "This is why the appetite<br />
for hybrid cloud is particularly strong. The<br />
most successful cloud providers will be<br />
those who can deliver this effectively for<br />
their customers as they decide the future<br />
direction of their IT estate."<br />
Readers can download the full report<br />
from the following URL:<br />
https://cloudindustryforum.org/wp-<br />
content/uploads/<strong>2022</strong>/09/The-<br />
Transformational-Impact-Of-Cloud-<br />
<strong>2022</strong>.pdf<br />
More info: www.fujitsu.com/uk<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
19
ANALYSIS: SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY<br />
DATA CENTRES: THE ONGOING JOURNEY TO<br />
SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY<br />
DATA CENTRES ARE MORE SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABLE THAN RECENT MEDIA <strong>ST</strong>ORIES MIGHT HAVE YOU THINK,<br />
EXPLAINS DAVID WATKINS, SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR AT VIRTUS<br />
20 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
ANALYSIS: SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY<br />
If you believe the mainstream media<br />
headlines, the data centre industry has had<br />
a bad few months. The news that Thames<br />
Water was looking into the impact of data<br />
centres on water supplies was closely followed<br />
by a story on house building being halted in<br />
some north London boroughs due to data<br />
centre-related electricity capacity issues.<br />
However, the truth is that both issues have<br />
been sensationalised by the British media,<br />
with limited investigative reporting into<br />
whether data centres were actually the culprit<br />
of their accusations. Whilst many of us in the<br />
industry, felt (rightly) that the stories were<br />
unjustified, they did serve to shine a spotlight<br />
on how providers can better promote all the<br />
work that has and is being undertaken to<br />
mitigate the impact that data centres are<br />
having on the environment.<br />
In fact, the data centre industry has long<br />
been committed to ensuring sustainability and<br />
efficiency, with providers working hard to use<br />
resources responsibly. Companies in the<br />
sector are committed to innovative and<br />
operate sustainability with renewable<br />
strategies that include 'green' renewable<br />
sources of power, rainwater harvesting, zero<br />
water cooling systems, recycling, waste<br />
management and much more.<br />
The reality is that society and businesses<br />
need data centres as the critical infrastructure<br />
underpinning the economy and modern life,<br />
so it's important for people outside of the<br />
industry to recognise that data centres are<br />
fundamental to how everything functions. We<br />
already know that without them, businesses,<br />
education, hospitals and more simply couldn't<br />
operate, but this is not widely understood<br />
beyond our industry.<br />
COOLING AND SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY GO<br />
HAND-IN-HAND<br />
In order to keep data centres working<br />
efficiently, effective cooling systems are vital to<br />
maintain optimum conditions in terms of<br />
temperature and humidity. And today, more<br />
and more providers are turning to chilled<br />
water systems as an economical, effective and<br />
efficient way to maintain cooling.<br />
It's important that the general public<br />
understands that the water used for cooling<br />
systems is mostly sourced sustainably, for<br />
example from bore holes or using unpurified<br />
water: NOT the supply as we rely upon for<br />
household use. What's more, the majority of<br />
large data centres use 'closed loop' chilled<br />
water systems, meaning that water is charged<br />
into the system during construction and then<br />
continually circulated within a facility, rather<br />
than needing new water consistently pumped<br />
into the building.<br />
Indirect evaporative cooling does require<br />
water periodically for adiabatic functionality,<br />
but it is still more energy efficient. This type of<br />
cooling uses fresh air from outside the<br />
building, which is filtered and then delivered<br />
into the data centre for cooling purposes. This<br />
only requires the use of fans, so the overall<br />
energy consumption is lower. As outside<br />
temperatures rise, firstly compressors are<br />
brought on-line to provide additional cooling,<br />
and only at high temperatures (24°C or<br />
higher) is water consumed. Given that data<br />
centres operate around the clock, and<br />
temperatures above 24°C typically only occur<br />
for a few hours a day across a small number<br />
of months per year in the UK, water usage is<br />
