MANAGING THE UNMANAGEABLE: A BETTER WAY TO MANAGE STORAGE Meeting the challenges of scalability and availability with EMC Isilon
EMC PERSPECTIVE
TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
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THE PROBLEM
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THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO STORAGE IS OUTDATED
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THE EMC ISILON APPROACH
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IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES
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While traditional storage methods have worked fairly well in the past, the fact is that today, they are just not good enough, fast enough, efficient enough, cost-effective enough, or easy enough to use.
INTRODUCTION Government agencies today depend heavily on easily accessible data. Data is what makes it possible for agencies to complete their missions—to run programs, make decisions, and serve the American public. Yet data is growing so fast that storage systems can’t keep up. Instead, agencies often must resort to storing data in a haphazard, ineffective way that, in turn, causes a delay in retrieving data when needed. While traditional storage methods have worked fairly well in the past, the fact is that today, they are just not good enough, fast enough, efficient enough, cost-effective enough, or easy enough to use. In today’s fast-paced, on-demand world, agencies need a storage solution that can scale virtually infinitely, provide end-to-end data protection, and handle everything from imagery, streaming media, and full-motion video to satellite data, biometrics, and other large file-based data. Today’s storage technologies aren’t able to keep pace with these requirements. What’s needed is a new approach to storage—one that abstracts storage hardware and presents it as a single volume that adapts to changes in resource requirements.
THE PROBLEM Throughout government, data is growing extremely fast. Industry analysts predict that, on average, data doubles every 18 months, but government data growth is even faster. Today, it’s not uncommon for government agencies to have more than 200 terabytes of storage—much more than other industry segments. In fact, some agencies experience storage growth rates of 30 percent or more per year. Much of this growth is due to an increase in the use of state-of-the-art technology, like streaming media, digital imagery, and fully searchable documents. What’s more, much of the new storage growth is in unstructured data—images, objects, and text found in emails, presentations, voice mail, and reports. According to many industry analysts, unstructured data will grow at about twice the rate of structured data held in databases. Unstructured data is traditionally more difficult to identify, categorize, and store effectively. Government regulations and compliance mandates also force agencies to keep digital data, including email, instant messages, audio, and video, for longer periods of time. In addition, some areas of the government have their own retention requirements. For example, the military requires keeping personnel records for 67½ years, and health-focused agencies must retain Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) in accordance with HIPAA regulations. All of this means that the storage infrastructure must not only be sound and scalable, but agencies must be able to locate and produce data quickly when requested. Further complicating the equation is the increasing complexity of storage. No longer is it a simple disk-to-tape exercise; today, many agencies have a mix of older and newer storage technologies and procedures, and have added laborintensive activities, like adding volumes and reprovisioning. Server virtualization has also added complexity to the storage equation and can result in bottlenecks with traditional storage paradigms. That complexity, added to data centers that often have a mix of older and newer equipment, multiple operating systems, and proprietary tools, creates a complex environment that just gets more complicated with time and increased storage requirements. Finally, storage is expensive—both on the capital expense (CAPEX)/acquisition side and on the operational expense (OPEX) side. Even with the cost per gigabyte decreasing over time, the sheer amount of storage growth makes the traditional storage infrastructure an expensive proposition.
Based on the EMC Isilon OneFS operating system, the Isilon approach to storage emphasizes flexibility to grow and change with user needs.
THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO STORAGE IS OUTDATED As storage needs have grown, organizations are finding that the storage infrastructure they have in place may not be able to keep pace. The traditional storage-area network (SAN) approach, which focuses on block-level storage, becomes much more difficult to manage as storage volumes grow. Not only do they have difficulty scaling fast enough, but availability becomes a serious issue. What’s more, the SAN environment quickly becomes expensive and inefficient, taking up more time than the IT staff can afford. Today, keeping pace with storage growth and cost requires a new approach— one that can synchronize data and scale to meet growing storage needs easily, with better performance, lower costs, and more efficient overall storage utilization. In many ways, it’s similar to the approach organizations have taken by virtualizing applications, servers, and PCs; by doing so, it becomes quick and simple to reprovision and manage. The same requirements are true of storage. Using a unified, scale-out storage architecture facilitates the consolidation of file-based applications into a single, shared pool of storage. This approach to storage also handles the increasingly virtualized server environments organizations have implemented. The use of a unified storage architecture also addresses other long-standing concerns, such as getting the most usable space out of the storage infrastructure, offering a predictable cost structure that can scale with the storage needed, and achieving unparalleled simplicity.