minimised.<br />
Today, adiabatic cooling makes up a<br />
relatively small percentage of the overall<br />
cooling infrastructure in the UK, but<br />
promisingly the sector is increasingly looking<br />
to deploy this method more widely, using<br />
alternative water sources, without impacting<br />
mains supplies.<br />
Immersion cooling systems is another<br />
technology that is gaining traction. This<br />
involves bespoke IT hardware, that is<br />
immersed in dielectric liquids. These liquids<br />
are much better thermal conductors than both<br />
air and water, and do not require as much<br />
supporting infrastructure to ensure the IT<br />
equipment stays at the right operating<br />
temperature. This is not suitable for standard<br />
IT equipment yet but is an option for higher<br />
density computing requirements.<br />
LOOK AGAIN AT POWER<br />
CONSUMPTION<br />
It is well known that data centres require<br />
significant power to run. But, contradicting<br />
some of the headlines, energy consumption is<br />
another area where significant environmental<br />
strides have already been made.<br />
Renewable energy has been a game<br />
changer for the industry. For example, VIRTUS<br />
uses 100 per cent certified renewable energy,<br />
from sources including hydro, wind and solar.<br />
And encouragingly, renewable energy is now<br />
not only more affordable than fossil fuels, but<br />
is often more reliable too.<br />
Diesel powered generators continue to be<br />
the main source of standby energy for data<br />
centres, and are also focus areas for<br />
sustainability. Research into alternative fuel<br />
sources is well under way. The use of<br />
Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil instead of diesel<br />
in generators has the potential to reduce<br />
carbon emissions by up to 90 per cent as well<br />
as eliminating sulphur dioxide emissions and<br />
reducing harmful nitrogen oxides, and there<br />
are a number of these deployments already<br />
operational.<br />
Data centres are highly focussed on energy<br />
efficiency when it comes to their day-to-day<br />
operations too, for example limiting power<br />
use to essential services only. Most data<br />
centres will use LED fittings to reduce energy,<br />
supplemented with occupancy sensors in<br />
areas that are frequently unmanned so lights<br />
will be automatically activated only when<br />
someone is present. This can reduce lighting<br />
costs in internal areas by 60 per cent<br />
compared with manual systems on.<br />
Data centre investment is also leading to<br />
significant improvements to the national<br />
mains grid, with data centres often directly<br />
funding the additional resources required,<br />
such as substations, to deliver the required<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
21
ANALYSIS: SU<strong>ST</strong>AINABILITY<br />
"Many data centre providers are demonstrably driving<br />
change and leading by example, showing other<br />
sectors that it is possible to 'green' even the most<br />
power intensive industry. Ultimately, the misleading<br />
headlines are doing a disservice to an industry which<br />
is committed to boosting sustainability and mitigating<br />
its environmental impact. However, it must be<br />
recognised that, as well as the significant progress,<br />
there is still work to be done and providers are setting<br />
themselves ambitious sustainability targets as they<br />
work to meet net zero obligations in the years ahead."<br />
power. The industry also has a long-term<br />
planning strategy to ensure capacity is<br />
available, so future power is secured<br />
ahead of time to limit clashes with local<br />
requirements.<br />
Combined with investments in Power<br />
Purchase Agreements (PPA) projects, this is<br />
increasing the availability of renewables,<br />
reducing the use of fossils fuels and the need<br />
to 'import' energy sources - all of which aids<br />
the UK's path to energy independence. And,<br />
as the demand for energy increases with the<br />
transition to electric vehicles, grid<br />
enhancement is essential.<br />
AN ONGOING JOURNEY<br />
Many data centre providers are demonstrably<br />
driving change and leading by example,<br />
showing other sectors that it is possible to<br />
"green" even the most power intensive<br />
industry. Ultimately, the misleading headlines<br />
are doing a disservice to an industry which is<br />
committed to boosting sustainability and<br />
mitigating its environmental impact.<br />
However, it must be recognised that, as<br />
well as the significant progress, there is still<br />
work to be done and providers are setting<br />
themselves ambitious sustainability targets<br />
as they work to meet net zero obligations in<br />
the years ahead.<br />
Data centre providers are laser focused<br />
on their ongoing sustainability journey and<br />
are making even more resource and<br />
operational efficiencies - implementing<br />
scalable data centre designs and extending<br />
the lifecycle of their technology through a<br />
circular economy. They are already looking<br />
further afield than their own sustainability<br />
initiatives and tackling their wider partner<br />
network and supply chain (addressing those<br />
all-important Scope 2 emissions).<br />
We know that by harnessing the<br />
brightest minds and cutting-edge<br />
technology, there's plenty more good work<br />
to come as data centre providers commit<br />
to a greener future.<br />
More info: www.virtusdatacentres.com<br />
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MAGAZINE
MARKET FOCUS: FOCUS:<br />
MANUFACTURING<br />
BUILDING THE MODERN<br />
MANUFACTURER<br />
MANFRED BERGER, SENIOR MANAGER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT<br />
WE<strong>ST</strong>ERN DIGITAL, EXAMINES THE NEED FOR ENHANCED DATA<br />
MANAGEMENT IN THE MICROFACTORY OF THE FUTURE<br />
The pandemic has had a significant impact<br />
on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR),<br />
particularly when it comes to productivity<br />
and fulfilment, pushing firms to digitalise<br />
quickly and mounting demands to fulfil a<br />
backlog of orders.<br />
According to the Product Lead Time Index,<br />
manufacturing and industrial machinery firms<br />
were one of the top industries to slash their<br />
lead times on product fulfilment compared to<br />
pre-pandemic levels, dropping by 47.76%<br />
between 2019/20 and 2021/22. It's clear that<br />
manufacturing has a keen focus on cutting<br />
lead times, and innovation must continue to<br />
ensure lead times don't go through the roof.<br />
One solution making inroads on the<br />
manufacturing scene is the microfactory - a<br />
small, modular plant that offers a proximal,<br />
just-in-time option for manufacturing. Being<br />
data powered, (alongside some other 4IR) this<br />
new kind of facility bucks the economies of<br />
scale of more traditional factories, and<br />
embraces a small-scale, localised solution to<br />
global supply chain challenges.<br />
However, whilst microfactories do allow<br />
significant reductions on lead times, what<br />
impact does it have on data storage? In most<br />
of the cases, new data-intensive technologies<br />
require more information to be stored, and<br />
new solutions to be implemented, and<br />
microfactories are no different.<br />
Microfactories thrive on their speed, agility,<br />
and 'shiftability'. Much like their standardised<br />
counterparts, microfactories optimise<br />
operations by leveraging technologies<br />
including data science, IoT sensors, and<br />
machine learning. Where they stand apart,<br />
though, is in their agility and modularity. Their<br />
smaller scale means that facilities can be<br />
reconfigured rapidly, allowing them to adjust<br />
between products or to open a new operations<br />
site overnight.<br />
A prime example of a microfactory is 3D<br />
printing. Being able to rapidly change what it<br />
produces in a short time, generally only shifting<br />
one or two components, is the baseline of what<br />
a microfactory should be. However, 3D printers<br />
need to mine and query hot data very quickly,<br />
something flash storage can do well.<br />
Manufacturers will also need a record of every<br />
part, machine, person, and movement that<br />
went into the creation of the end product.<br />
From hot data to warm/cold data, the data<br />
storage required to run a microfactory is<br />
immense and requires unique solutions.<br />
MICROFACTORIES & DATA ANALYSIS<br />
Microfactories are ultimately powered by data,<br />
while also producing valuable data in<br />
themselves. The first step in creating an IT<br />
environment for microfactories is to plan for<br />
huge quantities of data. Nearly every aspect of<br />
a microfactory is a data point collected and<br />
analysed to improve the additive<br />
manufacturing process. No longer just<br />
machines, IoT devices come with the ability to<br />
learn and interact with their spaces. While this<br />
data collection is prevalent throughout the<br />
Fourth Industrial Revolution, microfactories are<br />
designed with this consideration from the<br />
ground up and leverage their smaller scale<br />
when building their data storage architecture.<br />
Every cycle, every day, every product, and<br />
every process produce data that is captured<br />
and analysed in real-time. One example is the<br />