A comprehensive scale-out, file-based approach to storage should include the ability to: •
Add capacity on the fly
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Scale capacity and throughput simultaneously
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Move data transparently
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Enable rapid storage provisioning
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Support virtualization
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Support multiple protocols
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Simplify data management
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Provide very high utilization rates
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Provide storage tiering in a single namespace
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Adapt to new technologies without replacing the storage infrastructure
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Provide enhanced data protection
THE EMC ISILON APPROACH The EMC® Isilon® file-based, scale-out storage platform consolidates file- and block-based applications and data into a single, shared pool of storage. Based on the EMC Isilon OneFS® operating system, the Isilon approach to storage emphasizes flexibility to grow and change with user needs. Its storage infrastructure allows organizations to quickly provision, share, and scale storage capacity within a matter of seconds.
Isilon OneFS provides the intelligence behind the storage, combining three layers of traditional storage architectures—file system, volume manager, and data protection— into one unified software layer. OneFS serves as a single point of management for large and rapidly growing data repositories.
Speed and flexibility are the hallmarks of the Isilon approach to storage. It provides: •
Scalability up to 20 petabytes of capacity in a single file system
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More than 100 gigabytes per second of throughput
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60-second scaling of both performance and capacity
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Built-in automatic load balancing
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Industry-leading high availability
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No performance degradation as capacity is increased
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Powerful, easy-to-use Web-based management
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Seamless integration with virtualized environments, simplifying data and virtual server management and improving resource utilization
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Pay-as-you-go cost structure
EMC Isilon SmartPools® software allows organizations to create a single file system and single point of management for multiple performance tiers, eliminating the need to manually migrate data between tiers. With this software, moving files to different storage tiers as their value to the organization changes is simple. EMC Isilon SyncIQ® software enables agencies to easily replicate data (entire files, directories, or specific subsets of volumes) asynchronously between clusters for backup and disaster recovery. This software allows organizations to fine-tune exactly which data is being moved depending on the value of the data and the urgency of the transfer. With Isilon, security is much more than an afterthought—it’s built into every part of the infrastructure. Isilon technology is in wide use in classified networks throughout the government. As such, it is accredited for many government networks, including NIPRNet, SIPRNet, and JWIG. The technology also incorporates an information assurance certification and vulnerability scan, and will help any government agency through the process to gain clearance.
IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES
Here are just a few examples of what’s possible: •
A major federal agency must find a way to consolidate hundreds of thousands of digital images into a searchable, easily accessible system. Using the Isilon scaleout storage system, the agency would be able to aggregate its large library of images into one single, shared pool, resulting in simpler management and faster access. The images would also be available for editing, distribution, markups and notes, and long-term archiving, with appropriate permission.
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A health-focused agency responsible for handling millions of patient records must find the most efficient and accessible way to store patient records and associated images. By deploying Isilon scale-out NAS as a primary repository for patient records and associated images, patient records would be available, consolidated, and secure.
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A federal agency is charged with consolidating more than 8,000 high-resolution 3D satellite images into a single volume and single file system, while providing high-performance and concurrent access to geoprocessing applications. Using the Isilon scale-out storage system, the agency would be able to aggregate its large library of satellite images into one single global namespace, resulting in simpler management and fast access.
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A federal database that serves as a major research resource receives billions of hits per year. To keep up with demand, the responsible agency knows it has to upgrade its labor-intensive and costly storage approach to a more scalable, long-term approach. Using Isilon scale-out NAS, the agency would be able to centralize its file storage to create a single shared pool of storage. By using Isilon asynchronous data replication software, it would be able to replicate its file-based information between two Isilon clusters, which would improve data reliability and reduce the overall impact on the agency’s IT operations.
Isilon, a division of EMC, is the global leader in scale-out storage. We deliver powerful yet simple solutions for governmental agencies that want to manage their data, not their storage. Isilon products are simple to install, manage, and scale—at any size. And, unlike traditional storage, Isilon stays simple no matter how much storage is added, how much performance is required, or how business needs change in the future. We’re challenging governmental agencies to think differently about their storage, because when they do, they’ll recognize there’s a better, simpler way. Learn what we mean at www.EMC.com/Isilon.
CONTACT US To learn more about how EMC products, services, and solutions can help solve your business and IT challenges, contact your local representative or authorized reseller— or visit us at www.EMC.com/Isilon. EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, Isilon, OneFS, SmartPools, and SyncIQ are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 06/13 EMC Perspective H10882.3 EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.
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