close monitoring of temperature in these closed<br />
loop environments, which can have a huge<br />
impact on the consistency, dimensional<br />
deviations, and quality of manufactured goods.<br />
Leveraging factory data, operators can quickly<br />
identify an issue and address it, with minimal<br />
disruption to operations. Analysing the data<br />
and changing something as small as a single<br />
overheated component can prevent faulty<br />
products and save materials, time, and money,<br />
an ideal implementation of 4IR technologies.<br />
ENHANCED <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE FOR<br />
ENHANCED DATA<br />
However, with this enhanced use of data, there<br />
must be consideration given to the storage of<br />
said data. As we continue to automate and<br />
innovate in industry, and dissipate out-of-date<br />
processes, our data storage needs become<br />
greater than ever.<br />
Attempting to grow and modernise without the<br />
storage facilities in place and the infrastructure<br />
to handle the large swathes of data will cause<br />
your system to function at a less than<br />
productive rate.<br />
Ultimately, to form a truly successful<br />
microfactory, you must ensure that your storage<br />
needs can be met, and your foundation has<br />
been laid to easily scale for a long and<br />
successful service.<br />
More info: www.westerndigital.com<br />
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<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
23
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ALL-FLASH<br />
FA<strong>ST</strong>ER RE<strong>ST</strong>ORES: CLEARING THE<br />
BOTTLENECK<br />
GEORGE AXBERG OF VA<strong>ST</strong> DATA EXPLAINS HOW AFFORDABLE ALL-FLASH <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE CAN BE A<br />
GAME-CHANGER FOR BACKUP AND - MORE IMPORTANTLY - RE<strong>ST</strong>ORE<br />
24 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
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MAGAZINE
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ALL-FLASH<br />
It seems like every week another<br />
ransomware attack against a major<br />
company is in the news-and those are<br />
only the attacks announced publicly.<br />
Gartner expects at least 75% of IT<br />
organisations to face one or more<br />
ransomware attacks by 2025. And many<br />
of the IT leaders I meet operate with a<br />
"not if or when, but how many" mindset.<br />
It used to be enough for organisations<br />
to develop a hardened network<br />
perimeter that would satisfy security<br />
concerns, but the interconnectedness of<br />
today's various on-prem, hybrid cloud,<br />
and SaaS applications present a massive<br />
opportunity for bad actors to infiltrate<br />
your network.<br />
That means the primary DR<br />
consideration for almost any<br />
organisation is how fast you can recover.<br />
Having backup data is only part of the<br />
equation. You must ensure you can<br />
quickly restore those backups - and this<br />
is where legacy backup targets cannot<br />
help you.<br />
THE EVOLVING NATURE OF<br />
RE<strong>ST</strong>ORES<br />
We used to think about RTO objectives<br />
in hourly timeframes, but today's<br />
sophisticated attacks that lock up entire<br />
IT estates have shifted such intervals to<br />
weeks, if not months. And while the<br />
nature of ransomware attacks is well<br />
understood, the path to recovery is less<br />
clear. Some organisations will pay the<br />
attackers the ransom to (presumably)<br />
regain access to their data, while others<br />
may choose to immediately start<br />
restoring data to their last known noninfected<br />
state. If you can do the latter<br />
well, you can save your organisation<br />
massive ransom payouts, and more<br />
importantly, protect yourself from future<br />
attacks.<br />
The path to fast restores is typically<br />
dependent on a few variables:<br />
"Disk doesn't do random IO well, thanks to timeconsuming<br />
disk head movement. And when you<br />
consider that a large dataset was 500GB when<br />
PBBAs came to market in the early 2000s, it's no<br />
wonder that today's backups weigh heavily upon the<br />
limitations of the architecture. The result is that<br />
large, full system recoveries via legacy backup<br />
appliances can last weeks. In fact, let's consider it a<br />
modern data protection truth: deduplication on hard<br />
drives will never work for fast restores."<br />
1. Your network topology, or the path<br />
your data takes to move from source<br />
to destination and the time it needs<br />
to get there. Organisations often<br />
optimise bandwidth through data<br />
reduction, load balancing, throttling,<br />
etc.<br />
2. Your number of data movers<br />
(physical or virtual), i.e. the backup<br />
agents running on your servers.<br />
Increasing the number of data<br />
movers in a system enables multistreamed<br />
restores.<br />
3. Your landing zone, or a clean<br />
network destination for the recovery<br />
of your immutable data, or<br />
indestructible snapshots, in the event<br />
of an attack.<br />
4. Your data protection target. In<br />
enterprise data centres this is most<br />
often the bottleneck, as traditional<br />
backup appliances read (restore)<br />
data about 20% as fast as they write<br />
(backup) data. Therefore, even if you<br />
do everything else right (steps 1-3<br />
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25
<strong>ST</strong>RATEGY: ALL-FLASH<br />
above), restores are only as fast as<br />
the read performance of the backup<br />
target.<br />
Purpose-built backup appliances<br />
(PBBAs) simply cannot deliver strong<br />
read performance. While they can write<br />
data quickly to disk and deduplicate it to<br />
optimise for capacity, these same<br />
characteristics inherently limit them from<br />
restoring large-scale data sets quickly,<br />
which is the name of the game in the<br />
ransomware era. PBBAs are a bit like<br />
Hotel California in that way: easy to get<br />
data in for a backup, but hard to get it<br />
out for a restore.<br />
In fact, the smaller the system block<br />
size (Dell EMC PowerProtect/Data<br />
Domain has variable block lengths<br />
between 4kb and 8kb, for example) the<br />
more individual blocks that must be<br />
rehydrated via random IO when<br />
restoring data. Disk doesn't do random<br />
IO well, thanks to time-consuming disk<br />
head movement. (Read more about the<br />
"rehydration tax" in conventional storage<br />
systems in our data reduction white<br />
paper: https://vastdata.com/all-datareduction-is-not-created-equal-whitepaper/)<br />
And when you consider that a large<br />
dataset was 500GB when PBBAs came to<br />
market in the early 2000s, it's no wonder<br />
that today's backups weigh heavily upon<br />
the limitations of the architecture. The<br />
result is that large, full system recoveries<br />
via legacy backup appliances can last<br />
weeks.<br />
In fact, let's consider it a modern data<br />
protection truth: deduplication on hard<br />
drives will never work for fast restores.<br />
It's for this reason that Data Domain and<br />
other legacy PBBAs never discuss restore<br />
performance in their spec sheets, leaving<br />
customers to discover their recovery<br />
limitations at the worst possible times.<br />
Backup throughput and fitting your<br />
backup jobs into tight windows is<br />
important, but as my colleague Howard<br />
Marks likes to say, "You only back up to<br />
restore".<br />
Therefore, it's imperative to ensure that<br />
your backup storage has the<br />
performance to meet your RTO needs.<br />
For many organisations, this means a<br />
backup target built on all-flash storage<br />
while leveraging global data algorithms<br />
that optimise cost without impacting<br />
performance.<br />
ALL-FLASH RE<strong>ST</strong>ORES ARCHIVE<br />
ECONOMICS<br />
I joined VA<strong>ST</strong> to lead our data protection<br />
division and help customers understand<br />
how they could use an all-flash storage<br />
system for all of their data - backups and<br />
archives included.<br />
VA<strong>ST</strong> has flipped the script on backup<br />
target restore performance: the<br />
fundamental differences in our DASE<br />
architecture allows our system to read<br />
data 8x faster than we write it. And so<br />
whereas legacy PBBAs like Dell<br />
PowerProtect/Data Domain are almost<br />
always where restores bottleneck, VA<strong>ST</strong><br />
Universal Storage is the fastest part of<br />
the restore function.<br />
But performance is just one part of the<br />
equation. With VA<strong>ST</strong> customers enjoy an<br />
exabyte-scale platform with a single<br />
global data reduction pool, rather than<br />
having multiple dedupe pools with the<br />
same data on each pool.<br />
Moreover, our architecture and data<br />
algorithms enable unprecedented levels<br />
of flash affordability and system<br />
longevity that eliminate the complexity of<br />
buying, deploying, and managing<br />
backup infrastructure. No longer do<br />
customers have to balance cost versus<br />
restore performance or worry about<br />
capacity and scale.<br />
More info: www.vastdata.com<br />
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MAGAZINE
RESEARCH:<br />
RESEARCH: REMOTE WORKING<br />
REMOTE WORKING CREATES<br />
'DATA VULNERABILITY GAP'<br />
NEW RESEARCH PUBLISHED BY ARCSERVE WARNS THAT THE<br />
EXPLOSION IN REMOTE WORKING IS LEAVING DATA INCREASINGLY<br />
FRAGMENTED AND UNPROTECTED<br />
Arcserve has announced findings from its<br />
annual independent global research<br />
study showing UK businesses are<br />
overlooking remote working in their data<br />
backup and recovery plans. The report finds<br />
that many organisations fail to ensure<br />
operational compliance and business continuity<br />
when faced with fragmented data and<br />
dispersed technologies.<br />
increased the complexity of managing and<br />
protecting data:<br />
80% of ITDMs said that hybrid and multicloud<br />
strategies increase the complexity<br />
and vulnerability of data flow<br />
81% say changes in compliance and data<br />
privacy have impacted them. The most<br />
significant impact is an increase in costs<br />
In the research study of experiences and<br />
attitudes of UK IT decision makers (ITDMs),<br />
participants reported whether they had a<br />
backup and recovery solution in place for<br />
remote workers:<br />
One-third have backup and recovery<br />
systems in place for all remote employees<br />
10% said they had no backup and recovery<br />
solution in place for any of their remote<br />
workers.<br />
55% had plans in place for some workers<br />
but not all<br />
For those companies that do a remote<br />
backup, there was a considerable variance in<br />
the level of importance placed on them:<br />
42% believe that there is no difference in<br />
backing up on-site employees<br />
47% of UK companies said they had better<br />
systems in place for on-site employees<br />
Only 11% said they had better backup<br />
systems for remote employees<br />
The study also looked at whether the rise in<br />
hybrid working and multi-cloud operations has<br />
The research was conducted by Dimensional<br />
Research and went to 1,121 IT decisionmakers.<br />
All participants had a budget or<br />
technical decision-making responsibility for<br />
data management, data protection, and<br />
storage solutions at a company with 100 -<br />
2,500 employees and at least 5 TB of data.<br />
The survey was fielded in Australia, New<br />
Zealand, Brazil, France, Germany, India,<br />
Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, the United<br />
States, and Canada.<br />
Florian Malecki, executive vice president of<br />
marketing at Arcserve commented on the<br />
findings: "Ransomware attacks have skyrocketed<br />
in organisations with employees in<br />
less-secure home-office environments and<br />
much more data in the cloud. We encourage<br />
companies to implement the 3-2-1-1 backup<br />
and recovery strategy, including immutable<br />
storage solutions, so data remains intact and<br />
easily recoverable. By implementing Arcserve's<br />
Unified Data Resilience solutions, businesses<br />
can quickly recover from a data-destructive<br />
event and flourish in the new world of work,<br />
with all the challenges and possibilities it holds."<br />
More info: www.arcserve.com<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
27
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE ARRAYS FOCUS:<br />
A NEW LEVEL OF RAID ARRAY<br />
AVAILABILITY, RELIABILITY,<br />
AND PERFORMANCE<br />
DAVID TREADWELL, SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR AT TITAN DATA<br />
SOLUTIONS, TALKS ABOUT SEAGATE'S NEXT-GENERATION EXOS X<br />
<strong>ST</strong>ORAGE ARRAYS - OFFERING TWICE THE PERFORMANCE<br />
ALONGSIDE SELF-HEALING TECHNOLOGY - AND HOW THIS<br />
LATE<strong>ST</strong> INNOVATION FURTHER ENHANCES TITAN'S <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
PROPOSITION<br />
With an unprecedented increase in<br />
data creation, enterprises are<br />
being challenged to find new<br />
ways to manage increasing volumes of<br />
information while using it to improve their<br />
business outcomes. How businesses cope<br />
with the increasing growth and sprawl of<br />
data will have a huge impact on their<br />
success moving forward.<br />
Seagate recently announced its nextgeneration<br />
Exos X systems, advanced<br />
storage arrays powered by Seagate's sixth<br />
generation controller architecture. The<br />
new Exos X systems feature up to twice the<br />
performance of the previous generation<br />
and enhanced enterprise-class durability.<br />
To help protect the stored data, Exos X<br />
systems incorporate ADAPT (Advanced<br />
Distributed Autonomic Protection<br />
Technology) erasure coding with Seagate's<br />
innovative self-healing storage technology<br />
ADR (Autonomous Drive Regeneration).<br />
From Titan's point of view these latest<br />
innovations bring significant benefits: the<br />
Seagate Exos X Storage Arrays are<br />
suitable for environments ranging from<br />
small businesses to large enterprises that<br />
often have petabyte-scale data sets. The<br />
controllers provide reliability and selfhealing,<br />
as well as ease of setup,<br />
maintenance, and expansion. They are<br />
also built for speed and resilience and will<br />
deliver consistently high performance and<br />
reliability.<br />
Titan can provide everything from presales<br />
technical consultancy, solution<br />
design and deployment, as well as postsales<br />
support and the Seagate EXOS<br />
storage arrays are often at the core of<br />
many of the solutions we provide. One<br />
question that your end customers might<br />
ask is "Why should I upgrade to this new<br />
generation of Exos?"<br />
The answer is straightforward: nextgeneration<br />
RAID offers twice the<br />
performance for faster backup, media<br />
editing, and analytics while delivering<br />
improved ADAPT technology and<br />
Autonomous Drive Regeneration. You also<br />
get all the features synonymous with the<br />
Seagate platform, while ultimately<br />
reducing your customers' TCO.<br />
Ken Claffey, Senior Vice President at<br />
Seagate is also very clear on the<br />
advantages of the new systems,<br />
commenting: "Featuring the new<br />
controller engineered and built by<br />
Seagate, the new Exos X systems can<br />
achieve a new level of RAID array<br />
availability, reliability, and performance<br />
for better efficiency while significantly<br />
reducing administrative burden. Exos X<br />
systems will help our data centre<br />
customers form a future-proof data<br />
management strategy."<br />
There is equal enthusiasm from Dorin<br />
Vanderjack, Vice President and General<br />
Manager at Intel: "We are delighted with<br />
the introduction of Seagate's new RAID<br />
controller that delivers high performance<br />
and cost-effective system solutions." He<br />
added. "At this time of unprecedented<br />
data growth, integrating Intel Xeon D<br />
Processors with Seagate's enhanced ASICbased<br />
architecture improves customers'<br />
total cost of ownership and helps drive<br />
greater business value from their<br />
hardware and from their data."<br />
For any resellers or MSPs wanting to talk<br />
to their customers about this new<br />
generation of Seagate Exos X controllers,<br />
then Titan can support you all the way<br />
through the process from initial concepts<br />
and discussion, right the way through to<br />
final delivery of a tailored solution.<br />
More info: www.titandatasolutions.com<br />
28 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
MANAGEMENT: HYBRID CLOUD<br />
NOW IS THE TIME TO FUTURE-<br />
PROOF YOUR <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE<br />
GARETH BEANLAND, GENERAL MANAGER, UK&I, INFINIDAT, EXPLAINS<br />
HOW THE RIGHT APPROACH TO <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE ARCHITECTURE CAN HELP<br />
ORGANISATIONS REIN IN THEIR OPEX CO<strong>ST</strong>S<br />
It's annual budgeting time. The economic<br />
climate remains highly unpredictable and it's<br />
making long term strategy decisions much<br />
more difficult. Finding ways to be as flexible as<br />
possible, across all aspects of IT infrastructure, is<br />
really important. CIOs are having to balance<br />
the implications of constantly increasing<br />
operating costs with a continuous need for<br />
advanced enterprise storage systems. Critically,<br />
they are also struggling to find people with the<br />
right skills to run them.<br />
This dilemma is beginning to make CIOs seek<br />
ways to review existing approaches and the<br />
concept of IT being fully cloud based. Having to<br />
weigh the implications of increasing service<br />
costs means that some companies are<br />
rethinking their cloud and data storage<br />
strategies, with an emphasis on selectivity.<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>isions are being made about which<br />
applications should reside in the cloud and<br />
which could be brought back on-premises, to<br />
create OPEX savings, ensure application<br />
performance, and drive cyber storage resilience.<br />
In the past, a transition like this would have<br />
required CIOs to accept some big<br />
compromises. Accustomed to the many<br />
advantages of managing data in the cloud,<br />
returning to what can be perceived of as a more<br />
'traditional' way of operating, with on-premises<br />
storage and data management centres, could<br />
be regarded as a step backwards. But is it?<br />
Advances in storage technology mean that<br />
today, 'moving to the cloud' is less about<br />
location and can be better described as an<br />
experience.<br />
Key to appreciating this is to reconsider what<br />
cloud storage actually is. Rather than thinking of<br />
the cloud as a destination, it's more helpful to<br />
see it as an experience. One that offers<br />
unlimited scalability, guaranteed performance<br />
levels, cyber storage resilience, and minimal<br />
impact on IT resourcing requirements. Viewed<br />
like this, there is little difference between<br />
outsourcing storage to the cloud and hosting it<br />
on-premises, particularly if you configure your<br />
data centres as a private cloud that can<br />
communicate with the public cloud - the hybrid<br />
cloud. Importantly given the current economic<br />
uncertainty, Infinidat's advanced softwaredefined<br />
storage architecture and solutions mean<br />
users get clear, hyperscale style benefits, but with<br />
on-premises style cost controls - along with<br />
guaranteed SLAs for performance, 100%<br />
availability, and cyber storage resilience and<br />
recovery.<br />
For existing application users, there are further<br />
benefits to be seen because migrating noncloud<br />
native apps to a cloud provider can be<br />
problematic, whereas Infinidat's unique<br />
architecture accommodates these systems<br />
without modifications. Infinidat's AI-based<br />
Neural Cache approach means users can also<br />
benefit from 'set it and forget it' management<br />
and unmatched real-world application<br />
performance, easing any potential strains on<br />
internal IT resources. And very importantly,<br />
Infinidat also supports storage consolidation,<br />
which means users benefit from lower energy<br />
costs, a reduced carbon footprint, cutting IT<br />
manpower needs, and an overall reduction in<br />
storage OPEX.<br />
Where cost reduction is needed, enterprises<br />
need a range of consumption approaches and<br />
Infinidat's flexible approach makes it<br />
particularly easy for organisations. The simplest<br />
and most traditional model available is a<br />
standard up-front purchase. It offers important<br />
cost saving advantages thanks to AIOps and<br />
deep machine learning capabilities that allow<br />
Infinidat to consolidate many storage systems<br />
into a much lower number. Additionally,<br />
Infinidat offers Elastic Pricing, combining<br />
Infinidat's Capacity on Demand model with<br />
OPEX burst capability. The final option is FLX<br />
(Storage-as-a Service), whereby customers<br />
simply pay for what they use.<br />
By working with Infinidat, enterprises will<br />
achieve the same cloud-like experience and<br />
benefit from the chance to consolidate existing<br />
storage arrays without compromising future<br />
scalability, but at a fraction of the cost.<br />
Uniquely Infinidat makes it possible for<br />
enterprises to create a full cloud-like<br />
experience but on-premise, and with a<br />
guaranteed future cost per terabyte moving<br />
forwards.<br />
At a time when prices everywhere are volatile<br />
and no one can predict what's around the<br />
corner, Infinidat is offering users the ultimate<br />
enterprise cloud-like storage experience:<br />
stability, certainty, and a means to prevent<br />
spiralling costs, with guaranteed performance,<br />
guaranteed cyber storage resilience, and<br />
guaranteed availability, with future growth<br />
taken into account.<br />
More info: www.infinidat.com<br />
30 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Nov</strong>/<strong>Dec</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
Proven High Performance<br />
for Server Storage<br />
Rigorous testing between Kingston ® Enterprise SSDs and Adaptec ® Smart Storage adapters reveal an ideal<br />
solution for server-based storage systems that require maximum bandwidth and I/O connectivity,<br />
low-power consumption, high reliability, plus options for data availability, thus delivering a robust and<br />
scalable solution that can handle the toughest system workloads and configurations without<br />
compromising performance.<br />
“Working with a valued technical partner such as Microchip allows us to highlight that Kingston SSDs are<br />
tested and qualified to work with Microchip Adaptec RAID/HBA adapters. As part of this collaboration,<br />
technical teams on both ends work closely together to perform qualification testing to ensure both<br />
products work in harmony. We look forward to our continued collaboration to bring additional value to our<br />
partners and customers that use our products in combination.” Balamayuran Sivapalan Field Application<br />
Engineer - EMEA<br />
Learn more about Adaptec RAID and HBA Smart Storage Adapters, a family of full-featured,<br />
high-performance enterprise storage adapters built for a variety of storage requirements.<br />
Read Our<br />
Customer Story<br />
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